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Nokia Lumia 521 bringing Windows Phone 8 pizazz exclusively to T-Mobile
Neither Nokia nor T-Mobile USA are spilling too many beans on the Lumia 521, but needless to say, it's heading exclusively to Señorita Magenta in the near future. Announced in a blurb here at Mobile World Congress, the Windows Phone 8 handset will connect to T-Mob's HSPA+ network, and the carrier swears that it'll "embody a range of high-end features at an affordable price." Of course, additional details -- including device availability and specifics on pricing -- are being kept under wraps until a heretofore undefined date. We'll be sure to share more as we hear of it.
Nokia Lumia 520 announced, ready to bring WP8 and dual-core to emerging markets for $180
At Mobile World Congress, Nokia has announced the Lumia 520, its latest piece of ammunition in the company's campaign to conquer emerging markets and first-time smartphone buyers. The inexpensive smartphone actually packs a pretty powerful punch for its price point, offering the same dual-core 1GHz Snapdragon CPU found in the Lumia 720 also announced today. It also features 512MB RAM, a 4-inch WVGA (800 x 480) IPS LCD display and 1,430mAh battery. As we've come to expect on Lumia devices, it comes included with Nokia services like the full suite of Here Maps, Nokia Music and several lenses such as Cinemagraph and panorama. The 520 will come in five color options: cyan, yellow, red, black and white. Snap-on covers will also be available for anyone interested in swapping hues day-to-day. The $183 phone begins its quest for dominance in China later this quarter, and shortly afterward it will make its way to Europe, the rest of Asia and T-Mobile in the US. Head below for a full listing of specs.
Nokia Lumia 620 review: precisely what an entry-level smartphone should be
More Info Nokia announces the Lumia 620 Nokia Lumia 920 review Windows Phone 8 review The Lumia 620 is Nokia's most affordable Windows Phone 8 device yet. Alas, it's a device that might never make an appearance in the US, due to its very attractive pricing of (£150, or around $236), unless American carriers are willing to give a rebate from the outset. But it's a surprisingly attractive Lumia -- in fact it's hard to put it in the same category as Nokia's previous cheaper Windows Phone options. Those colors hit you right between the eyes, with matte- and gloss-finish covers in cyan, lime, yellow and magenta presenting a nice alternative to the more staid black and white versions. Behind that shell, a 1GHz Snapdragon S4 Plus beats away, with a bright 3.8-inch ClearBlack display beaming out a familiar 800 x 480 resolution. Despite the price, it's running the latest iteration of Windows Phone 8 and Nokia's also ensured its own camera lens apps, along with its music and mapping services, have been carried over as well. The 5-megapixel camera may be bested by the Zeiss-equipped 8-megapixel sensors on its bigger brothers, but with a staggering £300 difference between the Lumia 620 and Lumia 920, what other sacrifices have been made? Is this the best bang-for-your-buck Windows Phone we've ever seen? We think it might be.
Microsoft Blink Windows Phone Lens app gives users perfect photographical timing (update)
It's no secret that Microsoft and Nokia are aiming to make Windows Phone the OS of choice when it comes to mobile photography, whether through optical image stabilization or the Lens app lineup. The latest camera augmentation code to come down the pike is Blink, an app built by Microsoft Research that brings a special burst mode to WP8 devices. Blink works by snapping a series of 16 shots each time you take a photo, and lets you choose which picture's worth keeping. It's an an excellent tool for those looking to take action photos, but there's a catch -- the pictures taken by Blink are of less-than-impressive quality, with a max resolution of 800 x 488. That said, if such an imaging safety net sounds good to you, there's a video showing it off in action after the break, and you can grab the app at the source below. Update: It seems that the images Blink produced on our Samsung ATIV Odyssey are not representative of the app's true capabilities. One of the app's creators reached out to tell us that Blink is set to output images that are 1280 x 720, and the glitch we unwittingly discovered is being investigated.
