It feels almost unfaithful to the Ascend W1 to be looking at a potential sequel already, but that’s what evleaks claims this is. How he got the image we have no idea, and neither do we have any price or specs to go with it — it’s just this lone render of a Huawei handset running Windows Phone 8 in Chinese. There was actually a previous leak back in April (shown after the break), which also purported to be the Ascend W2 and which did come with some detail: a 720p 4.3-inch display, Snapdragon S4 chip, 8MP rear camera and 1GB RAM for $289. However, today’s picture fails to match up with the earlier one in a number of respects, not least in the shape of the bottom edge and in the position of the front camera / sensor opening next to the earpiece, which means the only certainty here is that they can’t both be right.
A Nokia Lumia 925 allegedly running the upcoming Windows Phone 8 Amber update has been spotted in the wild. The images show various features that have already been rumored to be released with this update.
It goes without saying that software will always come with its fair share of bugs and quirks, although the way those bugs affect a piece of written software varies – some are more harmful than the rest, while others are […]
Samsung will bring a new batch of Galaxy and ATIV phones and tablets to play in a launch event in late June, the company has confirmed, teasing the new range ahead of its UK debut. The event, to be held in the evening of June 20 at London’s Earl’s Court Exhibition Center, has been dubbed “Samsung Premiere 2013″ and will presumably see at least two devices added to the company’s line-up.
The Galaxy range needs little introduction, being headlined of course by the Galaxy S 4. One possibility is that Samsung could use the London event to reveal the Galaxy S 4 mini, the rumored smaller version of the flagship.
As for ATIV, that branding is a little less known than the Galaxy series. On the one hand, there are the ATIV tablets, which have so far included Windows 8 and Windows RT models; that’s been underplayed in recent months, especially after Samsung opted not to launch the RT-based ATIV Tab in the US.
The other possibility is a new Windows Phone, since Samsung uses the ATIV name for that series of devices as well. The company’s mobile emphasis has so far been predominantly on Android, but a new Windows Phone 8 device, perhaps with some of the specifications of the Galaxy S 4, could be one possibility.
However, thanks to some brand streamlining, ATIV also covers Samsung’s all-in-ones and laptops, in addition to its Windows-based tablets, so the London event could well see a broader line-up unveiled.
We’ll know for sure on June 20, with the show kicking off at 6pm BST (1PM ET/10AM PT) and livestreamed at the Samsung Mobile YouTube channel.
After a bit of a quarrel between Microsoft and Google over what kind of application they thought they were building for YouTube, they’ve shaken on a co-developed final iteration. If you’ve been using the Microsoft-made YouTube app recently, you may have noticed a change: advertisements were dropped, and you were even able to download videos for a while. Google didn’t like that.
After sending Microsoft a Cease and Desist letter when they realized Microsoft’s YouTube app for Windows Phone 8 was stripping adds out and not building in support for third-party apps, the companies had a chat. They’ve since agreed that the first step they’ll be taking in a happier co-existence will be taking down the app Microsoft just updated, replacing it with the update released before that.
“Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube’s API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time.” – Microsoft and YouTube Joint Statement
Of course, as you can see, it’s not “Google” that’s speaking with Microsoft, it’s YouTube. The terms and services violated by Microsoft were up against YouTube’s own, but here in the near future, all will be made right.
Nothing like a big company pushing another big company into cooperating with them to make an app for the latter on the first’s operating system. Perhaps Microsoft will create a Vine app next for Windows Phone 8 that allows users to upload videos – or something along those lines.
Today Windows Phone 8 grabs the cross-platform app by the name of Splashtop, specifically the edition called “Splashtop 2″ for remote PC control. What you’ll be doing with this app – and what Android and iOS users have been doing for some time now – is gaining a live, interactive mirror of your PC’s screen on your smartphone. While features for this app are limited in comparison with the Android and iPhone iterations, this release is certainly a good start.
