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LG Rename Optimus LTE to Optimus True HD LTE
The LG Optimus LTE which is known here as LG Nitro HD or LG Spectrum in the States has taken moves to show the rest of the world that the time of the PenTile display is past as far as LG is concerned. Between the groups that don’t know, don’t care and those who absolutely can’t stand them, LG seems to be hitting up that last group and sidled itself cozily in it. The company has renamed the above mentioned device as the Optimus True HD LTE. This is to highlight that the 4.5-inch IPS 720p screen uses a standard matrix layout as opposed to a PenTile arrangement. The first country that will see the change will be Hong Kong.
The alleged PenTile display that is disliked by a group of “screenophiles” has an arragement of pixes where each green sub-pixel shares either a red or blue alternative pixel cell on either side of it. On traditional LCD displays however, each cell uses the standard red-green-blue arrangement and this is said to be sharper by about 30%. The reason why some manufacturers opt for a PenTile display is because the component is more affordable and would not impact costs of production as well as retail very much. However, only those who know about the PenTile display and are real screen aficionados will notice the difference so if you are a normal user it would not make a really big difference to you.
The Fairphone 2 was first unveiled in June earlier this year, where this particular handset carried a modular design while featuring majority of its components that have been sourced from conflict-free mines. It seems that this particular handset that you can purchase with a clear conscience has begun to ship to those who happen to live across Europe.
Fairphone announced in a blog post, “It’s been almost two years in the making, and some of the earliest buyers have been patiently waiting since July to receive their new phones. As community manager, I want to personally welcome the new batch of Fairphone owners to our community.” The initial 1,000 units are tipped to ship this month, before the other pre-orders follow in January 2016.
In terms of hardware specifications, the Fairphone 2 will run on a Snapdragon 801 chipset, has a 5″ 1080p screen with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, 2GB of RAM, an 8MP camera, with Android 5.1 Lollipop in tow. It will be a dual SIM capable handset with a microSD memory card slot and plays nice with 4G LTE networks, retailing for approximately €525 a pop.
It looks like the upcoming flagship model from Xiaomi will feature NFC support, at least based on a document that was released by China UnionPay. Just in case you are scratching your head and wondering who China UnionPay is, they happen to be the only domestic payment gateway supplier and card organization, and hence, to see them offer detailed support concerning the newly released NFC-based payment system points to the very real possibility of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5 featuring NFC capability.
After all, the Xiaomi Mi 3 was also mentioned on the list, which so happens to feature NFC, and there is no mention of the Xiaomi Mi 4 which does not come with NFC. Still, such a new payment system would be the ideal tool to see the reintroduction of NFC to the flagship model.
OnePlus did make an announcement in the previous month that the Ceramic variant of the OnePlus X will be released on November 24. True to their word, they did exactly that – although only a pitiful number of units were made available, and not only that, this was through a charity auction. Thankfully for the rest of the masses who are on the lookout for this device, it has gone on sale officially already.
Needless to say, this particular variant is available only by an invitation, although do bear in mind that standard OnePlus X invites are not good here – you will still need to snag yourself a specific Ceramic variant invite before you make a purchase. OnePlus is also on the lookout to offer additional methods of picking up this smartphone, although no further details were revealed.
The OnePlus X Ceramic will be available only in select markets, where among them include Europe, India, and Hong Kong. To date, we do know that OnePlus had made only 10,000 units of the handset available. A case of the early bird getting the proverbial worm here?