LG Nexus 5 (2015), next Flagship LG G5 to feature fingerprint scanner and Android Pay

After manufacturing Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 for Google, Korean electronics giant LG is now manufacturing another Nexus device for Google which will be next gen version of the 2013 Nexus 5. Although it is a “refresh” of Nexus 5, it will feature all the top technologies including Android M, Android Pay and a fingerprint scanner.

The Korea Herald reports that LG Nexus 5 (2015) will be the first smartphone from Google to sport the fingerprint recognition technology.  The fingerprint sensor will work with Android M which will offer native biometrics support and consumers will be able to use it for authorization in Google’s new mobile payment system, Android Pay. The report doesn’t mention any other specs except that the LG Nexus 5 (2015) is likely to have a 5.2-inch (13 cm) display.

After the fingerprint recognition technology is tested on Nexus 5 (2015), LG plans to incorporate it in its own future flagships, the next one probably being LG G5 if LG continues with its existing naming system. If an earlier rumor is to be believed, the LG G5 will also sport iris recognition technology. The rumored upcoming LG G Pro may also come with a fingerprint sensor.

Incorporating Fingerprint sensors will help LG to stay in competition against the likes of Apple and Samsung. Apple has the mobile payment system Apple Pay and Samsung is soon rolling out Samsung Pay but unlike both of them, LG will probably adopt Android Pay that will come with Android M.

The Huawei-made 5.7-inch Nexus phablet will also apparently have a fingerprint sensor as its prototype has allegedly appeared in a video showing a fingerprint sensor at the back.

The Korea Herald reports that LG Nexus 5 will be unveiled in October this year. If so, we can expect the release of Android at about the same time because Google is in the habit of launching a new Nexus device with the new version of its Android OS.

 

Via

LG Nexus 5 (2015), next Flagship LG G5 to feature fingerprint scanner and Android Pay

Everdisplay unveils world’s first 6-inch 4K AMOLED Display with 734ppi

Think of a 4K 3840 x 2160 pixel display with a pixel density of 734ppi for your 6-inch smartphone. Seems a bit of overkill? Well, a Chinese company Everdisplay has announced the development of such a screen.

The AMOLED panel maker Everdisplay aka Hehui Optoelectronics (its Chinese name) has developed the world’s first 4K UHD 6-inch diagonal AMOLED display panel with a whopping 734ppi pixel density. A working prototype of such record breaking featured panel has been unveiled by the company in China. According to Everdisplay, such high-resolution display panels will be required for emerging new applications including virtual reality.

The company had started mass production of 5” 720p AMOLED displays in late 2014. It is also developing various other display panels such as 5.5” and 6” ones for smartphones, 1.4” 400 x 400 round AMOLED ones for smartwatches and also an 8” AMOLED panel for the Automobile sector.

Although a display panel with 734ppi is quite high compared to what is currently used, there are other companies who have developed display prototypes with higher ppis. The highest density display in the world in production is made by Sharp which is the 5.5” (2160 x 3840) 4K IGZO LCD display with 806ppi. SEL of Japan has developed a 2.8” panel prototype with 2560 x 1440 resolution achieving a ppi of 1058!

In AMOLED displays, the current record is held by Samsung Galaxy S6 which has a 5.1”QHD 577ppi super AMOLED panel. Last month, Samsung announced that it was planning to develop super-high 11K mobile displays with a pixel density of 2250ppi!

As for the 6-inch (3840 x 2160) 4K 734ppi display, Everdisplay has not disclosed when it will enter mass production.

Via

Everdisplay unveils world’s first 6-inch 4K AMOLED Display with 734ppi

SanDisk, Toshiba announce high-capacity 256Gb 3D NAND memory chip, may find a place in iPhone 7

Toshiba and its partner SanDisk have unveiled a 256 gigabit (32GB) X3 48-layer 3D NAND flash memory chips. The two memory manufacturers have already started pilot production of these 256 Gb flash chips in their fabrication plant in Yokkaichi, Japan and sample shipments will begin in September this year. This will be the first such 256Gb, 48-Layer BiCS Flash in the world.

In March this year, the two companies had unveiled their first 48-layer 3D V-NAND flash chips that had a capacity of 128 Gb or 16GB. The new 256Gb flash chip uses the 3-bit-per-cell TLC (triple-level cell) technology and is based on the cutting-edge 48-layer stacking process that greatly enhances the capacity, reliability, endurance and speed. The new chip can be used in various applications such as smartphones, tablets, memory cards, consumer SSD and enterprise SSD for data centers.

