No matter which way you look at it, AU$199 (£149, US$189) for a quad-core smartphone is a tough proposition to argue with.

While the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One and Sony Xperia Z1 get all the headlines, Aussie company Kogan has tried to trump them all with the new AU$199 (£149, US$189)quad-core Agora smartphone.

An update to the previous Agora 5-inch dual-core smartphone, the newer, HD version doubles the number of processing cores to four, adds 720p resolution to the now IPS 5-inch display and bundles in 1GB RAM and 4GB of on board storage, with a MicroSD card slot to expand that when it runs out.

Like the previous version, Kogan has squeezed in a second SIM card slot, which allows users to make calls over 2G networks. We say squeezed because both slots are actually for full-sized SIMs, which are almost as rare as white rhinos these days.

Inside, the 2,000mAh battery keeps the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean phone running while you're making and taking calls.

The camera on the back has been upgraded to 8MP, while the front facing snapper now boasts 2MP, although as we know, not all phone cameras are created equal.

Overall, it's a pretty impressive spec upgrade to the dual-core model from the start of the year.

The appearance

Unboxing the Agora 5.0-inch HD, it's amazing to think how for Kogan has come in terms of design since its original Agora Android prototype back in 2009.

The front of the phone looks fairly standard in today's sea of large Android devices. The 5-inch screen is surrounded by a narrow black bezel on the sides. Above, the speaker and front-facing camera rest while Android's standard three soft buttons can be found below.

The left side has the volume rocker, the right side has the power button. Up top, a 3.5mm headphone jack and MicroUSB slot rest, awaiting cable insertion.

The back of the device is a matte black cover, that seems to blend perfectly into the phone's body. It's not initially apparent how to open the back cover, although once you do manage to work it out (by pulling around the MicroUSB jack), it becomes evident that the back cover isn't as robust as it appears.

Still, the cover is comfortable to hold and offers a decent grip, which is something lacking in many modern phones.

Pop open the bonnet, and you're confronted with those two full-size SIM card slots, with a MicroSD slot wedged between them. Below these, the 2,000mAh battery resides.

While it's possible to slip your SIM cards into the phone without removing the battery, taking them out again will require the power to be removed. It's a small thing, but can be slightly frustrating, especially if you're using an adapter to bring your Nano or Micro SIM card up to full-size to fit the slots and there's an issue.

The phone itself is a little bit chunkier than many phones, although it's nowhere near a deal breaker. The tapered edges of the back actually help mitigate any real issues with holding the device in the hand

Initial testing

Our ongoing tests will offer a more definite answer, but initial results show that the quad-core processor inside the Agora does a pretty good job at keeping things snappy. There wasn't any real lag or delay, with the phone switching between apps nice and quickly.

The 8MP, meanwhile, still seems to struggle a bit in terms of clarity and definition. We haven't been able to put it through its paces fully yet, but the few pics we did take in our initial play with the device all seemed a bit washed out and grainy.

The screen itself shows the biggest improvement over the previous generation. Bright, vibrant and clear, the 1280 x 720 pixel resolution is a far cry from the 800 x 600 of the Agora dual core model. Viewing angles are respectable, although not fantastic, and even squinting it's tough to make out the individual pixels on display.

Early verdict

No question about it, this phone punches above its weight. For under 200 bucks, it's impossible to argue the value for money case.

There are some conditions though. There's no 4G, and the 3G will work nicely on Telstra's 3G bands, but not Optus' 900MHz spectrum. The camera also has a pretty large question mark over the top of it.

Given that the Nexus 4 will set you back AU$249, with double the storage but half the SIM card slots, there's an argument that it's not the best value for money in the market, although it does come close.

We'll be interested to see how it really performs as we fully test it, but first impressions tell us this is a great device for those looking for a budget handset.

Source : techradar[dot]com

Samsung is reportedly committed to upgrading the Galaxy S5 with a 16-megapixel camera, but the unresolved choice of a camera supplier may be coming down to two companies.

Sony and Samsung LSI - a division of the South Korean electronics giant - are vying for the job of making the camera for the company's next flagship smartphone, according to Unwired View.

That means the Galaxy S5 camera work could once again be farmed out to Sony, which currently manufactures the 13-megapixel sensor inside the Galaxy S4.

It also happens to supply the new iPhone 5S with its 8-megapixel camera sensor that's 15 percent larger than the one in the iPhone 5.

