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

Controversial HDR microphone removed from HTC One’s spec sheet

We’d previously reported on Nokia having tried to get a ban on HTC One sales in the Netherlands due to the use of their proprietary HAAC microphone technology. The high amplitude microphone allows the user to get a clear recording without any clipping in case of extremely loud audio.The blame has been placed on ST Microelectronics who did not have the permission to license out the microphones till February of 2014. HTC has however removed the dual membrane microphone from its spec sheets and is working on their own technology to integrate it into the One.

The company maintains that all current devices are equipped with the mic and this will not affect sales. In addition, HTC will continue to integrate STM microphones in the One until it exhausts the supplies in its warehouse. HTC has issues a statement on the matter and we’ve included it below for your perusal. Continue reading “Controversial HDR microphone removed from HTC One’s spec sheet”

Pelican Imaging , Lytro-like camera technology coming to Smartphones in 2014

pelican-image-mobile-camera

If you follow the tech scene closely , you must have heard about these slightly expensive cameras sold in the name of Lytro. The main highlight of Lytro cameras is the ability to focus objects in the picture after you have clicked the picture. One company Pelican Imaging based in Mountain View, California ( yes the same town as Google) is working on array camera technology for mobile devices.And we might see one of the first devices with such technology debut in 2014 which is not that far away. Users always struggle to get the focus right on both cameras and mobile devices and a technology which promises Click now , focus later will be a a great solution and a feature to boast on your mobile phone. Continue reading “Pelican Imaging , Lytro-like camera technology coming to Smartphones in 2014”

Spice Stellar Slatepad Mi-725 now available for Rs. 8499

Spice Stellar Slatepad Mi-725 that surfaced on the official website is now on sale from online retailer Saholic. It has a 7-inch (1024 x 600 pixels) capacitive touch screen display, powered by a 1 GHz processor and runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) OS. It comes with a 3.2-megapixel auto focus rear camera and has a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. It has 3G and voice calling support via SIM card slot. Spice launched the Stellar Pad Mi-1010, a 10.1-inch tablet earlier this year, and this is the company’s first tablet with 3G and voice calling support in the Stellar series. Continue reading “Spice Stellar Slatepad Mi-725 now available for Rs. 8499”

Huawei Ascend G510 Unboxing

Huawei Ascend G510-2

Huawei released the Ascend G510, a mid-range Android smartphone at a price tag of Rs. 10990. Here we have the unboxing of the device. The Huawei Ascend G510 packs a 4.5-inch (854 x 480 pixels) capacitive touch screen IPS display, powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8225 processor and runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) with Huawei Emotion UI. This mid-range phone lies between the Huawei Ascend G600 and the Ascend G330 that were launched earlier this year. We reviewed the Ascend Y300 recently.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFeDEJ78GM0 Continue reading “Huawei Ascend G510 Unboxing”

Angry Birds Friends released for Android, iPhone and iPad

Angry Birds Friends

Rovio has released the Angry Birds Friends for Android, iPhone and iPad as they announced last month. Angry Birds Friends was released on Facebook last year. It has new weekly tournaments that would let you win bronze, silver and gold crown on the levels, play new weekly levels and earn power-ups through tournament mode. There are also daily rewards and option to send and receive gifts of power-ups with your friends. You can also share details about your accomplishments with friends. Continue reading “Angry Birds Friends released for Android, iPhone and iPad”

Samsung Galaxy S4 Snapdragon 600 vs Exynos 5 Octa Benchmarks

Samsung launched the Galaxy S4 in India last week. We brought you benchmarks of the Galaxy S4 powered by the Exynos 5 Octa last week. Here we have the results for the Galaxy S4 powered by a Snapdragon 600 processor clocked at 1.9 GHz. The Exynos version uses Samsung’s ARM big.LITTLE architecture with fours Cortex A15 chips clocked at 1.6 GHz and four Cortex A7 chips running at 1.2 GHz. The Exnos 5 Octa chip has a PowerVR SGX544MP3 GPU and the Snapdragon 600 chip has a Adreno 320 GPU. Let’s see how these two phones perform in various benchmark tests. Continue reading “Samsung Galaxy S4 Snapdragon 600 vs Exynos 5 Octa Benchmarks”

BlackBerry appoints Sunil Lalwani as Managing Director for India

Sunil-Lalvani-BlackBerry-India

Looks like BlackBerry has found a replacement for Sunil Dutt who resigned as Managing Director of BlackBerry , India. BlackBerry has appointed Sunil Lalwani from within the company as the new Managing Director.He has been with the company since 2009 and was spearheading enterprise sales and has had stints at Nokia and Cisco in the past. Continue reading “BlackBerry appoints Sunil Lalwani as Managing Director for India”

MediaTek introduces MT6572 chipset for budget Android smartphones

MediaTek’s chipsets are very popular with the range of budget smartphone manufacturers in India. We’ve seen our fair share of smartphones powered by the MT6589 chipset which strikes a good balance between power, battery life and perhaps what is more important for the category, price. The brand new MT6572 chipset will help drive costs even further down while providing more functionality for phones in that segment.

