Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini goes official

After being rumoured, the Galaxy S3 Mini has now been officially announced. The handset is essentially a budget version of the infamous Galaxy S3. The device features the same design, weighs 114.5g and is 9.85mm thick.

Specs wise, the device packs a 4-inch SuperAMOLED with 480x800 rsolution, Android 4.1 is onboard the device which runs on a ST-Ericsson dual-core processor clocked at 1GHz with 1GB of RAM. Camera's include a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and a VGA resolution front-facing camera for video calls. 8/16GB of internal storage is available and can be expanded by MicroSD card (up to 32GB).

The Galaxy S3 Mini is expected to be available sometime next month for a price of around £300. At that price point the device seems very expensive baring in mind the ZTE Grand X is available for £200 from Virgin Mobile.

LG Splendor heading for US Cellular...

US Cellular will be getting a new LG handset by the name of Splendor (US730). The LG Splendor -spotted by SmartphonePhenom- appeared on a product page on LG's US support site but has since been pulled.
Specs are decent pack a fair screen size, Qualcomm processor and 5-megapixel camera.

Exact specs include a 4.3-inch display with WVGA resolution (800x480), powered by a single-core Snapdragon S3 (MSM8655) processor clocked at 1GHz with 512MB of RAM. Camera's include a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video calling. Internal storage is at  2GB but can be expanded by MicroSD card up to 32GB presumably.

The phone sports a thin profile coming in at just 0.34", other than that the phone features typical LG style with the central home button below the display with two capacitive buttons either side of the home button.

Sony Xperia SL is official!

Looks like a Sony employee accidentally published an official page for the upcoming Xperia SL, a week before Sony's pre-IFA show on the 29th August. The page leaked colour options, battery life statistics and of course, the specs. The Xperia SL is a refresh of the Xperia S, hopefully these changes make an impact.

So, the phone packs a 4.3-inch display with 720p HD resolution (720x1280), powered by a dual-core Snapdragon S3 processor clocked at 1.7GHz (up from 1.5GHz) with 1GB of RAM. Camera's include a 12.1-megapixel rear-facing camera and front-facing camera of unknown resolution for video calling. Internal storage will most likely be at 16GB/32GB with no option to expand it. The phone runs Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" as oppossed to the original Xperia S which ran Android 2.3 "Gingerbread".

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 picture surfaces....

The picture shown above surfaced on GSMArena.com, the tipster has stayed anonymous. The form factor of the Galaxy Note 2 was rumoured to be similar to the Galaxy SIII, an analysis of the handset in the picture is relatively close to that form factor.

It includes the redesigned central home button, un-uniform rounded edges and a thin bezel. However, whether this is actually the Galaxy Note 2 is still a mystery, a mystery which will be wrapped up at Samsung's pre-IFA show on the 29th August.

Rumoured specs include a 5.5-inch display, quad-core Exynos processor clocked at 1.6GHz and a 12-megapixel camera. As expected with rumours, you shouldn't take them seriously.

Black Galaxy SIII on the way?

Many, including myself were sad to see that the Samsung Galaxy SIII was only available in white and blue. It seems to me that people favour other colours other than black now. However, now we have some "confirmation" that a black version may be on it's way.

As you can see in this screenshot, the normal blue and white models are there with the addition of a black model. The screenshot was actually taken by a CarPhoneWarehouse "insider" but nevertheless, this could be concrete evidence that a black version of the phone may be available soon.

Apple has a point...

Samsung and Apple, in the same sentence can bring countless lawsuits to mind. We're sick of it, Apple customers have turned because of them and many products have been banned due to their lawsuits. One particular lawsuit includes the basic design of the iPhone describing equally rounded edges and a central button at the bottom. The patents seem unfair but Apple has a point.

The Galaxy S, Galaxy S2, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Ace all use these design features. The products may be different in the fact that the central button is rectangular, not circular and that on some of the products the back has a bump in it, therefore they look heavily influenced instead of directly copied. However, that still doesn't rid of the fact that the products just look too-alike, even Google themselves said that it is dangerously close to the iPhone's design.