“This is the world’s first 256Gb X3 chip, developed using our industry-leading 48-layer BiCS technology and demonstrating SanDisk’s continued leadership in X3 technology,” said Siva Sivaram, SanDisk’s executive VP for memory technology in a statement. “We will use this chip to deliver compelling storage solutions for our customers”.

Toshiba and Sandisk have provided flash memory for iPhone 6 among others and the arrival of Cupertino giant’s iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s plus is still about a month away. Although the press release doesn’t mention any clients, the development of this new high-speed high-performance 256Gb flash memory could be good news for the next gen iPhone 7. The 3D BiCS (Bit Cost Scaling) Flash memory will provide more reliability in writing and erasing data compared to the traditional 2D memory. The writing speed will also be vastly improved and will be ideal for devices like the iPhone 7.

Mass production of the 256Gb BiCS Flash will be carried out in Toshiba’s new Fab 2 at Yokkaichi production site and will be commercially available sometime in 2016.

SanDisk, Toshiba announce high-capacity 256Gb 3D NAND memory chip, may find a place in iPhone 7

The new Huawei Nexus may have Samsung"s OLED displays

Samsung Display is a leading manufacturer of OLED display panels and a majority of them are used in Samsung’s mobile devices. Since Samsung’s mobile devices business has gone down in recent years, the performance of Samsung Display has also been affected and it is now looking towards other customers for its OLED displays.

A recent report by MK News, a South Korean daily news publication says that Samsung has started supplying OLED smartphone displays to Huawei. Although the first consignment is small, their quantity is expected to increase after Huawei has tested them. Samsung has also supplied OLED display panels to other Chinese smartphone manufacturers such as Meizu, Vivo, OPPO and Gionee.

Supplying OLED panels to Huawei would be beneficial to Samsung Display as Huawei is the world’s fourth largest manufacturer of smartphones and it has a wide market spreading even to some European countries and the US.

Although the report doesn’t mention it, the new Huawei Nexus will most likely sport Samsung’s OLED display. A few months back there was a rumor that the Huawei-made Nexus will feature a 5.7-inch 2K OLED display and this display might very well be supplied by Samsung. Huawei might also use the displays for its other upcoming smartphones.

As readers must already be aware, Google is expected to launch two Nexus devices this year. While LG would be making the smaller device which would be the new version of the Nexus 5, Huawei will manufacture the larger 5.7-inch phablet having an OLED display panel with 1440 x 2560 pixels resolution.

The new Huawei Nexus may have Samsung"s OLED displays

MediaTek allegedly working on a more powerful Helio X30 chipset

Taiwanese chip maker MediaTek known the world over for its chipset solutions which have mostly been for low-end smartphones and tablets but after the impressive performance by its Helio series chipsets Helio X10 and X20 in the mid-to high-range smartphones, it is providing tough competition to the likes of Qualcomm.

Its Helio X10 has been used in several mid-range handsets including HTC One M9+, Meizu MX5, Elife E8 and others. MediaTek announced its Helio X20 SoC in May this year which was the world’s first deca-core chipset for mobile.  Helio X20 will be making its debut inside the Chinese smartphone Elephone P9000 which is expected to launch in mid-October. It is also rumored that Xiaomi might use the MediaTek X20 Soc in its future high-end smartphones.

Even before the devices using X20 enter the market, there are reports from the Chinese media that MediaTek has started work on an even faster and more powerful chipset, the Helio X30.

The new Helio X30 will consist of 10-core architecture with a quad-cluster design having two Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1GHz,  two Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.5GHz, two Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 2GHz and four Cortex-A72 cores clocked at 2.5GHz. In comparison, the Helio X20 has a tri-cluster design with four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.4Ghz, four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 2GHz and two Cortex-A72 cores clocked at 2.5Ghz.

The GPU of the Helio X30 will apparently be Mali-T880, an improvement over the Mali T-800 GPU of the Helio X20. In addition, the X30 will also support 4GB LPDDR4 1600MhZ RAM which was not there in the X20.

MediaTek is also tipped to be working on a Helio X22 SoC which will be a faster version of the Helio X20. It is not known when both the chipsets will be announced by the company. First devices carrying the new chips will probably make an appearance early next year.

MediaTek allegedly working on a more powerful Helio X30 chipset

Alleged prototype of Huawei Nexus appears in a video, reveals fingerprint sensor on the back

As is rumored since long, two Nexus devices are expected to be launched this year by Google, one of which will be made by Huawei and the other will be the 2015 edition of Nexus 5. A couple of days back we saw some interesting 3D renderings of the Nexus 5 (2015) leaked in a video and now we have a video showing the Huawei Nexus smartphone.

