LG G2 officially revealed as Full HD, quad-core Galaxy S4 competitor

LG has finally unveiled its new flagship Android smartphone, the LG G2. With a whopping 5.2-inch Full HD display and Android 4.2.2 on board, this is LG’s answer to the Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One and Sony Xperia Z.

Encased in a rather curved and sleek Galaxy S4-like black plastic casing is a host of the very latest and most powerful mobile tech the world has to offer. For starters, there’s a 5.2-inch True HD-IPS+ display which sports the Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080, equating to a very, very sharp 424 pixels per inch.

Inside is a trio of components to provide more power than almost all other smartphones on the market – the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core chip running at 2.3GHz, 2GB of RAM and the Adreno 330 graphics chip. This thing looks to be face-meltingly fast.

Cameras consist of a 13 megapixel rear sensor with LED flash and a 2.1 megapixel sensor up front for video calling, with 32GB of internal storage providing plenty of space for storing Full HD videos and high res images. You’ve also got a micro SD card slot for further memory expansion, so LG beats the HTC One in this department.

Connectivity comes in the form of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, DLNA and 4G LTE (not all regions). The G2 also becomes one of just a handful of phones to use the new Nano SIM standard.

Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean is the operating system which runs right out of the box, with the expectation of the 4.3 update coming along in the not too distant future.

LG has gone against the grain in at least one design aspect, moving the volume switch from the traditional rocker button on the side of the phone to a wider, flatter button that sits directly below the camera on the back. A strange move, but LG believes that this is the precise location your index finger is when holding your phone – we just checked and it is when we’re on a call, but not for pretty much everything else!

So far only the phone has been shown off. We’re still waiting to hear the all-important prices and release dates, but we’ll update this post with those vitals once we have them.

Source: Gadget Helpline

HTC to launch mid-range Desire 500 Android smartphone in August

We have all been preoccupied with HTC’s current One range of smartphones lately and just when we are looking the other way the Taiwanese company reveals a new mid-range Desire model in the form of the HTC Desire 500.

The new model will be a mid-range smartphone that will be initially released in Asia before it lands on our UK shores at the end of the month.

The Desire 500 comes with some decent features including a 4.3-inch WVGA LCD display with a 800 x 480 resolution. Inside it runs the Android Jelly Bean OS with HTC Sense 5 interface on a 1.2GHz quad-core processor with 1GB of RAM. One surprise with the Desire 500 is the inclusion of a large 8 megapixel rear camera with a dedicated HTC ImageChip processor and f/2.0 28mm lens which belies the phone’s middle of the road look.

See also: Entry level HTC Desire 200 launched with Beats Audio

Internally there is 4GB of internal memory which can also be expanded by up to 64GB via the micro SD slot, with a 1800mAh battery which should tide the phone over power wise. There will be dual-SIM and NFC versions of the handset  available in some countries but there is no definitive news on just where and how much each model will be available for at the moment.

The Desire 500 will also come with some of HTC’s headline features such as Beats Audio processing and the Blinkfeed system which gives the user a tile-based homescreen with updates from websites and social sites.

The Desire range of smartphones – currently the Desire 200 and Desire 600 are the newest out –  is now associated with the budget to mid-range smartphone market for HTC but they are normally decent Android running phones with lower price tags. The Desire 500 will be available in ‘Lacquer black’ and ‘Glacier blue’ when it’s released in August in the UK.

Source: Gadget Helpline

Apple’s iPhone 5C leaked in high resolution images, looks legit

For the first time ever, this year Apple looks set to unveil not one but two new iPhones. Firstly we have the iPhone 5S; an upgraded version of the iPhone 5 with a very similar design. Second, the iPhone 5C; an iPhone similar in size and shape but lower in cost thanks to the use of plastics.

We’ve seen parts, rumours and reports flying about for months now regarding this ‘low cost iPhone’ but finally we have a full set of high resolution images of the phone, which to us look rather legit. They also come from ex-9to5mac­ writer Sonny Dickson, who leaked accurate images of the iPad Mini before its release, so we have a good feeling about this one.

Pictured without the internals and the screen – which is said to be 4-inch and of the Retina display variety, just like the iPhone 5 – the device clearly sports a more rounded white plastic case. If you’re still not getting the picture, think iPhone 3GS evolved into iPhone 5, in terms of the casing.

We can see the Lightning connector, speaker holes and 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom edge of the device, matching up with the iPhone 5 and 5^th gen iPod Touch. Although the iPhone branding is there, any mention of 5C isn’t present – we’re assuming the reason for this is that the pictured device is a prototype.

The 5C doesn’t appear to be much thicker than the iPhone 5 and still looks pretty sleek and palm-friendly, which was one of our worries when we first started hearing about a ‘cheaper’, plastic iPhone.

Although we don’t yet know just how much more affordable the iPhone 5C will be compared to the 5S, we know that the main way Apple is cutting down cost is by switching pricy materials such as glass and aluminium for plastic. It’s still unclear whether there will also be cuts in camera quality, memory and other internal components.

Apple is expected to reveal the iPhone 5S around September / October, continuing with its annual tradition. We hope to see the iPhone 5C also making an appearance at the same event, but knowing Apple, nothing will be revealed until the last minute.

Source: Gadget Helpline