Today a new firmware update for the OnePlus One started rolling out, albeit slowly. It’s expected to have reached all the devices out there by the end of this week and it brings with it the absolute latest version of Android – 4.4.4.

Alongside that and many bug fixes, there’s also a new camera feature called Clear Image which stitches together 10 individual shots for a final “super high-res photo”. Read more »

Samsung has been granted a trademark over the “Galaxy Note Edge” name, further suggesting the company plans to launch two versions of the Galaxy Note 4.

The Note Edge moniker is strongly indicative of what has been confirmed by a previous company patent – a Note 4 with a three-sided display. Well, we can now safely call this one a Galaxy Note Edge. Read more »

Samsung already showed off the metal-clad Galaxy Alpha in Russia over the weekend sporting 32GB of built-in storage. Interestingly, SamMobile claims to have information that confirms the phone is also gong to launch in a 64GB variant.

The Galaxy Alpha doesn’t feature a microSD card slot and considering its high-end metal posture, it’s logical for Samsung to consider a 64GB version, too. Read more »

This must be really awkward for the party involved. The security-heavy, Android KitKat-toting Blackphone handset got rooted in five minutes at the BlackHat security conference.

To make matters even more interesting, the abovementioned feat was achieved without the need to unlock the Blackphone’s bootloader. Read more »

The HTC One (E8) sheds the weight of the aluminum unibody and drops the low-res UltraPixel camera in favor of a 13MP shooter. Neither of those affects battery life compared to the One (M8) and the battery capacity is still at 2,600mAh.

What could affect the battery endurance is the new chipset – the One (M8) we tested used a Qualcomm 8974AB while the One (E8) uses 8975AC. Read more »

The HTC Desire 616 dual sim has a large 5″ screen, eight CPU cores and two SIM cards – add those up and you’d think the phone needs a big, beefy battery. Except HTC decided that 2,000mAh should be enough.

How did that work out? Well, the endurance rating is good enough but that big screen and octa-core CPU really take their toll. Read more »

The time has come for another weekly poll of ours. This time we up the ante and turn the poll rivalry to eleven (minus 5). In the spirit of our recent flagship camera shootout, we’re asking you which out of the mighty six you think is the best in four distinct categories.

The contestants are the Samsung Galaxy S5, LG G3, Sony Xperia Z2, Oppo Find 7, Nokia Lumia 1020 and the Apple iPhone 5s. They’re competing in over four categories – best camera features, daylight image quality, low-light image quality and video recording quality. Read more »

Another Xperia smartphone landed in our office this week. We’ve already met the Xperia T2 Ultra, Xperia Z2 and Xperia M2, but we were also eager to check out what the Xperia T3 has to offer. And now we got the chance to give you a glimpse of what to expect in our in-depth review.

The Sony Xperia T3 packs a 5.3″ IPS display of 720p resolution and is powered by the popular mid-range Snapdragon 400 chipset. Sony has provided the Xperia T3 with an 8MP ExmorRS camera sensor and the phone comes with the Android 4.4.2 KitKat OS out of the box. Read more »

The day finally came when Samsung unleashed a powerful mini to go along with its flagship smartphone. The Galaxy S5 mini isn’t just an under-powered lookalike of the Galaxy S5 but retains most of what makes the S5 one of the most desirable smartphones on the market, only in a more pocketable form factor.

Samsung has gone with a bigger 4.5″ display (compared to the 5.1″ of the Galaxy S5 and the 4.3″ of the Galaxy S4 mini) but more importantly, it has still bundled the mini with a superb Super AMOLED panel. The fingerprint scanner and IR blaster are here as well and so is the water resistance – yay! Read more »

The controversy surrounding the OnePlus One smartphone seems to be a never-ending industry topic. We sat down with Carl Pei, Director of OnePlus Global, in an attempt to clarify some of these burning questions that are setting our editorial mailbox on fire these days.

OnePlus is a young Chinese mobile phone manufacturer who already managed to make a splash even before their first product was out. Thanks to clever online marketing, each one of their product teasers made the headlines across the world with promises for a disruptive smartphone with high-end specs and unseen before pricing.

Of course, with expectations running so high, once the OnePlus One smartphone hit the market there were bound to be disappointed users along with the happy ones.

To make matters worse, the smartphone is still playing hard to get with only the few people who possess the privileged right of an invite being allowed to purchase the device. That certainly played out well as people are always bound to crave something that they can’t readily have.

I first met Carl back when he was hard at work making a name for Oppo – and quite successfully at that. Now he has focused his energy into turning OnePlus into an (at least) equal success.

Carl is composed and outspoken and behind his easy going smile, he’s a creative professional with broad knowledge across various industry subjects and some really sharp thinking. I am more than curious to see how the OnePlus will turn out with his guidance. But I digress. On with the interview… Read more »

The Chinese designer and manufacturer of high-end smartphones Oppo released a new ColorOS Beta for the Find 5. Version V2.0.0i brings a host of improvements to the company’s 2012 flagship, though there’s no official word on which Android version it is based on.

Color V2.0.0i Beta brings a revamped, more minimalistic UI redesign. Read more »

You want an iPhone 6 plated with gold, rose gold or platinum? Goldgenie has you covered – it has already listed the three different luxurious versions of the upcoming iPhone 6.

The 24ct gold flavor will set you back £1100, the platinum version costs £1140, while the rose gold model is priced at £1124. Those three are already available on pre-order in the UK and will ship for free once the iPhone 6 goes official. Read more »

Google updated the Android L factory images for Nexus 5 and Nexus 7. The new builds carry the version number LPV81C and replace the previously available version LPV79.

The new Android L factory images bring few novelties to the table. Read more »

The original Nokia X trio will not see an update to the second version of the platform and the platform itself is on its way out. If you did get a Nokia X, though, you’ll soon be able to join the Android 4.4.4. KitKat crowd with CyanogenMod 11.

“Soon” because the current version of the ROM lacks three key features: Wi-Fi, camera and storage. Read more »

Xiaomi’s Mi 3 has had a long trek westward to our studios, but finally the device has made its way here and we’re ready to give the popular Chinese smartphone our full review treatment.

But before that, we’ll be taking a quick look at the device in front of our camera. The Mi 3 comes in a stylish unibody that houses a robust quad-core 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 chipset alongside Adreno 330 graphics and 2GB of RAM, all at a price that’s significantly lower than most flagships. Read more »