Xperia Z confirmed to hit European markets on February 21

Word from Sony about the official launch of the Xperia Z in Germany popped up on the company's Facebook page. The smartphone will go on sale at the Sony Store in Berlin on the 21st.

While there is no word from the Facebook announcement on whether availability will also go for the rest of Europe from that date, we've also received an invite for an event outside of Germany, so likely February 21 will be a pan-European launch date for the Xperia Z.

Sony jumped on the 5-inch 1080p bandwagon quickly with its new Z flagship, and have delivered a quite impressive device complete with quad-core Krait processor, 13MP camera, 16 GB of internal storage, 2 GB of RAM, and a very slick glass panel design that's also waterproof to boot.

While we're busy cooking up our full review of the Xperia Z, you can check out our preview of the device here.

Thanks, Chris, for sending this in!

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Micromax A116 Canvas HD goes on sale, gets its first promo video

The Micromax A116 Canvas HD, one of the popular smartphones in our database, is finally launching in India.

Starting from tomorrow, February 14, Micromax will start selling its latest flagship smartphone for RS13,990 ($260) and not $280 as reports were suggesting recently. According to the company, shipments will arrive in 5-7 days, after the order has been placed.

The A116 Canvas HD is competing with the almost twice as expensive Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos I9082, which is also on sale in the country. Considering that and the more capable hardware the Canvas HD should be able to make easy work of its competitor.

To celebrate the launch of the smartphone, Micromax has also put together a promo video for it. You can check it out below.

Video has been removed as requested by Micromax.

Special thanks to Rahup and Apoorv for the tips!

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Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean makes a landing on the Nexus 4

Shortly after its tablet siblings got the treatment, the Nexus 4 also received its fix of Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. The update is currently seeding to Nexus 4 smartphones over the air.

Along with the changes which the update brought to the Nexus family of tablets, Android 4.2.2 has added a unique wireless charging and low battery sound to the latest Google smartphone. The unofficial LTE support has also been taken away by Google.

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Sony Xperia C680X test scores hint at 1080p screen, 4.2 Jelly Bean

Sony unveiled its first two flagship Androids for the year early on at CES ? the C660X Xperia Z and C650X Xperia ZL ? but there seems to be another high-ender on the way, the Sony C680X.

The model name cropped up at html5test.com, a website that benchmarks a browser?s compatibility with the HTML5 standards. The browser was running on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean device with a 1080p screen. Unfortunately, we don?t know how big that screen was.

We checked the other usual sources (Picasa, GLBenchmark, NenaMark, Indonesia?s Postel) for more info on the device but there?s nothing yet.

Considering that the difference between the C650X Xperia ZL and C660X Xperia Z is mostly in the external shell (different dimensions and waterproofing), how much different can the C680X Xperia be? And will there be a C670X?

We might find out at the MWC, but seeing how late the first leak about the C680X is, we don?t think it?s particularly likely. The C210X Xperia L and C530X Xperia SP are more likely candidates to be at Sony?s booth at the show.

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Analyst: Samsung to manufacture 100 million Galaxy S IV phones

The Samsung Galaxy S IV is guaranteed to be one of the hottest sellers and after crushing the numbers, analysts have predicted that the next Samsung flagship might cause headaches to Apple.

Peter Misek from Jefferies & Company wrote a note to clients of the analytics firm saying that Samsung plans to build 100 million Galaxy S IV phones. That would require monstrous amounts of resources, which would eat into manufacturing capacity for the upcoming iPhone update.

?The enormous 100 million S4 build plan (we estimate the S3 sold 60M) is leading some suppliers to say that they will reallocate resources away from Apple.?

The last official numbers are from mid-January and state that 40 million Galaxy S III?s were shipped.

On the topic of the next iPhone, Misek had previously written that Apple is already facing manufacturing issues as suppliers struggle to provide enough units of the bigger screen for the new Apple phone. This might even lead to delaying the launch until next year.

We?re a little skeptical of another screen increase so soon after the iPhone 5 (which brought a 21% bump in surface area). With iOS? limited resolution options, a bigger screen will lead to a decrease in screen sharpness, possibly sliding below the Retina mark. Plus, Tim Cook probably doesn?t want see the iPhone upgrade timeframe slip back like it did with the 4S.

