OnePlus Two

OnePlus Two UK release date, price and specs rumours: OnePlus Two confirmed for June 2015, plus separate model in the works

OnePlus Two UK release date

Carl Pei, the 25-year-old co-founder of OnePlus, told our sister title PC World that we can expect to see the OnePlus Two in about six months, giving it a June 2015 release date. However, as we have seen with the OnePlus One, supply and demand will likely be something of a problem - even now it's not possible to simply go to the site and purchase the phone, and still you require an invitation (Also see: How to buy the OnePlus One without an invitation). Although the company is now much larger and has learned from its experiences with its first smartphone, Pei said it will be cautious not to overproduce.

Pei also confirmed that there would not be a OnePlus One tablet, but the company is working on a second model - we reckon it'll be a OnePlus Mini.

OnePlus Two UK price

As with all Chinese smartphones on the market, with the OnePlus Two you can expect a premium phone with a mid-range price. We expect the price to fall in line with the OnePlus One, which costs around £229 for the 16GB model, and certainly no more than £300. We'll update this article as more information becomes available.

OnePlus Two specs rumours

Nothing has yet been confirmed about the OnePlus Two's spec. However, Pei said we will be surprised: Rather than taking on 2015 flagship's in terms of spec, it will do so in design. Could OnePlus be about to produce the first truly affordable Quad HD smartphone? Or will it have a unibody metal chassis? We can't wait to find out and will update this article with rumours as they arise.

It's probably fair to say the spec will not be any less of that of the OnePlus One, although rather than matching the spec of the Samsung Galaxy S6, HTC One M9 and Sony Xperia Z4 we might be looking at something a little less powerful but just as pretty.

Samsung galaxy s6

Samsung galaxy s6





Two Samsung Galaxy S6 designs are in the works, one half metal and one with a unibody metal chassis, but what else do we know about the Samsung Galaxy S6? We round up everything there is to know about the Samsung Galaxy S6 'Project Zero' smartphone, including UK release date, specs, rumours and concept images.

Although there is nothing official from Samsung yet (don't expect anything for a while), there is plenty to say about the release date of the Galaxy S6. For starters it's extremely likely to arrive at MWC 2015 (2 March).

Samsung, like other hardware manufacturers has got into a rhythm of launching a new flagship smartphone once per year. Just as the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and iPhone 6 were expected to launch in September and did so, we (along with many others) expect the Galaxy S6 to launch close to MWC.

The Korean tech giant has launched previous Galaxy S phones near to the Barcelona show; in fact, the Galaxy S5 was announced in the Spanish city at MWC 2014. MWC 2015 is scheduled for 2 March so we fully expect the Galaxy S6 to be unveiled close to this date at an Unpacked event.

There is the odd murmur that Samsung will bring it forward due to disappointing Galaxy S5 sales, and that it might appear at CES 2015. But while Samsung was alleged to be showing the S6 behind closed doors, there was no mention of the next Galaxy flagship in its CES press conference.

Samsung Galaxy S6: Specs

Plenty of whispers are circulating the rumour mill on what specs and features the Samsung Galaxy S6 will offer. Some sound farfetched; others are more likely. Now a detailed leak bySamMobile reveals what Samsung is planning for the Galaxy S6 so read on. The specs revealed by the site are backed up by a screenshot from the AnTuTu benchmark app. Read:LG G4 release date, price and specs rumours.

Screen

It seems perfectly plausible that the Galaxy S6 will use a SuperAMOLED screen, Samsung's favoured display technology. As for size, the trend is for new models to have bigger displays so with the Galaxy S5 at 5.1in, the Galaxy S6 could be as large as 5.5in, matching the LG G3 or somewhere in between.

Speaking of the LG G3, there are two main contenders for the Galaxy S6 screen resolution: Quad HD (1440 x 2560) matching LG's flagship smartphone or 4K (2160 x 3840). The former seems more likely to us, now that Samsung has introduced it in the Galaxy Note 4, but full-HD is certainly not out of the question. SamMobile touts it will be Quad HD but doesn't know what size.

There are rumours of a flexible or curved display which Samsung has been developing and we've seen on the Galaxy Round, and yet more rumours that there will be a version of the S6 with a curved edge, just like the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge. Whether the firm utilises this on the flagship Galaxy S6 is unclear. It's possible but from our point of view, unlikely.

