Latest Mobile Phones, News, Reviews in India : FoneArena The Mobile Blog

Vodafone slashes 2G data rates by 80% for its Pay As You Go customers across India

Vodafone was the first operator in the country to announce reduction in 2G data rates for the Pay as you Go (PAYG) users by 80%, back in June. It rolled out the new rates in select circles such as Karnataka, UP West and Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh as a pilot launch and announced that it would be rolled out in other circles across India in a phased manner. Now the company has announced the new rates would roll out for all pre-paid and post-paid customers on 2G on a ‘Pay as you Go’ basis across its circles in India from November 1, 2013. Continue reading “Vodafone slashes 2G data rates by 80% for its Pay As You Go customers across India”

Sony reports Q2 FY13 results, mobile sales increase by 39% YoY

Sony=Xperia-Z1-2

Sony Corporation today reported net loss of 19.3 billion yen ($196.65 million) for its second quarter that ended September 30th 2013. Even though it posted a loss, it reported strong smartphones sales in the quarter, which increased 39.3 percent compared to Q2 2012. Even though it is not in the top 5 list of smartphone vendors by shipments as reported by IDC recently, Sony has reported that they have sold 10 million smartphones in the quarter, which is about 0.4 million units more than the last quarter. Continue reading “Sony reports Q2 FY13 results, mobile sales increase by 39% YoY”

Nokia highlights Refocus and RAW with great camera samples

Apart from the marquee product launches of the Lumia 1520, the 1320 and the Lumia 2520 Windows tablet, two other announcements stood out from the Nokia World event, and the both were related to Nokia’s forte – imaging. The company announced a new imaging app for its Lumia smartphones called the Nokia Refocus, and also announced that the Lumia 1020 and the upcoming Lumia 1520 will be getting RAW support. With these announcements, the gap between Nokia and other companies in the imaging department became way wider than it is already. Especially with RAW, which is considered a landmark announcement for serious photographers who like to play around with the whole sensor’s data. Refocus too, kindled the “shoot first, focus later” mantra that the Lytro popularized. What you see above is a new sample from Nokia highlighting just that, and here is a fully interactive sample of the same picture above, using which you can change the focus –

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Intel to make 64 bit ARM chips starting next year

Intel is gearing up to start making 64 bit ARM chips starting next year. Before you jump to conclusions, do know that Intel is planning to fabricate 64 bit ARM chips for its partner Altera, signaling a huge wave of change for the company. It is very well known that Intel is struggling in its mobile business, only recently making strides with the Clovertrail and Baytrail SoCs, and they are all based on the x86 architecture. Intel does not only make its own chips, it does fabrication for other companies too, like Altera for example. The current market leader for ARM fabrication is undoubtedly TSMC, which does fabrication for most companies from Nvidia to Qualcomm. So, in perfect sense, Intel is now a competitor to TSMC rather than Qualcomm or Nvidia.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 3 vs LG G2

Samsung announced the third iteration of their Galaxy Note series at IFA 2013 in Berlin – Samsung Galaxy Note 3. LG had announced their flagship – LG G2 a month prior to that. Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is the successor of Samsung Galaxy Note 2 which was a huge hit while LG G2 follows up Optimus G which was a great device, but wasn’t a box office hit exactly. LG is trying new things with their G2 by shedding the “Optimus” word from the title and moving the buttons to the back of the device. Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is a huge upgrade over the Galaxy Note 2 and the LG G2 is no different. Both Galaxy Note 3 and LG G2 give each other a run for their money. Lets check out how these devices perform.

samsung-galaxy-note-3-vs-lg-g2-21

You can check out the in-depth comparison video right below.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOFe2vsnQm8

Continue reading “Samsung Galaxy Note 3 vs LG G2”

Spice Pinnacle Stylus Mi-550 Unboxing

Spice might have concentrated more on the retail side recently, but the phones do keep coming. Among the newer ones that released recently is the Spice Pinnacle Stylus Mi-550 that comes with a 5.5 inch screen and more importantly, a stylus. Priced at Rs. 15,999, this is easily a direct competitor to the Micromax Canvas Doodle 2 that comes with similar specifications. So, how does the Pinnacle stylus look and what does it have in its retail box? Watch our unboxing video and find out –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2734zd1Png

Continue reading “Spice Pinnacle Stylus Mi-550 Unboxing”

Sony Xperia C Benchmarks

Sony launched the Xperia C earlier this month. We brought you the unboxing of the device earlier this week, here we have the benchmarks of the device. It has a 5-inch (960 x 540 pixels) capacitive touch screen display, powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core MediaTek 6589 processor with PowerVR SGX 544MP GPU and runs on Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean). It packs a 8-megapixel auto focus rear camera with LED flash, 1080p video recording and a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera. This is the first phone from Sony to feature a MediaTek chip. Let’s find out how this compete with other devices in range of synthetic benchmark tests.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-kNRvMkLW4
Continue reading “Sony Xperia C Benchmarks”

