LG had a phablet before the Optimus G Pro, the LG Optimus Vu, and two generations of it, at that. Now the company has put out its third iteration, and following its new naming convention it's just LG Vu 3 (no "Optimus").
The LG Vu 3 drops the squarish looks of the first two iterations and goes for a more rounded look that is similar to the Optimus G Pro (but not the LG G2 - there are hardware buttons below the screen). The Vu family has always had 4:3 screens and this one is no exception.
This time around it's got a 5.2" IPS LCD screen of 1,280 x 960 resoluiton which results in 307ppi pixel density. LG claims this aspect is better for reading text (both documents and web pages). Like previous Vu's, this one works with a stylus with a rubber tip, and there's no additional digitizer for it.
Despite the lower screen resolution, the LG Vu 3 uses the same chipset as the G2 – a powerful Snapdragon 800 with four Krait 400 CPU cores and Adreno 330 GPU.
LG Vu 3 • the translucent QuickView cover
It has a 13MP camera too, though the press release makes no mention of optical image stabilization. The LG Vu 3 still borrows a few things from its G2 counterpart, including LTE-Advanced (up to 150Mbps downlink), KnockOn (wake device by double-tapping the screen), Guest mode and QLink (send notifications between the device and a tablet).
The LG Vu 3 also works with QuickView covers, but unlike the covers for the LG G2 there's no window. Instead the whole cover is translucent and the screen contents shines through.
The squarish phablet will be released in Q4 (if we're reading the Google Translated press release right), but there are no details regarding availability.
Posted in: |
In lieu of the disastrous preliminary fiscal Q2 2014 results, a word got out about a surprising new potential option for the future of BlackBerry. According to The Wall Street Journal, Mike Lazaridis, the co-founder and former co-CEO of the struggling Canadian manufacturer is considering a bid to save his former company and take it private.
It is already a known fact that BlackBerry is looking for a buyer. Reportedly, Mr. Lazaridis has separately approached the private equity giants Blackstone Group and Carlyle Group about potentially making an offer for the company. However, talks on the subject have been preliminary, so nothing is certain.
A co-founder of BlackBerry in 1985, Mike Lazaridis is one of the company’s largest individual shareholders. His significant stake in the company will certainly matter in the bidding process.
Of course, it must also be noted that Mike Lazaridis, in a tandem with Jim Balsillie ran BlackBerry during the period when the company’s business took a bad turn. Mr. Lazaridis is viewed by many as a key factor for the current state of BlackBerry. Him and Jim Balsillie were replaced by the company’s current chief, Thorsten Heins in January 2012.
Posted in: |
HTC is currently experiencing trouble related to the supply of its latest smartphone the One mini, according to sources close to the manufacturing process quoted by Reuters.
More specifically, there is a shortage in the casing of the smartphone resulting in disturbance in the overall supply. As a result, the demand from telecoms and consumers can't be met.
HTC reportedly will only ship about 200,000 One mini smartphones each month, which is less than ideal for the company. Analysts predict that if the problem with the company's supply chain persists, it might be looking at a grim Q3 financial prospect.
In fact, this might very well be the first quarter to see the company post net loss. The third quarter of the year ends next week, with the report expected in October, so we'll see just how bad of a time HTC is actually having.
Posted in:
HTC
|
Oppo turned a few heads today at its unveiling in China of the new Oppo N1, where it introduced a 13MP camera capable of rotating 206-degrees from front to back.
This means that your front-facing images should theoretically be just as good as your rear-facing ones - it is one and the same camera after all.
The images are processed by Oppo's new Pure Image algorithm, which they claim offers realistic and vivid image quality, as well as better white balance, exposure and focus. The lens itself is made up of six physical lenses of f/2.0 aperture. There's also a dual LED flash in the back, one each for normal light and diffused light, and an unprecedented 8 second long exposure time.
While we don't want to get too into analyzing images published officially by the manufacturer for obvious reasons, we must say that while the colors seem accurate, the dynamic range could use some work - particularly in the flower images, where some highlights and more than a few shadows are clipped.
We can't wait to get our hands on a unit to see how it performs in our own tests. Meanwhile, be sure to check out our dedicated hands-on of the Oppo N1 - we have our own camera samples, but at very poor lighting conditions.
Posted in:
Oppo
|
Introduction
The Nokia Lumia 625 is one of the last smartphones by Nokia, putting an end to what has been a bumpy ride for the Finns in the modern phone era. Whether the Lumia line will find greener pastures under Microsoft remains to be seen, but one thing's for certain - the Lumia 625 will be one of Nokia's last Lumia releases.
Oh well, the 625 certainly won't qualify as Nokia's loudest bang on its way out - that honor belongs to the Lumia 1020 flagship.Or, if we're lucky, a certain phablet may be the gadget to remember them by.