Samsung ATIV Odyssey review: a budget WP8 phone that performs like a flagship
The Windows Phone 8 deluge is slowly starting to taper off. HTC and Nokia have made their presence known with loud, bold statements and even Huawei has gotten in on the action. Meanwhile Samsung has already blessed the market with its flagship ATIV S, a respectable rehash of the Galaxy S III with a Microsoft soul. Nokia and HTC even have their respective mid-range models on the market. Which leaves just one slot to be filled: a budget offering from Sammy. With the debut of the ATIV Odyssey it's safe to assume that the Windows Phone landscape won't be changing too dramatically in the immediate future. (Of course, Mobile World Congress could make a liar out of us in short order.) The ATIV S simply doesn't have the pomp and flash (though, it has the guts) to run with the Lumia 920 and HTC 8X. But in the mid-range, where gimmicks and style often take a backseat to functionality, perhaps Samsung can carve out a space for itself among the Redmond faithful? Last year's Focus 2 and 2011's Focus Flash struck a winning combination of price and functionality by offering comparable specs to their higher-end competitors. Just over a year later, the question is whether that's still a winning combination in a market that's significantly broadened its horizons.
Google to continue offering Exchange ActiveSync support on Windows Phones through July 31st
Today is the day that Google has been planning to shut off its support for Exchange ActiveSync, but it appears that the company has had a slight change of heart. Google has confirmed that it will allow Windows Phones to access Google Sync services for an additional six months, ending on July 31st. This move will allow Microsoft a little extra breathing room, giving the company more time to determine how to best resolve the concern that will affect countless Gmail fans that currently use Windows Phone as their primary driver; according to a blog post (linked below), Microsoft has indeed confirmed that it's working on building CalDAV and CardDAV support into Windows Phone. We reached out to Google and received this confirmation: "As announced last year, our plan is to end support for new device connections using Google Sync starting January 30, 2013. With the launch of CardDAV, it's now possible to build a seamless sync experience using open protocols (IMAP, CalDAV and CardDAV) for Gmail, Google Calendar and Contacts. We'll start rolling out this change as planned across all platforms but will continue to support Google Sync for Windows Phone until July 31, 2013."
Amazon adds Windows Phone 8 support to Kindle app, keeps the Live Tiles going
Amazon's been doing a pretty decent job at blanketing those Android and iOS Kindle applications with the latest and greatest, but the same couldn't exactly be said about its Windows Phone counterpart. Today there's great news for users of Redmond's mobile OS, however, as the Fire maker has announced an update that brings some much-needed support for Windows Phone 8 to the app, which should pair well with the company's Whispersync tech and the extensive e-book repertoire it has to offer. There might be one caveat, though: early adopters of the refreshed Kindle app have said it's facing some crashing issues and, in some cases, even having trouble launching -- a few folks, meanwhile, have mentioned that it's best to do a clean install rather than update the previous version in order to avoid any woes. The link to grab the application is down below, and do use the comments section to let us know how the process turned out for you.
Huawei Ascend W1 now available in China for $260, cheaper than Lumia 620 locally
We knew that Huawei's 4-inch Ascend W1 will be hitting the UK at some point this quarter, but the company is once again launching a new device in its home country first. Currently available in black at the official online store, this dual-core, WCDMA 900/2100-flavored W1 is priced at ¥1,599 or about $260, making it the cheapest Windows Phone 8 device you can get in China -- probably something that will help address Huawei's smartphone penetration problem. Better yet, placing an order now will knock ¥100 (about $16) off the order but only while stocks last, so interested buyers better start calling their pals in China soon, especially before they shut down for Chinese New Year early next month! The title of cheapest WP8 device in China was previously held by Nokia's ¥1,999 (about $320) Lumia 620, though in the US it is available for just $249. Given the bigger screen and battery, the W1 might be a better buy, but we shall reserve our final judgement until we get to play with it properly. Meanwhile, somewhere in Redmond, Steve Ballmer is closely observing with a massive grin.
