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ASUS PadFone formally unveiled: 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display, Snapdragon S4 CPU, ICS, HSPA+, coming in April
Just like it said it would, ASUS has formally unveiled its versatile, form-changing PadFone at Mobile World Congress. There are two stories here, and they're both quite compelling, frankly. On the one hand, you've got yet another high-end device, with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED qHD display, Snapdragon's new dual-core S4 chip, an Adreno 225 GPU, Ice Cream Sandwich and an 8-megapixel rear camera with an LED flash and f/2.2 autofocusing lens. (The front camera records at VGA resolution.) Other specs include 16 to 64GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD), Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI, GPS, A-GPS, a gyroscope, 1,520mAh battery and a compass. Connectivity options include WCDMA (900, 2100 MHz), EDGE / GPRS / GSM (850, 1800 and 1900 MHz) and HSPA+, with theoretical download speeds topping out at 42Mbps. Barring LTE, we wouldn't expect much less from a flagship launched at the world's premier wireless show. But those are just specs. If you focus solely on its chip and 9.2mm-thick frame you'd be missing its most distinguishing attribute: it's ability to parade around in tablet's clothing (albeit, with the help of some optional, still-unpriced accessories.) Taking a cue from Motorola's Lapdock-friendly handsets, the PadFone can slide into an optional station that effectively allows you to use it as if it were a 10.1-inch tablet. Like the optional docks sold alongside ASUS' Transformer tablets, the station not only improves the ergonomics, but also extends the battery life -- in this case, by nine-fold. Speaking of keyboard docks, ASUS will be selling one for this product, too, so that you can tuck that 10-inch phone-tablet into something with a full physical keyboard. Finally, there's that guy you see up there, which looks like a stylus (and is!), but also doubles as a headset for receiving calls. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the future. And when can you make it yours? ASUS confirmed that the PadFone will ship in April. Unfortunately, the company stopped short of revealing any pricing, so you'll have to stay tuned for some country-specific details. For now, though, we're planning on getting hands-on with the device as soon as we can, giving you a much closer look than we were able to when we spied a prototype back at CES. Update: And our hands-on is up now. Enjoy! Update 2: ASUS just confirmed that the LTE flavor of the PadFone will be available in early Q3 -- see the slide after the break.
Lumigon's T2 smartphone wants to control your TV, obey your commands
Ever notice how often you lose your TV remote, but how rarely lose track of that social lifeline you call a smartphone? So did the folks at Denmark-based Lumigon, that's why they've put their Scandinavian heads together to build the Lumigon T2, a Android 4.0 smartphone that's also a universal remote control. In addition to this handset's 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 8 megapixel rear facing camera and Bang & Olufsen ICEpower sound, this phone's northern lip can copy commands from remote controls and emulate them using on screen buttons or programmable gestures. Above the T2's 3.8-inch Gorilla glass screen is a dual-action "activity button" that can reportedly be programmed to perform any function the phone has to offer -- like activating an LED flashlight, initiating speed-dial or even turning on and off your TV. Sound pretty sweet? Sure it is -- just don't lose it in the couch. The T2 is scheduled to hit select markets in Europe in Asia later this year, hit the break for the official press release.
ViewSonic goes dual-SIM with ViewPhone 4s, 4e and 5e, all packing Android Ice Cream Sandwich
When you're ready, here's yet another load of pre-MWC goodness. This year ViewSonic decided that merely slapping Ice Cream Sandwich on its new ViewPhones isn't good enough, so instead, the company's just-announced 4s, 4e and 5e also come with an extra SIM slot. Starting from the left we have the ViewPhone 4s featuring an impressive 3.5-inch 960 x 640 Super Clear IPS LCD (which, should be very similar to Apple's Retina Display from LG -- rather ironic given the phone's name), along with a five-megapixel camera, a VGA front-facing imager and a 1GHz chip. Pictured in the middle is a similar-looking ViewPhone 4e but packing a 3.5-inch 480 x 320 LCD, a slower processor at 650MHz only, a three-megapixel camera and one extra touch button than its sibling; all of this made with budget in mind, obviously, though somehow ViewSonic's very proud of its 10.3mm thickness.If 3.5-inch displays aren't your cup of tea then you'll have to jump straight to the 5-inch ViewPhone 5e, but so far all we've been told is its 800 × 480 screen resolution. Could there be more in this dual-SIM beast? Stay tuned to our MWC coverage and you'll know as soon as we do.
