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Is Verizon’s HTC Merge Finally Here?
The HTC Merge has been quite a tease with rumors of surfacing in September 2010 and a rumored launch date too by Verizon. That makes it about 9 months since the rumors and only now has it decided to finally emerge (sorry could not resist the pun).
However there was no fanfare when it showed up which is not surprising considering this is technology is almost a year old, but if you have had your sights on the HTC Merge and refuse to consider any other device then more bad news as Verizon will not be selling the phone themselves. According to their website the HTC Merge is only available from third-party distributors which means large retailers such as Best Buy will be your best bet at getting your hands on the device.
Could it be that since this phone contains some rather old technology that Verizon would rather save their money and not stock up on the device? Can’t really blame them for that considering the slew of brand new devices that they now stock that hold much better specifications compared to the HTC Merge which features 800MHz Qualcomm MSM 7630 processor, 512 MB of RAM, Android 2.2 Froyo (seriously?), 2 GB of built in memory, and a 5 MP camera with 720p video recording and not forgetting the slide out keyboard which was one of its selling points.
The Fairphone 2 was first unveiled in June earlier this year, where this particular handset carried a modular design while featuring majority of its components that have been sourced from conflict-free mines. It seems that this particular handset that you can purchase with a clear conscience has begun to ship to those who happen to live across Europe.
Fairphone announced in a blog post, “It’s been almost two years in the making, and some of the earliest buyers have been patiently waiting since July to receive their new phones. As community manager, I want to personally welcome the new batch of Fairphone owners to our community.” The initial 1,000 units are tipped to ship this month, before the other pre-orders follow in January 2016.
In terms of hardware specifications, the Fairphone 2 will run on a Snapdragon 801 chipset, has a 5″ 1080p screen with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, 2GB of RAM, an 8MP camera, with Android 5.1 Lollipop in tow. It will be a dual SIM capable handset with a microSD memory card slot and plays nice with 4G LTE networks, retailing for approximately €525 a pop.
It looks like the upcoming flagship model from Xiaomi will feature NFC support, at least based on a document that was released by China UnionPay. Just in case you are scratching your head and wondering who China UnionPay is, they happen to be the only domestic payment gateway supplier and card organization, and hence, to see them offer detailed support concerning the newly released NFC-based payment system points to the very real possibility of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5 featuring NFC capability.
After all, the Xiaomi Mi 3 was also mentioned on the list, which so happens to feature NFC, and there is no mention of the Xiaomi Mi 4 which does not come with NFC. Still, such a new payment system would be the ideal tool to see the reintroduction of NFC to the flagship model.
OnePlus did make an announcement in the previous month that the Ceramic variant of the OnePlus X will be released on November 24. True to their word, they did exactly that – although only a pitiful number of units were made available, and not only that, this was through a charity auction. Thankfully for the rest of the masses who are on the lookout for this device, it has gone on sale officially already.
Needless to say, this particular variant is available only by an invitation, although do bear in mind that standard OnePlus X invites are not good here – you will still need to snag yourself a specific Ceramic variant invite before you make a purchase. OnePlus is also on the lookout to offer additional methods of picking up this smartphone, although no further details were revealed.
The OnePlus X Ceramic will be available only in select markets, where among them include Europe, India, and Hong Kong. To date, we do know that OnePlus had made only 10,000 units of the handset available. A case of the early bird getting the proverbial worm here?