Hasta La Gadget!

Chinese manufacturer HiSense has taken over Microsoft’s old booth at CES, and it’s mainly showing off its latest and greatest televisions. But the company has a dirty little secret that not too many gadget fans know: it sells phones and tablets as well. While these devices may not be on the bleeding edge, HiSense’s new Android smartphone, the U958, actually sports a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Play processor (the MSM8225Q, to be precise). Aside from the inclusion of Android 4.1, the rest of the spec sheet doesn’t impress: a 4.5-inch FWVGA (854×480) display, 5MP rear camera, 512MB RAM, 4GB internal storage, microSD, 1,700mAh battery, dual-SIM support and a thickness of 9.5mm.

It’s pretty clear that the phone is geared primarily toward emerging markets; the specs and overall design seem to indicate that the company’s trying to keep costs down to a minimum. To the seeker of high-performance flagship devices, the U958 will likely get lost in the sea of competing budget-friendly phones at CES; we’re interested to see, however, if we’re witnessing the start of HiSense’s attempt to snag up crucial smartphone market share. Check out a few pics of the phone in action below.

Joseph Volpe contributed to this report.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

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Huawei has just unveiled both of their latest and greatest Android smartphones today at CES 2013 here in Viva Las Vegas. First up was the larger than usual Ascend Mate with a 6.1-inch display, but what we have below is their flagship device. The Ascend D2 follows up on its successor with a 5.0-inch 1920 x 1080p true HD display, Jelly Bean and more. Read on for full details.

Just like everything from Huawei this week, the Ascend D2 smartphone has seen its fair share of leaks too. Today however the folks from Huawei confirmed all the details themselves right up on stage. Huawei Chairman Richard Yu described it as a “dream phone” and we’d have to agree — at least according to specs. Imagine everything we loved about the DROID DNA but with a much bigger battery. Let us elaborate.

The Huawei Ascend D2 comes in with a size of 140 mm x 71 mm x 9.4 mm and only 170 grams. And will be available in Crystal Blue or Pearl White. Those “dream phone” specs include a 5.0-inch 1920 x 1080p Full HD 443 ppi “super retina LCD” Huawei’s own 1.5 GHz quad-core Hi-Silicon K3V2 + Balong V7R1 processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage and much more.

Then the other important specs that make this a tier above their Ascend Mate phablet are the fact that they tossed in a 13 megapixel rear camera that has a f/2.2 aperture, and a hybrid IR filter. Not to mention full HDR, burst mode, and of course LED flash. Then just like the original Ascend D they’ve tossed in a large battery so we won’t be begging for an outlet. The Ascend D2 rocks a large 3,000 mAh battery under the hood.

Again the Ascend D2 rocks Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, and is heavily skinned with their own UI as expected. For an idea on what to expect with software have a look at our Ascend D Quad Review from last year. The new Ascend D quad has a similar design language, although clearly is a bit larger and the screen is amazingly crisp and vibrant. Aside from the shiny new plastic design the aluminum edges feel great in the hand. More details will follow shortly with our hands-on video. Stay tuned. The device will be available next month but pricing and details were not yet available.

Huawei announces the Ascend D2 with a 5-inch 1080p display, we go Hands-on is written by Cory Gunther & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

While you may not have heard of a company called E FUN, they’re attempting to gather up some steam for CES 2013 and make a little noise. The company has announced a couple of new slates running on the latest Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS, and the company plans to show them off on the show floor this year. They announced the 7-inch Nextbook 7GP and the 8-inch GP8.

The GP in the model names stands for Google Play, meaning that both tablets come with full Google Play support with its 700,000 apps and games to choose from. The 7-inch Nextbook includes a 1024×600 screen running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and comes packing with a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot, HDMI-out, and a front and rear camera.

The 8-inch Nextbook will include a higher-resolution 1280×800 HD display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, Bluetooth, and HDMI-out. It also comes with a microSD card slot for added storage, and a full USB 2.0 port. Plus it also comes running with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box.

Both tablets will be on display at CES 2013, and while they may not get as much attention has other tablets from bigger names like ASUS and Samsung, these budget tablets from E FUN are pretty cheap, costing only $129 for the 7-inch variant and $169 for the 8-incher. Both models are expected to ship next month.

[via Android Community]

E FUN Nextbook tablets announced, packs Jelly Bean and dual-core CPU is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s no surprise that ASUS has a few surprises for us in 2013, and we’ll no doubt see a range of new tablets from the company shortly. Case in point: Some new juicy details about an Asus ME301T tablet have surfaced, and we’re looking at some pretty impressive specs, including an NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

The Asus ME301T Memo Pad10, as it’ll be called, is a 10.1-inch tablet running Jelly Bean, and it will feature NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 quad-core processor with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. It’s also said that it will come in two variants: WiFi only and WiFi+3G. We’re also looking at a 1280×800 HD display for the leaked device.

For what it’s worth, the company’s Nexus 7 was listed as the ME370T, and their new budget-minded rumored tablet is currently being listed as the ME172V, so the ME301T could be reminiscent of the Nexus 7 in some way, but we guarantee that ASUS will put their own spin on the device, including some sort of smooth aluminum shell.

Rumors point to a February release date with a price tag of just over €300, although, the price may be different once it hits the states. Other than that, ASUS might unveil the new tablet at CES 2013 next week, along with a slew of other new devices, so be prepared to get your ASUS fix starting in a few days.

[via Android Community]

ASUS ME301T 10-inch tablet leaks, Tegra 3 quad-core and Jelly Bean in tow is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A few details have been leaked by an anonymous tipster as to what the next-generation DROID RAZR M will be, building on the greatness of the already fabulous palm-sized beast. We had our first look at the original DROID RAZR M earlier this year in NYC, the reveal event also playing host to one of the first public showings of a newly minted Google-owned Motorola, complete with Google-minded software choices for Android – like on-screen buttons, for example. Here we’re seeing the logical next step for the DROID RAZR M with an “HD” name addition, but the specifications we’re seeing aren’t quite as solid as we’d hope – not logically, that is.

When you deal with leaks, tips, and rumors such as these, you’ve got to use logic above all else. We’ve got a bunch of text from a tipster that PhoneArena seems to trust well enough, but given the notion that this device would nearly out-do the now-hero-status-holding DROID RAZR HD, we’ve got to question its authenticity. The original DROID RAZR M is known for its lovely tiny 4.3-inch display, while the current DROID RAZR HD (and RAZR MAXX HD, for that matter) has a 4.7-inch display. The tip we’re seeing today cuts the gap between the two with a 4.5-inch display for a new M HD.

This machine has been tipped to work with Android 4.1, size up at 5.15 x 2.52 x 0.035 inches, and weigh in at 5.22 oz. The display is said to be a 4.5-inch 720 x 1280 pixel resolution TFT LCD, that being 326 PPI (highly impressive). This smartphone is being tipped here as coming with a massive 3300 mAh battery and will work with the same processor the original M had (and has) with the MSM8960, that being the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus dual-core 1.5GHz SoC.

Inside you’ve got 1GB of RAM (Dual-channel, 500 MHz) / DDR2 / 8192 MB ROM and built-in storage at 16GB. You’ll be able to add a microSD or microSDHC card for memory expansion up to 32GB with this device’s microSD card slot, and the machine will of course be working with Verizon’s brand of 4G LTE data. This machine will likely be appearing at CES 2013 if it does indeed show its face in the real world at all – stick with us in the [CES 2013 tag portal] until then – not too much longer now!

Motorola DROID RAZR M HD leaked with details is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.