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Samsung Galaxy SIII Allegedly in Vietnam? [Rumor]
We have all heard about the upcoming launching of Samsung’s next flagship phone the Galaxy S III that is to take place in London on May 3rd, the device has been under the tightest shroud of secrecy any Android phone has ever been in comparable only to Apple’s devices. Now however it seems like the device has made a little appearance in Vietnam and it was highlighted with a video. Now, we cannot be sure if this device is in fact the Samsung Galaxy S III or not but it’s a leak so we will take you through what came with it.
According to Vietnamese site Tinhte (via Engadget) they have got their hands on the GT-I9300 which is the rumored model number of the Galaxy S III. The specs of the device are as follows: a 4.6-inch display with 720 x 1184 pixels resolution with a pixel density of 320 pixels per inch, a quad-cored 1.4GHz processor, it runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, 1 GB of RAM, an 8MP rear-facing camera, 16GB storage on top of microSD expansion capability and finally, a 2050 mAh battery with NFC.
The specs on the device pretty much line up with some of the rumors we’ve heard and this device seems to have a pretty strong case for being the real thing. The video embedded above is in Vietnamese but it lets you get a good look at the purported device, so you can judge it for yourself. As of the time of publication, the source for the video has made it private but the folks over at Engadget made sure to get a copy for themselves which you can view here at Viddler; after which they shot a comment request to Samsung and received the unsurprising response, “We will be able to tell you more tat the 2012 Samsung Mobile Unpacked.”
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?