this week: MWC 2013

The UMI X2 is a quad-core, 5-inch 1080p smartphone for $260 

Recently, the Micromax Canvas HD has been making some serious noise in our specs page, as being a very competitively priced device with an impressive specs sheet to boot. Now, Chinese company UMI is giving them some competition, as they're slated to release their own flagship, which joins the 5-inch 1080p club, and is set to be released in India for Rs. 14,000 (~$260).

Besides the sharp display, you'll find a 1.2 GHz MTK6589 quad-core processor from MediaTek inside, as well as a PowerVR SGX544 GPU, 32GB of expandable internal storage, and 2 GB of RAM, all of this powered by a 2,500mAh battery.

To further sweeten the pot (as if it needed it), the X2 gives you a 13MP shooter alongside a 3MP front-facer, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (with a scheduled upgrade to 4.2), and dual-SIM support to boot.

The UMI X2 is scheduled to be released between March 15-20 in India, and we just hope that at that price they don't skimp out on anything important!

P2i water-repellent nanocoating technology demo: phone waterboarding now possible

Small nanoparticles result in great features, that much we have learned since the tiny bits were discovered - from drug delivery systems to water-repellent nanocoatings, and its the latter we are interested in because of its huge potential to protect our smartphones and tablets from various liquids, but mainly water and beer.

P2i had the newest generation of its water-repellent nanocoating on display at the MWC 2013 expo that allows you to actually submerge a Samsung Galaxy S III or any other phone under water as is, and was nice enough to demonstrate its features for us. The great part is that the 1/1000th of a human hair coating is invisible to the human eye, and doesn't change the look and structure of the object it is applied to, like a smartphone, but makes it impermeable to water.

The rep mentioned they are working with Motorola and an "European manufacturer" to make their phones water-resistant with the last-gen P2i tech, which we only hope he meant Nokia rather than Alcatel, for instance. Check out the cool demo below, and don't worry, once this thing hits all handsets, you can freely drool over them.

Alcatel One Touch Snap and One Touch Snap LTE debut

Alcatel is continuing its march here at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona adding two more devices to the ones that it already announced a few days ago. Meet the One Touch Snap and its 4G-enhanced twin brother, the Snap LTE.
Rocking a yet undisclosed 1.2GHz quad-core processor (chances are it’s the one found in the Idol X) and 1GB of RAM, the Snap stands below the Idol X in the ranks of the Alcatel smartphones unveiled in Barcelona. It’s built around a 4.5” display with qHD resolution, which also boasts Dragontail Glass for protection and oleophobic coating to keep fingerprints away.

The Snap runs the latest version of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and makes use of 1800mAh battery, which Alcatel has rated at 7h of 3G talk time and 340h on stand-by. There’s just 4GB of memory, 2.4GB of which is user accessible. Thankfully, there’s a microSD card slot to save the day.
At the back of the phone, there's an 8MP autofocus snapper with LED flash and 720p recording in its tool belt. The front camera is a 1.3MP one, and is also capable of shooting 720p videos. The Snap measures up to 130.3 x 67 x 8.99mm, but its weight hasn’t been disclosed.
As for the LTE version of the device, it surprisingly differs from its twin brother in a number of key areas. Firstly, the display is larger, at 4.65” but has a lower FWVGA (480 x 854 pixels) resolution. On the plus side, it still packs Dragontail Glass and oleophobic coating.

At the back, there’s an 8MP camera, which unlike the regular variation of the Snap, is capable of shooting full HD videos. The front facing camera is updated, too, and is 2MP. The phone's a bit thicker, measuring 134 x 69.6 x 10.9 mm due to the larger 2200mAh battery inside.
Sadly, the Snap LTE runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which is still acceptable, but not the latest available around. The bad news continues with the addition of a dual-core, instead of a quad-core. The Snap LTE features a 1.4GHz dual-core Snapdragon CPU.
Both devices come with support for Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4 and quadband GSM (850/900/1800/1900).
Naturally, it’s still early to talk pricing, but Alcatel is promising the Snap and Snap LTE to arrive in April and July 2013, respectively.

