ZTE heralds new smartphone Era with high spec, 7.8mm thin quad-core device

ZTE Corporation, a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, has announced the ZTE Era, one of the thinnest quad-core devices on the market today.

Based on the NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 quad-core mobile processor and equipped with a NVIDIA Icera 450 HSPA+ modem, the ZTE Era packs high definition multimedia capabilities into a package that is just 7.8mm thick. The Era has a 4.3 inch QHD screen giving high quality 960 x 540 pixel images, 8GB of memory expandable with a MicroSD card, HD voice and Dolby sound. Running the latest Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) platform the ZTE Era is the most powerful Android smartphone from ZTE, providing powerful new ways of communicating and sharing, with easy multitasking, rich notifications and deep interactivity. The ZTE Era delivers a great combination of amazing battery life and outstanding performance with Tegra 3’s unique 4-PLUS-1™ quad-core architecture with a fifth battery saver core.

The ZTE Era is the flagship device launch from ZTE at Mobile World Congress and is part of a series of eight new devices unveiled at the event, all delivering significant advances in power, high definition multimedia capabilities and design. Based on technology innovations including quad-core chipsets, LTE and the latest Android and Windows Phone platforms, the new devices form a core component of ZTE’s ambition to become a top three handset provider by 2015.

“The numbers speak for themselves. With 50 percent growth in handset shipments and 400 percent growth in smartphone shipments, we are confident that we are entering a new era in the mobile terminal market. The ZTE Era captures the excitement we feel about the future and brings it to life in a fantastic new device,” said Mr. He Shiyou, Executive Vice President and Head of the Terminals Division at ZTE.

According to industry analyst Gartner, ZTE was ranked the world's No.4 in terms of handset shipments in Q4 2011 and ZTE smartphone sales are growing faster than any other vendor except Apple.

“In 2012, ZTE products will be building up from the low-middle end of the market into the middle-high end, with the ZTE Era being the best example of that development,” Mr. He Shiyou said. “We will continue our long-standing cooperation with operators around the world, but we will also continue to build our distributor channels (both ODM and OEM), and we will be focusing our marketing in particular on the high-end markets of Europe, America, Japan and China.”

The ZTE Era will be launched in Europe and China in the second half of 2012.

The Era, together with the comprehensive portfolio of ZTE terminals, is on display at MWC 2012 in Barcelona on the ZTE booth in Hall 8, stand B145.

Source - ZTE

ZTE Orbit joins Windows Phone smartphone offerings

ZTE Corporation, a publicly-listed global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, has expanded on its commitment to the Windows Phone platform and introduced the new ZTE Orbit smartphone.

The ZTE Orbit joins the ZTE Tania smartphone in the company’s portfolio of Windows Phone-based devices. The ZTE Tania is commercially available in the UK and Sweden and other countries around the world.

“Microsoft is excited to continue partnering with ZTE to bring new Windows Phones to market. We look forward to the availability of ZTE Orbit in major markets around the world in the second quarter of 2012,” said Mark Linton, Senior Director of the OEM Division, Microsoft.

“The Windows Phone platform is as powerful as it is intuitive, enabling us to create and deliver exciting new devices that meet real consumer demand,” said Mr. He Shiyou,Executive Vice President and Head of the Terminal Division of ZTE. “Our partnership with Microsoft is a key component of our strategy to grow our share of the smartphone market. ZTE is proud to be at the forefront of device manufacturers who are using the Windows Phone platform.”

The ZTE Orbit is based on the latest version of Windows Phone and comes with 4GB of memory, HD Voice, and a 5Mpx autofocus camera with LED flash. The ZTE Orbit will be available in the second quarter of this year.

At the same time, ZTE announced the MF668A data card which takes advantage of Microsoft’s Mobile Broadband Class Driver in Windows 8. ZTE’s MF668A data card is being demonstrated at Mobile World Congress for the first time. The data card, which supports RAW IP and high-speed transmission, is based on the new MBIM v1.0 specification, recently approved by the USB-IF, and natively supported in Windows 8 without additional software.

Launched on 18 January, the ZTE Tania is a chic Windows Phone device, with a chassis measuring just 10.7mm in depth, 4GB internal storage and a 4.3 inch touch screen. The 1GHz processor and ultra-sharp cinematic WVGA 800 x 480px screen make responding to emails, editing documents and browsing the internet fast and intuitive. The first Windows Phone-powered smartphone launched by ZTE, the ZTE Tania is expected to be available in stores in the UK in early April at tariff points in the £10-20 range.

