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China Mobile begins TD-LTE trials in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, users need a Galaxy S III for now
It looks like China Mobile is making good on its promise to carry out TD-LTE trials this year: the carrier is launching test programs in both Guangzhou and Shenzen, according to a report from the Chinese news site Guangming Online. As it happens, this isn't technically the first time China Mobile has invited users to test its LTE network, but it is the first time people can access it via smartphones (as opposed to routers and MiFi devices). Curiously, the trial will initially work only on the TD-LTE-capable Galaxy S III, which is strange because China Mobile just unveiled a handful of LTE handsets at MWC, and didn't even mention the GSIII at its press conference. Once you've got that phone in hand, you'll need to preload it with 4,699 yuan worth of credits and sign a two-year agreement, with 388 yuan to be deducted each month. Already signed up for 2G or 3G service with China Mobile? You can add 1,500 yuan to receive a 4G device, USIM card and 15 gigs of LTE data (free for the first three months).
China Mobile's four new TD-LTE phones: Huawei Ascend D2, HTC One, LG Optimus Vu II Plus and ZTE U9810
We already knew that LG's now jumped on the TD-LTE bandwagon with the demo of a modified Optimus G, but it turns out that China Mobile also announced several devices that are destined for its 4G market, including the 5-inch 1080p Huawei Ascend D2 (D2-TL), the 4.7-inch 1080p HTC One (TD101), the 5-inch XGA LG Optimus Vu II Plus and the mysterious 5-inch 1080p ZTE U9810. Interestingly, our brethren over at Engadget Chinese also spotted a TD-LTE-ready Samsung Galaxy S III at China Mobile's MWC booth (note the "China Mobile 4G" logo on the back of the phone, pictured above), but it wasn't mentioned at the Global TD-LTE Initiative summit at MWC. Obviously, let's not forget ZTE's Grand Era LTE that's compatible with both modes of LTE. Knowing how fresh some of these devices are, it seems like TD-LTE service will be available to the Chinese public well within this year, which will match what China Mobile announced back in January.Also announced alongside the aforementioned phones were four TD-LTE mobile hotspots, including Huawei's E5375, ZTE's MF91S+, China Mobile-badged CM510 plus CM512. These all feature battery lives between six to eight hours, and can handle up to 10 devices simultaneously. Some even support the more common FDD LTE, with Huawei's already capable of Category 4 LTE at up to 150Mbps.
LG demos Optimus G TD-LTE prototype, promises LTE lineup for China Mobile
Today at Mobile World Congress, LG demoed a modified Optimus G that supports China Mobile's forthcoming TD-LTE network, but just as weighty as the demonstration, the manufacturer also revealed that it'll provide a full line of TD-LTE devices for the world's largest mobile operator. While LG wasn't able to nail down a specific date, it's currently shooting for the second half of this year in order to compliment China Mobile's TD-LTE rollout. Along with the Optimus G, it seems a safe bet that the two companies will be evaluating new smartphones such as the Optimus F7 and F5, along with the Optimus L7II and L5II as candidates to make the leap into the world of TD-LTE. Inquiring minds will find the full presser after the break.
Alcatel-Lucent's latest lightRadio development aims to spread TD-LTE across China
We've yet to hear much about Alcatel-Lucent's lightRadio since it's original introduction in early 2011, but here in Barcelona, the outfit has announced (in cooperation with China Mobile, no less) that its latest innovation could help spread the wondrous waves of TD-LTE across China. Available now for large-scale commercial deployment in China Mobile's first trial TD-LTE network, which spans 13 cities in China, lightRadio Metro Radio will bring legitimate 4G services to residents in densely populated areas of Shanghai, Nanjing and Qingdao. China Mobile itself has over 722 million subscribers, and a huge swath of those are no doubt clamoring for faster transmission speeds. In China, lightRadio Metro Radio will be deployed in bustling indoor and outdoor locations, such as shopping malls and stadiums, but there's no word on when the masses might expect this stuff to launch in earnest. Here's hoping for a speedy trial, eh?
Nokia building TD-SCDMA variants of the Lumia 520 and 720 for China Mobile
Nokia is a company that goes out of its way to create tailor-made versions of its smartphones for its Chinese fans. At today's keynote, Stephen Elop announced that those in the far East without the bones to buy a Lumia 920T will soon see local, TD-SCDMA, versions of the Lumia 520 and 720. The ultra-budget duo are expected to arrive in the second quarter of the year, with the 520 expected to cost around $180.