HTC Tiara gets tipped with Windows Phone 8 GDR2

According to a fresh leak, HTC plans to expand its Windows Phone 8 lineup with a new handset, which is bound to sit between the Windows Phone 8X and the Windows Phone 8S when it comes into being. Dubbed internally as HTC Tiara, the smartphone will be one of the first to the market with Windows Phone 8 GDR2 - the second major overhaul of the OS after the recent "Portico" update.

A quick look at the leaked specs of the HTC Tiara suggests that the smartphone is a rather close relative to the HTC One SV, save for the camera resolution. It features a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon CPU and a 4.3" Super LCD screen with WVGA resolution. There's a gig of RAM and 8GB of built-in memory. An 8MP camera, 1.6MP front-facing unit, and 1,800 mAh battery are also on the spec sheet.
The HTC Tiara is tipped for a release in mid-May. Currently, the Taiwanese manufacturer is working hard to promote the HTC One Android flagship.

i-mate reportedly working on an Intel-based, Windows 8 handset

The Dubai-based manufacturer i-mate might be planning a grand return to the smartphone scene after several years in the doldrums. According to a recent report, the company, which made a name for itself by selling HTC-made, Windows Mobile devices in the middle of last decade, is set to unveil an Intel Clover Trail based smartphone, which will boot Windows 8 Pro, not Windows Phone 8.

The smartphone will carry the name i-mate Intelegent. It is reportedly set to pack 2GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a 4.7" display of unknown resolution. The most important trick up the i-mate Intelegent's sleeve will be the ability to offer full Windows 8 experience via an optional docking system. The latter will offer a 23" touch-enabled display, keyboard, mouse, and a wireless tablet with 10" 1080p display.
The price of the smartphone alone is said to be $750. Should you choose to go for the desktop station, prepare to fork out $1,600.
According to the CEO of i-mate, Mr. Jim Morrison, there's a factory in California ready to produce 10,000 units a week of the Intelegent. The CEO also told the Seattle Times that the i-mate Intelegent will be showcased during MWC.
We are yet to catch a glimpse of the device in Barcelona though, so, given i-mate's troubled past, we would advise that you take more than the usual pinch of salt when threading through the report.

Sony has Firefox OS device in the works

Sony has revealed plans to launch a Firefox-powered device in 2014. Bob Ishida - the company's deputy CEO confirmed that Sony engineers are currently working with Firefox OS Mobile and HTML 5 evolving technologies, which show great potential.

The news broke during a Sony and Telefonica joint event, where the Spanish carrier announced that it will offer the Xperia Z Android flagship and the Xperia Tablet Z. Telefonica, together with other Sony partner networks will also be involved in the development of a Firefox phone.
The announcement is great news for Mozilla. With Sony joining the likes of ZTE, Huawei, Alcatel, and LG, Firefox OS has better chances of carving a slice of the brutally competitive market.

ZTE unveils the Grand Memo phablet and the ZTE Open

ZTE brought two interesting phones to the MWC that are as different as can be. The ZTE Grand Memo is a 5.7” Android super-phone and is the first to use the Snapdragon 800 chipset. The ZTE Open, on the other hand is an entry-level Firefox OS phone.

ZTE Grand Memo

The ZTE Grand Memo earns its name with a big screen – 5.7” in diagonal. Rather disappointingly, the resolution of the screen is just 720p. Not that 258ppi pixel density is all that bad, but we expected more.
Update: there's some conflicting information, but we checked on the unit itself and confirmed that the screen is 720p and not 1080p.
Especially considering the chipset - the ZTE Grand Memo uses the top end Snapdragon chipset available, the Snapdragon 800. The CPU cores are clocked at 1.5GHz and should be faster than the cores in the other Snapdragon chipsets clock for clock and the Adreno 330 GPU should double the performance of the 320.
Update, again: ZTE is now saying the Grand Memo has a Snapdragon 600 chipset, not 800. By the way things are going, this info will probably change again. The one thing ZTE is certain about right now is that it's some sort of Snapdragon chipset.