The full portfolio of ZTE Windows Phone devices is being demonstrated at Mobile World Congress at the ZTE booth (Hall 8, Stand B145).

Source - ZTE

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S may be heading to Rogers next week

According to a tip received by MobileSyrup, Rogers customers will soon be seeing the SE Xperia Arc S on the shelves. The Arc S is a slight bump from the current Xperia Arc that Rogers now offers with it's 1.4 GHz Qualcomm processor, and it's pretty likely that this will be the last Sony Ericsson branded device to hit North America now that Sony is sole owner of the name and franchisee. The Arc S is a lovely handset, and with Sony releasing a beta version of Ice Cream Sandwich already, it's going to be a fun one to play with. 

While it's always just a rumor until Rogers says differently, expect to see the Arc S next week with a possible price point of $30 (CAD) on a 3-year contract, or $475 (CAD) outright.

Source: MobileSyrup

Nokia expands its Asha range with smarter feature phones that improve ways to work, learn and play

Accelerating its capability to connect the next billion people to the internet, Nokia today unveiled additional services and three more Asha feature phone models -- the Nokia Asha 202, Asha 203 and Asha 302 -- at Mobile World Congress.

Designed to deliver a variety of affordable mobile experiences, the new offerings target three dimensions: Work, with Mail for Exchange support for the Nokia Asha 302; Learn, bringing new information services for young, urban consumers, and a fast, cloud-based browser that reduces internet access costs; and Play, with free EA games available on the Nokia Asha 202 and Asha 203.

"Since outlining a new strategy a year ago, we've taken significant actions to deliver against it," said Mary T. McDowell, Nokia's executive vice president for Mobile Phones. "We've been connecting the next billion people to the mobile world and its benefits through contemporary feature phones and internet services. Today, we are taking another step in that direction, with a compelling combination of smarter mobile devices packed with innovative services."

Nokia Life benefits 50 million users

Nokia also announced an evolution of Nokia Life Tools, Nokia Life, which provides life-enhancing information across the range of Nokia Series 30 and Series 40 products. Now with additional relevant services, social elements and fresher look, it's available first on the Nokia Asha 202 and 203 phones. Since its 2009 launch in India, the SMS-based service has expanded to China, Indonesia and Nigeria. To date, more than 50 million people have experienced its benefits.

Nokia Life delivers content in the areas of parenting, life skills, education, health, entertainment and agriculture. For example, Nokia Life can help parents focus on children's physical, emotional and social growth needs, from birth to adolescence. People can also learn English using basic SMS communications, and enjoy ringtones, sport news and trivia.

"Nokia Life services provide an entry to the world of digital content and an internet-like experience for many people who don't yet have access to data plans" said Dieter May, Nokia's senior vice president of Mobile Phone Services. "With today's news, we're enhancing our services to bring consumers an even more enjoyable experience on the new Asha phones, with content that matters to them in their daily lives, is fun and helps them progress."

Nokia Asha family expands

The Nokia Asha family has expanded rapidly since its debut, just four months ago, with four devices presented at Nokia World 2011. It's now available in more than 100 markets globally and will be complemented by three devices announced today.

Nokia's Asha 202 and 203 phones stand out with the combination of a traditional keypad with a 2.4- inch touch screen, ideal for browsing, scrolling and opening applications. The Asha 202 features Dual SIM Easy Swap technology with dedicated SIM manager to personalize the phone and save up to five SIM cards with unique information. Both devices come with a 2-megapixel camera, music player, FM radio, Nokia Browser, and Bluetooth connectivity, and can handle memory cards up to 32GB.

Estimated retail price for each is about EUR 60, excluding taxes and subsidies, and both are expected to start shipping in the second quarter of 2012.

Nokia and EA have teamed on innovative ways to bring games to the next billion. The Nokia Asha 202 and 203 will be the first Series 40 devices to offer EA games. As a 60-day promotion at Nokia Store, the EUR 75 separate cost of an EA 40-game pack - including popular titles such as Tetris, Need for Speed, The Run and Bejeweled - will be automatically waived for buyers of either new model.

