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Photo of ultra-slim Samsung Galaxy S3 mock-up shows up on Reddit
While wading through the massive amount of rumours circulating about the Galaxy S3, our need for information regarding this unicorn like device is on the increase. This mock-up while not plausible because of a few minor design inconsistencies is definitely impressive. The first noticeable one is the very fine white border that runs along the bottom up the side of the phone which doesn’t appear to be present on the side view of the phone.
Also, the volume rocker appears to be in the middle of both, the white and the black halves while the power and camera buttons which are visible in the profile view are only embedded in the white half. The calendar entry on the screen dated May 22nd would make any expectant consumer drool in anticipation but we do not see much truth in that little ‘clue’ they have left us.
Among the bits and bobs left in the picture for us to analyse, there are a few things that would not surprise us such as the Ice Cream Sandwich OS with TouchWiz, the only difference being the 5 icons in the dock (like on the Galaxy Note) instead of the 4 on the ICS for Galaxy S2. Another thing is how slim the device is and there is no bump at the back.
Also very attractive on this mock-up is the small almost non-existent bezel. The very intriguing logo at the bottom right of the picture might say a lot as Weber Shandwick is a PR company which are known to have worked with Samsung in the past. While we here at Uberphones in no way say that this is the real deal, it really wouldn’t be very bad if the Galaxy S3 were something like this.
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?