Gartner reports Apple top among smartphone vendors
Gartner released its quarterly and yearly mobile phone sales estimates and, not surprisingly, Apple was the leader in the smartphone market. Apple sold 37 million iPhones in the quarter and became the world's top smartphone vendor with 23.8 percent market share. Worldwide smartphone sales climbed to 149 million units in Q4 2011, a 47.3 percent year over year increase. Apple is also the top smartphone vendor for the year with a 19 percent market share. Total smartphone sales in 2011 grew 58 percent year over year and reached a staggering 472 million units sold. Both Apple and Samsung topped the smartphone charts, while LG, Motorola, RIM and Sony Ericsson struggled. Nokia remains the leader in overall mobile phone sales, but its numbers are declining. Apple, however, continued its march upward and slid ahead of LG to become number three in mobile phone sales. All the handset makers combined to sell 1.8 billion phones in 2011. Some of Apple's stellar performance last quarter is attributed to pent up demand from buyers who waited to purchase an iPhone until the 4S arrived in October. In this current quarter, there is no pent up demand and Apple sales will likely decline quarter over quarter. Some of this decline will be offset by increased global availability and Apple will continue its strong performance, says Gartner. Show full PR text Gartner Says Worldwide Smartphone Sales Soared in Fourth Quarter of 2011 Apple Became Top Smartphone Vendor in Fourth Quarter of 2011 and in 2011 as a Whole Egham, UK, February 15, 2012- Worldwide smartphone sales to end users soared to 149 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011, a 47.3 per cent increase from the fourth quarter of 2010, according to Gartner, Inc. Total smartphone sales in 2011 reached 472 million units and accounted for 31 percent of all mobile devices sales, up 58 percent from 2010. Smartphone volumes during the quarter rose due to record sales of Apple iPhones. As a result, Apple became the third-largest mobile phone vendor in the world, overtaking LG. Apple also became the world's top smartphone vendor, with a market share of 23.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, and the top smartphone vendor for 2011 as a whole, with a 19 percent market share. "Western Europe and North America led most of the smartphone growth for Apple during the fourth quarter of 2011," said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner. "In Western Europe the spike in iPhone sales in the fourth quarter saved the overall smartphone market after two consecutive quarters of slow sales." The quarter saw Samsung and Apple cement their positions further at the top of the market as their brands and new products clearly stood out. LG, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Research In Motion (RIM) again recorded disappointing results as they struggled to improve volumes and profits significantly. These vendors were also exposed to a much stronger threat from the midrange and low end of the smartphone market as ZTE and Huawei continued to gain share during the quarter. Worldwide mobile device sales to end users totaled 476.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011, a 5.4 percent increase from the same period in 2010 (see Table 1). In 2011 as a whole, end users bought 1.8 billion units, an 11.1 percent increase from 2010 (see Table 2). "Expectations for 2012 are for the overall market to grow by about 7 percent, while smartphone growth is expected to slow to around 39 percent," said Annette Zimmermann, principal research analyst at Gartner. In the fourth quarter of 2011, Nokia's mobile phone sales numbered 111.7 million units, an 8.7 percent decrease from last year. "Samsung closed the gap with Nokia in overall market share," said Ms. Cozza. "Samsung profited from strong smartphone sales of 34 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011. The troubled economic environment in Europe and Nokia's weakened brand status posed challenges that were hard to overcome in just one quarter. However, Nokia proved its ability to execute and deliver on time with its new Lumia 710 and 800 handsets. Nokia will have to continue to offer aggressive prices to encourage communications service providers (CSPs) to add its products to portfolios currently dominated by Android-based devices." Apple had an exceptional fourth quarter, selling 35.5 million smartphones to end users, a 121.4 percent increase year on year. Apple's continued attention to channel management helped it take full advantage of the strong quarter to further close the gap with Samsung, which saw some inventory build up for its smartphone range. Apple's strong performance will continue into the first quarter of 2012 as availability of the iPhone 4S widens. However, since Apple will not benefit from delayed purchases as it did in the fourth quarter of 2011, Gartner analysts expect its sales to decline quarter-on-quarter. After Apple, ZTE