It is a 10-second video posted by Steve Hemmerstoffer of @OnLeaks who has quite a good track record for leaking information about unannounced devices. The alleged Huawei Nexus smartphone in the video has a matte finish but it is difficult to say whether it is plastic or metal. Nexus 5 has a plastic cover. The camera in the leaked Huawei-made device looks similar to the one present in the Nexus 5.

The handset features a fingerprint scanner at the back and the position of buttons on the right side confirms to the Huawei design language. A port is visible at the bottom which may be the USB Type-C port as is rumored.

Leaked specs of the Huawei Nexus smartphone indicate a 5.7-inch QHD AMOLED display, metal unibody, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 and a 21MP rear camera with Sony IMX230 sensor.

Well, it remains to be seen whether this really is the Huawei Nexus Phone. We will know more soon enough as October, the launching time for Nexus devices is just a couple of months away.

Check out the video below:

Alleged prototype of Huawei Nexus appears in a video, reveals fingerprint sensor on the back

Huawei teases launch of a new “Amazing” Honor smartphone on August 10

Just about two months after introducing its Honor 7 smartphone, Huawei seems ready to launch another smartphone soon. The company has sent out a teaser picture saying that would unveil an “Amazing” new Honor smartphone on August 10. No other details have been revealed by the company.

A few days back, a new Honor handset model number ATH-AL00 was spotted passing through TENAA. The device features a new pop-up module for the cameras. The module has high resolution rear and front-facing cameras on both sides along with their dual-LED flashes. There is a button on the side of the handset that controls the pop-up mechanism. There may be a fingerprint scanner on the button too. Details of other specifications are not available but it is rumored that the device might come with Huawei’s own home baked Kirin chipset along with a 3GB or a 4GB RAM.

Since Huawei is expected to launch its next flagship, the Huawei Mate 8 on September 2, there is speculation that it is this model ATH-AL00 handset with its unique camera mechanism that is going to be unveiled by the company on August 10.

Check out the images of the device  that passed through TENAA showing the pop-up camera:

Huawei teases launch of a new “Amazing” Honor smartphone on August 10

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus pictures leak via case maker Spigen

Leaks and rumors about the specs and accessories of the much talked about upcoming Samsung Duo the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus and the Galaxy Note 5 continue to flow in. After showing us the images for various cases for the Galaxy Note 5 a few days back, the smartphone case maker Spigen has now revealed protective cases for the Galaxy S6 Edge+ on its website.

The renders of Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 displayed by Spigen on its product pages confirm the leaks and press renders we have seen till now, so no surprises there. The Galaxy S6 Edge Plus will be a bigger version of the Galaxy S6 Edge having a 5.7-inch Quad HD curved display. The Galaxy S6 Edge has a 5.1-inch QHD panel.

Leaked specs suggest the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 chipset and a 3,000mAh battery. Its dimensions will be 154.4mm x 75.8mm x 6.9mm and it will not come with a Stylus like the Galaxy Note 5.

Cases for both the devices will be shipped from September 30, so both the handsets are expected to be available in the market before that. Samsung is holding its Unpacked 2015 event August 13 when the South Korean company is expected to announce the two above mentioned handsets.

Meanwhile, have a look at the images posted by Spigen:

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus pictures leak via case maker Spigen

A 3D concept rendering for the 2015 Nexus 5 appears in a video

The 2015 edition of the much famous Nexus 5 is now being rumored a lot. Now, the Dutch designer Jermaine Smit has come up with a 3D concept rendering for the handset, using three large cut outs. These cut-outs have been used by the designer to mount a pair of camera sensors and a fingerprint sensor.

According to the designer Smit, the 2015 edition of Nexus 5is expected to have a 5.2inch display panel with a full HD 1080 x 1920 pixel resolution screen. Thus the screen is expected to have a pixel density of 424ppi. Under the hood, there would be a Snapdragon 820 chipset which would come with a octa-core CPU supported with 4GB of DDR4 RAM memory. The concept shows the handset to come with two internal storage options of 32GB and 128GB. On its back panel, there would be a dual camera set-up with a 16MP sensor. The front-camera will be 5MP which would help in video chat sessions and selfies. A Type-C USB port would also be included, with a battery capacity of 2860mAh.

