T3 India

smartphones

BlackBerry Porsche Design P’9983 Graphite now available in India

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BlackBerry has launched its premium Porsche Design P’9983 Graphite for the Indian market. The exclusive device will be available at a hefty price tag of Rs. 99,990. Designed by Porsche Design, the phone comes with graphite-metallic coloured elements and hand-wrapped leather on the back door cover. It runs BlackBerry OS 10 and features glass-like keys, unique BBM PIN and suite of BlackBerry tools like BlackBerry Blend, Assistant and Hub.

BlackBerry will also bundle exclusive Porsche Design accessories like a premium stereo headset, international charging kit, a polishing cloth and a USB cable.

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Samsung launches Galaxy A8 in India

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Samsung has formally announced the Galaxy A8 for the Indian market. The slimmest Galaxy phone in the Samsung family is just 5.9mm and boasts a premium design with full metal unibody build and reduced bezel size to 2.5mm.

On the hardware side, the Galaxy A8 features a 5.7-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display and is powered by a 1.8GHz + 1.3GHz octa-core processor, 2GB RAM and 32GB internal memory. Moreover, the storage can be expanded through microSD card slot, supports 4G LTE speeds, 3050mAh battery, fingerprint sensor and a 16 megapixel rear-facing f1.9 camera and a 5 megapixel front-facing camera with 120-degree wide angle lens.

The Galaxy A8 is now available in India through online and offline retail channels for Rs. 32,500.

The LG Wine Smart is flipping insane, and I want it

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Yes, the flip phone is back and the Wine Smart has been given a modern day boost with Android Lollipop and touchscreen display. That said, the touchscreen is only 3.2 inches, so it's not something you'll be wanting to watch videos on.

Internal storage is also at a paltry 4GB, although you do get a microSD slot, but have we mentioned that it FLIPS OPEN AND CLOSED?

Wondering why it's called the 'Wine Smart'? Well so are we, but it comes in navy and… wait for it… burgundy. Ha! Good one. That's also a type of wine. Lol lol lol.

A phone for flipsters

The VGA – 3MP front and rear camera combos aren't going to capture you and your friends in the best light, but remember this is a clamshell. Imagine how boss you're going to look ending a call.

Under the hood a quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM are running the Lollipop show, and slip this 16.6mm thick beast into the pocket of your skinny jeans and watch jaws drop as you strut down the street.

"Is that a phone in your pocket?" people will ask. "Yes" you'll say. It's the dream.

It's not the best phone on the market, not by a long shot, but I sure as hell want one and the best news of all is it's coming soon. The release date and price are yet to be announced, but I can't flipping wait.

BlackBerry may be forced to stop making phones

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BlackBerry has had a rough time of late, and it’s all down to money – or the lack of it rather. While it’s planning a comeback this year, CEO John Chen says the Canadian firm might have to get out of the smartphone game all together if the money doesn’t start rolling in soon.

“At a certain point in time, the economics take over,” explained the CEO.

The Bloomberg report reads: “If the current state continues for a long ‘long time’ and drags down the company’s shareholders and balance sheet, it wouldn’t be right to keep going.”

We can’t say we’re too surprised. After all, BlackBerry’s fall from grace has been well documented. When Chen joined the company, the company’s share of the smartphone market had slumped to less than one per cent, but sadly even his efforts have failed to make the required impact.

In the most recent quarter, the company’s smartphone turnover fell to $263 million – that’s 31 per cent down year-on-year. BlackBerry has also developed a number of handsets since Chen joined, including the Passport and the Classic, but the duo have not sold well.

BlackBerry’s next handset is widely tipped to be a premium Android phone dubbed the ‘Venice’ – which we got a first-look at earlier this month – followed by a low-end device known as the ‘Prague’.

Time will tell whether teaming up with Android was the right move. For BlackBerry's own sake, it needs to be. Otherwise BlackBerry will have no choice but to jump ship and try something new, BlackBerry PCs perhaps?

Marshall to rock out with its own Android phone

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Rather than just being a generic Android phone with the Marshall logo slapped on the back, it does look as though this Android, called the Marshall London, might be a top pick for audio nuts.

First of all, it uses a good-quality Wolfson WM8281 DAC to make the most of high-quality digital audio files.

Then there are the speakers. The Marshall London has two front-facing speakers, although we’ll have to wait to see whether they’re better than the HTC One M9’s pair. Apparently they’re 13 mm x 18 mm in size, which seems large for a phone.

The London is also one of the only phones we’ve come across with share-happy dual headphone jacks, each with their own volume control. They’re old-fashioned dials too. No volume buttons here.

Finally, it has dual MEMS microphones to let you record loud audio without that ugly clipping sound you get with most phones.

Aside from the music angle, though, this is no Galaxy S6-worrier. It has a relatively small 4.7in 720p screen, Snapdragon 410 CPU and 8-megapixel main camera.

It doesn’t look like it’ll come cheap, either. A Swedish Krona pre-order price of 4995 equates to £370. That’s a lot of cash for a phone of this size and power. Those speakers has better be good.

Don’t forget to check out our predictions for the forthcoming iPhone 6S.