LG jumps the gun, announces their droid smartphones and tablet

Schedule-schmedule - LG went ahead and officially announced their line-up, ahead of the MWC start, even ahead of the ahead-of-the-MWC events of other companies. LG will be aggressive in pushing towards a market leadership position and by the looks of it, this starts with an aggressive marketing strategy.

There are plenty of ?first? and ?most? in LG announcement, but thanks to their over-eager marketing we?ve already seen all these devices, several times each.

At CES, the other big tech event early this year, LG announced the first dual-core CPU (LG Optimus 2X), one of the ?thinnest and brightest? smartphones (LG Optimus Black) and LG?s first foray into 4G LTE (LG Revolution).

   
Pretty girls holding LG's new phones (we saw them too)

Anyway, today they are adding a stereoscopic 3D smartphone to the mix and a tablet too.

The LG Optimus 3D features powerful hardware - 1GHz dual-core OMAP4 processor, double the graphics performance (compared to its ?nearest competitor?) and four-times the video decoding powers.

Those will be needed since the LG Optimus 3D adds an extra dimension to imaging - it can capture stereoscopic 3D images and videos, display them on a glasses-free 3D 4.3? display and share the content over HDMI or DLNA.

The LG Optimus Pad tablet leverages on the appeal of stereoscopic 3D too. It?s already out as the T-Mobile G-Slate, but the Optimus Pad will be the variant for non-US markets.

It?s an 8.9? Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet powered by a 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 chipset. The screen has 1280x768 pixels resolution and while it can display 3D content, it requires you to wear anaglyph glasses to do it (technically, with the right software any display can show anaglyph 3D so that?s not as impressive as the Optimus 3D).

It has two cameras on the back that can capture 3D images and FullHD video. The LG Optimus Pad has an HDMI port to display 1080p content on 3D-capable displays.

The LG Optimus Black is touted as one of the thinnest phones with a new type of display - NOVA technology, which uses less power all the while displaying truer whites. It seems that LG has a hit on their hands with the Optimus Black, there are two million pre-orders in 20 countries already.

Finally, the LG Optimus 2X will show up at LG?s booths, but we?ve already reviewed that.

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Huawei S7 Slim tablet and Ideos X3 phone to appear at MWC11

Huawei are not exactly known for their cellphone business but traditionally, they like to have a go at the smartphone market with a device or two under their own brand. This year it's a smartphone and a tablet.

Expected to make an appearance at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in a few days, the Huawei S7 Slim tablet, as its name suggests is a slimmer and fitter version of the Huawei S7 tablet we covered last summer.

Huawei S7 Slim tablet

As for the Huawei Ideos X3, the details about it are equally scarce, but it seems to be aiming at the mid-range smartphone market, unlike its bigger brothers, the Ideos X5 and Ideos X6. The X3 will come in four color flavors ? red, blue, black and silver.

Huawei Ideos 3 Android smartphone

We don't know for sure whether the S7 Slim will run Honeycomb or the Ideos 3 - Gingerbread. As expected, we don't have any availability or pricing info on those two.

Source (Flickr)

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MSI launches WindPad 100w, a Windows 7 tablet for Rs 34,500

Categories: Apple, eReaders & Tablets

The iPad might have grabbed the headlines in most of the Indian tech media but it is by no means the only tablet to hit Indian stores over the weekend. Also released in the Indian market today is the MSI Windpad 100W, one of the tablets shown by MSI at CES 2011. And while it does not come with the wave of hype that accompanied the iPad, it does pack in some very impressive specs.

The WindPad 100W  has a 10 inch capacitive display, 2GB RAM, 32 GB storage,  dual cameras, a mini HDMI port, a USB port, a card reader, and Wi-Fi connectivity. It runs Windows 7 (starter edition) and is powered by the Intel Melow Z530 (1.6Ghz) processor. And while at 800 grams, it is not exactly featherweight, it still remains on the portable side, and serves up six hours of battery life besides.

Taking a leaf out of those who drape skins over Android, MSI has placed its WindTouch UI interface over the traditional Windows one to give users a better experience. All of which does not sound bad at all. What does strike a rough chord however, is the price tag of Rs 34,500, which is well above both the iPad and Galaxy Tab, and is significantly more than most of the netbooks and some of the notebooks running Windows 7.

But it would be premature to judge it without giving it a try, which is what we intend to do in the coming days. As of now, we hope manufacturers take a leaf out of MSI’s book and bring their CES products to India.

Tags: MSI, MSI WindPad, MSI WindPad 100W, windows 7, WindPad, WindPad 100W

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LG to announce the Optimus 3D and a 3D tablet at the MWC 2011

A leaked slide by Nvidia reveals that the 3D-capable version of the Tegra 2 platform is entering mass production. LG registers the lgoptimus3d.nl domain. The yet unannounced LG Optimus 3D pops up at Dutch The Phone House web page. And then here comes this invitation to the LG MWC press conference that reads ?Into the New Dimension?. Do you see the pattern?

Okay let's roll back a little. Back at CES 2011 LG showcased a 4.3" 3D mobile display and promised that we will get to see it on a working handset sooner than we might expect.