Continue reading “MediaTek introduces MT6572 chipset for budget Android smartphones”

Aakash 2 project completed, 1 Lakh units delivered to Government

Datawind, the company behind the low-cost Aakash tablets has announced that they have completed the Aakash 2 project by supplying 100,000 Aakash low-cost computing devices for IIT-Bombay (under the Indian Government’s Ministry of Human Resources Development’s National Mission for Education through Information Communication Technology). DataWind won the international tender to supply Aakash 1 devices at a cost of $49.98. It was modified to 98,000 Aakash2 devices and 2,000 devices with DataWind’s recommendations for Aakash3 at a cost of Rs.2,263 (~$41.61). Continue reading “Aakash 2 project completed, 1 Lakh units delivered to Government”

Sony Xperia L up for pre-order in India for Rs. 18990

Sony Xperia L is now pre-order in India from online retailer Infibeam. The Xperia L was announced back in March along with the Xperia SP. The Xperia SP was launched in India last month. It has a 4.3-inch (854 x 480 pixels) Scratch-resistant capacitive touch screen display, powered by a 1 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8230 processor and runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). Continue reading “Sony Xperia L up for pre-order in India for Rs. 18990”

Videocon A45 and A51 now available for Rs. 6199 and Rs. 8900

Videcon A45

Videocon A45 and A51, the company’s new Android smartphones are on sale from online retailer Snapdeal. The Videocon A45 has a 5-inch (480 x 800 Pixels) capacitive touch screen display, powered by a 1 GHz single-core processor and runs on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). The A51 has a 5-inch FWVGA (854 x 480 pixels) touch screen display, powered by a dual-core processor and runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Range of Android smartphones including the Videocon A47 A51, A53, A45, A27i and A15 appeared on the official website recently. This would compete with the recently launched Spice Smart Flo Pace 2 Mi-502 and the Micromax A72 Canvas Viva that was launched last month. Continue reading “Videocon A45 and A51 now available for Rs. 6199 and Rs. 8900”

Sony Honami Cyber-shot camera phone to use a 1/1.6″ Exmor RS sensor ?

Details of the Sony Honami and Togari surfaced earlier this week. The phone is rumored to come with a 16MP or a 20MP Cyber-shot CMOS sensor with Carl Zeiss optics, Xenon flash and a dual LED flash. Now new details of the phone has emerged that reveals that the phone would have a 1/1.6″ Exmor RS stacked sensor with Sony Cybershot G Lens. It would have a Xenon or dual-LED flash, and plasma flash is also being considered.The camera would have a new user interface, new processing algorithm, similar to Sony’s Cyber-shot digital cameras and Superior Auto Scene Recognition feature, an enhancement to the Superior Auto mode in the Xperia Z/ZL.

Continue reading “Sony Honami Cyber-shot camera phone to use a 1/1.6″ Exmor RS sensor ?”

HTC M4 press image surfaces, has the HTC One design and UltraPixel camera

HTC M4 leak

The HTC M4 first leaked out back in February earlier this year. Thanks to evleaks, press image of the HTC M4 has surfaced that reveals that the phone would have a similar unibody design like the HTC One that was announced back in February. The phone would come with a 4.3-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD display and a dual-core Snapdragon CPU as the earlier rumor suggested. It is also expected to come with a UltraPixel rear camera with LED Flash similar to the HTC One and Beats audio support support, but it would pack a 1700 mAh battery. Continue reading “HTC M4 press image surfaces, has the HTC One design and UltraPixel camera”

Lava Iris 405 with 4-inch display, 1 GHz dual-core processor, Android 4.1 launched for Rs. 7499

Lava Iris 405

Lava has launched the Iris 405, a new Android smartphone in the Iris Series. It has a 4-inch (800 x 480 pixels) capacitive touch screen display and has a 1GHz dual-core processor. It runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) instead of ICS. It has a 5-megapixel auto focus rear camera with LED flash and a VGA front-facing camera similar to the Iris 455 that was launched earlier this month at a price tag of Rs. 7,799. It has dual SIM support with dual standby similar to other Iris smartphones. Continue reading “Lava Iris 405 with 4-inch display, 1 GHz dual-core processor, Android 4.1 launched for Rs. 7499”