Before the release of Splashtop 2 for Windows Phone 8, there were a few less-than-perfect alternatives on the market. The importance of this release once again marks the slow-but-steady rise of the Windows Phone Marketplace for apps, and the continued (but again, slow), rise in popularity of the operating system itself.
With Splashtop 2 you’ll need the app Splashtop Streamer running on your Mac or Windows computer, both apps being entirely free so long as you’re working within your own local network. This means that both your smartphone and your PC are connected to the same wifi network. If you want to control your computer from your Windows Phone 8 device with mobile data – out of your home – you’ll have to pay a bit of a fee.
At $1.99 USD a month, control from anywhere you can access data is allowed. Functionality includes the ability to touch the display as you would on a touchscreen monitor, typing on a pop-up keyboard, and clicking with a virtual mouse.
This is just the beginning for development on this app for Windows Phone 8, we must assume: there’s still a lot the team will be able to add given the abilities of the Android and iOS apps on the market today. We’re waiting for Gamepad action, specifically: go for it!
Now that Verizon has its own Nokia hero smartphone working with Windows Phone 8, it’s high time the platform takes off, isn’t it? At the moment, the Nokia Lumia 928 is one of the nicer Windows Phone 8 devices on the market, and if it weren’t for the release of the Nokia Lumia 925 (having been revealed this month right on top of the 928), it’d be an easy thing to say that this is Nokia’s finest effort to date with this OS. As it stands, this device is ready instead to be the heartiest Windows Phone 8 smartphone in the USA.
Hardware
The Nokia Lumia 928 works with a body and a set of innards that make it a very close relative of the Nokia Lumia 920, a device that’s being sold by AT&T right this minute. The 928 works with a 4.5-inch AMOLED display with 1280 x 768 resolution, carrying with it Corning Gorilla Glass 2 for scratch and break protection, ClearBlack technology so your blacks are as black as can be, and PureMotion HD+.
Those buzz words do actually mean something when it comes down to it – you’ll have brights that are bright enough to see in direct sunlight, darks that blend in with the bezel, and with a pixel density of 334 PPI, you’ll have quite a bit of sharpness as well. Of course compared to the HTC One and the Samsung GALAXY S 4, you’ll have a bit less sharp of a picture, but other than that you’re up there with the top guns – thus far this year, that is.
ABOVE: Just about as direct as the sunlight gets, straight on and up. BELOW: In a bit more shade.
This machine works with NFC, Qi-standard Wireless Charging, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor. This is the same processor found in the Nokia Lumia 920 and will be more than enough to power the highest-requirement Windows Phone 8 apps on the market today.
Also inside you’ll have 1GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, and SkyDrive cloud storage of 7GB – given to you right out of the box. The back-facing camera is similar to that of the 920, bringing an 8.7 megapixel PureView sensor with a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens. This all means you’re going to be able to take photos in rather low lighting situations and will have some nice looking pics no matter what you’re photographing.
Software
You’ll be getting Nokia’s friendly collection of apps like HERE City Lens, HERE Maps, and Nokia Music along with Microsoft-added apps like Office and OneNote. One thing Windows Phone 8 can still hold over Apple’s head is Office as a native app, and here Nokia makes it clear that they’re willing to stick with that party. This device also has several photo “lenses” that add on to the abilities of the camera.
Each of these lenses is an app that can be downloaded for Windows Phone 8 devices, some of them specifically tuned for Nokia Lumia models. The Lumia 928 comes with Cinemagraph, Smart Shoot, Panorama, and Bing vision. With Bing vision, the user will be able to take photos of objects and receive information about them – this app also works with text translation on-the-spot.
The biggest difference between this device and its competitors is its exclusive access to Nokia apps and hardware – particularly its camera technology. Nokia makes several high-powered location-based apps for allowing you to get around your city – or a city you’ve never been to before. The camera technology you’ll be able to experience in the section immediately following this one.