and Huawei were the fastest-growing vendors in the fourth quarter of 2011. "These vendors expanded their market reach and kept on improving the user experience of their Android devices," said Ms. Cozza. In the fourth quarter of 2011, ZTE moved into fourth place in the global handset market. ZTE posted a strong smartphone sales increase of 71 percent sequentially. The company was able to extend its portfolio to three CSPs in its home market and benefited from consumers' interest in low-cost smartphones. Huawei moved ahead of LG in the Android marketplace to become a top-four Android manufacturer, thanks to strong smartphone growth in the quarter. Huawei has made significant progress in moving to its own-branded devices, and it has continued to expand its portfolio into higher tiers as its tries to build more iconic products. RIM dropped to the No. 7 spot in the fourth quarter of 2011, with a 10.7 percent decline. RIM's delay with its BlackBerry 10 platform will further impair its ability to retain users. However, RIM's biggest challenge is still to expand the developer base around its ecosystem and convince developers to work and innovate with BlackBerry 10. In the smartphone OS market (see Table 3), competition between Google and Apple intensified. Android's share declined slightly sequentially. This was due to strong iPhone sales, driven in particular by the iPhone 4S in mature markets and the weakness of key Android vendors as they struggled to create unique and differentiated devices. Samsung remained the main contributor to Android share gains in the second half of 2011. iOS's market share grew 8 percentage points year-on-year, but Gartner analysts expect Apple's share to drop in the next couple of quarters as the upgrade cycle to the iPhone 4S slows. Nokia's first Windows Phone smartphones, the Lumia 710 and 800, made their debut, but, as expected, sales were not enough to prevent a fall in Microsoft's smartphone market share.
Baidu-powered Dell Streak Pro D43 gets hands-on treatment
Dell's dual-cored Streak Pro D43 has arrived in the hands of our colleagues over at Engadget Chinese. In a detailed tour of the first Baidu Yi smartphone, they've unearthed a built-in battery and perused the Super AMOLED Plus qHD display, tempered with Gorilla Glass. The casing is little thick (10.3mm) but by no means a deal-breaker, with a rubberized texture apparently helping to protect the phone if you're a little rough and ready with your devices. The Baidu platform is another Chinese interpretation of Google's feature-set, so you get the likes of email, maps, cloud services and voice input search -- in Mandarin, naturally. If you're intrigued by that Baidu base, scope out the full hands-on (and video walkthrough) over on our Sino sister site.
Apple becomes world's third largest mobile phone manufacturer
In just five short years, Apple has become the third largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world. International Data Corporation (IDC), as part of the continuing Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker survey, noted that the overall mobile phone market is still growing despite a major decline in numbers for low-priced "feature phones." Despite fierce competition from both Apple and Samsung, Nokia retained its spot as the leader in mobile phone shipments. The company is transitioning from the Symbian OS for smartphones, having recently launched the Lumia line of Windows Phone-powered smartphones. IDC notes that Nokia's worldwide distribution and manufacturing presence will make it difficult for other companies to knock the Finnish company from its perch on the mobile phone throne. Not surprisingly, Samsung was the number two manufacturer, selling more than 300 million phones in 2011. The company's Android smartphone line and new Windows Phone smartphones, along with a growing line of feature phones, inched Samsung even closer to Nokia's coveted number one spot. Apple jumped from third position after being in fifth place in the previous quarter. The third-place finish is the highest ever for Apple, and the strong launch of the iPhone 4S was listed as the primary reason that the company leapfrogged over competitors LG and ZTE in the fourth quarter of 2011. Rounding out the top five were Korean manufacturer LG, which has seen a drop in sales for the last year. Chinese vendor ZTE almost took over the fourth place position, moving from low-cost feature phones to increasingly powerful smartphones. ZTE has recently entered the North American market with Android and Windows Phone-powered smartphones. The most fascinating number, however, was the year-over-year change in shipments. While arch-rival Samsung saw a 17.6 percent change in sales volume over the previous year, Apple saw a whopping 96.2 percent increase. Apple now has 6 percent of the total mobile phone market based on 2011 unit shipments; recall that Steve Jobs noted during the 2007 introduction of the iPhone that he'd be happy with a 1 percent share.
