Samsung today officially announces its Galaxy K Zoom

Today as decided, Samsung finally unveiled its point and shoot hybrid camera smartphone the Galaxy K Zoom at the Red Dot Museum in Singapore. The device comes with major upgrade of a 20.7 shooter with 10x optical zoom and has gone much slimmer compared to its predecessor.

Scroll down for the image gallery and official video

Taking a look at its specs, the device comes with a 4.8 inch Super AMOLED HD display with 1280×720 resolution, a hexa-core processor with 1.7GHz dual core and 1.3GHz Quad-core, 2GB RAM, Android 4.4 KitKat on-board, 8GB internal memory with microSD card, 20.7MP rear camera with Xenon flash, 2MP front-facing shooter and a 2430mAh of battery life.

The Samsung Galaxy K Zoom comes with several improvements as the device has gone even slimmer taking it much closer to the edge of an smartphone rather than a camera. Moreover, the Galaxy K Zoom comes with 10x optical zoom giving out stunning images results and more detailed images.

Well this device would be a dream for fans of selfie shots as it comes with a Selfie Alarm. Here a user just need to select an area on the screen where he/she wants their head to be positioned. Turn the smartphone with the main lens facing your eyes and once your head lies in the selected section an alarm will sound after which you can grab your selfies nicely and accurately.

The device also offers other features like S Health that serves for personal health and fitness coaching, Studio app for editing images and Ultra Power Saving Mode that makes judicious use of the battery juice. Here is an official video from Samsung.

Senior Vice President of Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics, Sun Hong Lim shared a word on the launch saying “With the introduction of the Galaxy K zoom, Samsung continues to demonstrate our commitment to creating products that meet the diverse demands of our consumers. The new Galaxy K zoom empowers users to effortlessly capture and share their most important everyday moments in stunning clarity, with the convenience and connectedness of a Galaxy smartphone, for a unique, all-in-one mobile experience.”

Samsung has launched this device in three stunning color variants of Charcoal Black, Electric Blue and Shimmery White. The Galaxy K Zoom is likely to release globally next month in May. Take a look at the image gallery and the official video released by Samsung.

Image Gallery

Samsung today officially announces its Galaxy K Zoom

LG L80 launched officially in Indonesia.

This February at the MWC 2014 event, LG unveiled its Optimus L III with the first three smartphone L40, L70 and L90 being showed at that time. Another handset LG L80 has joined the club and the device has been officially released in Indonesia. Here are some of the live images that have appeared to us.

The LG L80 comes with a 5inch WVGA display, a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm chipset, 1GB RAM, a 5MP primary shooter with LED flash, 4GB memory with expandable storage and a 2540mAh of battery life. In addition to this, the LG L80 is a dual-SIM smartphone with various connectivity options like Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 4.0, FM radio and 3G with HSPA. LG’s latest software Knock Code will also be featured on this handset.

 

The LG L80 will come in Black and White color variants and will arrive in Indonesia for IDR 2.5 million or €155.

LG L80 launched officially in Indonesia.

LG G3 with its back panel image spotted

The LG G3 has been much under news but till now we had not seen any glimpse regarding as to how would the device appear. The LG G3 has made its first appearance with its back panel being spotted in a leaked image.

What can be seen is that this design fits nicely with the cases that we leaked last week and the back-mounted keys have been re-designed compared to the LG G2 lineup. The back panel image also shows a sensor lying next to the camera of the device. However, their lies a bit skepticism about whether it is actually a sensor or an LED flash.

According to GSM Arena, the notes behind the picture also read OIS+ as well as 16 and 32GB storage. The device could either comes with a 2GB or 3GB RAM or possibly two different variants of this.

LG G3 with its back panel image spotted

Sony announces FMP-X5 4K Media Player for older 4K Bravia TVs

Sony has announced that it is planning to introduce a 4K Media Player – FMP-X5, that supports 4K HEVC. Sony’s older 2012 and 2013 made 4K Bravia TVs do not have an HEVC decoder and so 4K streaming is not possible on them.

To correct this problem, Sony has developed the FMP-X5 player that decodes the 4K HEVC video which is then sent through an HDMI cable to the 4K Bravia TVs. Sony’s new 4K TVs support HEVC and the problem is taken care of within the TV itself.

The FMP-X5 4K Media Player is specifically needed for TVs KDL-84X9005, KD-65X9005A and KD-55X9005A TVs for 4K live video streaming on them. The player will be launched in Europe in August and could be bought from Sony’s online store for £350 or €399.

The FMP-X5 player streams live TV but it also has USB port for playing videos from external storage device. It has no built-in internal storage drive like the FMP-X10 released in the US, so movies from Sony Video Unlimited cannot be downloaded directly to it.

HEVC technology is still new and at present Netflix is the only major streaming service that supports HEVC 4K. It streamed the popular ‘House of Cards’ series. Breaking Bad 2 is expected to be streamed soon followed by some more titles.

HEVC standard (h 265) is better than the AVC standard (h 264) in terms of efficiency and uses less bandwidth which is good for data capped or slow connections. For instance, House of cards used only 15 Mbps speed. The FMP-X5 player does not support Google’s VP9 codec that is needed to stream 4K YouTube videos but Sony is planning to add support for it soon.