Next, GSMpedia stumbled upon a placeholder for a phone called the Optimus 3D on the The Phone House website and found out that the Benelux branch of LG has registered the lgoptimus3d.nl domain. Just like they did with the lgoptimus2x.nl, shortly before the Optimus 2X official introduction.

And that silhouette on the invite is almost identical to the one of the Optimus 2X (see below). Since that one was already announced, LG will obviously announce a device with near identical design, but bringing enough novelty to become the event centerpiece. You know, something like a 3D screen, perhaps.

Finally, here comes this tipster that drops us a line saying the next Optimus 2X will pack a couple of 8 megapixel cameras that will allow you to capture 3D images and a 3D display to browse them. Yeah, we laughed initially, too. We feel silly now.

And finally, yesterday we got this leaked slide from Nvidia, which confirms that a 3D-capable version of the Tegra 2 platform is just about to enter mass production.

At this point we couldn?t be more convinced that LG will be announcing a 3D-capable smartphone at the MWC. But it doesn't end there - we are pretty sure we'll be getting a 3D tablet to go with it too.

You see, LG already confirmed that they are working on a Tegra 2-based tablet. Coincidentally, an LG tablet appeared in a Korean music video, sporting two backwards-facing cameras. We rest our case.

We know, it's all conspiracy theory right now, but we guess it's never to late for LG to up their smartphone game and totally own the Congress.

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LG to announce the Optimus 3D and a 3D tablet at the MWC 2011

A leaked slide by Nvidia reveals that the 3D-capable version of the Tegra 2 platform is entering mass production. LG registers the lgoptimus3d.nl domain. The yet unannounced LG Optimus 3D pops up at Dutch The Phone House web page. And then here comes this invitation to the LG MWC press conference that reads ?Into the New Dimension?. Do you see the pattern?

Okay let's roll back a little. Back at CES 2011 LG showcased a 4.3" 3D mobile display and promised that we will get to see it on a working handset sooner than we might expect.

Next, GSMpedia stumbled upon a placeholder for a phone called the Optimus 3D on the The Phone House website and found out that the Benelux branch of LG has registered the lgoptimus3d.nl domain. Just like they did with the lgoptimus2x.nl, shortly before the Optimus 2X official introduction.

And that silhouette on the invite is almost identical to the one of the Optimus 2X (see below). Since that one was already announced, LG will obviously announce a device with near identical design, but bringing enough novelty to become the event centerpiece. You know, something like a 3D screen, perhaps.

Finally, here comes this tipster that drops us a line saying the next Optimus 2X will pack a couple of 8 megapixel cameras that will allow you to capture 3D images and a 3D display to browse them. Yeah, we laughed initially, too. We feel silly now.

And finally, yesterday we got this leaked slide from Nvidia, which confirms that a 3D-capable version of the Tegra 2 platform is just about to enter mass production.
At this point we couldn?t be more convinced that LG will be announcing a 3D-capable smartphone at the MWC. But it doesn't end there - we are pretty sure we'll be getting a 3D tablet to go with it too.

You see, LG already confirmed that they are working on a Tegra 2-based tablet. Coincidentally, an LG tablet appeared in a Korean music video, sporting two backwards-facing cameras. We rest our case.

We know, it's all conspiracy theory right now, but we guess it's never to late for LG to up their smartphone game and totally own the Congress.
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Nokia MeeGo tablet image and specs surface, we hold our breath

We just dug out a photo of a Nokia-branded MeeGo tablet, along with some specs. Packing telephony and a landscape-oriented interface we are not sure what to make of the device, but it might just turn out to be the hotly anticipated Nokia N9.
The device pictured is obviously a really early prototype as most of its hardware is not working and there is none of the Nokia custom UI to be seen on it. Yet we did get some hardware specs so it's not all bad.
Packing a 4.5" screen the Nokia MeeGo half-tablet-half-phone will be supporting 3G with HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. A microUSB port isn't mentioned but it's now mandatory for all devices sold in the EU so we'll assume it's present too.

The Nokia MeeGo tablet
An accelerometer is onboard, along a gyroscope. Camera is also present, though we cannot confirm its resolution. If this really turns out to be the Nokia N9 and previous rumors are to be trusted we might get to see the N8 top-quality on this one.
Of course, there's always the chance that this is just a reference design for engineering needs and we are getting all too excited without a valid reason.
What's making us rather suspicious is the mouse pointer visible on the screen. However the leaked list of current bugs does include a failure to operate the device through the touchscreen and MeeGo supports mouse input so it could just be a Bluetooth accessory.
There?s also another theory, coming from Eldar Murtazin?s Twitter account. According to the editor-in-chief of Mobile-review.com, the N9 has been given the axe and Nokia chose to develop another device instead. If that?s true, it explains why the styling of the device above is so unlike those early N9 shots we've all seen.
Update 25 Dec: We are afraid we've got some bad news for you - apparently the device pictured is nothing else but the Ericsson U8500 reference platform. Now move along, there's nothing to see here.
Here's hoping there's a MeeGo smartphone announcement coming next month, so we could finally stop with all the guessing.
Source

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