The concept shows the handset with very thin bezels and sleek design. Take a look at the video below to have a better look.

source: NWE (translated)

A 3D concept rendering for the 2015 Nexus 5 appears in a video

Pictures of Microsoft Lumia 950 XL Prototype leak out

 

After launching Windows 10, Microsoft is now getting ready to unveil its Windows 10 Mobile later this year and along with it possibly a couple of flagship Lumia smartphones. Recently, several images of a prototype of a new Microsoft Lumia smartphone have leaked online.

The two upcoming handsets that would run Windows 10 Mobile OS are being allegedly referred to as Lumia Talkman and Lumia Cityman internally. Rumors up till now indicated that they would be called Lumia 940 and Lumia 940 XL. However, other recent rumors suggest that Microsoft would be skipping the 940 series and branding the two handsets as Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL. Well, whatever the name, the handsets are the same.

The images leaked now show the prototype enclosed inside a case probably in order to hide its real shape. There is some debate whether it is the Lumia 950 or the larger Lumia 950 XL. The basic design of both is the same except for the screen size. However since the handset is hidden inside the case, it is difficult to say which one it is.

The rounded corners of the prototype are apparent. It sports a 2560 x 1440 pixels QHD Touchscreen and dual SIM functionality. The Lumia 950 (XL) is powered by Snapdragon 810 SoC, has a 3GB RAM and also a USB Type-C port. It has a 20MP camera with triple LED flash. Settings show that the camera has the capability to shoot videos of up to 90fps in 1080p and up to 120fps in 720p.

The prototype model number is RM-1116, build number is 10.0.10240 and it is running Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview.

Microsoft is expected to officially unveil the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL at its event to be held in October probably in New York. It is also expected to launch Surface Pro 4 and Microsoft Band 2 at the time.

Meanwhile, have a look at the leaked images:

via

Pictures of Microsoft Lumia 950 XL Prototype leak out

Alleged photo of Sony Xperia Z5 and Z5 Compact showing fingerprint scanner leak

A photo purporting to be that of the next Sony Xperia flagship in the Z series and its compact sibling has surfaced on Twitter. The picture has been posted by leakster @vizileaks. This could be the as yet unannounced and unconfirmed picture of the Sony Xperia Z5 and its sibling the Xperia Z5 Compact.

The photo shows three smartphones. The phone on the right which is nearest to us is the larger phone possibly the Xperia Z5 and the one on the left which is farthest from us is the compact model. Between the two sits the iPhone 6. Both the Sony Z series phones show an OmniBalance design. A fingerprint scanner can be seen on the right side of the larger Sony Xperia phone and its volume control has been shifted downwards. You can see it in the picture below.

Sony Xperia Z(TBC) and compact pic.twitter.com/yNTHvYg5dm

— ViziLeaks (@vizileaks) August 3, 2015

 

If Sony follows its tradition of outing two flagships in a year, we can expect the company to unveil the Xperia Z5 before the year end. Sony has introduced the Xperia Z4 and Xperia Z3+ in the first half of this year. In 2014, the company had launched two smartphones, the Xperia Z2 and the Xperia Z3.

Now the leaked photo shows us a glimpse of what Sony’s next flagship in the Z series will look like.

Alleged photo of Sony Xperia Z5 and Z5 Compact showing fingerprint scanner leak

New Qualcomm WiPower technology brings wireless charging to metal body mobile devices

Qualcomm has announced that it has developed a new technology by which devices with metal body can be charged wirelessly. The technology called Qualcomm WiPower can charge devices with metal exteriors wirelessly, thus eliminating the need for using wires, reducing the clutter.

Qualcomm WiPower complies with the new Rezence wireless power charging standard, not using the popular PMA or Qi standards. The Rezence standard has been developed by the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) that includes leading brands from various industries like Qualcomm, Microsoft, Acer, Samsung, Lenovo, LG, Asus, Motorola, Intel, and many others as members.

Rezence was first demonstrated at the beginning of this year in January. With this standard, WiPower enables wireless charging of devices without any direct physical contact. You can even charge multiple devices having different power requirements when placed inside the same charge area. And not only charging, WiPower can also power devices such as wireless keyboard, mouse, digital photo frames and lamps.

Qualcomm WiPower works “at a frequency that is more tolerant of metal objects that come within the charge field”. So up till now, the charging process was not affected even if other metal objects such as coins or keys were lying inside the charge field. But now Qualcomm has added one more feature to WiPower, that the device to be charged could itself be made of metal. The new feature maintains the existing WiPower ability “to charge devices requiring up to 22 watts today, at speeds equal to or faster when compared to other wireless charging technologies”.

“Building a wireless charging solution into devices with metal exteriors is a significant step for moving the entire industry forward,” says Steve Pazol, GM, Wireless Charging of Qualcomm Incorporated.