ZTE Grand Memo
The phablet is only 8.5mm thick, but thanks to the extra height and width, the ZTE engineers managed to cram a 3,200mAh battery inside it.
The camera on the ZTE Grand Memo is a 13MP shooter with 1080p video capture. On the connectivity side, the phone has LTE Cat 3 (100Mbps down, 50Mbps up) and dual-band Wi-Fi with 802.11ac support – the latest Wi-Fi spec available.

ZTE Open

The ZTE Open is on the other end of the spectrum – it has a 3.5” HVGA screen, 3.2MP camera, 1GHz single-core processor and 256MB RAM. It’s powered by Firefox OS, which was officially unveiled yesterday.

ZTE Open
The Open will tackle entry-level Android phones in emerging markets, by promoting an open source OS with easy to make HTML5-based apps.
The phone features Wi-Fi b/g/n connectivity, Bluetooth 2.1 and A-GPS with Nokia HERE maps.

Asus Padfone Infinity and Fonepad announced

Remember the Asus Padfone 2? Forget it, it’s old news – the Asus Padfone Infinity was just announced and it steps up the specs. Asus also switched things around and announced the Fonepad – a 7” tablet with full phone functionality.

Asus Padfone Infinity

The Asus Padfone Infinity has a 5” 1080p screen with 441ppi. That catches up to the competition’s flagships, but more importantly the tablet dock screen has been improved too – it’s a 10.1” screen of 1920x1200 resolution. Both screens have anti-fingerprint coating.

The processing power has been upped accordingly too – the Padfone Infinity uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset with a quad-core Krait 300 CPU clocked at 1.7GHz.

Asus Fonepad Infinity

The Padfone Infinity packs a 13MP F/2.0 main camera that does up to 100 shots in burst mode at 8fps and records 1080p@30fps video. There’s also a front-facing camera – 2MP, F/2.0.
The phone itself has a unibody design and is made of aero-space grade aluminum alloy, with brushed finish. The aluminum edge has been anodized twice (perhaps to one-up HTC).
The 2,400mAh battery inside the phone is pretty decent – it’s good for up to 19h of 3G calls, 6.5h of web browsing, 9h of watching video or 410h standby. With the 5,000mAh battery in the tablet dock, however, these numbers are tripled.
The tablet dock also has an 18mm driver in its loudspeaker and Asus has used 3rd generation Sonic Master audio enhancing tech. There’s also the Audio wizard, which offers several preset modes - game mode, movie mode, voice mode and so on.

Asus Fonepad Infinity tablet dock
On the connectivity side, there’s 100Mbps LTE (Cat 3) and NFC (transceiver integrated into the Padfone logo at the back of the device). There’s 64GB of built-in storage and 50GB of cloud storage available.
The Asus Padfone Infinity and its tablet dock will be available in April for €999 / $1325 (again, that’s for both).

Asus Fonepad

Asus emphasized that with the Padfone you only need SIM card, one data plan, one monthly fee. So why not just make a tablet that makes calls? Well, they did – meet the Asus Fonepad.
It’s a 7” tablet with an IPS screen of 1280 x 800 resolution. But it also sports full phone functionality with 3G HSPA+ connectivity.

Asus Fonepad
It’s powered by an Intel Atom Z2420 chipset with a single-core CPU at 1.2GHz, 1GB of RAM and PowerVR SGX540 GPU. It will run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at launch.
There are two versions of the Asus Fonepad. In Europe, the tablet will come with 16GB of built-in storage and a 1.2MP front-facing camera. It will launch in April for €220. For the APAC region, the Fonepad will have only 8GB of built-in storage but it grows a 3MP camera on the back. This one will launch in March for $250. Both have microSD card slots and 5GB of lifetime Asus WebStorage

LG unveil Optimus G Pro, F5 and F7, second-gen L-series

LG had plenty to show, though there was little suspense about what the whole thing was going to be about. All of the six devices were already well familiar: the LG Optimus G Pro, the fresh LTE-enabled midrangers Optimus F5 and F7, and the second generation of the L series. The upgraded Vu II phablet was also on stage.

