LG Nexus 5 (2015), next Flagship LG G5 to feature fingerprint scanner and Android Pay

After manufacturing Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 for Google, Korean electronics giant LG is now manufacturing another Nexus device for Google which will be next gen version of the 2013 Nexus 5. Although it is a “refresh” of Nexus 5, it will feature all the top technologies including Android M, Android Pay and a fingerprint scanner.

The Korea Herald reports that LG Nexus 5 (2015) will be the first smartphone from Google to sport the fingerprint recognition technology.  The fingerprint sensor will work with Android M which will offer native biometrics support and consumers will be able to use it for authorization in Google’s new mobile payment system, Android Pay. The report doesn’t mention any other specs except that the LG Nexus 5 (2015) is likely to have a 5.2-inch (13 cm) display.

After the fingerprint recognition technology is tested on Nexus 5 (2015), LG plans to incorporate it in its own future flagships, the next one probably being LG G5 if LG continues with its existing naming system. If an earlier rumor is to be believed, the LG G5 will also sport iris recognition technology. The rumored upcoming LG G Pro may also come with a fingerprint sensor.

Incorporating Fingerprint sensors will help LG to stay in competition against the likes of Apple and Samsung. Apple has the mobile payment system Apple Pay and Samsung is soon rolling out Samsung Pay but unlike both of them, LG will probably adopt Android Pay that will come with Android M.

The Huawei-made 5.7-inch Nexus phablet will also apparently have a fingerprint sensor as its prototype has allegedly appeared in a video showing a fingerprint sensor at the back.

The Korea Herald reports that LG Nexus 5 will be unveiled in October this year. If so, we can expect the release of Android at about the same time because Google is in the habit of launching a new Nexus device with the new version of its Android OS.

 

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LG Nexus 5 (2015), next Flagship LG G5 to feature fingerprint scanner and Android Pay

Everdisplay unveils world’s first 6-inch 4K AMOLED Display with 734ppi

Think of a 4K 3840 x 2160 pixel display with a pixel density of 734ppi for your 6-inch smartphone. Seems a bit of overkill? Well, a Chinese company Everdisplay has announced the development of such a screen.

The AMOLED panel maker Everdisplay aka Hehui Optoelectronics (its Chinese name) has developed the world’s first 4K UHD 6-inch diagonal AMOLED display panel with a whopping 734ppi pixel density. A working prototype of such record breaking featured panel has been unveiled by the company in China. According to Everdisplay, such high-resolution display panels will be required for emerging new applications including virtual reality.

The company had started mass production of 5” 720p AMOLED displays in late 2014. It is also developing various other display panels such as 5.5” and 6” ones for smartphones, 1.4” 400 x 400 round AMOLED ones for smartwatches and also an 8” AMOLED panel for the Automobile sector.

Although a display panel with 734ppi is quite high compared to what is currently used, there are other companies who have developed display prototypes with higher ppis. The highest density display in the world in production is made by Sharp which is the 5.5” (2160 x 3840) 4K IGZO LCD display with 806ppi. SEL of Japan has developed a 2.8” panel prototype with 2560 x 1440 resolution achieving a ppi of 1058!

In AMOLED displays, the current record is held by Samsung Galaxy S6 which has a 5.1”QHD 577ppi super AMOLED panel. Last month, Samsung announced that it was planning to develop super-high 11K mobile displays with a pixel density of 2250ppi!

As for the 6-inch (3840 x 2160) 4K 734ppi display, Everdisplay has not disclosed when it will enter mass production.

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Everdisplay unveils world’s first 6-inch 4K AMOLED Display with 734ppi

SanDisk, Toshiba announce high-capacity 256Gb 3D NAND memory chip, may find a place in iPhone 7

Toshiba and its partner SanDisk have unveiled a 256 gigabit (32GB) X3 48-layer 3D NAND flash memory chips. The two memory manufacturers have already started pilot production of these 256 Gb flash chips in their fabrication plant in Yokkaichi, Japan and sample shipments will begin in September this year. This will be the first such 256Gb, 48-Layer BiCS Flash in the world.

In March this year, the two companies had unveiled their first 48-layer 3D V-NAND flash chips that had a capacity of 128 Gb or 16GB. The new 256Gb flash chip uses the 3-bit-per-cell TLC (triple-level cell) technology and is based on the cutting-edge 48-layer stacking process that greatly enhances the capacity, reliability, endurance and speed. The new chip can be used in various applications such as smartphones, tablets, memory cards, consumer SSD and enterprise SSD for data centers.

“This is the world’s first 256Gb X3 chip, developed using our industry-leading 48-layer BiCS technology and demonstrating SanDisk’s continued leadership in X3 technology,” said Siva Sivaram, SanDisk’s executive VP for memory technology in a statement. “We will use this chip to deliver compelling storage solutions for our customers”.

Toshiba and Sandisk have provided flash memory for iPhone 6 among others and the arrival of Cupertino giant’s iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s plus is still about a month away. Although the press release doesn’t mention any clients, the development of this new high-speed high-performance 256Gb flash memory could be good news for the next gen iPhone 7. The 3D BiCS (Bit Cost Scaling) Flash memory will provide more reliability in writing and erasing data compared to the traditional 2D memory. The writing speed will also be vastly improved and will be ideal for devices like the iPhone 7.

Mass production of the 256Gb BiCS Flash will be carried out in Toshiba’s new Fab 2 at Yokkaichi production site and will be commercially available sometime in 2016.