Shocker! ASUS to launch PadFone at Mobile World Congress, we'll be there! (update: hands-on video)
Strictly speaking, CES doesn't even start until tomorrow, but ASUS has just handed us an invitation to its PadFone event at Mobile World Congress next month. If all goes well, this will fit nicely within the expected early-2012 window that Jonney personally promised. Obviously we'll be in Barcelona to cover the launch, so stay tuned, dear tablet freaks.Update: We just got our hands on a working engineering unit of the PadFone. Eagle-eyed readers might notice the odd tweaks here and there on the outside, and we also spotted three new mysterious contact pins along the USB and HDMI side of the phone. The product manager was away so we couldn't get an answer for what the pins are for, but we'd imagine they're for an external antenna. After the break you'll see a demo video of the PadFone switching screens as it slides into the tablet -- we've been told the final product will be able to switch even faster, so here's hoping ASUS can keep its promise.
6.5 million downloads for Angry Birds on Christmas Day
Rovio says that it saw a whopping 6.5 million downloads of Angry Birds this past Christmas Day, which is just phenomenal, even for this overwhelmingly popular game. That number is very close to the number of iOS and Android devices activated overall, which means that most people who got an iPhone or other mobile device that runs Angry Birds over the holiday ran to download the game as quickly as they could. I've heard this before. One of the creators of Doodle Jump told me a while ago that whenever Apple released a new device, that app saw jumps of approximately the same numbers in downloads. Angry Birds is obviously quite a phenomenon, and it's so synonymous with the mobile experience that apparently the only limit on it out there is simply how many mobile devices manufacturers can sell. Rovio also says there's more coming in 2012. We'd hope for Rovio to get back to actually making mobile games not about Angry Birds (the company made more than 30 before Angry Birds hit), but given its popularity, we'll probably still see these frustrated avians even more in the future. [via Joystiq]
Meizu MX launches today, lines dotted all over China as usual (updated)
This time last year we witnessed the Meizu M9 madness in Shenzhen, so we decided to pay our favorite gadget city another visit for the MX launch today (still the 1.4GHz dual-core model, of course). Surprisingly, the lines in Huaqiangbei this time were significantly shorter, but we were told that this was due to tighter security measures as requested by the local authorities -- if you've seen last year's photos you'll know why. Instead, this year the customers are told to line up only when they get a phone call; but a few keen beans still arrived last night, and the first guy in Shenzhen even turned down hotel accommodation offered by Meizu. Yep, that's how you do a "first" properly, folks. Other big cities in China also saw a similar phenomenon, including Beijing, Guangzhou and even Hong Kong -- it's hard to miss the long line formed along the south end of Sai Yeung Choi Street outside the new Mongkok store. Meizu also informed us that the MX's final hardware benefits from an improved camera (tweaked white balance and the lens now benefits from an oleophobic coating), while the software's been giving many enhancements since our review -- these are mostly the weird default settings we mentioned previously, such as the max clock speed out of the box (now at 1.4GHz instead of 1GHz) and the default video recording resolution (now 1080p instead of the weird 1,080 x 720 setting). Oh, and if you're still rocking the older M9, Meizu has confirmed that it'll also get the Ice Cream Sandwich update later this year, so stay tuned. More in the press release after the break. Update: A Meizu engineer confirmed on the company's forum that from now on, all Meizu Android devices -- including the M9 -- will receive both a vanilla OS build and a Meizu-customised build. That said, the phones won't support simultaneous dual-system, so you must pick your destiny. Thanks, Andi!