Sony announces FMP-X5 4K Media Player for older 4K Bravia TVs

Huawei Ascend P7 Mini Unveiled Ahead of Ascend P7 Launch

Huawei has officially unveiled the mini version of its much anticipated Ascend P7 smartphone in Germany, hinting at the possibility of both phones being simultaneously launched at the company’s event on May 6.

The Ascend P7 Mini will feature a 4.5-inch TFT display with a qHD resolution (540×960 pixels),compared to the 5.0-inch, 1080p display on the P7.The phone will be powered by a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm quad-core processor, Adreno 305 GPU and 1 GB of RAM.It will also feature an 8MP snapper at the rear, along with a 5MP front facing camera, perfect for selfie-lovers. The phone also gets 8GB of in-built storage, with the option of bumping that up to 32GB via a microSD card.

The P7 mini runs on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean wrapped under Huawei’s Emotion UI. Huawei’s website also unveils that the new device will feature LTE connectivity. The device is powered by 2,000mAh battery that can provide up to 12 hours of talk time or up to 370 hours of standby time.

The Huawei Ascend P7 mini is expected to cost between 250-300 euros and will be the tough ally to Moto G.The press images suggest that the phone will be available in black and golden color variants.

Huawei Ascend P7 Mini Unveiled Ahead of Ascend P7 Launch

Xiaomi set to launch its maiden tablet with NVIDIA/Intel SoCs

While Xiaomi didn’t announce its first tablet on April 23, as it was hinted earlier , the company certainly has a tablet in the pipeline- atleast according to the buzz that various Chinese and Taiwanese websites have been going on about.

According to Focus Taiwan, Xiaomi is currently in talks with both Intel and Nvidia to provide the chipsets for its maiden tablet.The device is reported to feature a 7.85-inch display with 2048 x 1536 pixels, hence making it a rival of Apple’s iPad mini with Retina display.

This rumored tablet might be available for 1,000 Chinese yuan($160) in the third or fourth quarter of this year.Xiaomi has started its global expansion with the launch of Mi.com website and is already sparking off interest among global users.

Founded in 2010, Xiaomi has been successful in evoking Apple-like loyalty for its moderately priced high-end smartphones by mimicking the US firm’s marketing strategy of creating an aura of exclusivity for its devices.The firm sold 18.7 million smartphones last year and has set a target of selling up to 60 million units next year.

Xiaomi set to launch its maiden tablet with NVIDIA/Intel SoCs

HTC Desire 601 rolls out Android 4.4 KitKat update

HTC Singapore has announced via Facebook that the Desire 601 is now receiving Android 4.4 KitKat update. The update is currently being rolled out in phases over the air and should reach more regions in the coming days. HTC Desire 601 users can check for update by going to Settings > About > Software Updates.

The update has been rolled out with the Sense 5.5 user interface,which is expected to bring improvements to HTC BlinkFeed, HTC Zoe, Sense TV, Video Highlights, HTC Share,Scribble app and Quick Settings among others.

At the moment, this OS update is currently only available for the single SIM variant of the phone and is expected to roll out for the dual-SIM variant soon, which is the only model selling in the Indian market.

To remind you, the HTC Desire 601 was globally launched in September 2013.

The smartphone comes with a 4.5-inch qHD display with a 540×960 pixels resolution and is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor along with 1GB of RAM. It also sports a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a VGA front-facing camera.

HTC Desire 601 rolls out Android 4.4 KitKat update

Samsung Galaxy Beam 2 with integrated projector debuts in China

Samsung Galaxy Beam 2 was spotted last month on Chinese certification agency Tenna. The smartphone has now been officially listed on Samsungs website in China. Readers may remember the Samsung Galaxy Beam that was introduced in 2012. Well, Galaxy Beam 2 is its successor and carries the model number G3858.

The main feature of Galaxy Beam 2 smartphone is its integrated pico projector with WVGA 800 x 480 pixels resolution that produces bright and colorful images, better than its predecessor. However, other features of the projector are not available yet but it is generally observed that such type of projectors work well in a dark room and not so well in bright places.

Galaxy Beam projector had 15 lumen rating and could project 50 inch image at 2 meters distance. The Galaxy Beam 2 is an upgraded version and so it will have a higher lumen rating.

Apart from the projector, the Galaxy Beam 2 has a 4.66 inch TFT display, 1.2 GHz quad core processor, 1 GB RAM, internal storage expandable to 64 GB using microSD, a 5 MP rear camera and a 2600 mAh battery. The device runs on Android 4.2.2 jelly Bean.

Samsung’s Galaxy Beam 2 is a mid range phone and is available on China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA (3G variant) network. It has dimensions of 134.5 x 70 x 11.64 mm and weighs 165g.

Samsung must have perceived a market for such a mid-range projector-equipped smartphone in China, which it has released so many years after the Galaxy Beam. The device will be of interest to consumers who want a pico projector in their camera to show and share their photos and videos. There is no indication from Samsung whether it will launch the Galaxy Beam 2 in other markets.

Samsung Galaxy Beam 2 with integrated projector debuts in China