Sony certainly has the most experience with tiny, but powerful camera sensors that fit into the tight confines of a smartphone.

The Samsung advantage

Samsung LSI, on the other hand, obviously benefits from the fact that it's part of the South Korean conglomerate. This could lead to more flexibility and cheaper prices.

More than any overhead-related perk, though, Samsung has the advantage of ISOCELL.

ISOCELL is supposed to substantially increase light sensitivity and offer higher color fidelity even in poor lighting conditions. That's pretty much half of the photos taken with smartphone cameras these days.

The first Samsung image sensor with ISOCELL is the S5K4H5YB, which is being planned for the end of the year. It's only 8 megapixels, so the company would need to double its efforts rather quickly.

But ISOCELL combined with a 16-megapixel camera would be difficult for Samsung's competitors to top if it were to make it out in time for the Galaxy S5 launch that's expected early next year.

• Get the scoop on HTC's plans for tablets and smartwatches

Source : techradar[dot]com

Microsoft has begun publishing a new variety of apps called "WebApps" that are simple, repackaged versions of existing mobile sites for Windows Phone devices.

The new apps appear in the Windows Phone app store under the title WebApps, and they're free to download and behave like normal apps.

"We are helping people access great mobile experiences on Windows Phone by creating pinnable Web Apps that show up in the app list," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement obtained by ZDNet.

The company has an ulterior motive, though; "These are not a replacement for native apps," the statement continues. "In most cases we hope that usage of the Web App will encourage the ISV to publish its own native app."

App holes

The new downloadable WebApps include repackaged sites from Southwest Airlines, the Food Network, Cars.com, Lowe's, TMZ, Progressive insurance, Orbitz, Atari, CarMax, 1-800-FLOWERS, and more, for a total of around 50.

Windows Phone has long suffered from a lack of apps, despite developer incentive programs and plenty of assurances from Microsoft that all the big apps available on iOS and Android will eventually be available on its platform.

It's not surprising that Microsoft would try to encourage more app makers to jump on board its mobile OS like this, and it also makes it look like there are more actual apps available in Microsoft's app marketplace by filling the selection with easily created web apps.

Meanwhile, the company is said to be working on a joint app store for Windows Phone and Windows 8 - and possibly even Xbox - as it works toward unifying its fragmented operating system landscape.

• Earlier this year TechRadar compiled a list of the best Windows Phone apps - check out it and see if your favorite is there!

Source : techradar[dot]com

Nokia is expected to unveil its high-end Lumia 1520 phablet at Tuesday's big Nokia World event in Abu Dhabi, but on the eve of the launch, another big-screen beauty has appeared in an official-looking render.

The now-notorious Twitter leak artist @evleaks posted the purported press snap of the Lumia 1320 device on Monday evening, adding it will arrive before 2013 ends, rather than during tomorrow's keynote.

The serial leaker first brought attention to the Lumia 1320 earlier this month, while further reports seemed to confirm its existence, suggesting Nokia had selected the internal codename 'Batman.'

It is thought that the Lumia 1320 won't challenge the 1520 for top-line specs, but will be an affordable alternative with core specs rivalling handsets like the lower-end 4.7-inch Nokia Lumia 625.

Those reports claimed the Caped Crusader will only have a 5-megapixel camera and a front-facing VGA webcam, just like the Lumia 625. Little else is known.

Why so Sirius?

It appears very unlikely that Nokia will take the wrappers off the Lumia 1320 during the Nokia World launch, where the Lumia 1520 is likely to be joined by a 10.1-inch Windows RT tablet, codenamed Sirius.

Just today it was rumoured the Finnish company has an iPod shuffle rival called Nokia Guru, on deck for the high profile event, which will could be its final public showing before handing over the reins to Microsoft.

You can join our coverage of Nokia World, which kicks off at 10am UK time (5am EDT, 2am PDT), throughout Tuesday. Nokia is also kindly live-streaming the event.

• The Lumia 1520 will have a tidy 20-megapixel camera according to leaks on Monday. See what else might be in store for Nokia's most high-spec smartphone.

Source : techradar[dot]com

HTC has confirmed the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update will begin rolling out to UK HTC One handsets in 3-5 weeks, which is likely to be around the time users begin clamouring for Android 4.4 KitKat.