Dell Streak Pro D43 launched in China, where Yi shall find some Baidu love
Just as rumored and teased earlier this week, yesterday Dell unveiled the world's first Baidu Yi-powered smartphone dubbed Streak Pro D43. We won't bore you with the hardware details again (the D43's identical to its Japanese Android counterpart 101DL), but it's worth noting that this dual-core 1.5GHz, quadband HSPA phone focuses on features and services tailored for Chinese users, including some seemingly basic Mandarin voice control (no pressure on Siri just yet), contacts synchronization, Baidu Chinese input, Yi's own app store and 100GB of free cloud storage that supports multimedia upload and secure file sharing. Essentially, the Yi platform's basically just another Chinese bastardized Android OS sans Google services -- much like Alibaba's Aliyun, China Mobile's Ophone and Lenovo's LeOS; but if you already reside in China and are cool with Baidu's offering, then get a Micro SIM ready and look out for a China Unicom deal soon. %Gallery-142261%
Dell's Streak Pro 101DL to become Baidu's first Yi phone, shows up in FCC's database
We already knew that Chinese search giant Baidu's been cosying up to Dell to kick-start its very own smartphone ecosystem dubbed Yi (which means "easy" in Chinese), but so far both parties have been mum on the specifics of the hardware. Thankfully, a lucky lady -- some sort of microblogging goddess on Sina Weibo -- managed to get hold of an engineering sample and was kind enough to share some details. Eagle-eyed readers may recall that this is actually Softbank's upcoming Streak Pro 101DL Android handset, which has also conveniently just showed up in the FCC database with a V04B moniker and 1,700MHz WCDMA radio -- we've attached its FCC label diagram after the break. The specs here match what we've seen before: a 4.3-inch AMOLED 960 x 540 display, Corning glass (presumably Gorilla Glass), dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm MSM8260, 8GB of ROM and microSD expansion. For those interested, Tencent Tech has reported that we could see the launch of this phone in China as soon as tomorrow, along with a competitive, unsubsidized price tag of CN¥3,000 (about $475). Well, Yi will sure make a fun playmate for its counterpart from Alibaba -- did you know that Jack Ma once called his Aliyun OS an ugly baby? True story.
Meizu MX review
A quick tag search for "Meizu" on Engadget takes us all the way back to April 2006, where we saw the launch of the Chinese company's M6 Mini Player with MP4 playback. But in fact, if you go as far back as early 2003 (before Engadget was even born) you'll also dig up the Meizu MX, which was eventually launched towards the end of the year. Confused? Well, bear with us here: this MX was Meizu's first ever product, a simple 128MB or 256MB MP3 player that unfortunately bore much resemblance to the Cowon iAudio CW300, albeit with different guts. Was this a case of shameless cloning or just an OEM product being rebadged? Our money's on the latter, but only with Monopoly bills.Skip past the darker times and fast forward to about nine years later, Meizu would launch another MX, but now it's a totally different animal: a 1.4GHz dual-core Android smartphone that can handle a tad more than just music playback. Of course, company founder Jack Wong and his gang aren't the only players on the paddy field, as we also have the similarly powerful Xiaomi Phone already taking the lead in the Chinese Android enthusiast market. Adding more fuel to the fire is that shortly after the Xiaomi Phone's debut, Wong responded to a related forum post by accusing a certain someone -- which is believed to be Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun -- of abusing his or her old position as an angel investor to deviously walk away with Meizu's trade secrets. Alas, we'll probably never know the truth, so we shall simply observe whether the new Meizu MX will bite back hard and good. Read on for our full review on Meizu's second Android handset.%Gallery-141597%
Meizu's Hong Kong store opens today, teases mainland Chinese fans with lower MX price
As per Meizu's usual elusive ways, this morning the company quietly opened its Hong Kong flagship store -- the first-ever official Meizu shop outside mainland China. And like its mainland counterparts, we're told that the new shop will be offering the MX Android handset on January 1st as well but with one significant difference: due to the lower local tax, the 16GB MX will be priced at just HK$3,099 (US$398), which is much lower than the CN¥2,999 (US$470) price in mainland. Great, looks like we'll be expecting some lines in the heart of Mongkok in about two weeks' time. %Gallery-141868%
Meizu MX hangs out with the M9, Xiaomi Phone, Nokia N9 and many more friends
What better way to welcome a new boy in town than just a quick hands-on with it? Well, how about throwing a mini phone party for the Meizu MX? We just so happened to have a stash of phones with us today: the M9, iPhone 4S, Nokia N9, Xiaomi Phone, Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note. Conveniently, the MX's four-inch display lets it sit bang in the middle of the group, and the phone also turns out to be a tad thinner, narrower and shorter than the Xiaomi Phone. Of course, we'll dig a little deeper in our review, so stay tuned and enjoy our party pics for now. %Gallery-141324%
Meizu MX first hands-on!