Via Licensing welcomes China Mobile and Deutsche Telekom to its LTE supergroup
Via Licensing is amassing quite a deep well of patents from which its members able to pull. All in the name of keeping standards-essential LTE technology accessible to those willing to play ball. Now China Mobile and Deutsche Telekom are joining the ranks of industry giants like AT&T and NTT DoCoMo in an effort to guard themselves against litigation and ease the act of licensing each other's patents. Others have tried and failed where Via Licensing seems to be succeeding in building a coalition around sharing standard-essential patents. Though, while plenty of big names have signed on, there are still quite a few notable holdouts.
Texas Instruments brings sci-fi tech to life with DLP (hands-on video)
We've come across a number of DLP-based pico projectors over the years and while these products are getting smaller, brighter and higher resolution, it's the integration with other devices that's really captured our imagination. Samsung's Galaxy Beam, which we reviewed last year, merges a 15-lumen nHD (640x360) DLP-based pico projector with a Galaxy S Advance. More recently at CES 2013, Texas Instruments announced its new Tilt & Roll Pixel chip architecture and demoed a handful of other DLP-equipped products live on our stage, including 3M's Streaming Projector and Smart Devices' U7 tablet. The company recently invited us to play with some of these devices and to show us other applications in areas such as 3D printing, 3D scanning, optical research, medical imaging and even automotive. Some of this DLP-equipped tech, like the Interactive Center Console, shows where we're headed in the near future -- other products, like Christie's VeinViewer Flex, exist today but remind us of something right out of science-fiction. Take a look at our galleries below, then join us after the break for our hands-on video and more info on these devices.
China Mobile says over 60 million TD-SCDMA devices sold in 2012, aiming for twice as many this year
At today's Qualcomm QRD Summit in Shenzhen, China Mobile sent its Deputy General Manager of Products Wang Hengjiang to share some hardware stats. In 2012, over 60 million TD-SCDMA devices were sold, with December alone pumping out over seven million units. To put that into perspective, there are now over 220 million 3G phone users in China (as of end of November), meaning the carrier still has plenty of catching up to do as it had a late start in the 3G game. That said, Wang also announced that China Mobile aims to sell twice as many TD-SCDMA devices this year, with smartphones expected to take up over 80 percent of that segment -- hardly a challenge considering they already reached 94.4 percent in the last quarter. Wang added that out of the 120 million units to be sold this year, half of them will be customized by China Mobile -- presumably so that it can choose its own bloatware, right? As for TD-LTE, China Mobile expects its 4G technology to bloom in China some time between 2014 and 2015, as it continues to help the development of devices that natively support five modes (GSM, TD-SCDMA, UMTS, FD-LTE and TD-LTE) along with 10 to 12 bands. Obviously this is the very reason why China Mobile is getting cosy with Qualcomm, the company who has SoCs that support all these radios. Wang added that ahead of the full launch of TD-LTE, his company will be initiating user trials for TD-LTE data devices and phones throughout 2013 -- the first half of the year for the former, and the second half for the latter. Well, we only have three words for China Mobile: hurry up already!
ZTE U956 poses for pics, said to offer a 5-inch 720p screen, quad-core CPU
ZTE's no stranger to phones that provide more bang for your buck, so it's hardly surprising to see evidence of a new mid-range phablet from the Chinese outfit. The leaked images may not point towards another world first, but the U956 apparently runs Android 4.1.2 and is rumored to pack a 5-inch, 1,280 x 720 display and a quad-core MediaTek MT6589 SoC. There's also support for China's TD-SCDMA networks, while an 8-megapixel camera joins some China Mobile branding on the back. Some specifications are still missing, but if the pricing is as low as expected, the smartphone could likely be an option for penny-pinchers who can't afford its designer cousin.
Tim Cook meets with China Mobile
Sina Technology sat down with Tim Cook while he was in China and talked about Apple's growing presence in the Asian country. Not surprisingly, Cook fielded a question about China Mobile, the world's largest wireless carrier and the only major Chinese carrier to not sell the iPhone. Cook confirmed he met with China Mobile in the last few days, but was not at liberty to discuss what was said between the two companies. With more than 700 million subscribers and a network that covers more than 97 percent of the Chinese population, China Mobile is the holy grail for handset manufacturers. Unfortunately, the 3G technology it uses is not compatible with older models of the iPhone. If China Mobile does get the iPhone 5, it will likely run on China Mobile's growing 4G LTE network. [Via AppleInsider]
ZTE readying 5.7-inch P945 smartphone, 9mm thick, quad-core processor, 720p display
ZTE may be warming up more than one phone for tech writers making their way to CES this weekend. Alongside the company's top-drawer Nubia Z5, Unwired View has spotted yet another phone and this one measures in at 5.7 inches. Currently going under the moniker P945, the screen resolution has apparently 720p (unlike the 5-inch 1080p display found on the Nubia device) while there's an unnamed quad-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz doing the heavy lifting. A 3,000mAh battery should (hopefully) be able to power that screen for a decent amount of time, with a front-facing 1-megapixel sensor paired with a rear-facing 8-megapixel camera for your imaging needs. This particular phone has China Mobile livery along the bottom edge and according to the leak, it should arrive over in Asia around the end of Q1 this year.
