Mid-Range version of Xiaomi Redmi Note with LTE spotted at TENNA

Well, Xiaomi started its year 2015 with the two big launches of flagship handset Mi Note and Mi Note Pro and a entry level handset Redmi 2 – an successor to its Redmi 1S. Now according to the reports, we can expect a more refreshed version for the Redmi Note as a similar device has appeared at the Chinese certification TENNA. This might be an bit marginal improvement over the existing affordable Redmi Note.

The listed specs for the device at TENNA show it to be having a quad-core Snapdragon 400 chipset along with the LTE support. Moreover, it would have a 5.5” HD 720p display with 1GB of RAM support and memory options of 8GB of built-in storage expandable via microSD card. To its back would be a 13MP primary snapper with LED flash and the front would be having a 5MP secondary snapper. The device would be running the Android 4.4 KitKat on-board.

There is no doubt to it that just like its predecessor, this too would be aggressively priced. Here are the images from TENNA.

source: TENAA

Mid-Range version of Xiaomi Redmi Note with LTE spotted at TENNA

ASUS Pegasus X002 costing $130 will provide tough competition to Xiaomi Redmi 1S

Taiwanese manufacturer ASUS has announced a very competitively priced new smartphone ASUS Pegasus X002 ready to take on the likes of Xiaomi Redmi 1S and Meizu Blue Charm K52.  Xiaomi had sold off 40,000 units of its Redmi 1S handset in just 4.2 seconds when it was launched in India in September this year. Meizu announced its Blue Charm Note, also called the M1 Note, at the beginning of this month for $160 with some killer specs.

ASUS’ new phone is named after the winged horse ‘Pegasus’ from Greek Mythology which means wisdom and knowledge. The company’s name ASUS is also derived from the name ‘Pegasus’.

The ASUS Pegasus X002 boasts of a 5-inch display with 1280 x 720 pixels resolution, a 64-bit MT6732 quad-core chipset clocked at 1.5GHz, 2GB of RAM and a 16 GB of internal storage expandable via microSD card. In the camera department, the handset has an 8MP rear camera with auto focus, LED flash and ultra picture quality mode, and a 5MP front-facing snapper.

Pegasus X002 is powered by a 2,500mAh battery and runs Android KitKat topped with Asus’s own Zen UI. It is a dual SIM smartphone supporting 4G TD-LTE/TD-CDMA and GSM networks.

The phone is available in China for only 799 Yuan which is equivalent to about US$129, a very competitive price considering the specs it offers. Currently, the phone is meant only for China with no information whether it will be released outside China at a later date. Pre-orders for the phone have already started.

Here’s the teaser video of Pegasus X002:

 

Take a look at some hands-on pictures of the ASUS Pegasus X002:

 

Source GizmoChina

ASUS Pegasus X002 costing $130 will provide tough competition to Xiaomi Redmi 1S

Qualcomm’s new Cat. 10 LTE 9x45 modem has up to 450 Mbps download speed

Qualcomm Incorporated has announced that a new 5th gen LTE multimode Gobi 9×45 modem and a 2nd gen RF360 Envelope Tracker, the QFE3100 have been introduced by its wholly owned subsidiary Qualcomm Technologies. Both the products will work together to offer faster downloads and better thermal efficiency with optimum power consumption.

The new Category 10 LTE modem supports download speeds of up to 450 MB per second and upload speeds of up to 100 MB per second. The download speed is 1.5 times faster and the upload speed is 2 times faster than LTE Category 6. The connectivity is better and the application response time is also faster.

The new modem is based on the 2nd gen 20nm technology and supports all the major standards DC-HSPA, GSM, EVDO, CDMA 1x and TD-SCDMA  as well as all the main RF bands and band combinations. It also supports GPS, Galileo, Beidou and Glonass globally. LTE Dual SIM, VoL LTE and LTE Broadcast are also supported.