While the rest of Hong Kong were enjoying their dim sum breakfast, we've been busy fiddling with the freshly delivered Meizu MX due out on January 1st. As expected, the customized Android 2.3.5 (dubbed Flyme OS) is pretty slick on that 1.4GHz dual-core Samsung Exynos 4210 and 1GB of RAM, but we keep an eye on the consistency of its performance. Compared to the smaller M9, we're hugely impressed by this successor's solid build quality -- the white crystal casing on the back gives out a premium feel and look, though only time will tell how scratch-resistant it is. Likewise, we also dig the booklet or CD album-like packaging -- you can see it all in our hands-on gallery below. There's much to be loved about the four-inch 960 x 640 ASV LCD -- the slight decrease in pixel density really isn't as noticeable as expected, still giving a sharp image in addition to a slightly wider viewing angle plus color gamut. Alas, many of our camera stills so far seem to be infected by a green hue, though our sample 1080p video clip's in good shape. Here's hoping that Meizu will still be able to tweak that eight megapixel camera before the official launch. Until then, check out our hands-on video after the break (where you can see Meizu's pretty rad "patented situation-aware bottom light keys" in action), and stay tuned for our upcoming review. %Gallery-141308% %Gallery-141309%
Sharp AQUOS SH-01D's optical image stabilizer hands-on (video)
If you need further proof of how the Japanese keep the best to themselves, then here's yet another fine example to fuel your jealousy. Sharp's recently launched AQUOS SH-01D is one of the few -- if not the first -- Android phones that feature optical image stabilization, and this is all thanks to the company's new 12.1 megapixel, 1/3.2-inch CMOS camera module. The demo videos are plenty impressive, but naturally, we had to see for ourselves to really believe it, so playstyle.hk kindly lent us an SH-01D for a quick and dirty hands-on. As per typical NTT DoCoMo Android phones, our SH-01D suffered from minor lags due to the heavy OS customization; but leaving that aside we dug its 4.5-inch 1,280 x 720 ASV display and its overall build quality. We then quickly moved on to the camera: while image stabilization is available for both photo and video modes, don't expect it to fully compensate your shakiness -- you'll see below that we ended up with a few slightly blurry stills at night, which isn't surprising; but regardless, we got plenty of vibrant colors in most cases. The stabilization is more noticeable in video mode, and it's definitely more effective than the Droid RAZR's implementation -- we got some sample clips after the break for your viewing pleasure. There's no telling when other phones will get this technology, but if you want a taste of the future then you can grab an SH-01D from playstyle.hk for HK$5,500 or about US$708. %Gallery-141237% %Gallery-141217%
Sony Ericsson's elusive Nozomi shows up in Hong Kong, still glowing nicely
It was only about a month ago when we first came across some clear shots of Sony Ericsson's upcoming Nozomi (aka LT26i), and now it looks like someone in Hong Kong has also gotten hold of this pretty Android phone. HKEPC's forum leakster, who claims to have received this image from a friend, doesn't actually reveal much here (not even a codename), but he or she does confirm that a dual-core chip and a 720p LCD are packed within -- this matches what we heard from the previous leak. Furthermore, we're told that a Hong Kong carrier is already testing this device, so don't be surprised if it pops up in the market within the next month or two.
