this week

Japan Display unveils 2 QHD smartphone screens

Just two days ago Japan Display announced an amazingly sounding 12.1" 4K display for tablets. That one featured 3840x2160 pixel resolution and 365ppi density.
Today Japan Display unveiled another ultra high resolution display, this time for pocketable mobile devices. The new panel has 1440 x 2560 pixels and is available in two flavors - a 5.4" version with the chart-topping 543ppi density and a 6.2" model with 473ppi.
Both models of the new display have 1mm thin bezels, greater than 160 degree viewing angles and use LTPS (low temperature poly silicon) technology for keeping power consumption under control.
The 5.4-inch unit measures at 69.59 x 126.67 x 1.12 mm and has 1500:1 contrast, while its bigger 6.2" sibling spreads at 80.18 x 146.7 x 1.65 mm and offers a 1000:1 contrast ratio.
It's unclear when we will see an actual product touting these new screens, but seeing how screen sizes and resolutions evolve recently, it might not take longer than until next year.

64-bit Exynos SoC to make it in time for Galaxy S5

Just a month after Korean media outlets reported that Samsung's 64-bit processor is in the final stages of its development, they are again stating the company is "almost done".
The report suggests that Samsung is done with the most complex tasks of the development process and is now dealing with technicalities and logistics. The Korean ittoday.co.kr hasn't specified if the chip is already undergoing sampling, but that should start soon if it hasn't already.

The chips is among the first of multiple 64-bit processors to find its place in the upcoming 2014 lineup of flagships. According to multiple reports and rumors, the first one to use it will be the Samsung Galaxy S5.
The upcoming flagship is said to feature a next-gen Exynos 6 CPU with 14nm architecture and 64-bit support. Alongside it, the next generation Samsung Exynos CPU is said to feature ARM's big.LITTLE octa-core configuration with Cortex-A53/A57 cores. All eight cores will reportedly be able to operate simultaneously using half as much power as the currently available Exynos 5420.

1080p Micromax Canvas Turbo goes official

Today Micromax announced the Canvas Turbo. The smartphone comes with a 5.0-inch 1080p IPS CGS (Continuous Grain Silicon) display made by Sharp and is powered by a quad-core processor.


The actual chipset inside the Canvas Turbo is MT6589T with four 1.5GHz Cortex-A7 cores, PowerVR SGX544 graphics and 2GB of RAM. The smartphone offers 16GB of internal storage, but sadly no microSD expansion slot.
Naturally, the Micromax Canvas Turbo comes with dual-SIM support. You get quad-band GSM plus 2100MHz HSPA support for up to 42Mbps downlink.


The rest of the Canvas Turbo specs include a 13MP rear camera with a LED flash and 1080p video recording, a 5MP front snapper, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 4.0, and a 2,000mAh battery.
Micromax Canvas Turbo runs on Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean and will launch in India on October 26 in Pristine White and Midnight Blue colors. The suggested retail price is INR19,990, which translates to about €235.

Japan Display unveils 12.1" 4K tablet display

Today Japan Display introduced the world's first 12.1-inch 4K display. Even stretched over 12 inches the 3840x2160 pixel resolution results in the great 365ppi pixel density.
The new display unit measures 273.7 x 164.6 x 1.96mm and offers viewing angles wider than 160-degree. It uses LTPS (low temperature poly silicon) technology, which enables the high ppi and keeps power consumption under control.


The rest of the 12.1" 4K display specs include 1000:1 contrast, 500cd/m2 brightness and 3600mW power consumption with the backlight turned set at its maximum level. If no backlight is used, the display consumes just 360mW.
There is no info when these displays will enter mass production, but it seems unlikely we'll see them in actual products before the second half of next year. Japan Display is one of Apple's suppliers of screens, so who knows, this might as well turn out to be the next iPad's key feature.

Next-gen Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8084 chip leaks with Adreno 420 on board

A mysterious new Qualcomm Snapdragon system chip has appeared on the AnTuTu synthetic benchmark app and it’s a hint of what’s to come next in high-end smartphones and tablets. 

