More photos of the 6.1" Huawei Ascend Mate make the rounds

After being shown off by the company's chairman last week, the 6.1" 1080p display toting Huawei Ascend Mate has emerged in more photos. This time around, we get to have a better look at the device's physical appearance.
The rumored specs of the Huawei Ascend Mate include a 1.8GHz quad-core CPU (probably Huawei's own design), 2GB of RAM, 13MP camera, and a 4000mAh battery. The thickness of the giant is rumored to be 9.9mm.

In addition to the leaked images, an upcoming ad for the device has appeared as well. It compares the yet-to-be-announced Huawei offering to the Samsung Galaxy Note II's 5.5" screen. See it below.

The Huawei Ascend Mate will break cover during CES 2013 in Las Vegas. We will be live from Huawei's press conference, so be sure to stick around to find out all about the device.

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Google and Motorola said to be working on X Phone, to hit in 2013

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Google and its Motorola branch are working on a future high-end smartphone to rival the Apple iPhone and the Galaxy S lineup.

 

Dubbed simply the “X Phone”, the device is expected to show up some time next year, according to WSJ’s source. The project is reportedly being led by Lior Ron, who has previously worked as a Google Product Manager, but now is busy at work with the Motorola team.

Additionally, Motorola engineers are also working on an "X" tablet, that's going to launch after the “X” phone debuts. In the meantime, the company is going to continue its work on the DROID lineup of smartphones.

Motorola's CEO Dennis Woodside (former Google top sales exec) said in an interview with the WSJ that the company is “investing in a team and a technology that will do something quite different than the current approaches. ”

The project’s leader, Lior Ron, reportedly has demanded the phone to sport killer camera. In its quest to make the phone truly unique, Motorola has looked into incorporating different materials such as ceramics, which would make the “X Phone” more resistant to drops.

WSJ sources add that Motorola’s acquisition of gesture and facial recognition company Viewdle will also be thrown in to the mix to bring some truly unique features to the device. Could the X Phone, intriguing as it sounds, be ready for Google’s I/O 2013 event in the summer of 2013? We’ll have to wait and see.

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Oppo's Find 5 won't be getting a European release

Oppo was one of several Chinese manufacturers to make headlines with devices sporting 5" displays of 1080p resolution. The smartphone is slated to hit the US market at the very wallet-friendly price of $499 off contract, quite a bargain compared to the $599 price tag of the HTC DROID DNA.

 

Unfortunately, the Find 5 won't be making its way to Europe, at least not in the near future, and it's unknown whether it's due to inability to get enough units, or Oppo simply does not think the European market is lucrative enough.

Either way, the only way you can get a Find 5 on the old continent is to have it shipped from the US or China or via a third-party supplier.

Update: An Oppo spokesman has since contacted us and denied this story, but unfortunately declined to to be specific as to an exact European launch date.

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Samsung Galaxy Note III Featuring a 6.3 Inch Display, Launching in 2013

   Supersized smartphones and tablets are no longer a thing of the future, since our pockets are bursting with the likes of Galaxy Note II and HTC Droid DNA. Now Samsung wants to increase the stake, preparing a Galaxy Note III that’s even bigger than its two predecessors, if recent rumors are to be believed.



The Note III is supposed to launch in 2013 and feature a 6.3 inch display, according to the same speculations. Korea Times is the one with the scoop, saying that the future Note will have a 6.3 inch OLED display, a pretty significant jump from the 5.3 inch Galaxy Note 1 and 5.5 inch Note II. Huawei is already bragging about bringing a Note II killer soon, so Samsung must preempt their strike. Another expect shift, other than the diagonal is the resolution, that will certainly jump to Full HD.

We also expect more RAM, maybe 3 GB and either a Cortex A15 dual core or quad core processor, plus a gigantic battery. LTE should also be here, as well as an even better pen than the S Pen 2 and obviously new versions of S Planner, S Note and all the package. And all of that in Fall 2013, probably…

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Xiaomi MI-3 with Tegra 4, LTE, 4.5" screen coming in mid 2013?

Now this is as unofficial as it gets folks, so get those saltshakers ready. According to the latest bit of online gossip the next Xiaomi smartphone, presumably named MI-3, will sport the next-gen NVIDIA Tegra 4 chipset, LTE radio and an improved 4.5" screen and will launch in the middle of next year.

The Tegra 4 CPU will offer a quad-core Cortex-A15 CPU with clock speeds between 1.8 GHz and 2 GHz with around 2.5 GB worth of RAM.

The display on the alleged MI-3 is rumored to be a product of JDI (Japan Display Corporation) and should sport a higher ppi count (perhaps 1080p).

Finally, the camera have a 12 megapixel sensor.

All of this sounds really exciting and knowing the kind of competitive pricing Xiaomi normally does, we just hope the company brings the smartphone (if it's real of course) outside of its home market.

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