Camera
Below you’ll find a collection of photo examples captured with the Nokia Lumia 928. Some of these photos were captured in optimal cloudless-day sunlight situations while others were photographed in the dark. This machine does, without a doubt, still reign in the darkest conditions without a flash. Have a peek at our Nokia Lumia 920 vs iPhone 5 camera battle to see how they fare in similar conditions.
Battery
The battery life on this device is well balanced enough to provide at least 8 hours of uptime for an average user. If you’re a power-user, you’ll want to consider the positive and negative elements in a battle between this and a smartphone with a replaceable battery: Verizon also carries the Nokia Lumia 822. The 822 doesn’t quite have the camera power of the 928, but the ability to carry more than one battery replacement in your pocket can be a big matter for some users.
Wrap-up
The Verizon Nokia Lumia 928 will cost you $99 USD with a 2-year contract after a $50 mail-in rebate – that’s less than half the cost of some of the higher-end competitors on the carrier today (like the Samsung GALAXY S 4 and the Galaxy Note II), and essentially equal to that of the Samsung Galaxy S III. It’s also equal to the price of the Windows Phone 8X from HTC, a device that was released several months ago that we reviewed as well. If you’re going for tactile feeling alone, you might want the HTC device – otherwise I’d stick by the Nokia hardware for basically everything else.
The Nokia Lumia 928 is easily Verizon’s finest Windows Phone 8 device, and with its advanced camera abilities, it may well be the nicest Windows Phone 8 device in the USA as well. Until another Windows Phone 8 device comes along with a metal body, on the other hand, the Nokia Lumia 925 will continue to roll with that title worldwide.
We’ve already spent some quality time with Nokia’s handsome Lumia 925 and while it’s no secret the company’s Windows Phone flagship is coming to the US courtesy of T-Mobile, we’d never actually seen the carrier-branded model — until now, that is. Nokia brought T-Mobile’s version of the handset to CTIA 2013 where we took it for a brief spin. As you’d expect, the phone is identical to its global twin save for the operator’s logo below the capacitive button and the radios which support T-Mobile’s bands. Unfortunately, the Lumia 925 we played with was not final, so the software was off limits. In terms of hardware, it features the same 4.5-inch 1,280 x 768 AMOLED screen, 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB of storage and 8.7-megapixel camera with OIS. This is definitely one of Nokia’s most attractive designs yet, and we’re looking forward to getting our hands on a review unit soon. In the meantime, why not check out the gallery below?
Nokia Lumia 920 is one of the best selling Windows Phone 8 smartphones. Only earlier today it was reported that Windows Phone has now passed BlackBerry to clinch the coveted third spot in the smartphone market, the Lumia range of […]
Nokia’s Lumia 928 may not have had the high-profile launch of its Lumia 925 sibling, but the Verizon LTE smartphone does have the benefit of being on sale today. Available from this morning, priced at $99.99 with a new, two-year agreement, the Verizon Lumia 928 joins the rarefied list of current smartphones offering a Xenon flash.
That means better low-light photos, with Xenons usually far stronger than the LED flashes we’re used to seeing on smartphones. You don’t miss out on a video light, either, with the Lumia 928′s focus-assist LED capable of being repurposed for illuminating during video recording.
Functionally, the new smartphone is much the same as what the Lumia 920 was offering months ago. However, it’s packaged up in a neater design, with the squared-off polycarbonate casing fitting more neatly into the hand, and yet still accommodating the PureView suspended optical system, which helps the high-end Lumia take such solid low-light photos.
There’s also a new display, versus that of the 920, with Nokia slotting in an OLED ClearBlack panel, coincidentally the same screen as on the Lumia 925. That’s topped with a layer of Gorilla Glass 2 which forms the entire edge-to-edge fascia of the smartphone.
Interestingly, if you head over to RadioShack, the Lumia 928 is going for half of Verizon’s upfront price, though you’ll still need to commit to a two-year agreement.
There’s more on the Lumia 928 in our hands-on and unboxing. We’ve also got photo samples from the 8.7-megapixel PureView camera.
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