LG Optimus G pro

In case you missed the news about the latest flagship's upgrade, the Optimus G Pro comes with a 5.5-inch IPS 1080p display and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset, with a 1.6GHz quad-core Krait 300 and Adreno 320 GPU. The rest of the specs include 2GB of RAM, a 13MP rear and a 2.1MP front camera with dual-recording enabled, and a 3140 mAh battery unit. The phone runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean skinned with LG's latest Optimus UI.

LG Optimus F7 and Optimus F5

The newly introduced F series offer LTE-enabled smartphones at affordable prices. The first two members of the lineup are the Optimus F7 and F5.

The LG Optimus F7 comes with a 4.7” True HD IPS 720p screen (312ppi) and a 1.5GHz dual-core processor with 2 gigs of RAM. The phone has an 8MP camera and 8GB of built-in storage (plus a microSD card slot). The F7 measures 131.7 x 68.2 x 9.6mm.

The LG Optimus F5 has a 4.3” IPS LCD screen of qHD resolution (256ppi), a 1.2GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM and a 5MP camera. It has 8GB of built-in storage and a microSD card slot too. The F5 is more compact at 126.0 x 64.5 x 9.3mm.

LG Optimus L7 II, L7 II dual, L5 II and L3 II

LG has also upgraded its affordable and stylish Optimus L lineup with three new phones - the Optimus L7 II, L5 II and L3 II.The Optimus L7 II packs a 4.3-inch IPS WVGA display and is powered by the Qualcomm MSM8225 Snapdragon S4 Play chipset with a 1GHz dual-core processor, Adreno 203 graphics and 768MB of RAM. An 8MP camera with LED flash, 4GB of onboard storage expandable via a microSD slot, a front-facing VGA cam, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and a 2,460 mAh battery complete the handset's spec sheet.The Optimus L7 II will come in a dual-SIM flavor, called the L7 II dual.The Optimus L5 II has a 4.0-inch IPS WVGA display, a 1GHz MediaTek MT6575 single-core processor and PowerVR SGX531 graphics. Other known specs are the 5MP camera at the back and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean ticking inside.

The Optimus L5 II will also have a dual-SIM version, called the L5 II dual.Finally, the Optimus L3 II features a 3.2-inch IPS QVGA screen, a 1GHz single-core MediaTek processor, a 3MP camera and a microSD card slot. Naturally, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth support are available too. The Optimus L3 II also runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Just like the Optimus L7 II dual and L5 II dual, the Optimus L3 II will have a dual-SIM twin, called the Optimus L3 II dual.

According to LG, the "design philosophy of the L Series II has been enhanced to include four new design elements: Seamless Layout, Laser Cut Contour, Radiant Rear Design and Smart LED Lighting on the home button".

The new L II phones will become available in Q2 this year.The other exhibits at the LG booth were the Optimus Vu and the Optimus Vu II phablet. Both were revealed way back in 2012 but perhaps LG is planning to make them more widely available (so far both have been limited to Korea only).

So, obviously it wasn't LG's plan to surprise anyone - all phones presented today were introduced via press releases earlier this month. At least, we finally got to know them better.

LG to acquire webOS from HP 

webOS will find a new home with LG, the Korean manufacturer plans to breathe new life into the platform as the operating system for a new line of smart televisions.
LG announced at MWC today that it will be acquiring webOS from HP. This deal is not a complete surprise, we knew that LG was working with HP and Open webOS for a new smart TV platform. However, it is also a bit of sad ending for what was one of the most innovative mobile operating systems to enter the market.
LG is picking up the whole enchilada, the source code, all related documentation, engineering talent, related web domains and all the patents that HP acquired when it bought Palm. The financial terms were not disclosed, be we are certain HP did not make money on the deal.
HP started making missteps with the Palm acquisition from day one, and when the company pulled the plug just as it was ready to stock the shelves with a whole new line of products, most people thought (rightly so) that webOS was doomed. There were flickers of hope as HP open-sourced the platform, but the innovative work has been done almost exclusively by engineers in their spare time. Surely it was salt in the wounds of the webOS faithful when HP announced a new Android tablet in Barcelona. Now, this buyout by LG seals its fate.
However, LG must know what a gem it has with webOS. While the deal is being touted as a way for LG to develop a new line of TVs, it is still difficult to believe that LG would not try to leverage this platform even though the company has stated it is not interested in using webOS for its smartphones. Skott Ahn, CTO of LG said that the webOS team will be the “heart and soul” of the new LG Silicon Valley Lab in Sunnyvale, California. webOS sites in San Francisco, San Jose and Chicago will also be incorporated into LG’s global research and development operations.

