ZTE Blade D Lux debuts in Vietnam and Singapore

ZTE has launched a new smartphone in its Blade series of affordable offerings. It's called Blade D Lux, and so far it's only been made available in Vietnam and Singapore. However, we assume it will be headed to other countries too in the near future.

The D Lux is a lower-midrange product, as you'd expect from the Blade line. It comes with a 5.5-inch 720p touchscreen with 2.5D glass on top, a 13 MP rear camera with LED flash, an 8 MP selfie cam, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 chipset (with a 1.2 GHz quad-core CPU), 2GB of RAM, 16GB of expandable storage, LTE, and a 3,000 mAh battery.




It runs Android Lollipop, though whether that's 5.0 or 5.1 is up for debate, since both version numbers show up in different parts of the ZTE website. The Chinese company is clearly aiming this one at young people, and especially selfie lovers thanks to the high-res front-facing snapper.
The Blade D Lux can be had in Vietnam for VND 3.89 million, which currently translates into $173 or €159. Over in Singapore, the device will be sold by the M1 carrier for SGD 239 ($166, €152).

Source (in Vietnamese) | Via

Xiaomi Redmi 3 to come with large 4,100mAh battery

Just a day after revealing its display size and launch date, Xiaomi has confirmed that the Redmi 3 will come with a large 4,100mAh battery. The confirmation again came in the form of a teaser posted on Weibo.


In the Weibo post, Xiaomi also stressed that despite the large battery, the phone is thin thanks to the high energy density tech used.

So, the specs that have been officially confirmed until now include a 5-inch display and a 4,100mAh battery. In addition, it has also been confirmed that the device features an all metal body with a unique plaid design on the back.

As for the remaining specs, rumors say the handset is powered by a Snapdragon 616 SoC, has 2GB RAM and 16GB internal memory, and features 13MP rear and 5MP front camera. It is said to run Android 5.1.1 Lollipop out-of-the-box.

The Redmi 3 is set to be launched next week on January 12.

Source (Chinese)

Snapdragon 820-powered LeTV Le Max Pro to cost around $535

Chinese company LeTV's latest smartphone - the Le Max Pro - will carry a price tag of RMB 3,500 (around $535) in China. This was revealed by a leaked screenshot/teaser obtained by a Chinese website.


If you aren't already aware, the Le Max Pro was unveiled by Qualcomm as the first Snapdragon 820-powered smartphone at the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas earlier this week.

As for other specs, the handset has a 6.3-inch (2,560 x 1,440 pixel resolution) display and 4GB RAM, sports a 21MP rear camera, and runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow with custom LeTV skin on top. It also features ultrasonic fingerprint technology and supports WiFi ad.
There's currently no information on when the Le Max Pro will go on sale.

Via (translated)

Lumia phones will be branded 'Microsoft Lumia'

The Nokia Lumia brand is no more – from now on there will only be Microsoft Lumia. However the Nokia phone brand isn't completely dead, Microsoft will continue to sell current Nokia Lumia handsets and provide the support that users expect. Also, features phones like the Nokia 130 will continue to be sold, we should also see new feature phones being introduced.

Tuula Rytilä, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Phones, gave an interview in which she detailed the future course of the Lumia brand. She points out that the rebranding is already underway with former Nokia-branded apps coming under the Microsoft umbrella. Similarly Nokia sites are in the process of moving to Microsoft.

Nokia brand to be replaced with Microsoft Lumia !

If you've seen Microsoft's recent articles about Lumia you know it was coming. The Nokia brand has been phased out by calling the phones just "Lumia" and redirecting Nokia online properties to Microsoft.com. This rebranding effort will expand and soon the lineup will become "Microsoft Lumia".

Lumia is already the de facto face of Windows Phone – it accounts for about 90% of the market. Microsoft has been busy signing up new vendors but they will struggle to gain significant market share as the big names have mostly neglected WP.