android
HTC Desire X announced
When the HTC Desire was first announced, that proved to be quite a revelation, being one of the more powerful Android-powered smartphones out there in the market. The thing is, the Desire brand had always been associated with the higher end spectrum where HTC’s range of smartphones are concerned, so here we are with the HTC Desire X being announced officially that surprisingly, has been “relegated” so to speak to being a budget smartphone that runs on the Android operating system. I guess this has something to do with the HTC One X naming convention, where the HTC One range is now top dog, leaving much to be desired on the HTC Desire X.
Just what kind of specifications does the HTC Desire X pack underneath the hood? Well, for starters, there is the very ordinary 4″ 800 x 480 resolution Super LCD display, powered by a Qualcomm MSM8225 Snapdragon SoC with dual-core 1GHz CPU and Adreno 203 GPU, accompanied by 768MB RAM, carry 4GB of internal memory that can be further augmented using its microSD memory card slot, a 5-megapixel camera with 480p video recording capability (no Full HD here, sorry), Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi connectivity, GPS support, and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as the operating system of choice, all supported by its 1,650mAh battery. Expect the HTC Desire X to hit Europe and Asia from the middle of September 2012 onwards for a yet undisclosed (albeit pocket friendly) price.
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?