The chip, bearing the codename APQ8084, has the capacity to reach a whopping 2.5GHz clock speed. That’s 200MHz more than the current maximum of the quad-core Snapdragon 800 - it runs at up to 2.3GHz. The new chip is also listed as a quad-core one, but it’s unclear whether we’re talking about Krait 400 processing cores as the ones in the current top-shelf Qualcomm chip, the Snapdragon 800, or a newer modification.

Another interesting features to get unveiled in the mysterious chip’s appearance is the Adreno 420 graphical processing unit (GPU). It is expected to run at higher speeds than current cream of the crop Adreno chips and reach 500MHz clock speeds. The Adreno 4xx series of chips are expected to add support for DirectX11 and WebGL2.0 graphical standards. Looking at pure performance, the new Adreno 420 should get a 10% bump in pixel fill rate when fared against the Adreno 330.

There are a few other improvements expected to happen in this new Snapdragon chip and probably the most important one is support for 64-bit DDR3 memory bandwidth. The whole chip however is still expected to run on a 32-bit architecture and not 64-bit one like the newest Apple A7.

Earlier this year, Qualcomm’s full roadmap leaked out and it now seems that with testing obviously undergoing for the APQ8084, the chip maker is on track to realize its roadmap plans. The Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8084 release is expected to happen in the first half of 2014, and it might well end up on some of next year's top smartphones.

Nokia Lumia 1520 with 6-inch 1080p display and 20MP Pureview camera announced

Nokia has finally announced the Lumia 1520, the company’s latest flagship smartphone at an event in Abu Dhabi. It packs a 6-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) full HD capacitive touch screen ClearBlack display with Gorilla Glass 2 protection, quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor and runs on Windows Phone 8 with the latest GDR3 update and Lumia Black update. It packs a 20-megapixel autofocus rear camera with new oversampling technology,ZEISS optics with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), 2x lossless zoom dual LED flash, 1080p video recording 30 fps. It also has Nokia Camera app that combines the Smart, Pro and Video modes. It comes with 32GB of internal memory and a micro SD card support.


Nokia Lumia 1520 specifications

• 6-inch (1920 × 1080 pixels) capacitive touch screen ClearBlack display with Gorilla Glass 2 protection
• 2.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor
• Windows Phone 8 OS
• 20MP camera with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), High resolution zoom 2x, Autofocus, dual LED flash, 1080p HD video recording at 30fps
• Nokia Camera app
• 1.2MP HD front-facing camera with wide angle lens
• Dimensions - 162.8 x 85.4 x 8.7, Weight - 209g
• Rich Recording with four microphones; Wideband Voice and multi-microphone noise  reduction with four microphones
• Dolby Headphone, Graphic equalizer, Audio leveling, FM radio
• LTE / 3G HSPA+ 41Mbps, WiFi (2.4/5Ghz) a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS with Glonass, NFC
• Accelerometer, Proximity sensor, Magnetometer, Gyroscope, Ambient Light Sensor
• 2GB RAM, 32GB internal memory, micro SD card support up to 64GB
• 3400 mAh (integrated) with built-in  wireless charging (Qi compatible)

The Nokia Lumia 1520 comes in Glossy Red, Yellow, White and Black colors and is priced at $749 (~Rs. 46238) without taxes. It would roll starting in Q4 2013 starting from Hong Kong, Singapore, U.S., China, U.K., France, Germany, Finland and other European markets.

Nokia Lumia 1320 with 6-inch 720p display, 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon 400 processor announced

Nokia has announced the Lumia 1320, a new smartphone in the Lumia series along with the Lumia 1520 at the Abu Dhabi event. It has a 6-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD LCD IPS Super sensitive display and Gorilla Glass 3 protection, powered by a 1.7GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and runs on Windows Phone 8 OS with the latest Lumia Black update. It has a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 0.3-megapixel (VGA) front-facing camera. It ha Nokia Music for free streaming of ad-free music and HERE maps and location services.