The Nokia Asha 302 is Nokia's first Series 40 phone to support Mail for Exchange, giving people access to their emails, contacts and calendar on an exchange server. That and a stylish QWERTY keyboard make it ideal for young entrepreneurs and professionals seeking a beautifully designed phone. Additionally, the Nokia Asha connects to popular social networks and enables chatting through Whatsapp and other IM services. The Nokia Asha 302 is powered by a 1-GHz processor and supports 3.5G data speeds. It is available now for about EUR 95.

"With today's announcement, Nokia has accelerated the truly global opportunity for enterprise mobility," according to Nicholas McQuire, research director enterprise mobility strategies EMEA for IDC.

"By making Mail For Exchange available for the sub 100 euros mobile device market, Nokia has taken a significant step in helping businesses across the globe, including those from high growth economies, achieve the productivity and employee satisfaction benefits that greater mobility affords them."

Nokia Browser helps consumers and operators to significantly cut costs

All three new devices provide a fast and affordable internet experience via Nokia's cloud-accelerated Nokia Browser, which makes internet content easy to discover with its localized and personalized home page design and portal to thousands of web apps. In addition to its speed, the browser compresses data traffic up to 90 percent, meaning cost reductions for consumers and operators, who can have better network utilization. Nokia Browser has been rapidly adopted, with almost four new users around the world activating it every second. It is available today in more than 200 markets.

Source - Nokia

Nokia expands Lumia experience to new price points and geographies

Nokia today announced the next stage in its plans to introduce unique Lumia experiences to more people around the world.

The new Nokia Lumia 610 is Nokia's fourth and most affordable Lumia smartphone, designed as the perfect introduction to Windows Phone for a younger audience. The Nokia Lumia 610 makes it easy to keep in touch with friends, providing instant access to social networks and bringing all mobile, email, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn contacts into one place. It also makes it easier to browse the Web with Internet Explorer and to access games through Xbox Live. Available with Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive, Nokia Transport and Nokia Music, people can also choose from thousands of apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace to further personalize the experience.

With a distinctive profile and finely beveled metallic edges, the Nokia Lumia 610 is built to convey both quality and aspiration. It comes in white, cyan, magenta and black, is priced at EUR189 and is expected to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2012.

The Nokia Lumia 610 was made possible thanks to a new software release from Microsoft delivering enhanced capabilities to the Windows Phone 7.5 platform. The software release, available from April optimizes Windows Phone to support lower memory and processor requirements, while still delivering the same great experience for more affordable products. In addition, Windows Phone will now include the network and language requirements for China. As a result, Nokia announced plans to make a range of Lumia smartphones available in China, covering both CDMA and WCDMA technologies, in the coming months.

After launching the Nokia Lumia 900 as its first LTE smartphone, Nokia is also making the phone available around the world in a DC-HSPA variant, for high speed data connection (42Mbits download) in countries where LTE is not available. The Nokia Lumia 900 features a 4.3 inch ClearBlack AMOLED display for a superior touch and viewing experience. It also features Nokia's highest capacity battery making it the perfect Lumia phone for enjoying media and entertainment on the move. The primary camera on the Nokia Lumia 900 has exclusive Carl Zeiss optics, a large aperture for improved performance in low light conditions and wide angle focal length for capturing full 16:9 images. It is also the first Lumia phone to feature a front-facing camera, with large aperture and wide-angle lens for sharp, bright images and video calling out of the box.

The Nokia Lumia 900 will be available in white, cyan and black, is priced at EUR 480 and also expected to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2012.

The Lumia range will also benefit from the launch of new signature Nokia experiences on the Windows Phone platform:

• Nokia Reading is the next milestone in Nokia's strategy to offer a comprehensive entertainment experience on Lumia. Nokia Reading provides a single, integrated hub experience, leveraging a panorama design to make it easier and faster to enjoy news, ebooks and audio books, including the ability to access content offline and pin dynamic content to the start screen as a Live Tile. With an emphasis on local language materials wherever it becomes available, Nokia Reading delivers a highly personalized and locally relevant service. Future updates will include the ability to build dynamic magazines from feeds for a single integrated view of favourite online content. With no sign-in or subscriptions, Nokia Reading will be available from April.
• Nokia Transport, coming to Lumia for the first time, provides convenient door-to-door, underground, tram, suburban train, and bus directions for over 500 cities across 46 countries. With step-by-step directions to the nearest station as well as timetable information on when the next bus or train is arriving for more than 80 cities, Nokia Transport will be available to download from the Windows Phone Marketplace in March.
• A new update to Nokia Drive, the free voice-guided, turn by turn navigation app that turns any Lumia smartphone into a personal navigation device will provide full offline use and features speed limit alerts. The update will also be available to download from the Windows Phone Marketplace in March.

