Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 released in Korea

It looks like Samsung has made their Galaxy Grand 2 smartphone available on its home soil in Korea.

The phone costs 517,000 K. Won, the equivalent of about $484 USD, which does seem pretty steep for the handset.

The Grand 2 packs a 5.25” 720p HD display, 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 1.5GB RAM, 8MP camera, LTE-A, and a 2600mAh battery. The smartphone comes with Android 4.3 out of the box and the usual goodies associated with TouchWiz.

Design wise, expect a faux-leather backing similar to the Note series of phones, and the Grand 2 will be available in both white and black color options.

Xiaomi's Hongmi 2 to provide octa-core power on a budget

The octa-core-running Xiaomi Redmi 2 is slated to be one of the first devices around to provide octa-core performance at a budget price.

The Xiamoi Redmi 2 (also known as the Hongmi), is slated to sport a 5.5-inch 720p display, 1GB of RAM, and 1.7GHz octa-core CPU from MediaTek or a 1.4GHz Snapdragon chip of unknown core count. Also on board is a 13MP/5MP camera combo, and a microSD slot of up to 32GB.

The Snapdragon version in question will be of the Cortex A53 architecture that has support for 4G LTE as well, which would be another important caveat if it were included.

Although all of the above specs sound a bit too hefty for the sub-$130 price range that the Redmi currently inhabits, expect the sequel to be very competitively priced as it hopes to compete in the budget-bonanza that is China's emerging LTE market.

LG D850 has a QHD screen, might be the LG G3

Earlier this year we heard info that the upcoming LG G3 will pack a QHD screen – it was too early to see it at the MWC, but now a User Agent Profile substantiates the rumor. The UAProf details the LG D850.

Update: leaked screenshots all but officially confirm the upcoming handset's high resolution display. The screen captures are both in QHD resolution as well. See them below.

Note that by LG's numbering scheme, the LG G2 is D800, the Nexus 5 is D820 and the LG G Pro 2 is D830. This means the D850 could be a new Nexus or a new phablet. The G Pro 2 is barely a month old and Google doesn’t seem eager to rush out new Nexus devices, so that leaves the G3 as the most likely target.

Still, we're a little wary of such rumors after plenty that promised phones with QHD screens – both the Galaxy S5 and Xperia Z2 were supposed to have that resolution. To put it in numbers, QHD is 4x 720p or 2,560 x 1,440.

That said, the LG G3 is supposed to have a 5.5" screen, which sounds more believable for this resolution – certain 5.5" phablets are supposed to use this resolution.

Notice we said phablets, though considering the LG G2 is still the most compact 5.2" phone months after it launched (and more importantly after the MWC), we're willing to give LG the benefit of the doubt.

The LG G3 is supposed to be announced in May, which is when the doubts should be cleared.

Huawei will release a dual-OS device in the United States

Huawei intends to release a hybrid smartphone which will boot Android and Windows Phone in the United States. The company’s chief marketing officer Shao Yang confirmed the plan in an interview withTrustedReviews.

Huawei’s CMO offered no explanation on why the company decided to offer two competing OS ecosystems in the same device. However, Yang suggested that with Windows Phone alone on board, the device might have a harder time attracting customers.

The upcoming dual-OS smartphone is said to be released at some point in Q2 this year. The handset’s launch will take place around the same time as the rollout of Windows Phone 8.1 by Microsoft.

Huawei’s intentions are should hardly catch anyone by surprise. Recently, Microsoft eased up the hardware requirements for Windows Phone, thus allowing it to easier coexist with another OS on the same device.