The company made the estimate on its official UK Twitter account, responding to a question from a HTC One owner eager to update his phone to the current version of the Google-based operating system.

"We are expecting to release #JellyBean 4.3 update in the UK in 3–5 weeks," the firm tweeted on Monday.

That would put the launch in mid-November at the earliest, by which time Google are highly likely to have spun out the next major version of its sweet-themed mobile software.

Wait makes Sense?

According to reports, when the update does arrive, it'll bring with it HTC Sense 5.5 rather than v5.0 of the UI which arrived alongside the US Android 4.3 update.

One owners will be hopeful that the update will also cure an issue with the HTC One's Ultrapixel camera that causes photos to be tinted with red, purple or blue, when shot in low-light conditions.

• Still not sure what Android 4.3 brought to the table? Here's what changed within the Jelly Bean jump.

Source : techradar[dot]com

While all the focus is pretty much on tomorrow's launches, with both the Apple iPad event and Nokia World taking place, Google is still grabbing out attention with the Nexus 5.

An official looking render of the phone has appeared - looking the same as the last one we saw - but this time in popping up in white, courtesy of the same source that gave us the iPad Mini without Touch ID, CtechCN.

The Google Nexus 4 initially launched in black but a white later followed - and promptly sold out. Although it seems unlikely, could we be about to see both devices launch simultaneously this time?

We should also advise some caution, as this could easily be Photoshop trickery. Consult your GP for recommended daily salt intake.

Google Play-ing games

With a Google Play event scheduled for October 24, we may well see whether all the rumours and leaked shots of the Google Nexus 5 turn out to be true.

Don't hold your breath though, as we heard that it is only going to be a meet and greet to show the press around the new Google Play.

That won't stop us from hoping though, especially as Google has been playing mind games with us on its official Google+ KitKat page.

Source : techradar[dot]com

Archos has announced its latest range of latest range of smartphones, pitched at a wallet-friendly price tag. Archos has given them its Titanium branding, with the four devices covering screen sizes from 4 to 5.3 inches.

Archos isn't a brand that you'd normally associate with smartphones, with its most recent products being centred around the tablet market. You may have seen or heard about the Archos 80 Titanium or the Archos GamePad 2.

That said, some may remember that it announced a range of smartphones back in April.

Don't mention the B word

Although the budget market is one of the hottest markets, the spec list leaves little to set the world alight. Then again, when the cutting edge feature may well be price, maybe that doesn't matter.

Specs wise, though, all four handsets come with dual SIM capability, a small 1.3GHz dual core processor backed with 512MB RAM, and 4GB storage.

Screen wise, the baby of the bunch, the Archos Titanium 40, comes with a 4 inch WVGA 480x800 screen. Also aptly named, the Archos Titanium 45 and Titanium 53 come with 4.5 and 5.3 inch FWVGA 480x854 screens respectively.

The Archos Titanium 50 has the highest resolution, a qHD 540x960 5 inch screen.

There is no news of release dates or market availability, but prices have been announced at between €100-160 (about £85-135, $135-220, AU$140-225).

Source : techradar[dot]com

Google's showing no signs of slowing its pace of Android development, with Android 4.0 appearing on the Galaxy Nexus late in 2011, followed by the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean release that arrived powering the super Nexus 7 in July of 2012.

Two more flavors of Jelly Bean were to follow: Android 4.2 was released on 13 November 2012, and then Android 4.3 arrived on 24 July 2013.

Throughout the Jelly Bean reign, we've been gathering rumors of the next major Android update, Android 5.0. The word was that this release was being developed under the dessert-related codename of Key Lime Pie but then on 3 September 2013, Google announced that Android 4.4 KitKat would precede Android 5, so the Key Lime Pie name looks to have been ditched.

We're still expecting an Android 5 release, of course, but with different features, a new code name and a later release date than we were originally anticipating.

The dessert-themed moniker that we assume will begin with L is anyone's guess at this stage. Android 5.0 Lemon Cheesecake or Android 5.0 Lemon Meringue Pie, anyone?

As we wait on official news of that code name, as well as the Android 5.0 release date and features, we can start to pull together the latest rumors from around the web.

Android 5.0 release date

Until Android 4.4 was announced we had expected the Android 5.0 release date to be some time in October 2013. We now expect to see Android 4.4 KitKat launch during that month. In the face of that point release, we think it's now likely that we'll see Android 5.0 shown in mid-2014, quite possibly at Google IO, Google's annual two-day developer conference in San Francisco.