ZTE Grand Era LTE launches in Hong Kong with dual-mode LTE (video)
LTE technology is usually divided into two distinct camps, FDD-LTE and TD-LTE, that might as well exist in two different worlds: own a device using one and you can't access the other. ZTE is bringing some harmony to 4G through the Grand Era LTE. The smartphone can connect to both LTE formats on China Mobile Hong Kong's newly dual-mode network, keeping locals in the high-speed zone no matter which 4G format is available. As our friends at Engadget Chinese discovered in a hands-on, however, it's not quite seamless at this stage. Subscribers have to reboot to switch networks, and the Hong Kong take on TD-LTE access doesn't upload as quickly as its FDD counterpart. Even with those bubbles burst, the Grand Era LTE is still a solid phone in its own right, touting a 4.5-inch 720p screen, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and ZTE's relatively light Mifavor interface sitting on top of Android 4.0. Check our video after the break to get a taste of the phone and the network -- although the clip is in Cantonese, the results are universal.
HTC 8X, 8S and Butterfly to reach China in mid-December
HTC isn't going to let Nokia keep the Chinese limelight for long: the phone maker has just launched three variants of its late 2012 flagship phones for China's mainland, all of which should reach local stores by mid-December. Those looking for sheer brawn will want the Butterfly. While it's ultimately a slight variant on the J Butterfly (Droid DNA to Americans) that should reach China Unicom, the 1080p smartphone should come to the country in rarer brown and white hues alongside the black we've already seen in the US. Localized models of the Windows Phone 8X and 8S are similarly inbound, but their aces in the hole should be sheer ubiquity -- variants are on the way for WCDMA (China Unicom), CDMA2000 (China Telecom) and TD-SCDMA (China Mobile) networks. We don't immediately have pricing for the two Windows Phone 8 handsets, but the Butterfly should cost a suitably large ¥4,799 ($771) contract-free.
China Mobile in talks to carry iPhone since 2009, but outlook still uncertain
Despite some reports circulating earlier this year, users of the world's largest cellular network don't appear any closer to seeing the iPhone as a handset choice. Speaking to attendees of its Worldwide Developers Conference, China Mobile president Li Yue confirmed that the company, which has more than 700 million subscribers, has been in talks with Apple to carry the iPhone since 2009. However, in addition to technology hurdles, Yue cited "mainly the issue of business model and mutual benefits" as the chief sticking points in negotiations. China Mobile uses a wireless standard called TD-SCDMA that is incompatible with current iPhone hardware. There had been some speculation that the iPhone 5 would feature support for TD-SCDMA, but it was disproven when the handset was unveiled in September. Yue remarked at the China Mobile WDC that his company's talks with Apple have become "more intimate" in the past year, so perhaps there's hope for the next-generation iPhone? [Via Engadget]
China Mobile head says conflicting technology is only partly why it doesn't carry the iPhone
Apple's smartphone world tour has always skipped past China Mobile and its 700 million-plus subscribers. The network uses the incompatible TD-SCDMA wireless standard and it's been generally presumed that Cupertino wouldn't follow Nokia's example and produce a custom handset just for this partner. However, China Mobile president Li Yue has revealed that he has been in talks with Cupertino since 2009, with negotiations becoming "more intimate" last year. Despite Apple's apparent willingness to co-operate, that's not the only sabot in the machinery. When asked, Yue said: "technology is a problem, but it isn't the entire problem, there's also mainly the issue of business model and mutual benefits." Which could be taken to mean that it's more a case of financial wrangling around revenue sharing and carrier subsidy than it is about modem chips. Maybe that's what happens when you have two companies, both used to getting their own way, but we wouldn't count on seeing iPhone 5T any time soon.