ZTE Blade Q Mini, Blade Q and Blade Q Maxi with dual-core processor, Android 4.2 announced

ZTE Blade Q Mini, Blade Q and Blade Q Maxi

ZTE has announced three new devices, Blade Q Mini, Blade Q and Blade Q Maxi in the Blade series for European market. The Blade Q Mini has a 4-inch (480 x 800 pixels) capacitive touch screen display, Blade Q has a 4.5-inch (480 x 854 pixels) capacitive touch screen display and the Blade Q Maxi has a 5-inch (480 x 854 pixels) capacitive touch screen display. All these phones are powered by a 1.3 GHz dual-core MediaTek MT6572 processor with Mali 400 GPU and runs on Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean). These smartphones pack, 1GB of RAM, 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and comes with 21 MB/s 3G HSPA+ connectivity. Continue reading “ZTE Blade Q Mini, Blade Q and Blade Q Maxi with dual-core processor, Android 4.2 announced”

Qualcomm Powerful Processors Giveaway #3 – LG G2 Winner Announcement

The final giveaway of the Qualcomm Snapdragon Powerful Processors series is coming to an end. With the contest spanning just over three weeks, we are happy to say that the response has been nothing short of stunning, and that says a lot about the phone and the processor inside it. We have gone through thousands and thousands of entries and tweets to pick a winner for this contest, are you ready to find out if you are the lucky one?

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Idea Ultra with 5-inch display, quad-core processor launched for Rs. 10500

Idea Ultra launch

Idea Cellular has launched the Idea Ultra, the company’s latest flagship smartphone. It has a 5-inch (480 x 854 pixels) IPS display, powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor and runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). It has a 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 0.3-megapixel (VGA) front-facing camera. It comes with dual SIM support with dual standby similar to other Idea phones. Continue reading “Idea Ultra with 5-inch display, quad-core processor launched for Rs. 10500”

Twitter for Android and iPhone updated with in-line image and video previews

Twitter has updated both the Android (v 4.1.9) and iPhone (v5.12) apps with a new in-line preview. Now, Tweets that have images posted via Twitter and videos will be available in-line. You can just tap to see more of the photo or play the video. You can turn off the image previews from the settings. You can also reply, retweet or favorite a Tweet easily from your timeline just by a tap. Twitter for Android and iPhone got conversations view back in August. Continue reading “Twitter for Android and iPhone updated with in-line image and video previews”

Jabra Solemate Mini portable Bluetooth speaker launched in India for Rs. 4999

Jabra Solemate Mini

Jabra, the popular bluetooth accessories manufacturer has launched the Solemate Mini, successor of the Solemate speaker in India. Unlike the Solemate, the Solemate has a compact size and surprisingly big sound. It is Acoustically-designed and comes with the front-facing speakers to ensure optimal performance with super bass response. It has all-round rubber protection design which makes it durable enough to handle the regular scratches and resistant to sweat, dust and splashes. It has Bluetooth 3.0 support and NFC pairing. It offers battery life of upto 8 hours. Continue reading “Jabra Solemate Mini portable Bluetooth speaker launched in India for Rs. 4999”

Mercury mTAB streaQ Duo 7-inch tablet with Dual SIM support and voice calling launched

Mercury mTab StreaQ Duo

Kobian has launched the mTAB streaQ Duo, a new 7-inch tablet with dual SIM support. It has a 7-inch ( 1024 x 600 pixels) capacitive touch screen, powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core MediaTek MT8577 processor and runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). It has a 2.3-megapixel pixel rear camera and a 0.3-megapixel (VGA) front-facing cameras. It has 3G data connectivity and voice calling through dual SIM card slot and packs a 3100mAh battery. Continue reading “Mercury mTAB streaQ Duo 7-inch tablet with Dual SIM support and voice calling launched”

Sony Xperia L Android 4.2 Jelly Bean update starts rolling out in India

Sony Xperia L Android 4.2

Sony Mobile has started rolling out the Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) update (version 15.3.A.0.26) for the users. This update brings a revamped homescreen, improved app organization, updated Media apps and new camera modes such as Burst mode and Auto Scene Recognition. Sony released the Xperia C earlier this month running on Android 4.2 out of the box and rolled out the Android 4.2 update for the Xperia Z and the ZL recently. The company has also promised Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) update for range of devices, but they did not announce the time frame of the roll out yet. Continue reading “Sony Xperia L Android 4.2 Jelly Bean update starts rolling out in India”