ASUS says it's interested in making a Windows Phone, maybe even a Windows-based PadFone
An Asus exec has revealed to the Wall Street Journal that his company is "in talks" with Microsoft to license Windows Phone 8. Talk is cheap, of course, but at this point WP8 is much in need of friends and it's interesting to contemplate what Asus might do with the OS, given that manufacturer's penchant for quirky form factors. Speaking of which, the same executive -- VP Benson Lin -- brought up the notion of a PadFone-style modular device based on Windows: "With our Padfone concept, the phone plus tablet, I think it makes sense for Windows 8" What doesn't make sense is how such a thing could work. The Android-based PadFone employs the exact same OS regardless of whether it's in phone or tablet mode, but no version of Windows (whether WP8, RT or the regular "8") currently allows that sort of flexibility with screen size. Lin may know something about the future of Windows that we don't, or he may just be throwing out abstract ideas about some sort of dual-OS device -- after all, he admitted that there is "no target timeline" for any of this. In the shorter term, Lin also said that Asus is talking to US carriers in the hope of bringing its wares to the States by 2014, which could mean that a PadFone 3 -- if there ever is one -- may be more than just a remote curiosity or an Expansys special.
LastPass password manager updated with Windows Phone 8 support, all-new UI
LastPass, the password-managing service, announced that it's added many features in a new version released today for its Windows Phone application. Most notably, LastPass now offers support for Windows Phone 8, while those running an older variant of Microsoft's mobile OS can keep using the app as they have been since its early days on the platform. Other improvements and enhancements include a completely overhauled user interface, which should make it easier for users to navigate within the application, as well as easily find their most preferred sites by sorting alphabetically or adding them to the "Favorites" panel. The new version of LastPass is up for download now, so go and tap that source link if you're looking to keep those (many) passwords of yours all tidied up in one place.
Qualcomm's Paul Jacobs: too early to call the game on Windows Phone
This shouldn't come as a surprise after Steve Ballmer crashed the Qualcomm CES keynote yesterday, but at a follow-up briefing earlier today, the latter's CEO Paul Jacobs reiterated his support for Windows Phone. The exec said "it's too early to call the game" on Microsoft's mobile OS, and emphasized that he "never counted Microsoft out" as it has a lot of resources plus benefits, especially with the tie-in with its enterprise software and Xbox. "It is growing, they are gaining traction. When you use the devices they work well. That's pretty key," said Jacobs. Well, we're certainly fans of the Snapdragon-powered HTC 8X and Lumia 920, so it'll be up to Microsoft to convince more consumers. When asked whether the latest Snapdragon flagship is overshadowed by NVIDIA's Tegra 4 in terms of graphics performance, Jacobs insisted that is a very wrong assumption, and he's actually very confident about his own product's capability courtesy of his in-house graphics engineers. SVP of product management Raj Talluri added that even the Snapdragon 600 has a much higher CPU and GPU performance than both Tegra 4 and Intel's Clover Trail+. Obviously we'll know the truth when the consumer devices eventually land on our hands later this year.
