Baidu, search engine giant from China, has revealed its latest smartphone, boasting the company’s own mobile technology and priced to aim the country’s low-end smartphone segment.
The Changhong H5018 will be priced at approximately $158 without a contract, the company stated Tuesday. The smartphone marks the 2nd handset the company has launched, the last one is a smartphone produced in cooperation with United States PC manufacturer Dell that was heralded in December.
LG has formally heralded its raid the quad-core smartphone, with the release of the Android Ice Cream Sandwich LG Optimus 4X HD. Uncovered just before MWC in February, the smartphone boasts NVIDIA’s newest Tegra 3 Quad-Processor clocked at 1.5GHZ, using the 4-PLUS-1 architecture.
In addition, the smartphone will deliver a 4.7″ True HD IPS screen 720p, 8MP rear shooter, 1.3MP front camera, 1GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, 2150 mAh battery, Razor slim 8.9mm thick, SHSPA+ 21Mbps connectivity.
LG’s affirmation, that the 2,150mAh battery used by the LG Optimus 4X HD is the largest between quad-core smartphones, might be correct as the Droid RAZR MAXX, has a biggest battery till today, has merely two cores. The removable battery will as well use LG’s sophisticated SiO+ technology to offer “higher energy compactness for more power without adding bulk”.
On the software package side, the Optimus 4X boasts LG’s newest “User Experience” collectively with bundled applications, called Media Plex and Quick Memo. Quick Memo is a note writing application that looks as an overlay on the application you’re presently running. Media Plex is essentially an image and video playback application that has couple of useful features, including:
The LG Optimus 4X HD will be landing in Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Sweden and Poland in June. The other part of the world will be obtaining the smartphone in the forthcoming months.
Sony presented the Sony Xperia Ion at Consumer Electronic Show in January, but Sony Mobile President Bert Nordberg has heralded that the smartphone will release in markets allover the world this summer.
The smartphone has a 4.6-inch 1280 x 720 screen with a dual-core 1.5GHz CPU, NFC support, and 12-mp camera. There is no news on whether the LTE radio will be conducted over into the worldwide version, though.
In the review at Consumer Electronic Show, some people liked the Ion’s strong feel and lightweight structure, and were impressed by the screen and camera. Sony has not been any more upcoming on when the Xperia Ion will get an upgrade to Android Ice Cream Sandwich, but as features stand the software supplies only a few light customizations over the stock Android 2.3.7 feel.
Latest update from Droid Matters, Sony Xperia Ion will be unveiling on AT&T following month, based on a Google ad spied. The connected product page for the LTE phone does not appear to make any citation of a launch date or pricing, but a June release would be in line with what we have heard from Sony antecedently.
If it’is true, the central question will be precisely when the Ion will acquire updated to Android Ice Cream Sandwich. Its stable the Xperia S was hamstrung by Gingerbread on its launch, and while the Ion was heralded as carrying the same software package, Sony has already began rolling out ICS to some of its models.
Hopefully potential Sony Xperia Ion buyers will not need to wait too long, as the smartphone appears like a capable smartphone beyond the software.
The second Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), the Rise, is a touchscreen smartphone with QWERTY keyboard slide-from-the side.
Both smartphones are 3G CDMA 1x EV-DO Rev. A phones with 1GHz processor.
The manufacturer also went to the CTIA conventions with a presentation of a latest technology that changes the entirely front face of a smartphone into a speaker to get rid of a traditional speaker. The technology increasing the clarity of incoming calls in noisy surroundings by interpreting a sound into vibrations that are carried to the ear once the smartphone is held over the ear.
The Hydro, anticipated to release in the 2nd half, will be Kyocera’s first water-resistant smartphone. The Kyocera Hydro can resist full immersion into up to 1 meter of water for 30 minutes, more than decent time to pull it away of a toilet. Equal to 82.5 million cellphones have been destroyed by water damage in the United States up to now, Kyocera stated in citing a January TNS Global Research article.
A Wireless Lounge survey by last September demonstrates that 70 percent of people stated water resistance would be a crucial feature to reckon in their next smartphone, Kyocera stated.