Still, 100 million Galaxy S IV?s will ensure Samsung?s dominance in the Android market (if Misek?s numbers are correct, of course). But with Apple decreasing its dependence on Samsung components, how much can iPhone 5S/6 manufacturing suffer from limited supply from Samsung and other component makers?

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LG Optimus G Pro with 5.5" 1080p display display goes official

Hot on the heels of the budget L-Series trio announcement, LG took the wraps off the 5.5" 1080p display toting Optimus G Pro. The Android beast, while carrying the same name as the already official Japan-only device, is an altogether different character.

Curiously, LG released almost no specs for the smartphone, save for the presence of the impressive 5.5" 1080p display and a quad-core CPU of unknown make. Previous leak however, points at a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro unit.

The press shots of the newcomer reveal a back with great-looking sqaure patterns. LG says that the curved glass covering the device will create a 2.5D effect when looking at them.

LG points at a late February release for the Optimus G Pro, so we will likely get to have a look at the device during MWC in Barcelona.

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BlackBerry Z10 review: Swipe clean

GSMArena team, 15 February 2013.

The BlackBerry Z10 heralds the rebirth of a fallen leader in the smartphone market. It's a clean break from the past with a big touchscreen and novel OS, but the same business mentality that made it the favorite of office dwellers around the world. Except, this time BlackBerry has also added a dash of fun.

BlackBerry Z10 official images

BlackBerry's previous generation of touch-driven smartphones felt a lot like Nokia's early attempts to knock Symbian into shape for touchscreen. With the Z10, however, the company threw everything out and started fresh.

BlackBerry 10 that powers the phone is a modern operating system with a brand new gesture-based interface and support for powerful dual-core CPUs. If you think dual-core Krait is old news on Android, you'd be right, but the Z10 is closer to the iPhone in this regard - the OS has been optimized to run on very few devices (just one right now, one more on the way), allowing for maximum efficiency.

Then BlackBerry equipped the Z10 with a 4.2" WXGA screen - slightly bigger and sharper than the iPhone 5's retina display - but kept the package more compact than certain massive droids. Then came all the connectivity features, hardware ports and slots.

Here's what they ended up with, the good and the bad of it:

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, tri/quad-band UMTS/HSPA, optional 100 Mbps LTE4.2" 16M-color WXGA (768 x 1280 pixels) capacitive touchscreen TFT Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait, 2GB RAM, Adreno 225BlackBerry 10 OS; advanced on-screen keyboard; Office document editorBlackBerry Hub with extensive social networking connectivityBBM with video chat and screen sharing8 megapixel auto-focus camera with face detection and Time Shift; LED flash, 2MP front facing cameraFull HD (1080p) video recording at 30fps; 720p recording with front-facing camera16GB storage, microSD card slot; built-in Dropbox and Box integrationWi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot; Wi-Fi syncBluetooth 4.0NFCstandard microUSB port, microHDMI3.5mm audio jackGPS receiver with A-GPSBrand new UI has a steep learning curveBlackBerry World missing key appsBlackBerry Maps are even worse than Apple MapsCamera offers little control over image quality

As with any newborn platform, there will be growing pains - sparse app market and iffy maps for one. The biggest concern is whether the sleek new interface will put people off (both current and new BB users). It's fast and intuitive once you get used to it, but doesn't have the level of familiarity of the iOS or Android (which honestly took years cultivating).

BlackBerry Z10 in our office ? next to the iPhone 5

That's the mission ahead of the BlackBerry Z10. It can't single-handedly recapture the market and bring BlackBerry to its former RIM glory, instead it sets the stage for future devices (the Q10 is a couple of months away).

That's not to say that the Z10 won't achieve popularity - with quality hardware and software, the Z10 can easily net both people who need a BlackBerry but are tired of the aging BB OS 7 devices and new users who are equally tired of iOS and Android.

So, revolution or evolution? The hardware is miles ahead of Berries of old, but you'll have to jump over to the next page to see how it stacks up against current Androids and the iPhone.

Special thanks to Basatne Electronics for providing the review unit!

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