HTC refuses to ride low-end smartphone market train

Think you will be able to snag a low-priced, entry-level smartphone from HTC some time in the not too distant future? Think again. As the troubled Taiwanese electronics maker thinks up ways to deal with competitors like Samsung and Apple in the smartphone arena, it almost seems as if the best course of action for HTC would be for it to try its hand in the low-end market segment, where it can possibly sell its own version of a useful and highly affordable handset that millions of people will know and love. That may sound nice, but unfortunately, HTC CEO Peter Chou is not too keen on the idea.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Chou was quoted as saying, “We don’t want to destroy our brand image.” Evidently, HTC wants to retain its premium image as a company that sells high-quality products at not-so-affordable prices. The products that HTC puts out do look nice, and they are mostly pretty feature-rich as well. It’s just that they are often out of reach for most consumers because of the limiting factor in price.

Since HTC wants to stay away from delivering low-priced handsets, it would be interesting to see how it plans to tackle the problem of dealing with ever increasing competition from cheap phone makers in China. HTC has said in the past that it plans to seek growth in emerging markets, so perhaps it has a workable strategy up its sleeve somehow. The message is clear, though: don’t expect to see inexpensive smartphones come out of the HTC stable any time soon.

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Lenovo A65 dual-SIM Android smartphone hits the Philippines

Lenovo Mobile Philippines has just let the word out regarding the availability of the Android-powered Lenovo A65 here in the Philippines. As of today, you should be able to get your hands on the said handset and actually take it home with you for only 5,499 Pesos. For that price, you’ll also get a free Smart pre-paid SIM card that’s loaded with 100 Pesos worth of credits that are valid for 30 days. The Lenovo A65 runs Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread on an unidentified 800MHz processor. It also boasts dual-SIM capabilities which will allow you to use up to two SIM cards at the same time if you’d like. That’s pretty much it in terms of possible distinguishing characteristics, as the rest of the Lenovo A65’s specs are quite common in entry-level smartphones nowadays: built-in Wi-Fi, FM radio, Wi-Fi hotspot, and so on. It has a somewhat larger screen that most at 3.5-inches, though, so that’s another minor plus. You can tag this as an interesting alternative to entry-level Nokias or Samsungs in the market today.

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Nokia Lumia 900 now available in the Philippines, already sold out in certain stores

Nokia fans, your long wait is finally over. The Windows Phone-powered Lumia 900 smartphone from Nokia is now available here in the Philippines. But you better be quick to buy it because it is already sold out in certain stores, here in Metro Manila, at least. I managed to get my hands on a live Nokia Lumia 900 unit at one of the branches of Electroworld here in Manila yesterday. But as it turns out, they didn’t actually have any stocks of the unit left for sale, as it had already sold out and so no one can actually buy it from them right now. I haven’t been able to check every single store in the Metro (who would want to?) but I imagine that the situation in some of these other stores might be the same as well. So again, if you’ve been pining for a Nokia Lumia 900 of your own, you better buy the first available unit that you can find. Pricing starts at 27,990 Pesos.

Motorola DROID RAZR HD Android phone uncovered in leaked photos

The guys over at Droid-Life managed to get their hands on some pictures of the Motorola DROID RAZR HD, and through these it can now be confirmed that this upcoming Android smartphone from Motorola will be headed straight for Verizon and its 4G LTE network in the US. The photos only show the back (which is made of kevlar) and one side of the Motorola Droid RAZR HD. But even so, these are enough to paint a pretty interesting picture indeed.

Apart from the small Motorola logo and the unmarked camera with the accompanying flash, the back is pretty bare, except for the familiar RAZR pattern. Besides all of that which can be seen from the outside, not much can be confirmed about the Motorola Droid RAZR HD in terms of technical specs. It is expected to finally hit the market in about one to two months time, so perhaps we’ll find out more about it in the next few weeks.

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Nokia 808 PureView gets reviewed

The great old Eldar from the Russian web site Mobile-Review has finally put the 41-megapixel picture-snapping Nokia 808 PureView cameraphone to the test. In a nutshell, he says that the Nokia 808 PureView shows the great potential that Nokia still has, if only it still had full control over its own mobile operating system instead of becoming just another licensee to someone else’s mobile OS–Windows Phone from Microsoft, in this case.

Eldar‘s reasoning is that being able to put a 41-megapixel sensor on a normal-sized smartphone is no mean feat; it is a triumph of engineering for the guys at Nokia. However, when you take that away, when you strip the Nokia 808 PureView of its uniqueness by turning a blind eye to what makes it special, you’ll find that it’s really not that great at all. In fact, you can get much better performance for a much lesser price with other phones.

The review also shows that although the camera performance on the Nokia 808 PureView is certainly better than most other cameraphones available right now, it still falls short of becoming a true digital camera replacement. It just can’t compete with the quality that can be produced with professional DSLRs and such.

Ultimately, Eldar says, there will be people who will want to buy this hefty new phone to figure out what can be done the 41-megapixel sensor on it. But the actual number of those who do will be much less than what Nokia expects it to be, unfortunately. Read the full Nokia 808 PureView review via the source link below.

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