We’re eagerly anticipating the upcoming announcement of Sony’s Xperia ZU 6.4 inch smartphone, which is expected to come equipped with a speedy Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. For those who don’t know, the Snapdragon 800 is Qualcomm’s as of yet unreleased high-end processor which will replace the current Snapdragon 600 as its top of the line chip.

We’ve already seen a Snapdragon 800 benchmark result show up for a new Pantech handset and one for the rumored Snapdragon 800 Galaxy S4 model, which stole top place from the Exynos 5 Octa. Now another result has cropped up, this time for the Xperia ZU.

Again the result surpasses anything which is currently on the market, but the Xperia ZU result is easily the fastest Antutu benchmark yet; scoring a really impressive 32173. The processor used in the test was clocked at a reasonable 2265Mhz, which explains the slight besting of the 30133 score achieved by the 2150Mhz chip found in the Pantech device.

For the sake of some perspective, the Snapdragon 600 powered Galaxy S4 scored 25900 in our own tests, and the Exynos 5 Octa version currently tops our performance table with a score of 27417. So it’s safe to say, providing that this result is the real deal, that the Snapdragon 800 blows the current crop out of the water.

It’s going to be interesting to see how the device performs in the real world, fortunately there’s just over a week to wait until the Xperia ZU is officially unveiled.

HTC is certainly piling on the new devices after the successful HTC One, and the Desire 200 looks to be the company’s next small budget smartphone to make its way into the product line-up.

Although the device hasn’t been officially announced by HTC yet, thegioididong.com has managed to get its hands on the little 3.5 inch smartphone and has given us a sneak peak at the handset’s specs. But this new mini smartphone won’t be taking after the upcoming HTC Mini, which is more of a mid/high spec handset; instead the Desire 200 will most likely target emerging and budget markets, as you can see by the specs below:

• 3.5 inch 320×480 (HVGA) LCD display
• Single-core 1GHz processor
• 512MB of RAM
• 4GB of internal storage
• 5 megapixel rear camera
• microSD card and mini-SIM card expansion slots
• 1,400mAh replaceable battery
• Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich
• Sense 4.0 user interface

It’s certainly a budget device in the hardware department and the software isn’t exactly up to date either, but at least this makes a change from the typical Gingerbread powered budget handsets that we’ve become accustomed to. Sadly the handset doesn’t appear to ship with Android Jelly Bean, which means no Project Butter improvements or Google Now. But software is still subject to change before the final launch, so hopefully the Desire 200 will receive a last minute upgrade.

There’s also a hands-on video if you’d like to take a closer look at the smartphone, but only the first 3 and a half minutes really show off anything useful.

It appears that the HTC Desire 200 will probably be targeted at various budget markets, and most likely the Asian market where the leak originated from, but there currently isn’t any information available regarding a release date or the handset’s price. We’ll know more once HTC comes along with the official unveiling.

RBMen has come across some more specs for the upcoming next Oppo Find handset, which we already heard is rumoured to be running the brand new Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. The new device will supposedly be called the Find 7 not the Find 6, as it seems that Oppo prefers odd numbers. So without further delays here are the specs:

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor (unknown clock speed)
• 5 inch 1920×1080 display
• 2GB RAM
• 13 megapixel rear camera
• 8 megapixel front facing camera
• NFC enabled
• 4000mAh battery

The big deal here is the massive 4000mAh battery, which should help give this 5 inch handset plenty of battery life. Compare this with other 5 inch smartphones, like the Galaxy S4 which only has a 2600mAh battery, and you’re looking at a significant battery improvement. However there’s still no word on whether the battery will be removable or not, I wouldn’t bet on it based on the Find 5, but with that size I doubt it’s going to be such an issue for many users.

Apart from the Snapdragon 800 processor and the vastly improved front facing camera, the specs appear to be pretty much the same as the older Oppo Find 5. The handset will also supposedly be 9.9mm thick, which suggests that it will be a tiny bit larger than its older brother.

Just like we heard before, we’re still looking at a mid-September release date, but there’s no news yet about which regions the handset will be launching in. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer until we receive an official statement about the Oppo Find 7.

Image source: The Independent

If you’ve travelled abroad at any point you’re likely to have incurred a roaming charge whilst using your mobile phone. Over recent years there’s been a concerted effort to bring these costs down across Europe, and after a new European proposal it looks like we could be rid of them for good come next year.

A group of 27 European Commissioners voted in Brussels on Tuesday to push through plans to remove roaming charges before the European elections in May, meaning that the rules could come into force as early as July 1^st 2014. However, it’s worth noting there are no plans to impose further restrictions on mobile termination rates, the charges operators make to each other for connecting calls.

But there are also additional motives for the decision, other than just trying to bring down the price of roaming for consumers. The EU also seems concerned that a fragmented European market is stifling investment in new technologies due to a lack of co-operation between companies operating in the 27 different member countries. One source close to the discussion said:

There are around 100 operators in Europe and only four in the US. That’s not sustainable if we’re going to have a single market and investment.

Consolidation is not the aim. The aim is a single market, but if it means we get fewer, stronger operators, that’s good.