Nokia Lumia 625 official photos
Back to the point though, the Lumia 625's main attention grabber is the healthy boost in screen size. By going from 3.8" to 4.7", the Lumia 625 gains almost a full inch in screen diagonal over its predecessor. This, along with LTE support, higher clock speed and full-HD video recording, highlights the primary advantages of the Nokia Lumia 625. For a more complete list of specs, you can refer to the following list.
Key features
- Quad-band GSM support
- Tri-band 3G and LTE support with 42 Mbps HSDPA and 5.7 Mbps HSUPA
- 4.7" 16M-color IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen of 480 x 800 pixels with Gorilla Glass 2
- 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, 1080p video recording @ 30fps
- 0.3MP front-facing camera
- Windows Phone 8 OS
- 1.2GHz dual-core Krait CPU, Adreno 305 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8930 chipset
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, dual-band
- GPS receiver with A-GPS and GLONASS support
- Free lifetime voice-guided navigation
- 8GB of inbuilt storage
- Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
- Built-in accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
- Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
- microUSB port
- Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP and file transfers
- Deep SNS integration
- Xbox Live integration and Xbox management
- Digital compass
- Nokia Music
- FM radio
- 2000mAh battery
- Unparalleled talk time in our battery test
Main disadvantages
- 4.7" quite a stretch for the WVGA resolution
- App catalog falls short of Android and iOS
- Non-user-accessible battery
- Only 512MB of RAM
- No system-wide file manager
- No NFC
- Below average loudspeaker performance
Thanks to the larger screen and resulting larger dimensions, the Lumia 625 feels like a marked improvement over its predecessor. But bigger is not necessarily better, and the Lumia 625 may learn it the hard way. Big screen on a budget sure sounds nice, but WVGA on 4.7" could be too much of a stretch. And it's not a ClearBlack display either, which may as well be the only downgrade compared to the original Lumia 620 - along with the missing NFC chip.
No upgrade to the 512MB of RAM is potentially a minor disappointment, which can quickly be put to rest if the Lumia 625 behaves in our tests. The extra 700mAh of battery capacity is also a welcome addition.
Nokia Lumia 625 studio pics
Up next, we'll get started by unboxing the Lumia 625 and proceed with a closer look at the design and build quality.
Posted in:
Reviews
|
Introduction
Microsoft is presenting two new Surface tablets, saying "reinventing the wheel is not the goal, making it better is." This better wheel of theirs features a more powerful chipset, improved battery life, better screen, more ports, and even the accessories are better.
Well, there were quite a few complaints about the original Surface duo, but Microsoft seems to have taken them to heart and made the tablets better.
The high-end model is the Surface 2 Pro with a new Haswell processor from Intel. This new chip allows it to run faster, cooler and use less energy in the process. Microsoft claims the Pro 2 is faster than 95% of laptops out there and even showed how it processes 6K footage (9x Full HD resolution) in real time.
The battery life has gone up by an equally impressive 75% (again thanks to Haswell), and that's before you add the Battery cover.
Speaking of covers, the new Type Cover is 1mm thinner than before – that's as thin as the first-gen Touch Cover – but features an improved key travel of 1.5mm and it's even backlit.
The Surface 2 (it's just that now, the "RT" has been dropped) has seen some major improvements too. For one, it's now white to accentuate its magnesium build (there won't be a black version). Also, Microsoft moved to from a 3 piece design to a 2 piece one, which is also thinner and lighter than the first generation product.
The Surface 2 features the same 1080p screen from the Surface Pro 2, no more 1,366 x 768 resolution that other tablets make fun of. The chipset is 3-4 times faster too and the bus speeds for memory and Wi-Fi have also been improved.
Battery life on this model has been improved by a modest 25%, but battery life was a problem for the Pro more than the RT.
The second-gen Surfaces will run Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.1 RT, respectively.
Stay tuned as we're looking to get some face time with the new tablets and we'll post hands-on impressions here!
Posted in:
Reviews
|
Apple prides itself on its opening weekend sales each year and there's always that word record somewhere to be found. This year Apple boasts 9 million sold iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c units in the first weekend.
Apple didn't provide specifics on which iPhone sold how many, but the two new iPhones combined for a significantly larger win over last year's 5 million iPhone 5 units opening weekend.
Also iOS 7 is now running on more than 200 million devices, making it one of the fastest updates in history. The updated OS launched just two days before the new iPhones.
Apple is reporting low supply for the new iPhone 5s flagship, with many online orders expecting to be shipped in the coming weeks.
Be sure to check back with us soon for a detailed look at the iPhone 5s and 5c.
Posted in:
Reviews
|