If you are a Palm user, there is good news, LG says it will continue to support you.

Bye-bye bada; Tizen to absorb its best features instead of straight merger

It will soon be time to say bye-bye bada

Back in January, we passed along to you the word from Samsung's Senior VP of Contents Planning Tae-jin Kang, that the Korean tech titan would merge its bada OS with Intel's Tizen. Now, if we were the joking type, we could say that the resulting OS would be called Ta-da! But since we are the serious type, we won't even bring it up.

Actually, there has been a change in plans. Hong Won-pyo, the president of Samsung's Media Solutions Center, says that bada is not a fit for today's modern smartphones and as a result Tizen will no longer merge with bada, but will merely "absorb" its best features. Once Tizen flavored phones are released, the two will come together and bada will be nada more. Samsung plans on releasing a number of Tizen powered models this year.

After the absorbtion is complete, Tizen models will be able to run apps designed for bada but those with a bada phone will not be able to update to Tizen. And the big question is Samsung's intrention with Tizen. There is some speculation that Sammy is trying to distance itself from Android, perhaps in fear that a successful launch of the Motorola X could hurt Samsung's current status as Android's favorite Son.

Intel announces dual-core Atom, and OEM partners for future quad-core chips

It looks like Intel is building on the little victories it has scored here and there in the smartphone market to make a big push for market share. First off, the company has announced a line of dual-core Atom processors (Clover Trail+). These are 32nm processors known as the Z2580 (2.0GHz), Z2560 (1.6GHz) and the Z2520 (1.2GHz). Intel promises "industry-leading performance" using its hyper-threading technology. While Intel's battery life on past silicon has been nothing to write home about, the company says that the new processors will feature battery life that will match current high-end devices.

The number of smartphones and tablets with Intel Inside will be growing

The trio will support resolution of 1900 x 1200 which sounds like we could see the processors employed in Android tablets. Speaking of Android, the line will support Android 4.2 and HSPA+ 42Mbps modems. The chipmaker has already inked pacts with ASUS, ZTE and Lenovo to use the Clover Trail+ in future smartphones and tablets made by the three manufacturers.

The graphics end of the integrated product is covered by the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator engine which supports video in 1080p at 30 fps. It also allows for three times the graphics performance for rich 3-D visuals and lifelike gaming using a core that supports 533MHz using boost mode. The new Atom platform supports two cameras including a primary camera with up to a 16MP sensor and a 15 frame-per-second burst mode for 8MP photos. Later this year, Intel will transition to 22nm Atom SoCs.

Intel also announced its quad-core Bay Trail processors for use in tablets. Performance doubles its current processor line for tablets and in the future, this line could be produced using 8nm technology. By the time the turkey has been consumed in 2013, expect to see the Bay Trail processor in Android and Windows 8 tablets produced by names like Acer, ASUS, HP, Lenovo, LG Electronics and Samsung.

Lastly, Intel announced its first multimode and multiband LTE chip, the XMM 7160. The chip draws only a small amount of power with its small size. The XMM7160 supports 15 LTE bands simultaneously and just one chip SKU gives OEMs connectivity for LTE, DC-HSPA+ and EDGE. Th ce multi-mode chip will be ready in the first half of the year with Intel shipping single-mode units now. The company is hoping that eventually its processors will be ready to go along with the XMM7160 to provide an integrated offering for manufacturers combining the processor and radio.