Nokia Lumia 1320 specifications

• 6-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD LCD IPS Super sensitive display and Gorilla Glass 3 protection
• 1.7 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400processor
• Windows Phone 8 OS
• 5MP Auto Focus camera with LED flash, 1080p HD recording at 30 fps
• VGA front-facing camera
• Dimensions - 164.25 x 85.9 x 9.79 mm  Weight - 220 grams
• 1GB RAM, 8GB internal memory, micro SD card support up to 64GB
• 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio,
• HD Voice, HAAC mic
• 4G LTE/ 3G HSPA+, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 + LE, GPS / aGPS, NFC
• 3400 mAh (integrated)

The Nokia Lumia 1320 comes in Orange, Yellow, White, and Black colors and is priced at US$ 339 (~Rs. 20,900) before taxes and subsidies. It would rollout starting in Q1 2014 starting from China and Vietnam, followed by other Asian markets India and Europe.

The Lumia 2520 is Nokia’s first tablet

Over at its Abu Dhabi Keynote Nokia released its first slate dubbed Lumia 2520. The tablet runs on the Windows RT, has a 10.1″ FullHD display a Snapdragon 800 chipset and comes with a variety of color options – black, blue, white and red. The price before subsidies will be $499.

You can get the Lumia 2520 slate with an add-on keyboard, dubbed Power Keyboard, with additional USB ports, battery and integrated kick-stand.
Nokia is very proud of the Gorilla Glass 2-covered display on the Lumia 2520 tablet, which has reflects just 6% of the external light and has a peak brightness of around 650 nits. There’s also a polarizer on board for better outdoor usability.

Thanks to the Snapdragon 800 chipset, the Lumia 2520 also features global LTE connectivity. The body has thinned edges in favor of better handling and weighs 615 g. The cameras are 2 MP on the front for video calling and a 6.7 MP with F/1.9 ZEISS optics on the back. Inside Nokia managed to squeeze in an 8,000 mAh battery and 32 GB of storage, which is expandable via the microSD card slot.
There are microUSB 3.0 and HDMI ports on the tablet body with NFC and GPS coming on board too. There won’t be a Wi-Fi only variant of the slate, which seems logical as the Snapdragon 800 SoC has integrated LTE on all of its variants.
The Power Keyboard, which will cost and additional $150, folds over the display of the Lumia 2520 tablet and attaches to it via magnetic flap. It weighs 150 g, has two USB ports and a 15 Whr battery inside, which promises to add 5 hours of battery life.

Nokia Asha 503 with 3G, 5MP camera with LED flash announced

Nokia has announced the Asha 503, the company’s first full touch phone in the Asha series with 3G support as they promised earlier this year at the 501 launch. Other than the 3G support most of the features are similar to the Asha 502 that was also launched at the Nokia World 2013. It has a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, 3.0-inch QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) display with curved Corning Gorilla Glass 2 protection. It runs on the latest Nokia Asha software platform with Swipe UI and the new update would also be available for the Asha 501, says Nokia.
It has Nokia Fast lane multi-tasking screen that brings all the recent activities together which also has option to add or remove fast lane widgets. It comes in both Single SIM and Dual SIM variants, has 3G, WiFi,Bluetooth 3.0 with SLAM and FM Radio. It comes with 10 free downloadable games from the Nokia store and comes with WhatsApp,  Foursquare, Facebook and  Twitter apps.

Nokia Asha 503 specifications

• 3.0-inch QVGA 320 x 240 pixels display with curved Corning Gorilla Glass 2 protection
• 5MP rear camera with LED Flash
• Dimensions: 102.6mm x 60.6mm x 12.7mm; Weight: 111.4  g
• Dual SIM with dual standby (Optional)
• 3G, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n , Bluetooth 3.0 with SLAM  and FM Radio
• Nokia Asha software platform with Swipe UI
• 10 free Games downloadable from Nokia Store
• 64MB RAM; up to 32GB micro SD card support
• 1110 mAh battery with up to 12 hours of talk time (2G) and up to 20 days of standby (dual SIM)

