Samsung Galaxy A9 spotted in AnTuTu, S620 chipset confirmed

he Samsung Galaxy A9 poked its head above water again, surfacing at the AnTuTu benchmark database. It casts another vote for a 5.5" 1080p screen, even though the naming scheme suggests the A9 should be better than the Galaxy A8 (5.7" 1080p).

It's definitely better in terms of chipset – the Snapdragon 620 has next-gen CPU cores and a next-gen GPU. The eight Cortex-72 cores should be much faster than the A53s used in current mid-range octa-cores. The Adreno 510 will also bring a much needed performance boost for 1080p gaming. And there's more RAM, 3GB.

There's 32GB of built-in storage, but AnTuTu failed to detect the camera resolution. The Samsung Galaxy A9 (SM-A9000) ran Android 5.1.1 Lollipop when the test was ran (which was most likely a pre-production version).

Nexus 5 photo leak points to a significant front-facing camera upgrade

In the very near future, Google will launch two new Nexus devices, including the new LG Nexus 5 and the Huawei Nexus 6. Many leaks have so far revealed details about the design, specs and features of the upcoming smartphones, and a new report gives us no information about the Nexus 5’s front-facing camera.

Dutch tech news site TechTastic found a selfie taken with a device identified as “bullhead” that’s made by LG. That particular internal codename is associated with the new Nexus 5, assuming past leaks are accurate about Google’s Nexus plans.

Found on Google+ on a profile belonging to a Google employee who works in the Quality Assurance department, the image reveals interesting details about the selfie camera. EXIF data says the photo has a 2592 x 1944 resolution, suggesting the front-facing shooter has a 5-megapixel sensor. Furthermore, the front camera also has an f/2.0 aperture according to the same data (see image below).

Assuming the data is correct, the Nexus 5 might bring Android fans the most significant upgrade to date when it comes to front cameras. Last year’s Nexus 6 handset had a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.

HTC A9 (Aero) gets photographed in the wild looking like an iPhone

The HTC Aero has been a constant presence among mobile world rumors for around two months. That said, we've never actually seen it before in live images.

Yet thanks to a leak originating in China, we can do just that now. What you see below is said to be the upcoming HTC flagship smartphone, the one that's supposed to turn the tide for the struggling Taiwanese company.

And it looks almost exactly like an iPhone. HTC probably only decided to put the camera dead center on the phone's back in order to (hopefully) avoid a lawsuit from Apple. Had it not done that, it would have been almost impossible to tell this handset and an iPhone apart, at least when looking at their backs.

On the front fascia, things are a bit different, and the prominent HTC logo helps too. The HTC Aero has been rumored to be marketed as the HTC A9 when it launches later this year.

We get no new leaked specs this time around, but previously outed ones include a QHD touchscreen with Gorilla Glass 4 and 2.5D curved edges, as well as a rear camera with f/1.9 aperture. The A9 should be launched in the US by AT&T and Sprint (at least). It's due to be announced in October and will hit the streets in November.

Mirror your Android device on your Mac or PC with Vysor

There are plenty of ways to mirror your smartphone onto your desktop, but none are as apparently easy (or snappy) as this one. Vysor has been cooked-up by AllCast creator Koush as a seamless way to mirror your Android device's display onto a Windows, Linux or Mac computer. All you'll need to do is connect one to the other over USB and install the Chrome plugin and in a few seconds, you should be able to control your phone with a keyboard and mouse. It may have been intended as a developer tool, but one keen-eyed Reddit user spotted the app while it was in private beta and shared it with the world.

As Koush himself points out in the second video below, one feature that hasn't been noticed was Vysor Share. With it, users can remotely control a smartphone from another machine through the internet, as long as both PCs have the app installed. That way, power users can actually push (or pull) updates to far-off phones using Android's Debug Bridge functionality. In the future, the developer is hoping to tweak this offering to enable developers to connect to multiple devices at a time. Right now, users are asked to just give it a try and offer your feedback, so have at it!

Lenovo Vibe X3 specs detailed by a GFXBench listing

It would seem that the February leak, which mentioned a total of 5 Lenovo smartphones, detailed most of the company's lineup for the year, instead of being an MWC teaser. The various models gradually crawled out of obscurity over the last few months, the most recent being the Vibe P1 Pro.

Well, next in line is the Lenovo Vibe X3, the midranger in the upper segment, set to replace the multi-layered Vibe X2. Intel on the matter comes from a GFXBench listing, which reveals plenty of key specs.

For starters the smartphone is reported to come with a 4.9-inch FullHD display - a notch below the 5 inches of the Vibe X2. The number may, however, be due to the benchmark's peculiarities, which for example cause the primary camera to be listed at 20MP, even though the 5,344 x 4,008 pixel resolution clearly amounts to 21.4MP. Now that we've mentioned it, the main shooter will be assisted by a dual-LED flash and it will be capable of shooting 2160p video too.

The smartphone will be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 808 with its dual Cortex-A57 performance cores clocked at 1.8GHz as opposed to the 2.0GHz maximum. The other four cores don't get a clock rate in the benchmark, and neither does the Adreno 418 GPU. The Vibe X3 will come with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, but a microSD is said to provide expansion now, a feature missing in the predecessor.

The Vibe X3 will come with the full set of connectivity features, including multi-band LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth v4.0, GPS with A-GPS, the lot. A fingerprint reader on the back completes the host of sensors, and early renders also revealed a set of stereo speakers on the front.

Naturally, the lone benchmark entry sheds no light on the date of announcement, let alone pricing and availability. However, an official launch at IFA in September is a rather safe bet.

Motorola Moto G 2015 In High Demand

The recently released third-generation Motorola Moto G 2015 has struck a chord with the buyers across globe. As it turns out, the demand for this wallet-friendly handset is significantly higher than the stocked supply.

In hindsight, Motorola hit a home run with the first-generation Moto G handset by offering impressive configurations with a nominal price tag. With the third-generation model, the icing on the cake is the availability of Moto Maker customization option for the midrange device. It is worth noting the Moto Maker option was made available only to the high-end Moto X smartphone. But introducing this aspect to the budget-friendly Moto G 2015 has turned out to be a good decision for Motorola. With Moto Maker’s help, potential buyers can tailor-make the handset’s external look by playing with different colors, textures and shell finish.

As reported by Phone Arena, the Moto G 2015’s 16GB model has been out of stock on the Moto Maker website for some time. However, the 8GB version is available for $179.99.

In addition to the Moto Maker site, the Moto G 2015 can also be purchased from retailers like Amazon and Best Buy. Here again, only the 8GB variant is available. The handset comes with a microSD card slot for further expansion, so insufficient native storage should not be a problem.

The device comes with a 5-inch display, fitted with 720p screen resolution. The smartphone is powered by a quad-core (Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 410) CPU and backed by a modest 1GB of RAM. The handset features a 13 megapixel rear-facing camera, in addition to a 5 MP front-facing selfie clicker. Other key features include a 2470 mAh battery, 4G LTE support, Android 5.1.1 Lollipop and IPX7 rating.

Meizu m2 note to go on sale in India next week

Specs-wise, the successor to the popular m1 note is powered by a Mediatek MT6753 SoC with octa-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A53 CPU and Mali-T720MP3 GPU, and sports a 5.5 inch FullHD display. It comes with 2GB RAM and 16/32GB expandable memory options, and packs in a 3100 mAh battery.

In terms of camera, the handset features a 13MP rear unit and a 5MP front shooter. The model that'll go on sale in India will come with Android 5.1-based Flyme OS pre-installed.