There’s a Twitter account out there called @evleaks, that publishes hardcore leaks of phones and tablets ahead of their launch and now the same source has taken to Facebook and published a very interesting picture. It depicts a mystery LG smartphone, that might as well be the LG Optimus G2.
Some say it could be the rumored LG Nexus 5, although I kind of doubt that. Well, this model does look quite nice and it has an usual earpiece design, an elongated body and minimalistic bezel. It may resemble the Nexus 4 just a little bit and people posting comments on the Facebook page of the leakster have juggled some specs for this model.
They say it could be a Nexus 5 handset with a 4.7 or 6 inch Full HD OLED display, maybe a flexible screen, a Snapdragon 800 processor at 2 GHz and Key Lime Pie support. We knew that the LG Optimus G2 was coming soon and we’ve heard that it may be so scary thin, that its volume buttons and on/Off buttons were placed at the back… What do you think?
After some concepts of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, we came across a leaked picture of the device, that we should take with a grain of salt. The image appeared on the web today and apparently pictures a model called the i9500. Usually a Note device has an N in its name, so that’s why we tend to believe it’s fake.
There’s also a bunch of specs included in the leak. Those include a 5.99 inch Full HD display, the Exynos 5410 Octa processor, an 8 core CPU with a A15 2 GHz quad core ticker and an A7 1.7 GHz ticker. The interesting bit is that we’re supposed to get 3 GB of RAM here, instead of the usual 2 GB of RAM from the last years.
Galaxy Note 3 runs Android 4.2.2 and I find it strange that its Home button is so tiny. I have to say that this product is expected to be unveiled at IFA 2013, sometime in August or September, if everything goes well. I expect Wacom to include an even more evolved stylus system, perhaps with new apps and a new way to multitask.
Meizu has a bunch of very cute phones and now they’re preparing for a new device release, the Meizu MX3, that’s expected at some point in 2014. Of course, concepts of the device have appeared and they’re shown below. Meizu has the habit of updating handsets at the end of the year, so that’s when we’ll find out how realistic the concepts are.
Rumors say that Meizu plans to introduce a larger phone with a very narrow bezel, edge to edge display and it could even feature a Samsung Exynos 5 Octa 8 core processor. A 5.1 inch Full HD screen should also be present, according to rumors, plus a 13 megapixel camera obviously, since that’s a modern hardware feature nowadays. The home button is quite similar to the one of the MX2 and the Meizu smart bar on screen navigation will also be present.
Meizu MX3 does look kind of bulky and I’m sure that its maker wants to make a very thin smartphone, since it’s famous for that. The front side reminds me of a Huawei tablet for some reason, while the plastic back makes me think of the new wave of TCL Alcatel phones.
The folks of Yugatech have come up with a new render for the Samsung Galaxy S4 on the day when Samsung decided to post the video below on the web, teasing us about the big event from next week, the one where Samsung will announced its big flagship.
Also, by the way, benchmarks for the device have just been leaked and the AnTuTu screenshots here give us a good picture of what the next flagship will bring. We’re going to be seeing a polycarbonate body Galaxy S4, with a rectangular form factor, like the Galaxy S II and with a Full HD Super AMOLED display or maybe a SoLux one. Although recently rumors have claimed we’ll see a Snapdragon 600 on the Galaxy S4, it seems that an Exynos 5 Octa is still in the cards, if benchmarks are to be believed.
The camera will most likely be a 13 megapixel affair, as for the software, it will be Android 4.2 with a new TouchWiz. The device debuts on March 14th during a special Samsung event in New York. It may go on sale as soon as April and as far as pricing goes, we really have no idea about that. What are your wishes for this device?
Although Motorola has the RAZR M model out there, that’s not exactly the bezel-free handset that the world was expecting. People want something more in the line with the prototype below, dubbed the BBK Vivio X3. The picture below shows a prototype or pre-production model of a device that lacks any kind of vertical bezel.
It also resembles the front panel shown below, one that belongs to the Vivio X1 model and this company was also responsible with a very thin phone, that measured 6.55 mm in thickness and debuted last year. We also have some rumored specs for this bezel-free wonder. They include a Full HD screen, a quad core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, 2 GB of RAM, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and a 13 megapixel rear camera. There’s also 32 GB of storage and a 2,200 mAh battery, all of them already pretty generic specs for a 2013 model.
The only problem here is the battery capacity and with LTE in the mix and such a big, bright display, it may be a bit of a battery drainer. Are we actually ready for phones with no vertical bezel? What’s your first complain regarding one? Screen smudging, cracking screen sides, accidental presses on the display?
Looking for a solid Nexus 5 design? Well, the folks of The Verge have come up with an interesting idea, that you can see in the images below. They’re analyzing the current design trends and adopting the best on a proposition for the next Google Nexus phone.
The codename here is Meracus, that means clear/pure, so the concept relies on a screen that takes up most of the facade of the phone. The idea is to minimize the bezel and there are two size versions of the device, one that borrows from the HTC Droid DNA and combines it with the idea behind the Nexus 4 and the other size is equivalent to the iPhone 4 and uses a screen taken from the Xperia T. The notification light is moved to the lower right corner of the facade of the device, while the speaker is all the way to the top and the front facing camera is moved to the remote corner of the facade.
