HTC Desire 820 lands in India along with 820Q and 816G

The HTC Desire 820 was announced for India today. The 64-bit recently unveiled mid-ranger will be joined in the subcontinent by a new quad-core variant called the Desire 820Q, as well as by a 3G-only iteration of the Desire 816, which is going to be sold as the Desire 816G.

The Desire 820 and 820Q are identical in terms of specs, save for the chipset used and the amount of RAM in each of them.

As previously announced, the Desire 820 comes with dual-SIM support, a 5.5-inch 720p touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera with LED flash, and an 8 MP front snapper. Running the show is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC, with a CPU featuring four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.5 GHz and four at 1.0 GHz. The phone has 4G LTE, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of built-in storage (expandable via microSD).

The Desire 820Q, on the other hand, sports a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 chipset, with a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, and just 1GB of RAM.

The Desire 816G is basically the same as the Desire 816 that's been on sale for months, except for three things: it only has 3G connectivity (so no LTE), it's powered by a MediaTek chipset coming with a 1.3 GHz quad-core CPU, and it has 1GB of RAM. The original 816 boasts a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 and 1.5GB of RAM.

The HTC Desire 816G will become available in India in early October for INR 18,990 ($311, €241). The other two devices haven't been priced, but they are going to be in stores in early November.

Teardown analysis reveals iPhone 6 production costs

Hot on the heels of last week’s iFixit treatment, Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus became subject of a more detailed teardown analysis. Performed by the research firm HIS, the breakdown reveals estimates about the smartphones’ production costs, as well as the profit margins they deliver.

Apple iPhone 6 with 16GB of built-in memory costs $200 to build in parts and labor, while a 128GB model requires $247 to put together. The iPhone 6 Plus production costs on the other hand, range between $216 for a 16GB model and $263 for the 128GB version.

Apple’s iPhone 6 family profit margins are estimated to be about 69% for the 16GB device models. The range-topping 128GB versions deliver slightly higher, 70% profit margins.

The most expensive component in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is their display. Made by LG Display and Japan Display, the component costs $45 for the iPhone 6, and $52.50 for the iPhone 6 Plus. Corning Gorilla Glass 3 covers the screen of both models.

Apple’s 20nm A8 processor is made by TSMC and, combined with an attached co-processor, costs about $20. Apple previously relied heavily on its rival Samsung for the production of the iPhone and iPad processors.

NXP Semiconductors provides the NFC chip for the iPhone 6 range. Combined with the rest of its built-in sensors, it costs $22 for both devices.

You can see a video detailing the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus production costs below. The clip also contains a sped-up iPhone 6 disassembly.

Oppo R5 leaks with 4G LTE connectivity

Oppo is getting ready to launch the N3 phablet with rotating camera module on top next month, but it’s not the only device the company is working on. A certificate for the Oppo R5 has just appeared on the Indonesian Postel website, hinting at an imminent release.

Postel is the telecommunications regulator in Indonesia, similar to the FCC in the United States and TENAA in China. Given that Oppo already secured its blessing for launching its R5 in the country, we suspect the company will go on and formally introduce the smartphone very shortly.

Unfortunately, the listing didn’t confirm anything in terms of specs, except for the LTE radio and the R8106 model designation. However, given that at 6.3mm its Oppo R3 predecessor was the slimmest 4G smartphone back in the day, we expect the R5 to aim at retaking that title.

Counterclockwise: iPhone and iOS, Asus Glaxy 7

Counterclockwise gives us an opportunity to look back at the past and reminisce about how different it was back then. Or as it turns out, that things tend to repeat year after year – Apple's iPhone and iOS release plan certainly follows a set path.

iPhone launches

This week the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launched in retail stores after a week of pre-orders. Last year things went slower – the iPhone 5c was just starting its pre-order in the third week of September (to be delivered a week later). The iPhone 5s didn't even get a pre-order.

Actually that was very similar the iPhone 5 time frame too, pre-order started on September 14 with the shipment date set for September 21.

So this year Apple is slightly ahead of schedule and it's enjoying great sales too. A couple of years ago the iPhone 5 scored 2 million pre-orders in the first 24 hours, doubling the iPhone 4S numbers from the previous year.

Growth have slowed down since then, two years later it took the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus combined to double the pre-order numbers again to 4 million.

New iPhones bring new iOS too

This week saw the rollout of the latest iOS version, which coincides with the launch of the new iPhones. This is standard Apple practice, last year iOS 7 was rolling out as people were queuing up for the iPhone 5s. Two years ago it was iOS 6 as people waited for the iPhone 5.

Of course, each new model launches with the new iOS already installed, it's for the benefit of those who skip a year (or two, or three) that the new version is released. And inevitably each year the Internet gets flooded with reports how the latest OS makes the older devices unbearably sluggish.

Chipsets

In 2008 Apple acquired P.A. Semi, a chipset designer, and years later in 2012 unveiled its first custom chipset, the Apple A6, to be used in the iPhone 5. Unlike previous chipsets this one wasn’t based on ARM-designed cores (but still ran ARM instructions).

The CPU core is codenamed Swift and it lived up to its name – a dual-core processor at just 1GHzcaught up to the Exynos 4 Quad and Tegra 3 chipsets that powered the Android flagships of the day. It doubled what the iPhone 4S had to offer with its dual-core Cortex-A9 processor.

That test was done with Geekbench and this year Apple has continued to push performance since. The latest iPhone 6 and 6 Plus beat the iPhone 5s hands down, itself quite a bit faster than the iPhone 5. Apple promised only a 25% increase over last year's model so we'll have to wait until benchmark makers familiarize themselves with the new iOS 8 to make sure the numbers are correct.

