Huawei P8 tipped to feature a Kirin 935 SoC, new GPU inside

The Huawei P8 is less than 10 days away from becoming official on April 15, but piece by piece the puzzle had been almost completed. Until a couple of days ago though, when new info popped up about the SoC, powering the high-end device. Until then it was believed that the chip of choice was the Kirin 930, found in the MediaPad X2 tablet. That one comes with a an octa-core big.LITTLE configuration of sorts, with four Cortex-A53e powerful cores, clocked at 2GHz, and another quartet of regular 1.2GHz Cortex-A53 cores. As reports in Chinese media indicated though, the P8 may come with more powerful Kirin 935 silicon, which is now revealed to have its performance cores ticking at the even higher 2.2GHz. Additionally, insiders claim that a new GPU may be utilized, as opposed to the Mali-T628 inside the Kirin 930. The Kirin 935 was not mentioned in previous reports on Huawei's in-house chipset lineup. That may lead us to believe that it's a minor last-minute upgrade to the Kirin 930, to attempt to put it on par with industry leaders in the face of Samsung's Exynos 7420 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 810. The wait is drawing to an end though, and we'll soon get the confirmation we need on the matter. Source (in Chinese) |...

Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/huawei_p8_tipped_to_feature_a_kirin_935_soc_new_gpu_inside-news-11800.php

More live images of the Sony Xperia Z4 show up, no surprises

The Sony Xperia Z4 can't come fast enough for fans of the brand and undecided smartphone aficionados alike. Judging by the smartphone's recent visits to the rumor mill, the flagship is drawing near. After the set of live images we showed you a few days ago, we're now being treated to another batch, this time confirming the arrangement on the front of the device. The press renders that made the rounds before, have taken up live form. The speakers are housed behind thin slits at the edges of the devices, and the front camera and notification LED are where expected. The glass back also sports your typical Xperia design language with a modest Sony logo positioned in the center and the 20.7MP camera atop an LED flash. What will please the general public is the omission of the flap, which covered the USB port in previous Xperias. The IP68 certification for dust and water protection is retained, though. Sony Xperia Z4 live photos This batch of images is accompanied by alleged specs, which claim that, indeed, the Xperia Z4 will come with two resolutions on its 5.2-inch screen - either FullHD or QHD. The Snapdragon 810 will power the smartphone, joined by 4GB of RAM, when the previous consesus was on 3GB. The front camera will be a 5MP unit. The Xperia Z4 will boot Android Lollipop out of the box, as if you could have expected anything else from a major launch in 2015. When that launch will take place however, remains a mystery for...

Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/more_live_images_of_the_sony_xperia_z4_show_up_no_surprises-news-11803.php

Samsung denies paying people to attend S6 launch event in China

Samsung has responded to a report that came out yesterday, that claimed that half of the thousand-odd people that attended the Galaxy S6 launch event in Shanghai were paid to attend the event. According to the company, the report is "totally groundless and bogus". The company went on to say, "Our findings have indicated that under no circumstances has anyone been hired or given money to attend the event. In fact, the more than 1,100 attendees, including consumers and industry officials, have all been formally invited to the Shanghai Culture Square where the event took place." According to the report by The Paper, around 500 people were recruited and paid 30 yuan to attend the event, posing as students and Samsung fans. But not Samsung says that The Paper "corroborated our findings and soon retracted the erroneous story." It could be that the story was a hoax perpetuated by a rival company. Or it could be true. Samsung has been found in the past people people to post negative comments about HTC online, which it later blamed upon an external agency, and also to pay developers to promote Samsung on Stack Overflow, an app developer community. Either way, it seems this issue has been settled for...

Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_denies_paying_people_to_attend_s6_launch_event_in_china-news-11799.php

Asus PadFone S Plus to launch in Malaysia for $302

Asus PadFone is a unique concept of docking the smartphone at the rear of a docking station and turn it into a functional tablet. Asus is almost ready to introduce the the PadFone S Plus in Malaysia on April 8 for $302. Asus introduced the PadFone S in October last year for $275 for Malaysia but this new PadFone S Plus is a beefed up version. The PadFone S Plus handset features a 5-inch 1080p display, quad-core Snapdragon 801 SoC with 2.3GHz quad-core CPU, 3GB RAM, 64GB storage and a 13MP rear camera capable of 4K video capture. In the front would be a 2MP 1080p capturing camera with dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, USB Host, microUSB with SlimPort support and Asus web storage of 50 GB. Asus has packed a 2,300 mAh battery inside the PadFone S Plus. Source |...

Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/asus_padfone_s_plus_to_launch_in_malaysia_for_302-news-11798.php

LG UX 4.0 teased before the LG G4 launch

LG is preparing to launch its flagship G4 smartphone on April 28 and its official YouTube channel has now shared a teaser video teasing a snapshot of the LG UX 4.0 expected to debut with it. Based on the leaked details, we do have an estimate of the hardware set to power the G4. However, the improvements in the LG UX to make the best of it is what is keeping everyone on their toes. The teaser video shows the revamped multitasking, improved camera UI, comprehensive calendar app and weather...

Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_ux_40_teased_before_the_launch_of_lg_g4_on_april_28-news-11797.php

Gionee will launch a slim Elife E8 for India in June

Gionee launched the new Elife S7 smartphone for $403 (INR 24,999) in India over the weekend. At the lavish event, Gionee's president William Lu promised to introduce the Elife E8 smartphone in June. The Elife E series focuses on the entertainment-centric users and offers stellar camera experience. We have learned that the Elife E8 is aiming for a 20MP camera sensor at the rear with improved imaging experience - up from 16MP in its predecessor. Optical image stabilization is also rumored. No further details are available on the Gionee Elife E8 for the time...

Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/gionee_to_launch_slim_elife_e8_for_india_in_june-news-11796.php