The Proximity sensor is on the side of the display now. All of the moves are done to gain more screen estate on the device, if possible. The Mera M model is a 133.9 mm x 68.7 mm phone, while the Mera P is a 120 mm x 61.2 mm handset, that’s inspired by the size of the iPhone 4. The ear speaker grille is extended and flattened in order to allow seamless pull down gestures. The on screen buttons and top panel will be off when the device is in idle mode, like in apps or video watching, but they can be tapped to be brought back.
Everything is accompanied by the 2014 released of Android, Android Marshmallow J. Do you think this can be done?
Recent rumors about Lenovo’s interest in buying RIM made us all think about a possible Lenovo smartphone with BlackBerry features. Lenovo is the second largest PC maker in the world and they recently got into the whole smartphone and tablet biz, although on the tablet side they haven’t been that successful.
Joe Hooper emailed us a concept of a Lenovo BlackBerry phone, a hybrid between the two companies’ best technologies. I guess that RIM could contribute the services infrastructure and corporate features, while Lenovo has the ability to make the hardware of the device more high end. I’m not a big fan of Lenovo’s UI customizations on Android, but I think that the formats they’re exploring on Windows 8 (Yoga tablet) are interesting, so they may put that to good use on a future dual display BlackBerry (just dreaming).
The model here seems to run BB 10 OS, that will be launched on January 30th and it comes with those live multitasking tiles and a dock area for the search, phone and camera features. The design of the handset is kind of bland and doesn’t say much, but we’ll see how this plays out…
We’re barely into Android 4.2 and heard speculations about a supposed Android 5.0 being spotted in some benchmark and already there are talks about Android 9.0. At least so it would seem from this leaflet of a Christian tablet with this OS on board, obviously a mistake in these crazy days we call Black Friday 2012. Oh, by the way Happy Thanksgiving!
This funky mistake was spotted thanks to @kevinCTofel’s tweet and this tablet sounds pretty interesting at this price, especially since it has a HDMI port, which the Nexus 7 and iPad Mini don’t. If you wonder what this is doing on Concept Phones, well we thought to lighten up the mood for the holidays and actually dream about Android 9.0 for a change. There’s no doubt in my mind that the next Android will be version 5.0, but what’s next?
I guess that they will pull out a few more releases for Android 5.0, make the OS more diverse, unite it with all the Chrome goodies and run it on Chromebooks and full fledged laptops. The idea is that in about 3 year from now we’ll have a Google OS so good that it easily replaces Windows. And with Google aiming at becoming a cellular carrier and Internet provider, you’ll run out of the excuse of saying “I don’t want to have an OS that requires Internet, since I may disconnect”, since connections will be omnipresent. How’s that for a future?
After so many high end concept phones, let’s relax for a bit and enjoy a fun piece of news. The folks of Android Greed have imagined a Chuck Norris Android phone, with specs that even the Starship Enterprise would envy. The design is pretty similar to the one of the Motorola Droid RAZR, but the people behind this mockup said that it can change shape at any time, thanks to the power of the Chuck.
The handset runs a special edition of Android, one that Google and Chuck Norris created together. Apparenly it’s called Android Ultimate and it comes with a software button that looks like a fist. This one allows you to summon Chuck Norris just like Aladdin summoned the Genie. It’s nice to see that they mentioned the device is manufactured by Motorola and before mentioning other ridiculous features, apparently the phone is able to survive to dips of 10,000 meters below the sea level and a drop from the top of Sears Willis Tower.
The specs of the Chuck Norris phone are as ridiculous as it gets and include a 4.5 inch screen with scalable resolution, that can go from HD to 3840 x 2400, plus a 8.888 GHz eight core processor. The CPU and GPU were launched in 2025 and Chuck apparently traveled in time and brought them to us. And finally we’ve got the 12 gigapixel camera with thought focus (don’t ask!), 8GB of RAM, infinite internal memory and 10,000 preloaded Chuck Norris jokes and facts. If you want to know more about the phone, check out the source, but boy is this phone an exaggerated joke or what?
We’ve already posted a teaser of the next Galaxy Nexus phone, made by Bob Freking. There was also the Nexus 2 concept we had, that went viral. And now we’ve got this shade and Bob Freking asks you for clues and a guessing game on what this device is all about.
I’m guessing it’s a quad core device with Android Key Lime Pie or maybe Android L, who knows? It seems like a very slim device and the big shades on the side make me think about one volume button, but what about the other? Then I had a revelation: what if this is not a phone and its shadow, but a phone with a sliding part? And what if those things that look like volume buttons are in fact shoulder buttons? Could it be a Google Nexus Xperia Play 2?! Of course, this is just my speculation and the final device isn’t ready yet.
You can guess, speculate, throw ideas and generally talk about this mockup/idea in the Comments are below and on Facebook by clicking the picture above.
