Yesterday we told you that Samsung tweaks the GPU performance of the octa-core Galaxy S4 in order to achieve higher benchmark scores. It was proven both by tests and internal code pointing to specific benchmarks such as Quadrant, AnTuTu, Linpack and GLBenchmark.

Today Samsung issued a response to those allegations. Read more »

Samsung I9500 Galaxy S4, the Exynos 5 Octa versions of the flagship, didn’t make it to most of the markets and remained the more exotic option. Production hiccups and delays plus the lack of LTE radio in the initial batch was the reason Samsung switched to Snapdragon 600 chipset and make the I9505 its worldwide flagship.

Anyway, the octa-core version followed shortly after the Snapdragon 600 was launched. We already had a meeting with the beast and found it slightly faster in benchmarks than its international sibling, but weaker when it comes to battery life. A new development however, suggests that the scores posted by the Exynos GPU are obtained by cheating and the I9500 real life performance is lower than its scores indicate. Read more »

Earlier this year Samsung released a 30s commercial shot at an airport gate promoting the Galaxy S4′s Smart Pause and Air gestures.

There is now a sequel to this ad, promoting the same features but in a different scenario. This time around the Galaxy S4 has already made it to the airliner. Read more »

Ubuntu promised to deliver the future of computing, the Ubuntu Edge – a smartphone that can replace your desktop computer. To make it happen, Canonical (the company behind both the Ubuntu Linux distro and the Edge phone) turned to the crowd funding site IndieGoGo, trying to raise $32 million in just 30 days.

It was a beautiful dream (especially the 4GB RAM, 128GB storage and sapphire glass for the screen), but unfortunately it seems to be losing steam despite the good start. Read more »

If the 41MP camera of the Nokia Lumia 1020 wasn’t enough of a selling feature for you, then this cool and detailed infographic showing 41 reasons to get the cameraphone might prove useful.

Made by Nokia USA, the infographic shows the Lumia 1020 in a very nice and detailed way with pointers to each of the 41 reasons the company thinks are worthy of your attention. Naturally, the list starts with the 41MP sensor and goes on with its features – digital zoom, six-element ZEISS lenses, optical image stabilization and excellent low-light performance. Read more »

The XOLO Play T1000 is the latest smartphone from the Indian manufacturer Lava. We have previously taken a look at the company’s XOLO X900 smartphone, which also happened to be one of the first Android smartphones to run on an Intel chipset.

The XOLO Play is a bit different from the X900, wherein it runs on a traditional ARM processor. The chipset in question is an NVDIA Tegra 3 and as you can tell from the name the device is being touted as a gaming device. We’ll see how it performs as a gaming device and of course, as an everyday smartphone. Read more »

Our first encounter with the HTC One mini was shorter than we would have liked so we invited it back for round 2. It made a good first impression, let’s see how it will fare once the feeling of novelty has subsided.

Holding it for a second time, we still think the One mini offers a more premium feel than many high-end phones do. Read more »

The BlackBerry Q5 is a business phone, meaning no matter what it has to have charge left over or you could miss all sorts of important calls and messages. The BlackBerry Z10 wasn’t bad with a 46 hours endurance score (but then it only has a 1,800mAh battery), then the Q10 beat it with a 56 hours score (but it does have a bigger 2,100mAh battery and smaller screen).

The Q5 has a 2,180mAh battery, same size screen as the Q10 (but LCD instead of AMOLED) and a lower clocked chipset. How did it do? Read more »

Sony was quick to announce the list of devices that will get Android 4.3 and release an AOSP ROM for the Xperia Tablet Z. The Japanese have since updated the post with good news for Xperia Z and Xperia ZL owners – they get an AOSP build too.

Note that this is the early days and just like the Xperia Tablet Z build things aren’t 100% operational and the builds aren’t suitable for daily use. Read more »

The Sony Xperia ZR has rushed into our office in dire need of review treatment. Before that though, we are giving it a quick test drive in front of our camera to show you some of its awesome features.

You can’t really mistake the Xperia ZR, can you? Especially with this cool pink paint job, which should really become a favorite of the ladies. It looks the part thanks to the high quality plastic used, which feels very sturdy and premium. Read more »

Lately Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipsets can be found in almost all walks of life when it comes to mobile devices. And the company is reaping the benefits with a record breaking quarter.

The company has posted some $6.24 billion in revenue for the quarter ending in June, up 35% compared to the same quarter last year. Read more »

You read that right – Apple might discontinue its iPhone 5 as soon as the company starts selling its upcoming iPhone 5S, according to a report from Chinese CTech.

We saw in the Apple’s financial report that the older versions of the iPhones had resulted in the weak sales of latest iPhone 5 and brought the profit margin down. Read more »

Just a couple of days after launching its Indiegogo project, Canonical has received overwhelming support for its Ubuntu Edge smartphone. The campaign aimed to raise a whopping $32 million and after its strong start, Canonical has lowered the minimum pledge price to $625.

The offer was initially available only to first-day pledgers who wanted to make the Edge a reality and get a device of their own should the crowdsourcing project meet its target. Read more »

The Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom is a rework of the Galaxy Camera from last year, and it’s based on the Galaxy S4 mini, rather than the Galaxy S III. While shooting photos may be one of the primary goals of the S4 zoom, the device is a proper smartphone.

It’s got a slightly bigger battery than the S4 mini – 2,330mAh vs. 1,900mAh – but the chipset is older, let’s see how that balances out. Read more »

Samsung announced that it has started mass production of 3GB RAM chips for mobile phones, after testing in late April. The chips are based on the LPDDR3 standard and are built on a 20nm process. The new chips offer better overall performance for future smartphones – potentially coming to the Galaxy Note III first.

The Note III is rumored to launch with 3GB RAM and should be unveiled in early September at IFA, so starting manufacturing of the new RAM chips now seems to be just in time. Young-Hyun Jun, executive VP at Samsung Electronics, said that the first devices with this RAM will be used in the second half of this year. Read more »