HTC Sensation 4G hitting mid-June for $200?

Oh, the sweet smells of summer: surf, sunscreen, barbecue, Gingerbread. We’ve known all along that HTC’s Android 2.3-packing smartphone was set for release at the “beginning of the summer,” and thanks to some loud-mouthed Google AdWords, we’ve seen June 8th floated as a possibility. Those who understandably doubt the word of search-based text advertisements, take heart: it’s shaping up to be a big weekend for Sensation 4G leaks. First TmoNews got its hands on a Target placard pricing the snappy dual-core Snapdragon handset at $199.99, for what appears to be a June 12th release, and then the site snagged a shot of internal T-Mobile documentation that confirms the earlier June 8th date. Why the discrepancy? Well, it certainly wouldn’t be unheard of for the carrier to give itself a head start, and surely Target wouldn’t mind timing its own release up with its Sunday circulars. In both cases, it looks like the phone’ll be spending a fair amount of time beneath beach umbrellas.

HTC Sensation 4G hitting mid-June for $200? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 May 2011 03:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP Veer 4G review

HP’s Jon Rubenstein told us that his company wanted to veer in a new direction, and veer it surely did — the HP Veer 4G will arguably be the smallest fully-functional smartphone on the market when it goes on sale May 15th. In a nutshell, it’s a Palm Pixi Plus in the guise of a Pre, only in a delightfully downsized package with webOS 2.1 and thoroughly modern functionality. What does it feel like to Just Type on its tiny keyboard or throw app cards across its itsy-bitsy 2.6-inch screen? How is it as a pocketable HSPA+ hotspot, and will that extra G decimate its miniscule 910mAh battery? These are the questions that drove us when playing with the Veer 4G this week, and you’ll find the answers shortly after the break.

Continue reading HP Veer 4G review

HP Veer 4G review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 May 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lenovo’s LePad gets LeTeardown

Lenovo’s long awaited LePad finally made its Chinese debut back in March, and while we may not ever see the tablet stateside — not as LePad, anyway — we can at least get a peak under the hood. Thanks to a teardown by IMP3, we’re seeing the inside of the machine for the first time, and while there’s not much in the way of surprises here, it’s always nice to see what makes these things tick. As we already knew, LePad’s packing the 1.3GHz Snapdragon chipset with Adreno 205 integrated graphics as well as an internal 27Wh battery. It’s also appears to be rocking Toshiba flash memory and a Wolfson audio processor. So we might not have much in the way of revelations here, but at least now you know what the LePad, or Skylight, or whatever, looks like underneath its skin.

Lenovo’s LePad gets LeTeardown originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 May 2011 16:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 (Bold Touch) official

We’ve seen it photographed, videotaped, and even, briefly, up on RIM’s own website. Now it’s up there to stay, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 (aka the Bold Touch) have been made official as RIM kicks off BlackBerry World in Orlando. As expected, the phone packs a 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor that has only a 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen with a 287dpi pixel density to worry about. On the back is a five megapixel camera and inside is 8GB of internal storage (with microSD expansion) and NFC circuitry. At 10.5mm it’s RIM’s thinnest handset yet, featuring a stainless steel circumference and a fiberglass back, while up front of course it makes room for a full QWERTY keyboard. The 9900 supports HSPA+ connectivity to get its 4G on, while the 9930 is the world variant, adding dual-band CDMA and quad-band GSM to the mix, and both do 802.11a/b/g/n along with Bluetooth 2.1. Both, quite naturally, include the new BlackBerry 7 OS, including a faster browser and voice-activated search. Another picture and full specs are listed after the break, which will have to do you until this handset releases sometime in the summer, meaning this could be your next great beach accessory for those working vacations.

Update: Full press release and more images after the break.

Continue reading BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 (Bold Touch) official

BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 (Bold Touch) official originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 May 2011 08:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Qualcomm shows off MSM8660’s slick video performance on development kit (video)

If you’ve been closely tracking the development of Qualcomm’s 1.5GHz dual-core MSM8660, you would’ve already seen AnandTech‘s impressive set of benchmark results back in early April. But of course, it’d be more convincing to actually see this chipset in action, so Qualcomm’s latest videos of its Mobile Development Platform should satisfy your curiosity. As demoed after the break, this Snapdragon’s Adreno 220 is seen effortlessly handling in-page HTML5 video streaming, Flash video streaming, and 1080p playback. And as a sideshow, Qualcomm even put its current-gen single-core QSD8255 head-to-head with a rival dual-core chipset — no doubt a Tegra 2 in an LG Optimus 2x — and easily won the Flash video contest. All of this might lure you into getting the MDP as your next everyday phone, but here’s the bad news: this professional kit will cost you a dear $1,350. So unless you’re feeling very generous, you’d probably want to wait for the consumer devices to arrive in the summer — think EVO 3D, Sensation (with GSM-flavored MSM8260, naturally), and TouchPad.

Continue reading Qualcomm shows off MSM8660’s slick video performance on development kit (video)

Qualcomm shows off MSM8660’s slick video performance on development kit (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 May 2011 04:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer Iconia Smart hits the FCC, readies to smack AT&T with 1024 x 480 screen?

Acer promised a 4.8-inch, 1024 x 480 tabletphone would arrive in April 2011, and April’s nearly through — but don’t cross off the Acer Iconia Smart yet, because that brushed aluminum frame has just materialized at our favorite government institution. Yes, the FCC laid eyes on radiation test reports for the Android 2.3 device, which reveal that the quad-band GSM handset is headed to both Canada and the US. Given that the North American version only has 850, 1900 and 2100MHz 3G frequencies, it sounds like a lock for AT&T. Inside, you’ll find a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 processor, 512MB each of ROM and RAM, an 8 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, a 2 megapixel front-facing cam, micro-HDMI output capable of 720p, a 1500mAh user-replaceable battery and all the usual 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 and GPS trimmings you’d expect. Now, Acer, how about a new release date?

