NEO M1 May Be the First Windows Phone Handset with MediaTek Chipset

China is one of the largest smartphone markets in the world. Aside from the well-known handset manufacturers that are present in most parts of the world, Chinese OEMs are flooding the market in the Mainland with very cheap devices.

NEO is such a company that launches cheap but powerful smartphones in China. The company’s roadmap is unknown for the most part, except for those moments when NEO comes forward with official statements confirming the upcoming release of a new device. Sometime pictures of new, unannounced products leak ahead of these official announcements and generate lots of rumors regarding NEO’s lineup of smartphones. The newest device announced by NEO is simply called M1 and has been confirmed to be officially introduced in China on April 10. However, before the official announcement could go live, a picture of an alleged M1 powered by Windows Phone has leaked on the Chinese forums, GizmoChina reports. Contrary to what Windows Phone fans expected, NEO has only announced the upcoming release of the M1 powered by the Android operating system.

For the time being, it’s unclear whether or not this is a mistake from NEO’s part or the image is a fake with the sole purpose of increasing the hype around Windows Phone platform. We believe that there’s only a small chance that NEO would be releasing a Windows Phone smartphone soon, especially due to the fact that it will need to pack a Qualcomm chipset inside, which is a bit more expensive than the MediaTek SoC used in its devices. Most, if not all, NEO smartphones are equipped with MediaTek chipset and powered by Android operating system, but MediaTek’s 1.3GHz quad-core MT6582 processor included within the M1 is not yet supported by Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform.

However, the NEO M1 powered by Windows Phone may have a Qualcomm chipset in the end due to the fact that Microsoft made its mobile platform available for free, thus the Chinese OEM will cut costs on manufacturing these devices. For your information, the newly announced NEO M1 will ship with Android operating system out of the box and will be equipped with a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6582 processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory. The smartphone will also sport a 5-inch HD (720p) IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display and an impressive 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with Sony Exmor R sensor. NEO M1 has been confirmed to feature a “super slim” metal chassis and a 2000 mAh battery.

NEO M1 with Windows Phone
Image credits to GizmoChina

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Nexus 6 to Come from HTC

Mountain View-based giant Google has been long rumored to plan the launch of a Nexus 6 smartphone sometime in late 2014, and a new report on the matter suggests that the company might have partnered with HTC for that.

Earlier this year, Google actually confirmed that the next device in the Nexus series would be released in the second half of the year, but it did not provide further details on the matter. However, a report coming from inferse suggests that Google has partnered with HTC for the launch of Nexus 6 and that the device will be based on the newly released HTC One M8 smartphone. Previously, the company was said to have chosen LG or Lenovo for this task, but it seems that the plan would be to return to roots, as HTC was the very first vendor out there to have launched a Nexus smartphone. Should the rumor pan out, we might see Nexus 6 released as a larger version of the HTC One M8, perhaps one featuring a 5.5-inch screen, powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor.

2GB or 3GB of RAM are also expected inside the device, along with 16GB/32GB of internal memory. Moreover, the handset is said to run under the next flavor of Android, supposedly called Licorice Lollipop (it might be released as Android 4.5). With no official confirmation on the matter available as of now, we’ll take the info with a big grain of salt for the time being. However, more on this could emerge soon, so keep an eye on this space for updates.

HTC One (M8)
Image credits to HTC

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Next-Generation Smartphones to Feature Snapdragon 808/810 Processors

The latest flagship smartphones unveiled this year will arrive on the market with Snapdragon 801 processors from Qualcomm, though it seems that it won’t be too long before even more powerful handsets are released, featuring the company’s next-gen mobile processors.

Today, the chipmaker confirmed the upcoming availability of Snapdragon 810 and 808 processors, both set to make it inside the upcoming series of high-end, flagship mobile devices. The new chipsets are announced as part of the Snapdragon 800 family, while being aimed at delivering “the ultimate connected mobile computing experiences in video, imaging and graphics.” The company also notes that the new processors are built on Qualcomm Technologies' highest performing platform to date, and that they come to the market with 64-bit and LTE technologies packed inside, great for premium mobile computing devices. Moreover, the chipmaker adds that the new Snapdragon 810 and 808 processors will enable an exceptional overall user experience, courtesy of seamless connectivity, as well as leading power efficiency.

The new chipsets were designed with Qualcomm Technologies' 4th Generation Cat 6 LTE Advanced multimode packed inside, with support for the Qualcomm RF360 Front End Solution and for 3x20MHz Carrier Aggregation (thus supporting data rates of up to 300 Mbps). Moreover, the two processors were built using the 20nm technology node, with Cat 6 LTE capabilities and 64-bit technology, complemented by low power consumption for an excellent premium experience. The Snapdragon 810 CPU will support rich native 4K Ultra HD interface and video, as well as the Qualcomm Adreno 430 graphics processing unit inside, which was designed specifically for 4K screens. The processor was designed with 64-bit quad core ARM Cortex-A57 CPUs and Cortex-A53 CPUs inside, as well as with the new ARMv8-A ISA, which can deliver improved instruction set efficiency.

The chipset also comes with support for high speed LPDDR4 memory, Qualcomm VIVE 2-stream 802.11ac with multi-user MIMO for increased Wi-Fi efficiency, and support for Bluetooth 4.1, in addition to NFC, USB 3.0, and the Qualcomm IZat location core. Snapdragon 808, on the other hand, was designed for WQXGA (2560x1600) displays, with Adreno 418 GPU, two ARM Cortex-A57 cores paired with a quad Cortex-A53 CPU, LPDDR3 memory, and support for external 4K display via HDMI1.4. Qualcomm also announced that the new Snapdragon 810 and 808 processors should start sampling in the second half of the year, and that devices powered by them were expected to arrive on shelves in the first half of the next year.

Qualcomm intros Snapdragon 810/808 mobile processors
Image credits to Qualcomm

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Samsung 10.5-Inch AMOLED Tablet Full Specs Leak

Not so long ago, it was revealed Samsung SM-T800 was actually one of Samsung’s long-awaited AMOLED tablets.

Now SamMobile reports they have managed to get hold of the entire spec sheet of the upcoming 10.5-inch AMOLED tablet. The SM-T800 is the Wi-Fi only model, but an LTE one will be made available as well. Moving along the slate will have a 10.5-inch Super AMOLED screen with a 2560 x 1600 resolution and will draw power from a quad-core Snapdragon processor (it will probably be S801) combined with 2GB of RAM. Like with the latest high-end Galaxy NotePRO and TabPRO tablets, the slate will run Android 4.4.2 KitKat out of the box.

Further specifications include two cameras (8MP on the back and 2MP up in front), a choice between 16/32/64GB of internal storage, microSD slot, USB 2.0 connectivity and a pretty solid 7,900 mAh battery. As a recent benchmark listing revealed, an Exynos model could be on its way at some point too, although it would be a little bizarre to see the LTE model arrive with Exynos and the Wi-Fi model with Snapdragon. Anyway, if you were hoping to find out when this beauty will be released, I hate to disappoint you, but so far the launching date is shrouded in a veil of mystery.

Samsung's 10.5-inch AMOLED tablet full specs leak
Image credits to GalaxyClub

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