Apple is still using PowerVR GPUs from Imagination but keeps fitting more and more powerful graphics. For example, the iPhone 5s practically doubled the performance of the iPhone 5 GPU. Here Apple promised gains of up to 50% but the pixel count even on the smaller iPhone 6 nearly 40%, which eats into performance gains.

You can't blame Apple for going its own way, the market had no clear leader back then. Tegra 3 powered most devices, but Samsung was pushing hard for its Exynos chipsets and Qualcomm wasn’t as dominant as it is today.

Three years ago the Snapdragon chipset maker unveiled a roadmap that showed plans for stunning (for the time) quad-core processors running at 2.5GHz. They were a few months away reportedly but it took them years to arrive on smartphones. And with the Snapdragon 801 they have and are already reaching towards 2.7GHz with Snapdragon 805.

microSD

Around the same time three years ago SanDisk unveiled a massive amount of storage in a teeny, tiny form factor – the 64GB microSDXC. It went on sale at $220. Pricy! Of course, price for cards of that capacity has fallen a lot since then.

SanDisk recently unveiled another 64GB microSD card, even more expensive at $300 despite three years of price cuts. That card is special though it can write data at up to 90MB/s, faster than needed even for today's beastly smartphones.

Three years after the 64GB microSD card SanDisk has doubled the available storage to 128GB. It's been a long wait but with lagging internal storage capacities having a card slot is still a big plus for many people. Unless they buy iPhones, of course.

A long time ago in a Glaxy far, far away

While looking through our archives for this article we spotted a typo – from six years ago! After a short panic we realized it wasn’t a typo at all, at least not ours. In September 2008 Asus unveiled the Glaxy7 smartphone.

  

Asus Glaxy7

Samsung didn’t announce the I7500 Galaxy until 2009, the phone that gave its name to the most successful Android line of smartphones to date. So things were this close to a collision of names.

Anyway the Asus ran Windows Mobile and featured a quote-unquote "massive" 3.5" touchscreen with WVGA resolution, 5MP megapixel camera and a stainless steel body (that feature hasn’t aged).

http://www.gsmarena.com/counterclockwise_iphone_and_ios_asus_glaxy_7-news-9701.php

Rumor: Vivo Xplay 5 to be the first Snapdragon 810 phone

According to Chinese tech analyst Pan Jiutang the Snapdragon 810 chipset may premiere in either the Oppo Find 9, Xiaomi Mi5 or Vivo Xplay 5 with the latter having the highest chance to come first when taking the launch cycles of the others in regard.

Being first isn't the most important thing as we're bound to see the rest of the flock follow suit in a timely manner but in this case Vivo could premiere Qualcomm's potent 64-bit chip by the end of the year or early next year - December 2014 or January of 2015.

The Snapdragon 810 chipset is an interesting addition by the chipmaker Qualcomm. Like its inferior Snapdragon 808, it uses ARM's big.LITTLE architecture and goes for four Cortex-A57 cores and four Cortex-A53 ones. The chip switches between one or the other to provide a good balance between power and efficiency.

What's interesting is that Qualcomm strongly believed that better cores are more important than the sheer number of cores. Times change, we guess.

Apple details out-of-warranty repair costs for the iPhone 6 family

Apple quietly detailed out-of-warranty repair costs for the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus. The charges are separated into three categories – screen damage, battery and power, and other repairs.

Replacing the display of an iPhone 6 will set you back $109, while the same service for iPhone 6 Plus costs $129. Curiously, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, and iPhone 5 screen replacements cost as much as those of the 5.5” model. A $6.95 shipping fee and local taxes will also be applied.

Replacing the battery unit of all iPhone models costs $79 plus shipping and tax. It’s worth noting on this instance that Apple’s standard one-year warranty covers the replacement of a defective battery, so you are not likely to need this particular service with your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus.

The other repairs section is where things get expensive - the section includes all procedures not related to simply replacing a screen or battery. Repair costs for the iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone 6 are $329 and $299 respectively.

Regarding other repairs, it is worth noting that AppleCare+ covers two instances of accidental damage for $79 each. If you are accident prone, perhaps it is worth looking into purchasing the plan.

All in all, it is convenient to know how much it costs to cure common issues your iPhone 6 might experience. The screen replacement cost is particularly important, as shattered displays are typically not covered by a standard smartphone warranty.

Motorola Moto 360 to get a gold version soon

The Motorola Moto 360 is the most sought after smartwatch currently on the market and chances it will remain like this at least until the IFA-announced devices hit the shelves. However the US company is hoping its first smart wearable will retain its popularity even after that and is ready to spice it up a bit to achieve it.

Motorola posted the following picture on its official website, showing the Moto 360 in three different colors – black, silver and gold. The smartwatch is currently only offered in silver and black, so it could either be a mistake by someone on the Motorola design team, or simply a case of someone jumping the gun on an upcoming announcement. The series of events that came after the image was published makes us strongly believe that it’s a case of the latter, though.

After the guys from Android Police noticed the promo image, they immediately contacted Motorola for comment. The immediate response? The image was replaced with the one you see on the left below. Eventually that one was also replaced with the one on the right, which makes it look as if the gold watch was never there. Quite suspicious isn’t it?

The response that the Motorola representative delivered added even more fuel to the fire:

Although we can't comment on gold specifically, we’re always exploring new materials and we intend to provide Moto 360 in a selection of styles in the future.

For those not fluent in PR this roughly translates to: “Oopsie, we really shouldn’t have done that. But now that you saw it, please pretend it never happened until we actually announce it”. The choice of worlds is particularly interesting – “new materials” rather than “new colors” suggests that we are looking at a gold-made Moto 360. It could either be gold-coated or made out of solid gold, but if it’s the latter the price might go sky-high.

Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait too long until the image resurfaces, along with an official press release from Motorola.