It’s not clear when such WiPower-using mobile devices will be available in the market but we certainly hope to see them soon.

Check out the promo video for Qualcomm WiPower:

New Qualcomm WiPower technology brings wireless charging to metal body mobile devices

Nokia HERE Mapping Service Sold for $3.07 Billion to German Auto Consortium

Nokia is reported that the company has sold HERE mapping service for a figure of $3.07 billion USD to German auto consortium which consists of Audi AG, BMW Group as well as Daimler AG. The deal is expected to finalize in the first quarter of 2016 with profit of about $2.75 Billion.

One of the reasons that can be concluded on why the automakers are willing to purchase the service as such a huge amount is that they are expected to use the data generated from it for the cars that they are developing so that the cars can navigate themselves based on the data. The mapping service also expected to be available across multiple platforms.

With the deal went through successfully, Nokia is expected to concentrate on the bought over of Alcatel-Lucent which after this is finalized, it will make Nokia a world leading network technology and services business as well as licensing and innovation of Nokia Technologies as mentioned by Rajeev Suri, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nokia.

HERE is reported to receive about $606 million USD and had an operating profit of $30.7 million USD during the first half of 2015. This is definitely is a good news as the service suffered a loss in 2014. According to the last year’s report, the service received about $1.07 billion USD and written off certain things out of goodwill which cost about $1.33 billion USD and thus the company made an operating loss of $1.36 billion.

Moving forward, Nokia is expected to design and license smartphones in 2016 as per the agreement with Microsoft.

Nokia HERE Mapping Service Sold for $3.07 Billion to German Auto Consortium

Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Official Launch Considered as Selfie Smartphone

Sony has just officially launch Sony Xperia C5 Ultra earlier today among other smartphone models. The device can be categorized as a mid-range smartphone which have an almost bezel-less design as well as thin as it is measured at 8.2-mm with width of 79.6mm which hopefully not so difficult to hold. On top of that, the device offers great selfie picture results.

Sony Xperia C5 Ultra comes with a 6-inch IPS LCD display screen with resolution of 1080 x 1920. The device is running on a 64-bit octa core MediaTek SoC which is clocked at 1.7GHz, an ARM Mali760 MP2 GPU, a 2GB RAM as well as a 16GB internal storage which can be further expand via microSD card up to 200GB. Other features such as a 13MP front camera which comes with an autofocus Exmor RS sensor with focal length of 22mm and 88 degree field of view, a 13MP rear camera with also a Exmor RS sensor with slightly different focal length and degrees of view at 25mm and 80 degrees respectively as well as a 2930mAh battery size. Unfortunately, the camera does not have optical image stabilization feature and just rely on the software to keep the frame steady.

Sony Xperia C5 Ultra, unfortunately, does not come with water resistance and stereo speakers feature, unlike the other models. The device will have three color options, black, white and mint green. It will be pre-installed with Android 5.0 Lollipop as well as Sony’s own custom Android Skin which has a feature to minimize the user interface so that it can be navigated single handedly.

The device will be released in selected emerging market starting from August this year and there will be two variants of the device, one that support dual-SIM and one that only support single-SIM capability.

Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Official Launch Considered as Selfie Smartphone

Real-life images of the HTC Desire 728 appear

Earlier back in July, we heard about the Taiwanese smartphone giant HTC to be working upon its new mid-range handset the HTC Desire 728. The device was later found to make a visit to TENNA revealing its specs and exterior design. Now some of the real-life images for the handset have just appeared giving us the full-view of its exterior.

From the images it can be seen that the front frame of the handset would have a bit smaller top and bottom bezels which makes the device look a bit shorter than the lately released HTC devices. However, the device is still said to have the dual front-facing BoomSound speakers.

Looking to its specs, the handset is expected to have a 5.5inch 720p display baked with a MediaTek MT6753 chipset clocked at 1.3GHz. The device would be supported with 2GB of RAM memory and 16GB of native built-in storage along with a microSD card slot for expandable memory. To its back, the device has a 13MP primary camera while the front has a 5MP secondary camera. The device would be running the latest Android 5.1 Lollipop topped with the HTC Sense 7 UI and will also offer a good battery back-up of 2800mAh.

The HTC Desire 728 is expected to be dual-SIM handset showing up the dimensions of 7.87mm thickness and 150 grams of weight. However, few reports claim that this would most probably be a China exclusive handset. For the time being take a look at some of the real-life images that have leaked.

source: Anzhuo (translated)

Real-life images of the HTC Desire 728 appear