BlackBerry has announced the QWERTY-based Q5, its third BlackBerry 10 release and one that's aimed directly at emerging markets.
The Q5 is based on the existing BlackBerry Q10, but is aimed at lower-end users, with what appears to be a plastic chassis and a choice of colours to suit its more everyman billing.
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Archos ChefPad serves up kitchen-friendly Android tablet fare
I've always quite liked Archos, but to be honest I'm having a hard time seeing much of a future for its latest mobile toy, the ChefPad.
Yes, as the name suggests, it's a tablet aimed at culinary types, boasting a spill-proof case, a stand and a bunch of dedicated “Chef's Apps” preloaded to get you started.
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Nokia Amber update to brings Smart Camera, FM radio to full Lumia range
The new Lumia 925 introduces some new camera software features to the top end of Nokia's Windows Phone line-up, but the rest of the Lumia range will be getting the same features in due course too.
The Smart Camera enhancements will be part of an update codenamed Amber which Nokia will be rolling out to its other Lumia handsets sometime in Q3.
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Nokia Lumia 925 arrives: lightweight aluminium body, new camera features
Nokia has officially announced its new flagship Windows Phone, the aluminium-bodied Lumia 925, bringing to an end months of speculation about the handset codenamed Catwalk.
The sleek metal body makes the Lumia 925 slimmer and considerably lighter than the current Lumia 920 flagship, while a series of camera improvements head up the benefits on the inside.
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Samsung claims lead in 5G arms race - set your dials for 2020
Samsung is claiming to already have one of the key cornerstones in place that will fuel so-called 5G data services by the year 2020.
The new wireless platform will pave the way for vastly improved download and upload speeds, allowing the downloading of an entire move, for example, to take place in less than a second.
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Google annual I/O event kicks off on Wednesday, and speculation has been rife as to just what the Big G has up its sleeve in terms of major product announcements.
But forgetting the Nexus 5, Google X Phone and Android Key Lime Pie – all of which have been tipped to launch this week – how about this instead: Google may just be announcing nothing.
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Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini spotted again
We're expecting Samsung's Galaxy S4 Mini to break loose just the other side of mid-year, but it's certainly doing its bit to keep a high profile in the meantime.
Fresh from a few mentions in recent rumour pieces, the S4 Mini has now popped up again, this time in a gallery of decent-quality product snaps over on Weibo.
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We've been hearing rumours about the Nokia Catwalk for a long time now, and tomorrow those rumours look like materialising into the finished article at long last.
We'll finally get to “see what's next”, to use Nokia's own term, from the next generation of Lumia smartphone, when the Catwalk is shown off at its London unveiling. So what can we expect?
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Sony's ultra-waterproof Xperia ZR officially announced
Sony has gone official with the Xperia ZR, a new high-featured Android smartphone that takes the Xperia Z's waterproofing credentials to even greater depths.
Its IP55 and IP58 compliance (versus the Xperia Z's IP55/57) means the Xperia ZR is capable of being submerged in up to 1.5m of fresh water, rather than the Xperia Z's 1m. Yes, really.
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February 2012: Mobot’s Jimmy Martinez dismisses the notion of a 1080p smartphone (originally rumoured for the Samsung Galaxy S3) as “a bit of a Holy Grail”. September 2012: Martinez relays word of the Oppo Find 5 (pictured), the world’s first 1080p smartphone; observes that the industry is moving at an outrageous pace.
Today, May 2013: Lewis Curdie writes a few hundred words about the Oppo Find 5’s successor.
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Is *this* the LG Optimus G2?
Last week I asked: Is this the LG Optimus G2? Today I’m posing, er, the exact same question.
We’re looking at an unnamed LG device with an apparent edge-to-edge display, sitting on, uhm, a pile of cables and that.
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Revamped Nexus 7 to be the highlight of Google I/O 2013
Time was we were expecting the Motorola-built X-Phone to be the star of Google’s annual I/O event thingy.
Alas, it sounds like we’ll have to make do with revamped versions of existing products. Having said that, the refreshed Google Nexus 7 sounds pretty sweet. I think I want one.
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BBC Watchdog to investigate Samsung Galaxy S4 storage issue
I was saying around a week ago that almost half of the Samsung Galaxy S4’s 16GB internal storage is claimed by the phone out of the box, leaving users with around 9GB to play with.
Samsung has officially played it down, but now sanctimonious old BBC Watchdog is about to stick its beak in.
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Huawei Ascend P2: 'world’s fastest smartphone' coming to UK next month
Huawei has been threatening to launch its flagship phones in the UK for some time now, with suitably sexy spec sheets complemented by wallet-friendly price tags.
To date we’ve had to make do with budget efforts like the Huawei Ascend G300, but that looks set to change with the arrival of the Huawei Ascend P2 next month. Huzzah!
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Bluetooth SIG confirms Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom
It was Wednesday this week when we first relayed word of the supposed Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom, a slightly watered down version of the flagship S4 with a purported 16MP rear camera.
Fast-forward a couple of days and the thing has only gone and gotten itself confirmed by Bluetooth SIG. Well, sort of.
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Review of the week
Another relatively quiet week in the world of mobile, as we eagerly anticipate events from the likes of Nokia, Google, Apple and Microsoft. Sh*t be goin' crazy as of Tuesday next week, with Team Elop revealing the latest Lumias, and Google I/O kicking off the next day. Phew.
In the meantime, the thing what got you talking the most this week was... *scans through the week's news*... Bill Gates' comments about the Surface and the tablet market are so 12 months ago.
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Can Amazon resurrect the 3D smartphone dream?
Now here's an eye-opener: the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon's long-rumoured smartphone project will deliver not one, but two smartphones, and that one of them will have a 3D screen.
Yes, that's the same 3D that fell flat on its mobile face two years ago despite the best efforts of LG and HTC, never to be heard from again. Or so we thought.
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Facebook Home hit Google Play around a month ago, with support for a very small number of high-end phones, namely the Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung Galaxy Note II, HTC One X and HTC One X+
The two latest big-name flagships have reportedly jumped on board too, that’s the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4.
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Mozilla looks to woo developers with ‘phones for apps’ scheme
Chances are you - yes you, with your fancy smartphone - aren’t hugely interested in Firefox OS, it being aimed at emerging markets ‘n’ all.
However, we were vaguely interested to hear about the crew’s Phones for Apps for Firefox OS scheme. Essentially, Mozilla is offering free phones in exchange for developer talents.
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Google I/O 2013 finally gets underway next week, but the closer we get, the less sure we are what to expect from Mountain View.
Earlier in the year, there were rumours of a high-specced LG-built Google Nexus 5. More recently we were told to lower our expectations and brace for a 32GB LTE-ready Google Nexus 4 instead, but those Nexus 5 rumours are back at the eleventh hour.
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