The Hydro’s boasts include 3.5-inch HVGA 480 by 320 LCD screen, 2GB ROM, 512MB RAM, 2GB MicroSD card, 1500 mAh long life battery, 3.2-megapixel camera with WVGA video capture, LED flash, without front camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB 2.0, three-axis accelerometer, compass, proximity sensor, light sensor, Swype touchscreen text entry and Global Positioning System.
In the postpaid market, the Hydro will be placed as a midtier smartphone providing a “blend of affordability and pragmatic technology,” a spokesman stated.
The keyboard-equipped Rise slider, as well releasing sometime in the 2nd half, is directed to consumers who want to use a keyboard to reduce misprints. The Rise has all similar features as the Hydro exclude for the water-resistance characteristic.
Samsung has began to roll out Android Ice Cream Sandwich to Galaxy Notes in Europe, based on several reports.
Stories of the rollout initiated from a Netherlands-based Galaxy Note user. Balentina, whose tweet was 1st picked up by The Verge, 
published an image of the software system update alert, which admits reference of a host of upgrades, such as the new S Note App’s “advanced note-taking [and] productivity tools”. The update as well includes the S Memo Widget, and a host of another advances.
Although one person acquiring access to Android 4.0 is not by a long sight a smoking gun, Samsung-tracking internet site Sammy Hub is covering today that Germany-based customers of the XDA Developers forum have also acquired their hands on the update.
Galaxy Note users had desired to get ICS in the first quarter, but Samsung back in March released that the “premium suite upgrade” that would go with the Android 4.0 update would not release until the 2nd quarter.
The firm said that the update would be rolled out globally, so even if it is presently merely available in parts of Europe, hopefully it will finally make its way to another countries.
CNET has reached Samsung for more details on the update. We’ll update this story once we have lot more information.
After presenting the Sony Xperia SX and GX in Japan, Sony is rumored to re-prepare the latest smartphone codenamed ST26i Soy.
Many are speculating that Sony ST26i none other than Sony Xperia GX, but have also stated that Sony ST26i is the newest Smartphone from Sony.
Sony ST26i form looks different than Sony Xperia SX and GX. Smartphone this one does not support capacitive buttons on the front.
Samsung has been bombing the phone market with latest offerings across the yore couple years, over all carriers.
They’ve just released their new Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphones, but on the far side that there are a shipload of smartphones from its Samsung Galaxy S2 stock still on the market that will still appraise up quite well versus most of the today competitor as long as you don’t ask for the absolute latest technology the S3 type offers.
Among those smartphones is T-Mobile’s Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G, which is similar yet slenderly fine-tuned version of T-Mobile’s Galaxy S2 smartphone, and I will let you acknowledge how it performed.
In an era of smartphones with displays as big as 5.3 inches, the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze would measure up as a mid-size smartphone with its 4-inch screen. This is a dainty size, as you are not covering a goliath, but don’t need to struggle to read what is on display. It is a nice well-chosen medium.
The full size specifications on the smartphone are 4.8 x 2.48 x 0.44 inches, and it counts in at just 4.5 ounces, making it very adjustable to carry around.
Also, the smartphone’s backplate has a fine feel to it so you are able to get a great grip on it.
Screen
You get a nice resolution on the Blaze’s Super AMOLED display, at 480×800 megapixels, but it comes short of freshest smartphones on the market, which generally have HD screens.
Battery
One area where I wasn’t that exhilarated with the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze was battery lifespan, as I found the 1750 mAH battery to be pretty fast to drain. It had better get you through the day, yet if you push it excessively hard that might not be possible. Talk time of up to 7 hrs is promised, but that will depend on what else you are doing with the smartphone.
Speed
The Samsung Galaxy S Blaze boasts a 1.5 GHz dual-core CPU, so everything works like a charm. Internet browsing is smooth, and multitasking isn’t a concern.
Even with lot more data-intensive programs such as Netflix or T-Mobile TV, you do not see any notable lags.
4G
T-Mobile’s 4G HSPA+ network is employed for your downloads. It was really fast, and will not let you down because waiting too long; but it is not the quickest network I have seen among the carriers.
Other Features
n T-Mobile TV (Watch live TV, sports, news, and kids’ performances, and stream hot entertainment on demand with T-Mobile TV)