The QFE3100 Envelope Tracker is 30% smaller in size and improves the battery life. Paired together, the 9×45 modem and the QFE3100 offer a very advanced platform for 2G, 3G and 4G modes.

“The expansion of our connectivity solutions to include fifth-generation LTE Category 10 technology, and the QFE3100, will offer consumers more efficient mobile devices that connect seamlessly to the fastest LTE Advanced networks while consuming lower power,” said Cristiano Amon, executive vice president of Qualcomm Technologies.

“Today’s announcement builds on our established technology leadership in the LTE connectivity space and demonstrates our continued commitment to offering users an outstanding and unparalleled mobile experience,” he added.

The 9×45 modem and the QFE3100 Tracker are in the sampling phase and are expected to be available commercially in 2015.

Source: Qualcomm

Qualcomm’s new Cat. 10 LTE 9x45 modem has up to 450 Mbps download speed

Samsung announces its first integrated LTE enabled chipset Exynos ModAP

Well, to date, currently Qualcomm is considered as a pioneer and leader in creating integrated LTE chipsets currently. Well as spotted yesterday, now it seems that Samsung is next to enter the competition and has today unveiled the Exynos ModAP chipset that comes with LTE Cat 4 capable chipset. ModAP means that it is a “Modem” and “Applications processor” which suggest that Samsung now has moved ahead from the setups where the modem was a separate part of the chip.

28nm HKMG process is a technique used to build the Exynos ModAP where the processor supports Heterogeneous Multi-Processing. This means that the chipset will allow all of its eight cores to function simultaneously. This newly launched chipset from Samsung also supports carrier aggregation that merges multiple channels in order to achieve the LTE Cat 4 thereby offering speeds of 50Mbps uplink and 150Mbps downlink. Apart from this, the modem also supports TDD and FDD, 2G, 3G along with TD-SCDMA.

Moreover, the chipset can even record videos of 2160p resolution at 30fps with a very speedy 6.4GB/s of channel RAM. Get to know the prowess of the Exynos chips from Samsung in much detail from its official website.

Samsung announces its first integrated LTE enabled chipset Exynos ModAP

ASUS PadFone S and ZenFone 5 with LTE out for sale

Taiwanese giant ASUS has today launched its PadFone S along with the ZenFone 5 with LTE support in its hometown, Taiwan. As spotted earlier, the ASUS PadFone S is the international variant of the PadFone X which was introduced by AT&T last month.

Looking to the specs for both the devices, the ASUS PadFone S comes with a 5inch Full HD display. The Asus PadFone X is powered with the Snapdragon 800 chipset while the international variant i.e. the PadFone S will be powered with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset having clock speed of 2.3GHz. However, all the other hardware specifications for the device remain the same that include a 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage. At its back liea a 13MP primary camera and comes along with a 9inch tablet dock.

On the other hand, the LTE variant of ZenFone 5 from Asus has some significant changes compared to its 3G model. Unlike the Intel Atom Z2580 processor hosted in the 3G model, the LTE variant comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor clocked at 1.2GHz. This new chipset offers support to all LTE bands in the country. Other specs for the handset includes a 5inch HD display, 2GB of RAM and 8MP of primary camera.

The ASUS PadFone S and the Asus ZenFone 5 LTE has gone on sale in Taiwan carrying a price tag of TWD 9,999 (about $335) and TWD 6,990 (about $235) respectively. However, the tablet dock for the PadFone S is sold separately having a price of TWD 5,000 or $170.

Source 1 | Source 2 | Via

ASUS PadFone S and ZenFone 5 with LTE out for sale

Huawei offers Ascend Mate 2 directly to US consumers for pre-order at $299

The Chinese company Huawei does not have much presence in the US. But now, the company is increasing its footprint there by offering its Ascend Mate 2 directly to US consumers for the first time. It is a big 6.1-inch phablet that the company had unveiled in CES 2014.