Design and build

The Samsung Galaxy S5 got slammed in reviews (including ours) for its plastic build quality and this is something which should be improved when it comes to the Galaxy S6. Rumours suggest the firm could be using graphene as a material. More likely, however, is that Samsung will continue the metal design used by its Galaxy Alpha in the Galaxy S6.

HTC Desire 826

HTC Desire 826

The Desire 826 has a lot in common with the Desire 820 that was released in September 2014. Both devices use Qualcomm's Snapdragon 615 with 2GB of LPDDR3 memory, 16GB of NAND, and 2600mAh (9.88Wh) battery. However, the Desire 826 has a maximum clock speed of 1.7GHz on its high-power A53 cluster, while the Desire 820 was limited to 1.5GHz. Being an Android 5.0 Lollipop device, the Desire 826 will also be 64-bit enabled out of the gate, while the Desire 820 had to operate in 32-bit mode due to a 64-bit version of Android being unavailable. I still believe having two clusters of Cortex-A53s is silly, but HTC weren't the ones making that decision so it's not something I can really fault the phone itself for.

There are some other notable improvements over the Desire 820. The Desire 826 has a significantly sharper display due to HTC's move from 1280x720 to 1920x1080 on the same panel size. The front-facing camera is the other significant difference between the two devices. While the Desire 820 used an 8MP front-facing sensor, the Desire 826 uses a 4MP UltraPixel sensor with an f/2.0 aperture for the front-facing camera in most markets. This should significantly improve low-light camera performance. In certain unspecified markets, the Desire 826 will use a 13MP f/2.0 sensor instead. Like all of HTC's recent devices, the Desire 826 ships with HTC's Eye Experience software for the camera.

The Desire 826 will be available in the Asia-Pacific region by the end of this month, and will expand to other markets afterward. It comes in multiple colors, including but not limited to white, purple, and blue. There is currently no word on what to expect for pricing, but it should be similar to the launch price of the Desire 820.

Source: HTC

HTC DESIRE 820 REVIEW

HTC Desire 820: Hands On With the New 64-Bit Octa-Core phone

 HTC Desire 820 has been launched in India alongside its "lite" variant, theDesire 820q, and the Desire 816G, which is a new variant of the popular Desire 816 minus the LTE support. Unfortunately, the company will not be revealing the price of the new Desire 820 until the device goes on sale in early November.

HTC stresses that the Desire 820 is its top model in the Desire family, and so its main highlight is the octa-core, 64-bit Qualcomm processor with integrated LTE modem.

We had just about enough time to get a basic feel of what HTC's new Desire 820 offers at the Delhi launch event. We'll have even more detailed coverage and formal review of the smartphone soon.

Build, design and displayAt first glance, the white Desire 820 that we played with looked very similar to the Desire 816 (Review | Pictures), and it sports the same plastic body.

HTC has adapted its One series design philosophy for the higher-end Desire 820 and 816 smartphones, both of which feature thin bezels around their LCD screens and dual front-firing speakers above and below the screen.

The curved edges of the Desire 820 give it a good overall feel and make it easy to hold.At 155 grams, it is lighter than the Desire 816 (165 grams). The new Desire handset is long and wide like its predecessor, which can be put down to the large screen. The power button has been moved to the right panel, where it is accompanied by the volume rocker. The left panel has a flap covering the two Nano-SIM slots and the microSD slot.

The Desire 820, much like the Desire 816, features a 5.5-inch HD (720x1280-pixel) LCD display. In our limited time with the phone, colours looked vibrant and were reproduced well.Viewing angles were not a problem either. Typing on the 5.5-inch touchscreen of the Desire 820 should not be a problem for people, especially those with bigger palms.

Specifications and performanceThe most unique feature of the HTC Desire 820 is its 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC that has integrated 4G LTE. The 16GB of internal storage space on the Desire 820 is expandable by up to 128GB using a microSD card.

The Snapdragon 615 has four 1.5GHz cores and four 1GHz cores. There is also 2GB of RAM which is an improvement over the 1.5GB that the Desire 816 came with. Connectivity options on the handset include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPRS/ EDGE, GPS/ A-GPS, 3G and 4G LTE. The handset measures 157.7x78.74x7.74mm and packs in a 2,600mAh battery.

In our limited testing, the Desire 820 easily handled everything we threw at it, and did not lag while launching and switching between apps, or scrolling through Web pages.