Source - Nokia

Nokia 808 PureView ushers in a revolution in smartphone imaging

Nokia today ushered in a new era in high-end smartphone imaging with the Nokia 808 PureView. This is the first smartphone to feature Nokia PureView imaging technologies, bringing together high resolution sensors, exclusive Carl Zeiss optics and Nokia developed algorithms, which will support new high-end imaging experiences for future Nokia products.

The Nokia 808 PureView features a large, high-resolution 41 megapixel sensor with high-performance Carl Zeiss optics and new pixel oversampling technology. At standard resolutions (2/3, 5 and 8 megapixels) this means the ability to zoom without loss of clarity and capture seven pixels of information, condensing into one pixel for the sharpest images imaginable. At high-resolution (38 megapixel maximum) it means the ability to capture an image, then zoom, reframe, crop and resize afterwards to expose previously unseen levels of details. With superior low-light performance and the ability to save in compact file sizes for sharing in email, MMS, and on social networks, the Nokia 808 PureView makes it possible for anyone to capture professional looking images in any conditions.

In addition to superior still imaging technology, the Nokia 808 PureView, also includes full HD 1080p video recording and playback with 4X lossless zoom and the world's first use of Nokia Rich Recording. Rich Recording enables audio recording at CD-like levels of quality, previously only possible with external microphones. The Nokia 808 PureView also features exclusive Dolby Headphone technology, transforming stereo content into a personal surround sound experience over any headphones and Dolby Digital Plus for 5.1 channel surround sound playback.

"Nokia PureView imaging technology sets a new industry standard by whatever measure you use," said Jo Harlow, executive vice president of Nokia Smart Devices. "People will inevitably focus on the 41 megapixel sensor, but the real quantum leap is how the pixels are used to deliver breath-taking image quality at any resolution and the freedom it provides to choose the story you want to tell."

Source - Nokia

Game On With Samsung GALAXY S WiFi 4.2

Samsung introduces GALAXY S WiFi 4.2, the best of Android experiences with powerful gaming on the go. This experience is further enhanced with the device’s superior SoundAlive audio system, offering great sound either through a front stereo speaker or headphones. A gyroscope sensor enables the user to control the device by moving it, providing truly engaging and intuitive gaming.

Samsung GALAXY S WiFi 4.2 Product Specifications

Processor

• 1 GHz Processor

Display

• 4.2” WVGA(480x800) IPS TFT

OS

• Android 2.3(Gingerbread)

Camera

• Main(Rear): 2 Megapixel Camera
• Sub(Front): VGA for Video Call

Video

• Codec: MPEG4, H.263, H.264, VC-1, DivX, WMV7, WMV8, WMV9
• Format: 3GP, ASF, AVI, MP4, WMV, FLV, MKV
• Playback/ Recording: HD@30fps, VGA@30fps

Audio

• Codec: MP3, AAC, AC-3, AMR, FLAC, WMA, WAV, OGG
• Music Player with SoundAlive
• Front Stereo Speaker
• 3.5mm Ear Jack

Features & Services

• Premium EA Games preloaded
  - Need For Speed Hot Pursuit
• Samsung Apps
• Samsung Hub
  - Social Hub
• - Readers Hub/ Music Hub/ Game Hub (Downloadable via Samsung Apps)
• Samsung ChatON mobile communication service
• Samsung Kies / Samsung Kies air
• Samsung AllShare
• Samsung SmartView: Smart TV remote control application
• GoogleTM Mobile Services
  - Android Market™, Gmail™, YouTube™, Google Maps™,
  Syncing with Google Calendar™, Google Search, Google+

Connectivity

• Bluetooth technology v 3.0
• Bluetooth Handsfree
• USB 2.0
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n

Sensor

• Gyroscope
• Accelerometer
• Digital compass

Memory

• 8/16GB User memory ＋ 512MB (RAM)
• microSD (up to 32GB)

Dimension

• 124.1 x66.1 x 8.9 mm, 118g

Battery

• Standard battery, Li-ion 1,500mAh

The GALAXY S WiFi 4.2 is exhibited at Samsung stand (Hall 8), Mobile World Congress 2012.

Source - Samsung