Huawei Ascend W1 hands-on: the company's first Windows Phone 8 device (video)
If you were following Huawei's presser from earlier today, you may have thought the company's CES 2013 story was "All About Android." Turns out, it's not. On the showfloor here at Pepcom, the company was able to give us a first look at the Ascend W1: it's first entry for the Windows Phone 8 space. Admittedly, the W1 doesn't share any of the lust-worthy, high-end specs that adorn the Ascend Mate and D2, but that's not its angle. As one Huawei rep put it, this is a value proposition, outfitted with a 4-inch display (we couldn't verify resolution) and 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 paried with 512MB RAM. Software-wise, this is about as stock WP8 as it gets, so don't expect to see any applications come pre-loaded onto the hardware. As for its dimensions, the W1 is a girthy phone, cutting a silhouette that's just about 10mm -- so, it stands far outside the "world's thinnest" category that we've heard so much about at this CES. It also bears a bit of heft which we can't ascribe to its battery size. At 1,950mAh, the W1 should pack enough juice to last seven to nine days on standby and given the reduced power requirements of WP8, it's sure to get moderate users through a full day. There's a paltry 4GB of storage onboard, but thankfully, users can augment that via a microSD slot, allowing for up to 32GB. UI navigation on the W1 lives up to the elegant, sweeping transitions that have become trademarks of Windows Phone 8. It's appreciably quick and responsive. And somewhat surprisingly, viewing angles on the display held up remarkably when we tilted it about in various degrees. As for that standard micro-USB port, it seems Huawei's done something different by allocating it to the bottom right of the handset. Wondering when and where you'll see the W1? Well, join the club. Huawei's remaining tight-lipped about pricing and release details, but we did manage to get a confirmation that the W1 would be US-bound this year. For now, feast your eyes on the gallery below and check out our video after the break. %Gallery-175153% Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub. Sarah Silbert contributed to this report. Update: Some additional specs can be found in the press release after the break, including confirmation of a 4-inch IPS LCD 480 x 800 display.
T-Mobile HTC 8X gets Windows Phone 8 update packing text messaging and WiFi tweaks
T-Mobile and Microsoft have unleashed a new Windows Phone 8 update (version 8.0.10211.204, if you must know) to polish the OS for HTC 8X devices. Now, incoming calls can be replied to with pre-written texts and data usage can be kept to a minimum by preventing Internet Explorer from downloading images automatically. Text messaging has been spruced up as well, allowing multiple recipients to be added at the same time when sending a message, automatically saving unsent texts as drafts and letting users edit received messages before forwarding them. Redmond's OS will now learn from a user's WiFi connection history and prioritize which networks it connects to. If you've experienced some rebooting issues with your handset, it's likely that the unspecified grab bag of "other improvements" includes a few welcome bug fixes to smooth things over. There's no word on when the update will grace the 8X's brethren on other carriers, but if your smartphone happens to call the magenta network home, mosey on over to the "Phone Update" settings section to check for the fresh release.
Huawei's Ascend W1 and D2 confirmed for CES, Richard Yu expresses worry over the latter
Huawei's first-ever Windows Phone, the Ascend W1, is no stranger to us at this point, but no one's been certain about its debut until now. After mourning his daughter's two stolen ducks on Sina Weibo, Senior Vice President Richard Yu said not only will his company formally introduce its WP8 device at CES next month, but it'll also be showing off its Android-powered Ascend D2 (pictured center and right). Interestingly, Yu also expressed concern that the D2 "Dream Phone" will be too expensive to produce due to the powerful specs: five-inch 1080p display, quad-core 1.5GHz chip (undoubtedly Huawei's very own K3V2), 13-megapixel camera and 3,000mAh battery -- all according to leaked info from an internal event from late October, as well as a recent filing in the TENAA database. Don't worry, Richard, just give us a decent price tag and we'll be all over you.
Bloomberg: HTC backing away from plan to build five-inch Windows Phone
We've been fans of super-sized live tiles ever since the OG Titan came around, but maybe we can't count on HTC to push things any further. According to Bloomberg's sources, the Taiwanese manufacturer has given up on a project to create a Windows Phone with a display larger than five inches. Instead, it'll focus all its big-screened efforts on Android, much as it's already doing with the Droid DNA (shown above) and Asian Butterfly. The reason? Well, that bit's unclear. Microsoft's mobile OS doesn't currently play nice with 1080p, which puts a limit on the pixel density of any big device -- but then there's always the potential for software updates, and besides, the 5.5-inch Galaxy Note II is hardly being held back by its 720 lines. Bloomberg does mention another, more plausible reason, which is that HTC simply believes the WP market is too weak to haul a juggernaut.