Nokia Lumia 920T for China Mobile brings TD-SCDMA to Windows Phone
Nokia just announced plans to launch a TD-SCDMA version of its Lumia 920 Windows Phone 8 flagship. The handset, designated Lumia 920T, will be available on China Mobile by the end of the year for RMB 4599 (about $739) in a choice of four colors (black, white, yellow and red). It's the first Windows Phone to support the country's TD-SCDMA standard and the first Windows Phone 8 device available in China. Spec-wise, the Lumia 920T is almost identical to its western sibling. Other than packing a different radio, it features the same 4.5-inch 1280x768-pixel PureMotion HD+ display, optically image-stabilized 8.7-megapixel f/2.0 Carl Zeiss autofocus camera, and 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor (plus 1GB RAM). There's no word on storage capacity, but the handset presumably matches the original with 32GB on board. The Lumia 920T integrates with local Internet services such as Sina, Sohu, Tencent, Baidu and Renren and provides access to both the Chinese Marketplace (50,000 apps) and Mobile Market (China Mobile's app store). It also offers NFC deals on location-based service Jiepang (in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou). Furthermore, Nokia and Air China are making wireless chargers available in VIP lounges at Beijing airport. Hit the break for the full PR.
Oppo's Ulike 2 boasts 5MP front camera, clearly made for self-portrait addicts like you
Hold up! Oppo's not quite done with teasing just yet for the day. The company's Sina Weibo account has quietly announced the Ulike 2, a white 4.5-inch phone designed with ladies in mind: not only does it have a common eight-megapixel main camera on the back, but there's also a staggering five-megapixel front-facing imager with beautification features (like face slimming, skin whitening, skin smoothing and more) to keep the self-portrait addicts busy. Other specs include a gapless 960 x 540 LCD (with 2.2mm-thick bezel), 1GB RAM, 16GB built-in storage, micro-SIM slot, a 2,020mAh battery, and TD-SCDMA radio for China Mobile's network. There's no telling how much this Android 4.0 phone will hurt your wallet, nor is there any official information on the underlying processor, but we shall find out when it hits the Chinese market on December 19th, if not at the Find 5's launch event on the 12th.
Lenovo's upcoming five-inch 1080p phone to feature dual-SIM connectivity
By now you should already know that HTC, Sharp and Oppo share a common theme: 1080p display on their five-inch phones. As it turns out, Lenovo also wants in on the VIP list. Spotted on Sina Weibo earlier this week (but have since been deleted) are the above three screenshots showing off Lenovo's customized Android UI in 1080p glory. As with many phones in China these days, the device in question supports dual-SIM connectivity -- the screenshots indicate that it's connected to China Telecom's CDMA2000 network and China Mobile's 2G network simultaneously. Our own source wouldn't directly confirm that it's a five-inch display on this mysterious phone, but we were told that it'll be somewhere between 4.5 inches and 5.5 inches -- we'll take that as a yes, especially since the only 1080p mobile panels available right now are the five-inch, 440ppi ones from Sharp and JDI. Our source also said the phone's entered DVT (Design Verification Test) phase for some time, so it might not be long before we hear an official announcement in China. As always, stay tuned. %Gallery-171174%
China Mobile's Lumia 920T packs a Snapdragon S4 Pro, better graphics performance
Buying a shiny new flagship and finding out international variants are tricked out better than yours is never much fun. Well, China Mobile has Weiboed (is that right?) that its Lumia 920T variant will pack the Snapdragon S4 Pro SoC (MSM8960T), and not the S4 Plus in the regular 920. The Pro carries the same basic CPU, and while it's not known whether the 920T will use the full 1.7GHz available (the 920's runs at 1.5GHz), the major difference is a bump from the Adreno 225 GPU to the more powerful Adreno 320. It cleaned up in the GLBenchmark tests we ran on the LG Optimus G (albeit with a quad-core CPU), but is Windows Phone 8 ready to use all that hardware -- or, more politely, will it make any difference to the user? With graphic-intensive apps a rarity, we would speculatively say no, although it might make for a smoother view through Nokia's City Lens, which is fairly hungry. We won't know until some real-life comparisons between the two emerge, but we'd imagine the GPU boost won't make too much of a difference to the average user.
iPhone 5 moves closer to launch in China
The iPhone 5 is allegedly one step closer to launching in China. Chinese blog Sina Tech reports that two models of the iPhone 5, model A1429 and A1442, have received government approval to run on the nation's wireless networks. The A1429 model is reportedly compatible with China Unicom's 3G network and the A1442 model is a CDMA version for China Telecom. China Mobile, the world's largest mobile carrier with almost 700 million subscribers, has supposedly been in talks with Apple about carrying the iPhone, but has not reached an agreement with the Cupertino company. These two models have cleared two of three regulatory steps required by the Chinese government. The pair were granted 3C (Chinese Compulsory Certificate) certification in September and, lastly, must receive a network access license before going on sale in China. [Via CNET]