Dual-core Meizu MX fully unveiled, launching on January 1st with HSPA+
After some teases and leaks, Meizu's finally unveiled its next flagship phone MX to keep China entertained for 2012. While the quad core flavor won't be here until next year, this dual core model will be available in mainland China starting from ¥2,999 ($470) on January 1st (like with the M9 last year), and Hong Kong is still expecting an early January release. The full spec list now includes a 4-inch 960 x 640 ASV display, 1.4GHz Samsung Exynos 4210 dual core chip, 1GB of LPDDR2 RAM, 16GB of storage (32GB version to launch later), 0.3 megapixel front-facing camera, a secondary mic for noise cancellation and a 1,600mAh battery. Oh, that circular button at the bottom? It's just a physical home button instead of an optical trackpad as previously rumored. Globetrotters will be pleased to know that the 10.3mm-thick MX will pack pentaband 3G with HSPA+, so all you need is a Micro SIM to get the phone working. As for software, it'll come with Meizu's heavily customized Android 2.3.5 initially (dubbed Flyme OS) but will eventually get the 4.0 update, as already promised by CEO Jack Wong. On the multimedia front you'll again find native support for FLAC audio plus various video formats like MKV, MP4 and AVI; along with a micro-USB port that supports S/PDIF digital output, USB host plus MHL; and an eight megapixel f/2.2 backside-illuminated camera (which does smile detection and panorama shot) with 1080p 30fps recording. Head on over to Meizu's website for the full lowdown -- it'll be a good way to practise your Chinese, too. Update: Press release added after the break. %Gallery-141100%
Samsung's two-faced SCH-W999 Android plays the dual core, dual SIM game
Remember Samsung's second-gen dual-screen Android clamshell we spotted about a month ago? Well, here it is at last: announced in partnership with China Telecom, this SCH-W999 flip phone packs two 3.5-inch 480 x 800 Super AMOLED panels back to back, along with a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8660, Android 2.3 with TouchWiz, HyperSkin back cover (as featured on the Galaxy Nexus for grip plus anti-smear), five megapixel camera, Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi and WAPI (China's not-so-successful take on WiFi, basically). Like many phones on China Telecom, the W999 comes with dual SIM slots and dual-mode connectivity (GSM and CDMA2000, with the latter offering EV-DO 3G), but with the additional support for penta-band radio for globetrotters. Want to nab one? We're looking at a 2012 launch, though there's no word on prices just yet -- well, just so you know, the predecessor W899 starts from ¥8990 ($1,410), so good luck with your garage sale. We got you some pictures from the China launch event after the break, courtesy of Samsung Mobile. %Gallery-140983%
Meizu to launch first store outside mainland China, opening in Hong Kong this month
That's right, despite its short-lived battle with Apple last year, Meizu has finally decided it is time to make it out of China. Well, out of mainland China at least, as the company has chosen Hong Kong as its launch pad for entering the international market. In fact, back when we visited Meizu in Zhuhai late last year, its marketing director had already expressed interest in opening a flagship store in said city -- more so as a status symbol, if not for profit -- so we weren't really surprised by this news, but we're definitely happy for his gang. Later this month, visitors of Mongkok will notice a brand new Meizu store pop up somewhere along Sai Yeung Choi Street (yes, that gadget street), where the upcoming dual-core, 4-inch 960 x 640 MX Android phone will also be sold starting in early January -- just a tad later than its mainland counterpart. What's more, the Hong Kong version will come with extra features such as Facebook, Google Mobile Services and various Android Market apps that are absent on the original MX. Prices and absolute date to be confirmed later this month, but either way, we have a feeling that we'll be seeing some long lines again around China, if not Hong Kong.