The Ascend Mate 2 is now available for pre-order and the unlocked device will be sold for $299 through the company’s new website GetHuawei.com. Customers who pre-order the handset by June 22 will get certain freebies including a SIM card with $50 of free service and a protective case with preview panel.

Apart from the ultra-large 6.1-inch 1280 x 720p IPS display screen covered by Corning Gorilla Glass 3, the phablet has a big 3,990 mAh battery that can last for 60 hours of standard use.

Let’s have a look at other specifications of the Ascend Mate 2:

• 1.6GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and Adreno 305 GPU


• 2GB RAM


• 16GB of built-in storage with microSD card slot to expand up to 32GB


• 13-megapixel Sony BSI Auto-focus primary rear camera with LED flash


• 5-megapixel front-facing camera with wide-angle lens


• 4G LTE Cat 4 high speed connectivity


• Android 4.3 Jelly Bean running and Huawei’s Emotion UI 2.0 Lite


• Dimensions: 161 x 84.7 x 9.5mm


• Weight: 202g


• Colors: Black & White

The Ascend Mate 2 smartphone is “Super Handy” and can be easily operated with one hand and also while wearing gloves. It has a “W.O.W” or “Windows on Windows” feature enabling the user to do 2 things at once due to the unique floating screens of the device. It has fast 4G LTE video streaming and a 79/21 screen to body ratio. The battery of Ascend Mate 2 is very powerful with a long life and Huawei calls it the “Weekend long Battery life”. It even has reverse charge ability and can charge other devices.

All these features in just $299 seems like a good bargain. What say?

Check out the Huawei Ascend Mate 2 video below:

Huawei offers Ascend Mate 2 directly to US consumers for pre-order at $299

Huawei to release Cat6 LTE Smartphone this year

 

Good news for the people who live in countries, which have a 4G LTE (Cat4) connection. The service is one-step ahead of the 3G, but it not yet available in majority part of the world. Huawei, a telecom firm from China, whose headquarters are located in Shenzhen, Guangdong; has announced that they will release a CAT6 LTE Smartphone by the end of this year. The CAT6 LTE Smartphone will be well equipped to support the 4G LTE (cat4) connections.

The information was been disclosed in an interview, given by Richard Ren. He is the President of Huawei’s consumer division of Europe and he said, “In the coming second half of this year, we will launch the Cat6 lte Smartphone”.

This Smartphone, which is been well enabled to support a 4G LTE connection, will allow a download speed of 300 mbps, which is two times the speed offered by other 4G LTE Smartphone available in the market. This is a breakthrough by Huawei in the field of Cat6 LTE Smartphone.

‘The Cat 6 connectivity was been achieved in partnership with Qualcomm’, announced last April by Huawei. However, it is not yet confirmed by the company that which of its Smartphone will have this feature. According to some people, it is been expected that a P-series device will be chosen for that. Huawei’s SingleRan technology and Qualcomm’s 4G LTE modem GOBI 9×35 is been used to test.

Huawei now has its HiSilicon chip, which is capable of supporting Cat6 technology, but it is still going to use MediaTek and Qualcomm processors as of now. The HiSilicon chip should be used for the upcoming devices. Ren also stated that, with the HiSilicon chip in their hands, they are running 6 months in advance of Qualcomm. He said that HiSilicon is world’s first Cat6 chipset and they will take an advantage of it, by using the best chipsets for their upcoming products.

Qualcomm will release Snapdragon 810 and Snapdragon 808-64 bit processors, later this year. Both these processors will support the latest Cat6 lte technology. It is been anticipated that the product will reach the markets by next year as it will be shipped to OEMs by third quarter of the year. This means that Huawei can earn itself an advantage, if it launches its Cat6 Smartphone this year. By doing that, they will be running ahead of Qualcomm by several months. The Cat 6Huawei mobile broadband dongle will also be introduced with the Cat 6 Smartphone, which will guarantee better speed and connectivity to its users.

Huawei to release Cat6 LTE Smartphone this year