Well hold your horses there EU, there’s certainly the counter argument to be made that the US is actually worse off in some respects for having such a small number of competing companies. Many of the tariff offers available in Europe are considerably cheaper than some in the US due to the extra competition, and I’ve heard quite a few complaints regarding the lack of carrier choice in some parts of the US.

Anyway, the EU also has plans to synchronise national sales of airwaves and to make it easier for companies to do business across the whole of Europe based on authorisation from a single national regulator. However, the trade off is that the rules will reduce the power of nation states to auction their own airwaves and regulate their own businesses.

Of course, the important thing is that consumers are left better off, and this idea looks like it will finally alleviate the extra costs encountered by European customers, at least for those who travel around the continent a lot anyway. We’ll know a little bit more about the finer details once the proposals are finalised in the next six weeks.

Custom launchers and tweaked Android experiences tend to either be love or hate for many consumers, but Acer has declared that it stands firmly on the side of the default Android experience.

The Taiwanese manufacturer spoke with TechRadar recently to explain some of its reasons for choosing to keep Android as pure as possible, rather than developing its own UIs for its products. Probably the biggest reason is the time and monetary investments in keeping the UI up to date as Android moves forward. S T Liew, the President of Acer’s global smartphone division, explained:

We found from our previous experiences of creating Android UIs that they are very difficult to maintain, especially keeping track with Google's migrations,

Allen Burnes, Acer’s VP of Smartphones for EMEA, echoed a similar sentiment:

We don't have to rewrite Android, the overhead we put into that is relatively low, but the consumer benefit is very high.

It’s certainly true that handsets using custom interfaces, like Samsung’s Touchwiz, take a lot of time, effort, and cost to update once a new version of Android comes out, so it’s certainly a lot easier to let Google do all the hard work for you. However, Acer doesn’t have a problem with providing little tweaks to the UI, or making adjustments to camera apps or other important features if it suits its products.

There’s also the added benefit of being able to attract customers from other manufacturers based on the build quality, specs, and price, rather than worrying about whether or not they’ll be put off by your customised interface.

Android actually does a great job at serving up the right user experience and it allows people to migrate from one Android phone to another with relative ease.

That’s certainly a fair point, but I suppose that works both ways. Customers can easily switch between brands using vanilla Android experiences, whereas consumers who become accustomed to overlays like TouchWiz or Sense are likely to stick with the same brand once they become familiar with a specific look and feel.

Of course all of this isn’t to say that custom overlays don’t have their place, they can certainly bring some great new features to the Android experience. But Acer’s point is a fair one; Google puts a lot of hard work into providing a complete operating system which works perfectly as is; so why fix what isn’t broken.

Possibly one of the best upgrades shown off at the iOS7 unveiling was the enhanced security features which help prevent thieves from using stolen iPhone’s. Extra security is certainly a deterrent to would be thieves, and we were also recently wondering what other manufacturers could do to improve the security of their own handsets.

So sticking with the theme of device security, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon are set to co-host a Smartphone Summit with representatives from Apple, Google, Samsung and Microsoft today. The main objective of the summit will be to discuss the introduction a “kill switch”, which should be capable of completely deactivating a smartphone should it be lost or stolen. Afterwards they’ll also be launching the ”Save our Smartphones” initiative, aimed at promoting their cause.

But I am hesitant to agree that a master one time “kill switch” is the perfect solution. Part of me is convinced that it will probably end up causing problems for owners who could fall victim to the system themselves, especially when it comes to used handset sales. That’s not to say that something probably doesn’t need to be done about phone theft, as one report suggests that 113 smartphones are lost or stolen every minute in the US, with 1 out of every 3 robberies involving the theft of a mobile phone.

In the meantime, Android users can fortunately install third party applications, like Cerberus for example, which can lock, report the location of, and even erase data on your smartphone remotely if you’re unlucky enough to be a victim of phone theft.

What do you think about the prospect of a “kill switch”: an excellent, much needed idea or a solution which could causes more problems than it solves?

The other day we heard that Samsung’s Galaxy S4 sales figures were disappointing some investors, leading to a big stock sell-off which wiped around $12 billion off the value of the technology giant in a single day.

A report by J.P. Morgan led the charge, suggesting that sales of high-end smartphones were lagging behind expectations across the board, and that monthly orders for the Galaxy S4 are due to be cut by somewhere between 20 and 30% by July. With so much hype surrounding the launch of the Galaxy S4 it was always a real possibility that third parties would overestimate the company’s ability to shift record numbers of handsets, which I suspect is exactly what has happened.

In a rebuttal to J.P. Morgan’s claim that the Galaxy S4 is underperforming, CEO of Samsung Electronics, Kim Yoo-chul, has stated that the Galaxy S4 is selling just fine by their own standards. Speaking at a meeting with presidents of Samsung affiliates the other day, Kim Yoo-chul stated:

I can say sales of the Galaxy S4 smartphone are fine. It’s been selling well,

He also reiterated what I’d already expected, that J.P. Morgan’s own analysis was simply overzealous to begin with.