Acer Iconia Smart hits the FCC, readies to smack AT&T with 1024 x 480 screen? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 21:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Qualcomm’s next-gen Snapdragon roadmap leaks, exhibits great expectations (updated)

Seems like we just can’t get ARM’s next-generation Cortex-A15 system-on-chip out of our minds. Having figured as a headline item in LG’s ARM licensing deal this morning, it’s now shown up on a leaked Qualcomm roadmap, landing itself a lynchpin role in that company’s Snapdragon future. Alas, Qualcomm had been promising for the earliest of its MSM8930 / 60 and APQ8064 Snapdragons to be sampling in Q2 of this year, but this latest schedule shows them as sampling at the end of 2011 (see update). This isn’t hugely surprising in light of ARM’s recent forecast of Cortex-A15 devices in “late 2012,” but it’ll be disappointing to users keen to be exploiting quad-GPU and quad-CPU mobile rigs as soon as humanly possible. Guess that just leaves us waiting for the NGP or NVIDIA’s quad-core SOC in August. Hit the source link for more on Qualcomm’s plans for the near and distant future.

[Thanks, Mike]

Update: Qualcomm got in touch to correct the timing here. The company’s 3G/LTE MSM8960 chipset remains on track to sample in this quarter, as promised in the company’s latest earnings report. The other two parts were already expected to come later, so there’s no delay to speak of. Just juicy specs.

Qualcomm’s next-gen Snapdragon roadmap leaks, exhibits great expectations (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 09:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Qualcomm reports record quarterly revenues, boasts 100th Snapdragon device

Qualcomm’s back again with yet another set of impressive numbers. For the second quarter of this fiscal year, the chip giant saw record earnings of $3.88 billion, up 46 percent from the same quarter in the previous year, and collected $999 million of sweet profit which is a 29 percent jump from last year. This is no doubt to do with the 70 percent increase in the MSM7000- and MSM8000-series Snapdragon shipments in this half of the fiscal year (compared to 2H 2010), and it should be noted that this quarter also saw the 100th Snapdragon-powered device announced by a Qualcomm client. Additionally, EVP Steve Mollenkopf reassured us that the recent events in Japan won’t have any significant impact on upcoming shipments, so the 30 Snapdragon tablets in the pipeline should arrive as scheduled. Excerpts from the financial report can be found after the break.

Continue reading Qualcomm reports record quarterly revenues, boasts 100th Snapdragon device

Qualcomm reports record quarterly revenues, boasts 100th Snapdragon device originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Apr 2011 04:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Sensation 4G official: 1.2GHz dual-core, qHD display, and Sense 3.0

We’ve known about the so-called HTC Pyramid for months, long before the Vodafone leak this morning. Now the long-rumored Android phone is official and coming to T-Mobile under the moniker HTC Sensation 4G. As expected, it matches many of the EVO 3D‘s specs, including a 4.3-inch (540 x 960) Super LCD screen, dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor, and Android Gingerbread (2.3) with Sense 3.0. But it one ups the 3D handset by bumping the rear lens’ resolution to 8 megapixels, throwing in a second LED flash, and speeding up the video frame rate to 30fps at max 1080p resolution. Speed-wise, this HSPA+ device promises download rates as fast as 14.4 Mbps. As for Sense, the Sensation also ushers in various tweaks to the company’s UI, including customizable lock screens, 3D transitions, an improved weather app, and HTC Watch, the service introduced with the company’s Flyer tablet that lets you download DVD-quality movies.

Before hitting the states this summer, the Sensation will launch in the UK, Germany, and the rest of HTC’s “key” European markets in mid-May, with Vodafone scoring a Europe-wide exclusive for “a couple of weeks.” We can’t wait to put the Sensation through its paces in a full review, but happily we already scored some hands-on time with a near-final unit. Continue below the break for some early thoughts, full specs, and close-up shots of this superphone in action.

Update: We scored some hands-on time with a European model over at HTC’s launch event. Check the video here!

Continue reading HTC Sensation 4G official: 1.2GHz dual-core, qHD display, and Sense 3.0

HTC Sensation 4G official: 1.2GHz dual-core, qHD display, and Sense 3.0 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Sensation leaked by Vodafone: 4.3-inch qHD SLCD and 1.2GHz dual-core processor are go (video)

Would you look at that, HTC’s latest worst kept secret is live on Vodafone UK’s website. So here’s the scoop: 4.3-inch qHD (540 x 960 pixel) SLCD display, 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera augmented by an 8 megapixel shooter with dual-LED flash around back, a 1.2GHz (dual-core) processor, and 4GB of internal flash memory with an extra 8GB supplied on memory card. Stick around, we’ll have hands-on with the latest Android Sensation from the HTC launch event later in the day.

Update: Vodafone removed the pages but we’ve got a screenshot after the break. Better yet, we’ve also got a trio of videos uncovered by our friends over at Mobile Bulgaria showing updated elements of the Sense UI.

[Thanks, Chris H.]

Continue reading HTC Sensation leaked by Vodafone: 4.3-inch qHD SLCD and 1.2GHz dual-core processor are go (video)

HTC Sensation leaked by Vodafone: 4.3-inch qHD SLCD and 1.2GHz dual-core processor are go (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 05:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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