Looking for a smartphone with a large display, decent specs and a price tag just shy of $300 unlocked and contract-free? It's not an easy thing to find here in the US of A, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. In fact, a little-known manufacturer out of Miami known as BLU is doing its darndest to get on the map and show off its brute handset-making skills at a reasonable cost. It's been a big player in the KIRF arena for quite some time, but its latest lineup of phones -- Life -- appears to have a bit of personality of its own. Of the devices in the Life series, we've received an early unit of the Life View, a 5.7-inch Android model, from our friends at Negri Electronics, an online retailer that recently began selling the device for $299. Take a closer look at our gallery of images below and then follow us after the break for a few impressions.
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Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile
Dual-SIM phones are handy in regions where international travel and prepaid service are common, but even those devices aren't always enough for jetsetters. Thankfully, GooPhone and LG have come to those customers' rescue by launching the first smartphones based on a new MediaTek Triple-SIM chip. Both the leaked GooPhone X1+ (shown above) and a just-shipped variant of the Optimus L4 II (after the break) can juggle three phone lines without a big hit to battery life. Neither tri-SIM phone is high-end: the X1+ reportedly carries a 5-inch FWVGA display and a dual-core MT6572 processor, while the L4 II sports a 3.8-inch HVGA screen and an unnamed 1GHz chip. Despite those limitations, we suspect the handsets will be vital to anyone who'd rather not switch SIMs when crossing the border. LG's phone is already on sale in Brazil, while the GooPhone X1+ should ship to multiple countries within the next several days.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, LG
In response to a question about whether Qualcomm will create an eight-core processor like MediaTek's upcoming model, Senior VP Anand Chandrasekher told a Taiwanese publication "we don't do dumb things." He added that "you can't take eight lawnmower engines, put them together and now claim you have an eight-cylinder Ferrari." Instead, he said Qualcomm is focused on good modems, long battery life and affordability, rather than "simply throwing cores together." Though MediaTek had no comment on that, it claimed earlier that all eight cores in its upcoming CPU can operate at the same time to improve stability and battery life -- unlike the Exynos 5's big.LITTLE configuration, for instance. Whether you agree with Chandrasekher or not, eight seems better than four, meaning most CPU outfits -- including Qualcomm -- will likely jump on the octa-core bandwagon.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets
Via: PC World
Source: Taiwan Media Roundtable
To some extent, ASUS is a victim of its own success: it gave the budget tablet category a boost with the original Nexus 7, and it now faces a legion of competitors in that space. The company is taking a two-step approach to maintaining its relevance. The new Nexus 7 tackles the higher end, with top-tier specs that include a 1080p display and wireless charging. Right now, though, we're more interested in ASUS' low-end solution, the MeMo Pad HD 7. While it's one of the cheaper name-brand tablets at $150, it promises some of the quality we typically expect from more expensive products. But is the HD 7 good enough to fend off other entry-level tablets? And can it attract customers who'd be willing to pay the premium for a new Nexus 7'? Let's find out.
It'll be a while before MediaTek's true octa-core SoC makes its glorious arrival, but for the time being, the company's unveiling something just as interesting -- and perhaps more practical. The new MT8135 announced today is a "quad-core" SoC aimed at "the middle- to high-end tier of the tablet OEM market." We quote "quad-core," because it actually consists of two clusters: dual Cortex-A15 cores and dual Cortex-A7 cores. But the good news is that unlike the original big.LITTLE configuration where only one cluster can operate at any given time (depending on how heavy the workload is), MediaTek's confirmed that it has implemented big.LITTLE MP ("MP" as in heterogeneous multi-processing) in the MT8135, meaning both the A15 and the A7 clusters can operate simultaneously.
Another highlight of this MT8135 is that it'll be one of the first SoCs -- alongside LG's H13 (which we've seen first-hand), Renesas' APE6 and Renesas' R-Car H2 -- to come with Imagination Technologies' almighty PowerVR Series6 GPU. Specifically, this is the PowerVR G6200 which, as part of the MT8135, can apparently deliver "up to four times more ALU (arithmetic logic unit) horsepower" than the Series5XT GPU on the cheaper, quad-A7 MT8125. And unsurprisingly, the MT8135 gets the same Miracast wireless video goodie given to the MT8125; though it's also worth noting that the latter only supports LPDDR2 RAM instead of the more powerful LPDDR3.
Sadly, there's no further information regarding availability, but you can kill some time by checking out more technical details in the video (with benchmarks) and press releases after the break.
Filed under: Misc
Source: Imagination Technologies
Earlier this month there was a whisp of octa-core colored smoke coming from MediaTek. Today it's more of a roaring camp fire, with the chip-maker going official -- fully announcing its new octa-core processor ambitions. The firm stops short of giving us the actual nitty-gritty specifications that many of you will be waiting for, instead taking the chance to remind us that Arm-based chips will be true eight-cores-at-once processing, and none of this big.LITTLE dallying. The word is these will float around the 2GHz mark on arrival, which last we heard was pegged for November. We're not suggesting the timing of this announcement was planned, but it looks, for now, like 8 is the current lucky number.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile
Via: Phone Arena
Source: MediaTek
Many ostensibly female-oriented phones tend to be compromised, with flashiness on the outside sadly unmatched by power on the inside. Not so Sugar's inaugural, namesake smartphone: while the Android 4.2-based device is lined with 5.16 carats' worth of Swarovski Pure Brilliance gems, the underlying hardware is worth attention all on its own. The 5-inch, 1080p Sharp LCD is backed up by a quad-core MediaTek chip, 2GB of RAM, an 8MP rear camera, a 1.3MP front shooter and either 16GB or 32GB of storage. Sugar plans to launch the phone in China and Europe, although you'll have to wait until August for full details. In the meantime, you can catch the full Engadget Chinese hands-on at the link below, and our colleagues' English hands-on video is available after the break.
Stone Ip contributed to this report.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Via: Engadget Chinese (translated)
Source: Sugar
Cheap smartphones are getting more common, but the BLU Dash 4.5 is redefining the term budget. For $139, unlocked and unsubsidized, you can own an Android 4.2 Jelly Bean handset with a 1.2GHz quad-core chip from MediaTek, 512MB of RAM, 5-megapixel camera, 4.5-inch 854 x 480 pixel display and 21Mbps HSPA+ support for both AT&T and T-Mobile. Though it's not the thinnest device in the world at 11.9mm (0.47 inches) thick, we're willing to ignore that given the price tag. It's $10 cheaper than our current favorite budget smartphone, the Nokia Lumia 520, and you can buy it from online retailers today. We've found an unboxing video in Spanish -- if you're interested, it's just after the break.
Filed under: Mobile
There are quite a few consoles based on Google’s OS that can be used in tandem with a TV set, …