SanDisk, Toshiba announce high-capacity 256Gb 3D NAND memory chip, may find a place in iPhone 7

The new Huawei Nexus may have Samsung"s OLED displays

Samsung Display is a leading manufacturer of OLED display panels and a majority of them are used in Samsung’s mobile devices. Since Samsung’s mobile devices business has gone down in recent years, the performance of Samsung Display has also been affected and it is now looking towards other customers for its OLED displays.

A recent report by MK News, a South Korean daily news publication says that Samsung has started supplying OLED smartphone displays to Huawei. Although the first consignment is small, their quantity is expected to increase after Huawei has tested them. Samsung has also supplied OLED display panels to other Chinese smartphone manufacturers such as Meizu, Vivo, OPPO and Gionee.

Supplying OLED panels to Huawei would be beneficial to Samsung Display as Huawei is the world’s fourth largest manufacturer of smartphones and it has a wide market spreading even to some European countries and the US.

Although the report doesn’t mention it, the new Huawei Nexus will most likely sport Samsung’s OLED display. A few months back there was a rumor that the Huawei-made Nexus will feature a 5.7-inch 2K OLED display and this display might very well be supplied by Samsung. Huawei might also use the displays for its other upcoming smartphones.

As readers must already be aware, Google is expected to launch two Nexus devices this year. While LG would be making the smaller device which would be the new version of the Nexus 5, Huawei will manufacture the larger 5.7-inch phablet having an OLED display panel with 1440 x 2560 pixels resolution.

The new Huawei Nexus may have Samsung"s OLED displays

MediaTek allegedly working on a more powerful Helio X30 chipset

Taiwanese chip maker MediaTek known the world over for its chipset solutions which have mostly been for low-end smartphones and tablets but after the impressive performance by its Helio series chipsets Helio X10 and X20 in the mid-to high-range smartphones, it is providing tough competition to the likes of Qualcomm.

Its Helio X10 has been used in several mid-range handsets including HTC One M9+, Meizu MX5, Elife E8 and others. MediaTek announced its Helio X20 SoC in May this year which was the world’s first deca-core chipset for mobile.  Helio X20 will be making its debut inside the Chinese smartphone Elephone P9000 which is expected to launch in mid-October. It is also rumored that Xiaomi might use the MediaTek X20 Soc in its future high-end smartphones.

Even before the devices using X20 enter the market, there are reports from the Chinese media that MediaTek has started work on an even faster and more powerful chipset, the Helio X30.

The new Helio X30 will consist of 10-core architecture with a quad-cluster design having two Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1GHz,  two Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.5GHz, two Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 2GHz and four Cortex-A72 cores clocked at 2.5GHz. In comparison, the Helio X20 has a tri-cluster design with four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.4Ghz, four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 2GHz and two Cortex-A72 cores clocked at 2.5Ghz.

The GPU of the Helio X30 will apparently be Mali-T880, an improvement over the Mali T-800 GPU of the Helio X20. In addition, the X30 will also support 4GB LPDDR4 1600MhZ RAM which was not there in the X20.

MediaTek is also tipped to be working on a Helio X22 SoC which will be a faster version of the Helio X20. It is not known when both the chipsets will be announced by the company. First devices carrying the new chips will probably make an appearance early next year.

MediaTek allegedly working on a more powerful Helio X30 chipset

Alleged prototype of Huawei Nexus appears in a video, reveals fingerprint sensor on the back

As is rumored since long, two Nexus devices are expected to be launched this year by Google, one of which will be made by Huawei and the other will be the 2015 edition of Nexus 5. A couple of days back we saw some interesting 3D renderings of the Nexus 5 (2015) leaked in a video and now we have a video showing the Huawei Nexus smartphone.

It is a 10-second video posted by Steve Hemmerstoffer of @OnLeaks who has quite a good track record for leaking information about unannounced devices. The alleged Huawei Nexus smartphone in the video has a matte finish but it is difficult to say whether it is plastic or metal. Nexus 5 has a plastic cover. The camera in the leaked Huawei-made device looks similar to the one present in the Nexus 5.

The handset features a fingerprint scanner at the back and the position of buttons on the right side confirms to the Huawei design language. A port is visible at the bottom which may be the USB Type-C port as is rumored.

Leaked specs of the Huawei Nexus smartphone indicate a 5.7-inch QHD AMOLED display, metal unibody, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 and a 21MP rear camera with Sony IMX230 sensor.

Well, it remains to be seen whether this really is the Huawei Nexus Phone. We will know more soon enough as October, the launching time for Nexus devices is just a couple of months away.

Check out the video below:

Alleged prototype of Huawei Nexus appears in a video, reveals fingerprint sensor on the back

Huawei teases launch of a new “Amazing” Honor smartphone on August 10

Just about two months after introducing its Honor 7 smartphone, Huawei seems ready to launch another smartphone soon. The company has sent out a teaser picture saying that would unveil an “Amazing” new Honor smartphone on August 10. No other details have been revealed by the company.

A few days back, a new Honor handset model number ATH-AL00 was spotted passing through TENAA. The device features a new pop-up module for the cameras. The module has high resolution rear and front-facing cameras on both sides along with their dual-LED flashes. There is a button on the side of the handset that controls the pop-up mechanism. There may be a fingerprint scanner on the button too. Details of other specifications are not available but it is rumored that the device might come with Huawei’s own home baked Kirin chipset along with a 3GB or a 4GB RAM.

Since Huawei is expected to launch its next flagship, the Huawei Mate 8 on September 2, there is speculation that it is this model ATH-AL00 handset with its unique camera mechanism that is going to be unveiled by the company on August 10.

Check out the images of the device  that passed through TENAA showing the pop-up camera:

Huawei teases launch of a new “Amazing” Honor smartphone on August 10