The Nokia Asha 503 comes in Bright Red, Bright Green, Cyan, Yellow, White and Black colors and is priced at US$99 (~Rs. 6100) before taxes or subsidies. It would roll out in Q4 2013 starting from Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

Nokia Asha 502 Dual SIM phone with 5MP camera and LED flash announced

Nokia has announced the Asha 502, the company’s first phone in the Asha series to feature a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash. Other features are mostly similar to the Asha 501 that was launched earlier this year. It has a 3.0-inch QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) display and is based on the latest Nokia Asha software platform with Swipe UI. It has Nokia Fast lane multi-tasking screen that brings all the recent activities together. It has Dual SIM support, 2G, WiFi,Bluetooth 3.0 with SLAM and FM Radio. The phone has new crystal-clear look fusion of ice-like transparency and bold inner color similar to the Asha 501.

It comes with 10 free downloadable games from the Nokia store, Nokia Express Browser that compresses data up to 90%  and comes with WhatsApp,  Foursquare, Facebook and  Twitter apps.

Nokia Asha 502 specifications

• 3.0-inch QVGA 320 x 240 pixels display
• 5MP rear camera with LED Flash
• Dimensions: 99.55mm x 59.50mm x 11.10mm; Weight: 100 g
• Dual SIM with dual standby
• 2G, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n , Bluetooth 3.0 with SLAM  and FM Radio
• Nokia Asha software platform with Swipe UI
• 10 free Games downloadable from Nokia Store
• 64MB RAM; up to 32GB micro SD card support
• 1110 mAh battery with up to 13.7 hours of talk time and up to 24 days of standby

The Nokia Asha 502 comes in Bright Red, Bright Green, Cyan, Yellow, White and Black colors and is priced at US$89 (~Rs. 5490) before taxes or subsidies. It would roll out in Q4 2013 starting from Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.

Nokia Asha 500 full touch phone with new transparent design announced

Nokia has announced the Asha 500, a new phone in the Asha series at the Nokia world event in Abu Dhabi. The phone has new crystal-clear look fusion of ice-like transparency and bold inner color. It comes with a comes with 2.8-inch QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) and is based on the latest Nokia Asha software platform with Swipe UI. It has a 2 MP rear camera, Nokia Fast lane multi-tasking screen that brings all the recent activities together. It also comes in Dual SIM variant, 2G, WiFi, Bluetooth and FM Radio.
It comes with 10 free downloadable games from the Nokia store, Nokia Express Browser that compresses data up to 90%  and comes with WhatsApp,  Foursquare, Facebook and  Twitter apps. It has 2G (EDGE), WiFi 802.11 b/g/n , Bluetooth 3.0 with SLAM for quick sharing.

Nokia Asha 500 specifications

• 2.8-inch QVGA 320 x 240 pixels display
• 2MP rear camera
• Dimensions: 100.3mm x 58.1mm x 12.8mm; Weight: 101.3 g
• Dual SIM (optional), with 2G, WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 with SLAM  and FM Radio
• Nokia Asha software platform with Swipe UI
• 10 free Games downloadable from Nokia Store
• 64MB RAM; up to 32GB micro SD card support
• 1200 mAh battery with up to 14 hours of talk time and up to 22 days of standby

The Nokia Asha 500 comes in Bright Red, Bright Green, Cyan, Yellow, White and Black colors and is priced at US$69 (~Rs. 4250) before taxes or subsidies. It would roll out in Q4 2013 starting from Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

Apple refreshes 13″ and 15″ MacBook Pro laptops with Intel Haswell

Apple has just announced its refreshed 13″ and 15″ MacBook Pro notebooks, which now flaunt Intel Haswell CPUs as well as Retina displays. On top of that, they’ve been put on a diet and are now lighter and slimmer.

In addition to the Haswell CPUs, the new MacBook Pro notebooks sport Iris graphics, like the latest MacBook Air. Performance is further improved thanks to PCI Express SSD storage for both models.
Apple has slashed a bit of weight and thickness from the latest MacBook Pro laptops. The 13″ model now measures 1.8cm thick and weighs 1.56kg.
Apple has updated the connectivity options of the new lineup of MacBook Pro laptops and they now boast Wi-Fi 802.11ac for faster speeds and enhanced range. The 13″ MacBook Pro’s battery is estimated to last for up to nine hours on a single charge, while the 15″ MacBook Pro managed an hour less than this.