The report (by JPMorgan) was based on its own analysis. Probably, the bank may have corrected its previous bullish estimate about the S4 sales,

It’s pretty unusual for a company to comment directly on a third party’s sales forecast, but considering the damage to Samsung’s stock price, which was likely caused by the pessimism in the Galaxy S4’s performance, the statement was no-doubt an attempt at damage control. So far the stock has lost 7.44% of its value since the sell-off began on June 7^th, the single biggest weekly decline in Samsung’s share price for more than a year.

Although the short-term outlook may be negative, Samsung is still performing very strongly. Source: Google Finance

Looking at the actual figures though, there’s little doubt that the Galaxy S4 is selling just fine. It’s already surpassed the previous record set by the Galaxy S3 and over 10 million units have already been sold, which trumps the sales figures of the rival HTC One by quite a margin.

The stock sell-off which started at the end of last week is most likely a realignment of bloated expectations, a simple correction if you will, not to mention that the stock was already trading close to its all time high. Samsung also has a strong line-up of products set for release in the not too distant future, so, despite the pessimistic reports, I wouldn’t start worrying about Samsung anytime soon.

The Taiwanese site ePrice has released some exclusive information about the upcoming Sony Xperia ZU, including a full list of specs and a date for the official unveiling. The device will be officially announced at Sony’s mobile event on June 25, so that’s less than two weeks left to wait.

The post also confirms the rumoured specs that we’d heard about — the Xperia ZU will feature the new top of the line quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at an impressive 2.2Ghz, there will be 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory, an expandable microSD slot with support for an additional 64GB of space, an 8 megapixel rear camera, a 1.3 megapixel rear camera, and a non-replaceable 3000mAh battery. Pfew, time for a breather.

The only worrying component on the list is the 3000mAh battery. Whilst that isn’t particularly small by smartphone standards, it will have less charge time that the Galaxy Note 2’s 3100mAh battery. I can’t help but worry about what the battery life will be like with an even larger screen and more powerful processor.

Speaking of screens, we already knew that the phone would be pretty large and it looks like the leaks were true. The Xperia ZU will feature a massive 6.4-inch X-Reality display with a resolution of 1920×1080, which works out at 342 pixels per inch.

Along with the specs and a launch date, the post also details some of the device’s other features, including the ability to use any pen, pencil, or similarly shaped object as a stylus. The handset will ship with built in Note and Sketch applications which make use of the stylus features. Along with all that, the device will also be water and dust resistant, just like the Xperia Z.

One thing’s for certain, this is going to be a monster of a device. It’s going to be interesting to see how the Xperia ZU stacks up against the Galaxy Note 3 and the HTC One Max.

HTC surpassed Samsung for fifth place in the Japanese smartphone market during the first quarter of this year, according to market research firm IDC Japan on Wednesday.

IDC’s report found that HTC managed to secure a 6.6 percent share of the Japanese smartphone market in Q1 2013. But rather than the popular HTC One, it appears that the J Butterfly has been responsible for much of HTC’s success in Japan.

The handset was released in Japan last December and has managed excellent sales since. The handset made it into BCN Inc’s top 10 mobile devices ranking during its launch period, but unfortunately the handset suffered production shortages, just like the One, which saw the device fall out of favour. However the J Butterfly returned to the top 10 list once the shortages were sorted out, and has managed to maintain its position since mid-April.

Interestingly, Samsung held fifth place in the fourth quarter of 2012 with a 8.8 percent share of the market, which means that Samsung’s market share has to have slipped rather significantly in the space of just three months to fall behind HTC.

Apple, on the other hand, easily retained its top spot with a 39.6 percentage share of the smartphone market in Q1 2013. Second, third, and fourth places were made up by Japanese firms Sharp (14.6 percent), Sony (13.3 percent) and Fujitsu (8.3 percent) respectively. Overall the Japanese smartphone market grew by 4 percent from the previous year to a total of 6.81 million units sold.

This is yet another positive sign for HTC, following on from the company’s strong profits and decent sales figures lately, which hopefully means that the company is finally moving clear of its rough patch. With a decent line-up of products potentially heading out later in the year, the HTC One Mini and Butterfly S could be particularly strong, HTC looks set to capitalize on its recent success.

In light of the recent NSA data spying scandal, it’d be remiss if I didn’t bring you this news. CyanogenMod founder Steve Kondik has announced on Google+ that he’s working on a new “Run in Incognito Mode” feature for Android.

The function will act as a master controller for all your personal data, denying apps of your choosing access to it when Incognito mode is on. If an app attempts to access data while in Incognito, then it will simply get an empty list for contacts, calendar, browser history, and messages, keeping your information hidden from prying eyes.

On top of that, GPS will appear to always be disabled to the application, so it won’t be able to request your location information unless you want it to. But if you ever need to quickly switch to “normal” mode, you can easily do so via a quick panel item which is displayed when an app is put in Incognito mode.

The feature won’t be providing any ad-blocking or device information spoofing; it is solely intended to help protect your personal data. Unfortunately for those concerned about their privacy though, no release date has been given to this project as of yet.