While we didn't get a chance to run benchmarks on the Desire 820 at the event, you can expect to read more about the smartphone's 64-bit octa-core processor when we review it.

Camera and softwareThe Desire 820 sports a 13-megapixel rear camera with an f/2.2 aperture, LED flash and BSI sensor, as well as an 8-megapixel front camera.

The rear camera comes with features such as geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR, HD video and image recording. The rear camera can record 1080p videos at 30fps, while the front camera can also record 720p videos at 60fps. In our limited time with the device, photos taken with both cameras looked impressive in both well-lit and low-light conditions.

HTC is also positioning the Desire 820 as an ideal device for taking selfies with. It has a feature that lest you merges your image with someone else's; Live Makeup, which allows you to set the level of skin smoothing before taking a photo, and Photo Booth, which arranges multiple moments into a single image.

The Desire 820 runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat with HTC's Sense 6 UI, which first debuted on the HTC One (M8). The interface on the new smartphone looked identical to the software running on the company's flagship. It comes with software customisations including BlinkFeed and Zoe.

Final wordsThe HTC Desire 820 is an incremental upgrade to the Desire 816. It will be quite impressive for a mid-range phone if priced between Rs. 22,000 and 30,000. The company has announced that it will go on sale in early November, and the price will only be known then. We will wait for the price to be confirmed before making any comments about value for money.

Galaxy ALPHA

Galaxy ALPHA

Samsung launches its first metal-bodied smartphone Galaxy Alpha at Rs 39,990

The phone will be available in the market starting first week of October. The phone was initially announced in August. 

The Galaxy Alpha features a compact body with a metal frame, curved corners and a tactile soft back cover. The phone is also one of the slimmest Galaxy devices ever with 6.7mm thickness. It is very lightweight at 115gram. 

Samsung Galaxy Alpha sports a 4.7-inch HD Super AMOLED (720x1280p) display. It is powered by Samsung's Exynos octal core processor featuring 1.8GHz quad-core and a 1.3GHz quad-core processors, and 2GB RAM. 

Unlike Samsung's other Galaxy smartphones, the Galaxy Alpha comes with 32GB internal storage but doesn't feature a microSD card slot. 

The phone runs Android 4.4 KitKat and comes with Samsung's Ultra-Power Saving mode and S Health application. It sports a finger print scanner, heart rate sensor and private mode, and supports connectivity with Samsung Gear Fit, Gear Live and Gear 2 wearables. 

Galaxy Alpha sports a 12MP rare camera and a 2.1MP front-facing camera. The rear camera supports 4K video recording. 

In terms of connectivity, the phone offers support for WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, and NFC. It comes with an 1860mAh battery. 

Samsung Galaxy Alpha will be available in charcoal black, dazzling white, frosted gold, sleek silver, and scuba blue colours.

watch galaxy alpha full review here

Gimp

Gimp

it is an alternate to Photoshop it is a free image manipulation software this is available for almost all operating systems below is the link for windows

click her for windows
the above link works for all versions of windows7/8/8.1

Sony Xperia Z3 Review

Sony is trying really hard to get back into the mobile play again, this time within six months they have announced the Z3, a successor to the Z2, with a whole lot of improvements. Sony has done a very impressive job with the Z3, albeit a few minor software issues!! This time around Sony has made a smartphone they can be proud of.

The design of the phone is very familiar and is almost like the previous smartphones, with major improvement on the size. This means that the phone looks and feels slim and sleek compared to its predecessors, which maintained 5.2-inch screens. Dimensions wise, the phone is 146mm x 72mm x 7.3mm and weighs just 152 grams. The Z3 is also IP65/68 rated, which means it’s more waterproof than ever before. A dedicated, physical camera button allows underwater shooting; this is something Sony has retained on almost all their models.

 

The frame of the phone is rounded (glass) instead of sharp edges on prior models. The edges are made of metal, and the rounded corners are covered in hard nylon covering (elbows), to protect the phone from damage to the corners. With the well-rounded corners of the phone feels comfortable to handle, making the handset grip-friendly.

