Hasta La Gadget!

Taiwan might have an HTC One and an HTC First, but starting today, Singapore has a Synrgic Uno to join the banter (get it?). The name Synrgic might not immediately ring a bell, but if you dig a little deeper, you’ll see a mention of its earlier phone plus three tablets from a while back. Alas, said phone was eventually canned as the quality didn’t meet expectations, so consider this Uno a new attempt by the same Singaporean startup.

Announced in its home city just now, this device is positioned as a mid-tier Android phone with some modest specs, namely a 4.7-inch, 720p IPS display with Gorilla Glass and, more interestingly, a dual-core 1.5GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 4470 SoC (with 1GB DDR2 RAM and SGX 544 graphics chip). With the upcoming TI OMAP 5 series shifting towards automotive systems, chances are the Uno will be one of the last OMAP-powered smartphones before TI waves goodbye to the mobile world. More after the break.

Update: We’ve added a hands-on video after the break. In short: smooth software and solid hardware build, with some room for improvement on the coating at the top and bottom sides.

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Source: Synrgic

No, this isn’t the world’s thinnest phone thanks to Alcatel and BBK, but Oppo’s recently announced R809T is still a seemingly attractive device judging by the above official image. Measuring at 6.93mm thick (instead of the rumored 6.13mm), we’re surprised that Oppo didn’t set this to be the follow-up to the Finder: sure, it’s 0.28mm thicker, but it also aces the latter with a 4.7-inch 720p in-cell display, a 1.2GHz quad-core chip with 1GB RAM (likely MediaTek’s Cortex-A7-based MT6589 SoC), Android 4.2 and a sorely missed 3.5mm headphone jack — so no micro-USB adapter required. Then there’s also an 8-megapixel main camera plus an increasingly common 2-megapixel, 88-degree wide front-facing imager, which is obviously no match for the 5-megapixel counterpart on Oppo’s Ulike 2.

Pricing and availability have yet to be announced, but given the “T” in the model name, chances are it’ll only work on China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA network, anyway; unless you really don’t mind using just GSM. Close-up shot after the break.

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Via: Engadget Chinese

Source: Sina Weibo (login required)

It makes sense that phones with lots of bells and whistles are among the most expensive that you can find in the market. But if all you want is a phone to call people or send them a message, then this $12 handset might be for you.

The big catch is that it’s pretty hard to find, because apparently, it’s only available in China.

This is no smartphone by any means. But if money’s tight and all you need is a basic cellphone, this could very well do the job. Hacker Andrew “Bunnie” Huang came across this particular cheap phone when he was at the Mingtong Digital Mall in Shenzhen, China and was impressed at the extremely low price of the device.

Of course, you get what you pay for. While the device is an unlocked, contract-free quad-band GSM mobile that comes with a charger, USB and microSD ports, and Bluetooth connectivity, it’s also built with a meager two-color OLED screen, and only has 8MB of storage. Plus all of the components are soldered in place, so it would be very difficult to repair or replace any parts. But for 12 bucks, you can just buy another phone if anything goes wrong with this one.

[bunnie:studios via Boing Boing via Dvice]

Nokia has a new QWERTY phone today, and as we suspected it slots into the company’s cheaper Asha line, rather than being the keyboard-equipped Lumia many have been hoping for. The Asha 210 packs full-QWERTY into a candybar form-factor, but also includes a dedicated WhatsApp shortcut key, with free lifetime service on the cross-platform messaging app for anyone who buys the single- or dual-SIM versions of the phone.

Hit the WhatsApp button and you can jump straight into your conversations; alternatively, there’s integration into the Asha 210′s phonebook, with the ability to start specific chats with people from there. Nokia also loads a YouTube app, throws in the SLAM easy photo transfer system we first saw last year on the Asha 205 “Facebook” phone, and the data-squeezing Nokia Xpress Browser.

Otherwise, there’s WiFi and a 2-megapixel camera, the latter using Nokia’s self-portrait feature which works around the absence of a front-facing camera by instead giving voice prompts to help you frame your face properly. There’s also Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and other email account support.

Nokia claims up to 46 days battery life on the single-SIM version, while the dual-SIM Asha 210 will last for up to 24 days, the company claims. The latter can flick between its SIM cards without requiring a reboot, too.

The Asha 210 will go on sale in Q2 2013, priced from $72. It’ll be offered in yellow, cyan, black, magenta, and white.

Nokia Asha 210 brings the QWERTY with a dedicated WhatsApp key is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Nokia has teased a new QWERTY device, using the company’s current primary-color scheme, though the phone seems unlikely to be the much-anticipated keyboard-equipped Lumia Windows Phone. Only a tiny glimpse of the handset – which will be officially revealed on Wednesday – has been shown so far, but Nokia has said that Mobile Phones technology marketing director Neil Broadley will be manning the Q&A session, implying that we’re looking at a new Asha device, not a true smartphone.

The physical similarities in design between Asha and Lumia have been increasing with Nokia’s more recent iterations, as the company plays on its distinctive color schemes. Asha phones are generally targeted at developing markets, but also the sort of low-cost prepay and SIM-free audiences who might currently be opting for a budget BlackBerry 7 handset.

That’s despite a history of well-esteemed QWERTY Nokia phones, with handsets like the E6 and the E7 finding favor for their tactile thumb-boards. Both ran Symbian, however, and came before Nokia’s transition to Windows Phone, an OS which has been poorly served by hardware keyboard devices.

Unfortunately, hopes that Nokia would deliver such a phone were all but dashed back at Mobile World Congress, when smartphone chief Jo Harlow told SlashGear that would-be users shouldn’t hold their breath for it. Though there remains a vocal group still asking for a physical keyboard, Harlow conceded, the actual size of that audience continues to shrink as touchscreen text-input improves.

For Nokia, that means the cost of developing a QWERTY Lumia is unlikely to see a return on actual device sales. Existing users of physical keyboard devices don’t necessarily upgrade to another phone with QWERTY, Harlow pointed out, and “we really don’t want to be on the wrong side of that movement.”

Nokia’s announcement of the new phone will be at 7am GMT (2am Eastern) on Wednesday, April 24.

Nokia teases new QWERTY phone (but don’t expect a keyboard Lumia) is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.