Lumia 720 and 520 are Nokia's latest smartphones

Nokia's event at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is now over and the highlight is the announcement of the Lumia 720 and 520. Both devices pack a dual-core 1 GHz Snapdragon processor (Krait to be precise), run on Windows Phone 8 and share Nokia's many software advancements like Drive, Maps, software lenses, etc.

Nokia Lumia 720

The Lumia 720 sports a 4.3" ClearBlack display of WVGA (800 x 480) resolution with super sensitive touch, which works with gloves, nails, etc. The dual-core processor is coupled with 512 MB of RAM. There's NFC, the battery capacity is 2000 mAh, the phone is 9 mm thick and weighs 128g.
There are 8 gigs on on-board storage and there's a microSD card slot with up to 64GB support. Wireless charging is enabled too.
The camera on the back is a 6.7MP unit with a bright f/1.9 aperture and Carl Zeiss optics.

The device comes in a plastic body - in a variety of colors and exchangeable panels - red, yellow, cyan, magenta, etc. The device will launch in Asia (TD-SCDMA version for China) and in select European countries this quarter for a price of €249 (around $330). Since it lacks LTE, is will most likely skip the US market.

Nokia Lumia 520

The Lumia 520 is the lesser of the two smartphones. It also packs a dual-core 1 GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM but the display is a 4" WVGA IPS LCD with super sensitive touch. The camera on the back is 5 MP, which does 720p video capture.

The Lumia 520 weighs 124g and is 9.9 mm thick.   
The Lumia 520 will hit the shelves this Q2, too, for $183 starting with China. Later on it will hit the rest of Asia, Europe and T-Mobile in the US.

Nokia announces 105 and 301 feature phones at MWC

Nokia has announced two new feature phones at the MWC, the Nokia 105 and the Nokia 301.

Nokia 105

The Nokia 105 is the company's most affordable phone to date and is priced at just €15. The phone has basic features such as a color display, FM radio, multiple alarm clocks, talking clock, and the mandatory flashlight - all in a dust and splash resistant body.

The Nokia 105 will be sold in black and cyan in China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, Vietnam and other markets in Africa, Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Europe this quarter.

Nokia 301

The Nokia 301 has a slightly more upmarket feel, with a 2.4" display, 3.2 megapixel camera with some camera goodies inspired by the Lenses feature on the Lumia phones. There's a Nokia Xpress Browser on board and 3.5G connectivity.

The Nokia 301 will be available in cyan, black, magenta, yellow and white for €65. The phone will be available in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, India, Middle East and Latin America starting in Q2. There will also be a dual-SIM version of the device.

Firefox OS launches at MWC on ZTE Open and Alcatel OT Fire

Mozilla is officially launching their Firefox OS for mobile phones and are proud to announce that they have deals with 18 carriers, a partnership with Qualcomm to use their Snapdragon chipsets and four manufacturers - ZTE, Alcatel, LG and Huawei. The first two also showcased phones with Firefox OS at the MWC.

Firefox OS

The Firefox OS uses HTML5-based apps that run on technology shared with the Firefox browser and initially targets the entry level segment. The goal is to create an open source OS, that web developers can easily create apps for and post them on the Firefox Marketplace.
You can check out Marketplace if you have Firefox Aurora for Android. There you’ll find social networking apps for Facebook and Twitter, Nokia’s HERE mapping solution, Box integration, games from EA Mobile and Disney Mobile Games.
The OS has the same commitment to privacy, security and customizations that the Firefox browser is known for and places a strong emphasis on search.
The Firefox OS also supports video calling over Web RTC - a browser-based tech, also available on the Android Firefox Aurora app. It will eventually make its way to desktop browsers too (Firefox and Chrome at least).

