Samsung unveils Galaxy S5 with 5.1-inch screen

One of the highest-caliber debuts at this year’s MWC, the Samsung Galaxy S5 was just unveiled at the Unpacked 5 event. The flagship opens a new chapter in Samsung's design – the back is still leather-like, but with a brand new look.

    

We’re looking at a longer feature list fifth year in a row – IP67 certification is a big one and so are the fingerprint sensor and heart rate monitor, a first for a mobile device.

The core features too were duly updated to put the Galaxy S5 ahead of its S4 predecessor – a 5.1" Super AMOLED screen of 1080p resolution, Snapdragon 800 chipset with 2GB of RAM, 150Mbps LTE and a 16MP camera.

Update: Samsung's original info stated 1080p video recording, but it turns out it's actually UHD - that's 3840 x 2160.

Another thing that didn’t turn out as whispered was TouchWiz – it's new and based on Android 4.4.2 KitKat, but not as flat as some Holo fans would have hoped.

No switch to on-screen buttons either – the Galaxy S5 has three keys below the screen, this time an App Switcher button replacing the Menu key.

The Galaxy S5 will be available in four colors initially - Black, White, Blue and Copper. The US is getting only the Black and White ones though.

BlackBerry unveils the Z3 and the Q20

BlackBerry has announced a new duo of smartphones at the MWC 2014 - the BlackBerry Z3 and the BlackBery Q20.

The BlackBerry Z3 is a full-touch smartphone with a 5" display and runs BlackBerry OS 10.2.1. BlackBerry CEO John Chen says that this is the first phone to come up with the strategic partnership with Foxconn.

Specifications of the Z3 came in and the 5" display boasts a qHD resolution and is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon 400 chipset and 1.5GB of RAM. Internal storage is 8GB, but there's no information if there's a microSD card slot available.

At the back, there's a 5MP camera, while at the front there's a 1.1MP one. Music lovers would also like the fact that the Z3 features an FM Radio, too.

The phone will hit Indonesia in April and will cost less than $200 off contract.

As for the BlackBerry Q20, the company has gone back to its roots and the phone features a physical QWERTY keyboard and a trackpad. It seems, the BlackBerry wants to attract some of its core fans back and offers them a phone they'll be productive with.

Here’s a quote from John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO at BlackBerry regarding the Q20.

"In my first 90 days on the job, I consistently heard from our ardent BlackBerry customers that the hard buttons and trackpad are an essential part of the BlackBerry QWERTY experience, that made their BlackBerry smartphone their go-to productivity tool. I want these customers to know that we heard them, and this new smartphone will be for them. Today, we’re delighted to announce the new BlackBerry Q20 smartphone, which is designed to give you the distinct experience that every BlackBerry QWERTY loyalist and high-productivity business customer absolutely loves. With the BlackBerry Q20 smartphone, you’ll get the familiar hard buttons and trackpad that you want, along with the best email service, the best keyboard experience and the best battery life possible."

The Menu, Back, Send and End buttons and the trackpad will be made an integral part of the device and user interface and in conjunction with the 3.5" display, BlackBerry says the phone will offer the best email experience on the market. The company also states that the Q20 will be made of premium materials, which will result in reliability and durability, but doesn't specify which ones.

We wish BlackBerry had disclosed more details, but that's not the case. We'll keep you posted for any new information that comes up. Hopefully BlackBerry will shed more light on the specs soon enough.

Asus shows two new Fonepad 7 versions

Asus didn’t have a big event like it did at CES, but the company still unveiled one new device. It's not entirely new, it's two new versions of the Asus Fonepad 7.

The first one brings LTE, which was missing from the original model. It's still powered by an Intel Atom Z2560 processor at 1.6GHz and has stereo speakers on the front.

  
Two new Asus Fonepad 7 versions that look the same as the original

The second version stays on 3G, but goes down a notch in terms of chipset – it uses a 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z2520 instead.

The company also had the PadFone, PadFone mini and ZenFone at its MWC booth too.

Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 801, 610 and 615

Qualcomm has announced three new chipsets at MWC this year. The first is the Snapdragon 801, which as you can tell, is a minor update to the current Snapdragon 800. The 801 is very similar to its predecessors but improves on a handful of key things. The CPU clock speed has been bumped from 2.26GHz to 2.45GHz, the GPU clock speed from 450MHz to 578MHz and the memory bus from 800MHz to 933MHz.

Along with these minor changes, the new Snapdragon 801 also adds support for the eMMC 5.0 standard, which allows the use of faster embedded flash storage, such as the new SanDisk iNAND Extreme.

The Snapdragon 801 is expected this quarter and will likely make an appearance on the upcoming Samsung and HTC flagship devices.

Next are the Snapdragon 610 and the 615, both of which are Qualcomm's newest 64-bit chipsets. The 610 employs four 64-bit ARM Cortex A53 cores along with Adreno 405 GPU. The 615 doubles the core count, going for an eight core A53 configuration with everything else being identical to the 610. Qualcomm has not released the clock speeds on the CPU and GPU. Expect to see these in devices in the last quarter of 2014.

Mobile World Congress 2014 Coverage

MWC 2014 overview

	Android-powered Nokia XL is official, costs €109 Nokia announces Android running Nokia X and Nokia X+ Nokia announces Nokia 220, costs just €29 Nokia's Asha 230 is the most affordable touch Asha Nokia's MWC keynote is starting, watch it here Nokia X - specs • hands-on Nokia X+ - specs • hands-on Nokia XL - specs • hands-on Nokia Asha 230 - specs • hands-on Nokia Asha 220 - specs • hands-on
	Samsung unveils Galaxy S5 with 5.1-inch screen Samsung announces Tizen-based Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo  Samsung Galaxy S5 - specs • hands-on Samsung Gear 2 - hands-on Samsung Gear 2 Neo - hands-on Samsung Gear Fit - hands-on
	Sony unveils the Xperia Z2 with 4K video capture Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet goes official Sony Xperia M2 announced, a quad-core mid-ranger Sony Xperia Z2 - specs • hands-on Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet - • hands-on Sony Xperia M2 - specs • hands-on
	LG has shipped 40 million Optimus L smartphones worldwide LG G2 mini is official with 4.7" screen, mid-range specs  LG announces L Series III trio of low-end and mid-range devices  LG G Pro 2 - specs • hands-on LG G2 mini - specs • hands-on LG F70 - specs • hands-on LG L90 - specs • hands-on LG L70 - specs  LG L40 - specs
	Huawei announces thinnest 7-inch tablet, wearable too Huawei Talkband B1 is a smartwatch/bluetooth headset Huawei Ascend G6 - specs • hands-on Huawei MediaPad M1 - specs • hands-on Huawei MediaPad X1 - specs • hands-on Huawei TalkBand B1 - hands-on
	Alcatel announces Idol 2, Idol 2 Mini and OneTouch Pop Fit Alcatel One Touch Idol 2 - specs • hands-on Alcatel One Touch Idol 2 Mini S - specs • hands-on Alcatel One Touch Idol 2 Mini - specs • hands-on Alcatel One Touch Pop Fit hands-on - specs • hands-on
	HP Slate6 Voicetab - specs • hands-on HP Slate7 Voicetab - specs • hands-on
	ZTE Grand Memo II LTE official with 720p 6-inch screen ZTE announces Open C and Open II Firefox OS smartphones ZTE Grand Memo II LTE - specs • hands-on
	Acer announces Liquid E3 and Liquid Z4 Acer Liquid E3 - specs • hands-on  Acer Liquid Z4 - specs • hands-on
	BlackBerry unveils the Z3 and the Q20 BlackBerry Q20 - BlackBerry Z3 - specs
	Windows 8.1 will get its first significant update this spring Microsoft: Windows Phone 8.1 update will arrive in spring
Misc	Lenovo announces three new S-Series budget smartphones Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 801, 610 and 615 Alcatel and ZTE launch a number of Firefox OS 1.3 devices Lenovo teasing tablet for Mobile World Congress MediaTek announces MT6732 64-bit chipset with LTE Lenovo Yoga Tablet 10 HD+ - hands-on