 

Z3 has micro SD card slot, a nano-SIM slot, a power button, volume control and camera shutter on the right side of the device. On the left side are the microUSB charging point and magnetic wireless charging connectors (which is not included in the box—it is an optional accessory that needs to be purchased separately)

The rear panel is made of glass with SONY and XPERIA logos in the center and bottom, respectively. It also hosts a 20.7MP camera with LED flash on top left corner. On the top left edge, a 3.5 mm jack completes the physical connectivity. The Z3’s rear panel is a fingerprint magnet which we personally wouldn’t like to have. However, since it is made from glass, one cannot expect it, not to be.

The Sony Xperia Z3 runs on a quad-core 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with 3GB of RAM. The display is a 5.2-inche IPS LCD sporting a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels (424 ppi pixel density). The internal memory stands at 16/32 GB and the micro SD card slot can host a good (up to) 128GB SD card.

 

The Z3 supports 2G, 3G and 4G networks with Wi-fi, Bluetooth and NFC as other methods of communication. The micro USB port is for data transfer as well as charging.

The 20.7 MP auto-focus camera can take 5248x3936 pixel photos and can record 4K video @ 30fps, 1080p @ 60fps, 720p @120fps and HDR videos. The secondary camera is a 2.2 MP and can record full HD 1080p videos @ 30 fps.

  

The battery is a non-removable Li-Ion 3100 mAh, which can provide up to 16 hours of 3G talk time, 740 hours of standby or up to 130 hours of music play. Pretty impressive compared to phones from the same segment, but again, this will differ from person to person and their usage.

  

The Xperia Z3 is loaded with Android OS KitKat v4.4.4, straight out of the box, with Sony’s Xperia user interface overlay. On the home screen, you can add or remove panels and set any of them as default. You can't have more than seven panels at any given time nor can you change the order they're in.

The Z3 task manager lets you switch between opened apps for multitasking and also allow you to close apps that you are done with.

  

There are few pop up apps, known as "small apps", which are available on the Z3. They are accessible via the task manager. They are similar to Samsung's pop up tiny widget-like applications on your home screen, which can be moved around and use without having to open the full-screen app. Presently, there are nine apps available as “mini-apps”: Active Clip, Chrome Bookmarks, Browser, Calculator, Calendar, Gmail, Timer, Notes, and Touch Lock. Hope to see a growing list, soon.

  

The app drawer works just fine, and transitions between the pages are smooth. One can filter the apps by Alphabetical order or custom order, if one doesn’t want to look at the pre installed apps you can have an app drawer with only downloaded apps too. This is what most of the Android users are used to. 

With a Snapdragon 801 and 3GB of RAM to support, along with an Adreno graphics processor, the phone has no lag, whatsoever, while handling app multi-tasking. The UI is pretty smooth and handles any application thrown at it without any hesitation.

This is the department where we always have high expectations from Sony, and yes, they have delivered without fail. The Xperia Z3's camera has a 20.7MP sensor that was introduced back with the Xperia Z1. It shoots at a maximum resolution of 5248 x 3936 pixels (20.7MP) in manual mode, or 3264 x 2448 (8MP) in Superior Auto mode. There is also an LED flash to help you with some low-light photos. The sensor in Z3 supports ISO 12,800 to let the phone handle dark scenes.

The Xperia Z3 has a hardware shutter key. It's one of the things that a lot of users love from Sony as the key is very useful when it comes to taking photos without unlocking the phone. It’s very handy when underwater shots are taken (YES, you can take the phone underwater and take photos, just keep in mind you have only 30-45 minutes underwater!!).

The mode selector now offers an additional tab with the available tab that lets you download extra shooting modes. The available modes include Picture in Picture mode, Multi-cam mode, Sound photo, Live-streaming on YouTube or Facebook, Time-shift mode and some creative effects modes.

Time-shift replaces the burst mode, capturing 30 shots in 2 seconds. Best thing about the Time-shift mode is that it starts to save images immediately—so the perfect moment won’t be missed!

Creative effects modes are cool, but they need to be worked on, some effects take time to get used to but once you know how it works they are quite cool to have on the phone!

The video recording on Xperia Z3 captures max resolution of 2160p (4k) videos @ 30 fps. There are lower resolution options like 1080p @ 60fps and even a slow motion mode at 720p. There's also HDR video, but only in 1080p resolution. When recording at 4k, a warning pops up informing the user that if the phone gets heated, the camera app will close, and the recording will be saved automatically. This is something Sony should really work on, since having a feature, but not able to use it for a long time is what a user does not want.