Alcatel One Touch Fire

As for the phones, the Alcatel One Touch Fire will launch first in China (Mozilla has partnered up with China Unicom), Latin America, and will be the first Firefox OS phone to hit Europe, specifically Poland in the summer through Deutsche Telecom.
It has a 3.5” screen, a 1GHz processor with 256MB RAM, 3.2MP camera, 512MB of storage and a microSD card slot (with a 2GB card in the bundle). On the connectivity side, there’s 3G, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth and GPS (with Nokia HERE maps).

ZTE Open

The ZTE Open sports similar specs - a 3.5” HVGA screen and a Cortex-A5 processor at 1GHz and 256MB RAM. The storage deal is the same - 512MB in the phone, 2GB on a preloaded microSD card. There’s 3G connectivity (7.2Mbps HSDPA, 5.76Mbps HSUPA), along with Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS and FM Radio.

LG and Huawei will also be announcing Firefox OS phones soon.

Alcatel unveils One Touch Idol X, 5-inch, 1080p, Jelly Bean

Alcatel has been trailing behind Android A-listers as of late but today ventured boldly into the high-end with the One Touch Idol X. It's rocking a 5" 1080p screen with minimalist bezel - not unlike many of the current top-shelf Android offerings.
It has a quad-core processor of undisclosed origin, clocked at 1.2 GHz, as well as 16GB of inbuilt storage expandable via an SD card slot. A 2000mAh battery and a 13MP snapper are the other highlights of a package that runs, by the looks of it, a near stock version of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

The Alcatel One Touch Idol X
There's still no actual word on pricing or availability but it may be bound for international release with US availability in question due to the apparent lack of LTE on board.
The One Touch Idol X will come in a variety of colors - blue, yellow and red for starters.
The One Touch Idol X comes to top the recently announced One Touch Idol and Idol Ultra. The former features a 4.65" 720p AMOLED screen, an 8MP still camera and a dual-core processor. The latter goes for a 4.66 qHD IPS LCD, an 8MP camera and dual-core processor. Both come with Android Jelly Bean out of the box.
And while those three devices sound excellent on paper - the naming scheme is bound to cause confusion.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 now official with improved S Pen tech and Smart Remote mode

After months of speculation, the mid-sized warrior in Samsung's Note family is finally official. The aptly named Galaxy Note 8.0 sports an 8-inch 1280x800 pixels display clocking 189ppi pixel density - a tad higher than the direct competitor Apple's iPad mini.The tablet is driven by a 1.6 GHz Exynos 4 Quad ARM Cortex-A9 processor, and the slate has a 5 MP camera on the back, accompanied by a 1.3 MP frontal cam for video chat.Memorywise Samsung has outfitted the Galaxy Note 8.0 with 2 GB of RAM and 16/32 GB of storage, as well as a microSD card for memory expansion. The mid-sized Note warrior is powered by a fairly generous 4, 600 mAh  battery unit.The real added value, however, is the presence of the S Pen stylus tucked neatly in the Galaxy Note 8.0 silo, which is more advanced than even what we have on the Note II handset, as it allows you to manage the physical home and back keys (yes, we have those on the tablet) without even touching them.Add this to the usual barrage of useful apps and tricks like S Note and Air View that let you use the stylus in many ways for overview, doodling, handwriting, cropping and so on, and the Galaxy Note 8.0 becomes a unique proposition in the sea of Android tablets.

Speaking of the green robot, it is present here with its 4.1.2 Jelly Bean offspring, but Samsung has blanketed it with its trademark features like the Dual View multi-window mode, Pop Up Play, Smart Stay and Page Buddy, which here intuitively launches your last S Note homescreen. Samsung also throws in Flipboard preinstalled, letting you preview news by hovering over with the stylus, as well as an year worth of Awesome Note as a freebie.The dedicated e-reader mode puts the LCD settings in the appropriate regime for easy on the eyes reading, and works with 3rd party apps, and there is also a Peel-based Smart Remote app, which is an interactive TV guide and remote control at once,  utilizing the tablet's IR blaster.

The global launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 is slated for the second quarter in Europe and Asia at the beginning with HSPA+ version available, too, from which you can make phone calls, while the eventual LTE one and other US plans are bound to be disclosed at a later date, along with the tablet's pricing details