Running Apple OS X 10.9 Mavericks out of the box, the MacBook Pro are available for purchase starting today. The base price of the 13″ model starts from $1299, which gets you a dual-core 2.4GHz Intel Core i5, 4GB of RAM, 128GB SSD.

The 15″ MacBook Pro comes at a base price of $1999 and for that you get a quad-core 2.4GHz Core i7, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD storage.

Lenovo A10 announced as the company’s first Android powered laptop

Lenovo announced its first Android powered laptop today – Lenovo A10. Lenovo A10 is targeted at being an affordable and ultra-portable laptop that runs on Android OS. The dual-mode laptop from Lenovo weighs less than a kilo-gram and is no more than 17.3mm thick.
Lenovo A10 comes with dual-mode – stand mode and laptop mode. In the laptop mode, users will be provided with a new unique and customized launcher that comes with a task bar, app launcher and status bar. Also laptop mode will provide a more convenient way of multi-tasking and switching between the apps. File-manager has been modified to make searching files and file operations easy. One of the key features in the laptop mode is its full-size AccuType keyboard.
The Lenovo A10 has a 10.1 inch HD display sporting a resolution of 1366×768 pixels(155ppi) and the screen can be flipped around 300 degrees. When the screen is flipped, the tablet is in stand mode and provides a rich touch experience for touch-enabled apps(all apps). There is a 0.3MP camera at the front and stereo speakers that give a great video chat experience.

In terms of specifications, Lenovo A10 is powered by a RK3188 processor which is a quad-core A9 processor clocked at 1.6GHz and it has 1GB RAM. There is 16GB SSD internal storage which can be expanded. The battery on the Lenovo A10 gives it a battery life of about nine hours of continuous video playback.
There is no information about the pricing or the availability of this Android powered laptop yet. We will bring you more information as soon as we have it.

White Nexus 5 official shot surfaces

Google's Nexus 4 was announced and launched last year in just a single color version - black. The white edition surfaced many times but it didn't go official until May this year.
The Nexus 5 announcement will supposedly happen on October 28 side by side with the Android 4.4 KitKat premiere. We know all there is to know about the smartphone, but until know it has always leaked in black color.
Yesterday we saw a purported white Nexus 5 retail box. It had the smartphone painted with a white back, but with a black front panel.
Today's render image shows a Nexus 5 variant entirely painted in white, not just its back. We are not sure if this is the real deal or not, but it surely looks gorgeous in these snow-white clothes.

Indications are growing stronger that Google will be launching a white Nexus 5 as well. October 28 is just around the corner, so we'll know for sure soon enough.

First true octa-core smartphone unveiled

MediaTek was the first to announce a chipset with a true octa-core processor back in June and now the first phone utilizing it has gone official. The UMI X2S broke cover at the Autumn Edition of Hong Kong Electronics Fair.
All of UMI’s phones are intended for the Chinese market and that’s why you’ve probably never heard of the brand. The UMI latest X2S smartphone is powered by MT6592 chipset with an octa-core Cortex-A7 1.5GHz processor and 2GB of RAM. There is no word on the GPU, but when the MT6592 got benchmarked it was rocking a Mali-450, so that's probably it.
The rest of the UMI X2S specs include a 5” 1080p display, 32GB internal storage, a 13MP camera with Sony lens, and NFC connectivity. Since MG6592 is LTE-capable, we guess the X2S should be LTE-enabled as well.
There is no info on the pricing and availability yet, but the gadget is supposed to be very affordable, despite its fancy CPU.
MediaTek was indeed the first one to design and release a true octa-core chip and will probably remain the only one for a while as early hopes of Samsung enabling 8-core processing on its Exynos 5 Octa via a firmware update were squashed. And the revised Exynos 5 is unlikely to make it in actual hardware before the Galaxy S5 comes around next year.