I think, what you can take away from this is, the Apple doesn't always have a point when their in court as we've seen. They're patent bullying is just out of order, but in this case they do have a point. However, Apple is still winning sales the hard, but nevertheless the most stupidest, stressful and annoying way. Let me just make myself clear, I am in full support of Android, I love it and therefore I am not a Apple fanboy in any way.

Samsung Galaxy S3... 10 million and strong!

Samsung has now officially beaten there goal of 10 million Galaxy S3's sold, they originally said they wanted to have shipped 10 million by August but the mark has been reached early and the device is predicted to ship at least 40 million units this year! This comes after two months since the device has actually been on store shelves. Giving you an idea of how popular the Galaxy S3 is.

Samsung Galaxy SIII Pre-Order packages...

If you haven't already pre-ordered your Galaxy SIII, maybe now is the time to consider it. Retailers are now offering pre-order packages FREE of charge to anyone to pre-orders the phone. This is a great opportunity to get the accessories you want to enhance your experience with the new flagship device.

CarPhoneWarehouse:
The CarPhoneWarehouse are offering the Galaxy S3 for free at £34 per month and £499.99 on PAYG. When you pre-order they will give you a 16GB SanDisk SDHC memory card, a Zagg screen protector and in car charger worth £49.97.

Phones4U:
Phones4U are offering the Galaxy S3 for free at £36 per month but don't offer it on PAYG as far as I've searched. Anyway, if you pre-order it from them, they will give you a 32GB GB memory card and a genuine Samsung case, these items are worth over £50.

Who would I pre-order from? It would have to be Phones4U, because I will without a doubt use up all of the internal memory quite quick. The case is also an added benefit as I have dropped my phone many times before.

RUMOURS: LG LS970...

It looks like LG is readying a new flagship device bound for Sprint in the US. Codenamed LS970, the device will probably retail as the Eclipse 4G LTE.

The device is said to pack a 4.67-inch LCD display with a resolution of 768x1280. Rumours have been pointing to a quad-core 1.5GHz Krait processor based on the Snapdragon SoC (System on a chip) and Adreno 320 graphics with 2GB of RAM. The devce is also reported to sport a 13MP rear-facing and a 1.3MP front-facing camera, battery capacity is said to be about 2100mAh.

With these impressive specs, the Galaxy S3 just announced last week is already heavily out done. I hope LG plan to release a variant of this phone for the U.K. (since we still haven't got 4G)

LG Optimus LTE2

LG has today just announced their successor to the Optimus LTE -The Optimus LTE2. This comes on the same day that Samsung unveiled their new flagship Galaxy SIII.

As "revolutionary" as the Galaxy S3 was, there was nothing that really sparked a riot when it came to specifications. On the other hand, LG have managed to cram 2GBs of RAM in the LTE2 making it better at multitasking than the S3 already.

Other specs include a "True HD" IPS display with a unconfirmed resolution of 1280x720. LTE compatibility has led some to believe that the device will come with a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor. The device has however a confirmed battery capacity of 2,150mAh. LG has said that this combination means this device will last 40 percent longer than it's predecessor.

Samsung Galaxy SIII - Preview

Galaxy S3 image courtesy of Telegraph.co.uk.

Samsung have finally unveiled the hugely speculated Galaxy SIII at the Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2012 event in London.

The device sports a 4.8-inch Super-AMOLED HD display with a resolution of 720x1280 weighing the phone in at a pixel density of 306PPI. The phone is powered by a 1.4GHz Quad core Exynos processor.

The phone features a 8 megapixel rear facing camera with "burst shoot" capability, this feature is similar to the HTC One which enables you to take multiple photos ans pick the next one, with the rear-facing camera comes a 1.9 mega pixel front-facing camera. Battery capacity is 2100mAh with the optional extra of wireless charging.

New features to the software side include S-Voice which is similar to Siri on the iPhone, S-Beam which can transfer files up 300mbps. Samsung has also partnered up with DropBox enabling owners of this device 50Gbs's of free cloud storage. All in all, this device is definitely not a disappointment.