IRL: Pioneer VSX-60, Three UK and a Windows Phone 8 wish list
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. We're back, this time with an unusual mashup between Engadget HD and Engadget Mobile. Kicking things off on the HD side, our own Ben Drawbaugh tells us what it's like to live with Pioneer's VSX-60 AV receiver. Meanwhile, Dan switches to Three UK for home broadband, and Deepak makes a plea for home screen folders in Windows Phone 8.
Resize a Nokia Lumia to juggernaut proportions and it might look something like this
This photo just wandered in out of the wilds of Twitter with absolutely no memory of its name, home town, or who created it. It was originally sent to MyNokiaBlog by @coolRaffy, and it could be anything, legit or otherwise. It looks a bit like a Lumia 810 scaled up to the size of a Galaxy Note II -- assuming the mystery owner has regular sized hands. The blurry text on the left edge reads "property of Nokia not for sale," which suggests it could be a prototype, while the presence of a Family Room live tile implies we're in the presence of Windows Phone 8 -- even if the WP logo is the old kind. Meanwhile, a second photo of the settings screen (shown after the break) reveals an up-to-date Snapdragon S4 chipset and provides a model name that sounds wholly appropriate: the Juggernaut Semaphore. It's very possibly linked to the Juggernaut Alpha that appeared in a benchmark score back in the summer. Unfortunately, the settings screen also reinforces the notion of it being --at best -- a prototype. Just check out the resolution. Update: NieuweMobiel.NL is suggesting that this is actually an old Nokia prototype that is making a second round again. The addition to "Semaphore" to the older "Juggernaut" name is a bit curious, but the hardware is certainly very familiar looking.
Google has no plans to develop Windows 8 or WP apps, cites lack of users
If you're eager to load up a Windows Phone or Windows 8 PC with dedicated Gmail or Google Drive apps, it's time you ease up on the anticipation, as Mountain View isn't bent on bringing apps to the platforms thanks to a lack of interest. "We have no plans to build out Windows apps," Google Apps product management director Clay Bavor told V3. "We are very careful about where we invest and will go where the users are but they are not on Windows Phone or Windows 8." That might sound grim, but Bavor added that a change in user base would warrant applications brewed up by Page and Co. As it stands, however, Google's focused on polishing its iOS and Android efforts, so Redmond devotees should get mighty comfortable with the search giant's web-based offerings.
Leak suggests Samsung ATIV S to launch in Canada with Bell on December 14th
The S III-esque ATIV S didn't materialize on Canadian carriers in November as we'd expected, but a supposed leak from Bell's internal system shows it might well be launching before the holidays. Samsung's first (but not only) handset running Windows Phone 8 is arriving December 14th at Bell, according to MobileSyrup's source, which also reports SIM-free pricing of $599.95 (Canadian dollars), or $79.95 on a three-year contract. We can't confirm the numbers, but it should only be a few days before you can find out how much of that Christmas budget you'll need to repurpose for your own treat. And, with a new phone to play with, you won't even notice the thinly-veiled disappointment caused by your bargain bin gifts.
HTC Windows Phone 8S available now on Three UK: £17 per month or £180 off-contract
HTC's second Windows Phone 8 device may not ever visit the US, but the 8S has arrived, at least in the UK. British carrier Three has the phone for sale starting today, both online (with delivery for Monday) and in its bricks and mortar stores, offering the Windows Phone 8S in the two-tone blue and black finish -- we're checking with Three to see whether it'll offer any other color options, as we've got our eyes on the yellow version. Expect to pay £219 £180 sans monthly billing, while the phone will be free on two-year contracts priced starting at £17 per month. We'll be putting the 8S through the review wringer soon -- you can expect to see our verdict next week. Update: Three has been in touch to say the contract-free price has now dropped to £180 -- a pretty tempting launch price.