That's a year on from when we had originally expected to see Android 5.0, which was at Google IO 2013, which took place from May 15 to May 17 2013. Given that Google announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at 2012's IO conference, it seemed reasonable to expect to see Android 5.0 at the 2013 event.

But on 13 May 2013, we got our confirmation that there would be no serving of Android 5 at Google IO from Sundar Pichai, Google's new head of Android. Pichai told Wired that 2013's IO is "not a time when we have much in the way of launches of new products or a new operating system". Boo! "Both on Android and Chrome, we're going to focus this IO on all the kinds of things we're doing for developers so that they can write better things," he added.

Android 5.0 phones

Rumors of a new Nexus handset started trickling in during the third quarter of 2012, as we reported on 1 October 2012. There was talk that this phone would be sporting Android 5.0 but the handset, which turned out to be the Google Nexus 4, arrived running Android Jelly Bean.

While the Nexus 4 didn't appear with Android 5.0, speculation that we reported on 21 January 2013 suggested that the Motorola X was the Android 5.0-toting handset that would be revealed at Google IO. The Moto X wasn't on show at IO and instead appeared in August 2013, running Android 4.2.2.

We also heard whispers that a new Nexus phone, most likely the Google Nexus 5, might be blessed with Android 5.0 and on 18 March 2013, supposed images of the Nexus 5 surfaced, with the handset apparently being manufactured by LG. If the accompanying specs, leaked along with the photo by the anonymous source, are true, then the Nexus 5 will feature a 5.2-inch, 1920 x 1080 OLED display, 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and 3GB of RAM.

The latest speculation, which we reported on 13 September 2013, suggests that the Nexus 5 will now arrive sporting Android 4.4 KitKat.

If rumors that we covered on 30 May were correct, then HTC would have brought us an Android 5.0-powered 'phablet' in the form of the HTC T6. But that device launched in October 2103 as the Android 4.3-powered HTC One Max.

Android 5.0 tablets

The original Nexus 7 tablet was unveiled at Google IO 2012, so we thought it possible that we'd see a refreshed Nexus 7 2 at Google IO 2013. The speculation earlier in the year was that Google would team up with Asus for this, as it did with the original Nexus 7. We expected an upgraded display on the new Nexus 7 tablet, while Digitimes reported that the 2nd generation Nexus 7 would have 3G service and range in price from $149 to $199.

The new Nexus 7 was a no-show at IO, but the Asus-built device was later launched by Google on 24 July 2013, albeit running Android 4.3 rather than 5.

Samsung's Android 5.0 upgrades

Although Samsung is yet to officially confirm its Android 5.0 schedule, a SamMobile source is claiming to know which phones and tablets will be getting the upgrade. According to the source, the devices set to receive the upgrade are the Galaxy S4, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy Note 8.0 and Galaxy Note 10.1. Do note that this claim was made before Google announced Android 4.4, so if it was ever correct, it's probably a lot less correct now.

Android 5.0 features

For 24 hours, it seemed as though the first kinda, sorta confirmed feature for Android 5.0 was a Google Now widget, which briefly appeared in a screenshot on the company's support forum before being taken down. As it was so hurriedly pulled, many people assumed it was slated for the big five-o and accidentally revealed early.

As it happened, the following day, on 13 February 2013, the Google Now widget rolled out to Jelly Bean.

On 28 February 2013, we learned from Android Central that Google is working with the Linux 3.8 kernel, which gave rise to the notion that this kernel might power Android 5. One improvement that the 3.8 kernel brings is lowered RAM usage, which would mean a snappier phone with better multitasking.

On 13 June 2013, VR-Zone also claimed that Android 5.0 will be optimised to run on devices with as little as 512MB of RAM.

We're now expecting that Linux 3.8 kernel to show up in Android 4.4, given that Google's stated aim with KitKat is "to make an amazing Android experience available for everybody".

Android Geeks reported that Google Babble would debut on Android 5.0. Babble was the code name for Google's cross-platform service and app with the aim of unifying its various chat services which include Talk, Hangout, Voice, Messenger, Chat for Google Drive and Chat on Google+.

A screenshot that we were sent from a Google employee on 8 April confirmed that not only was this unified chat service on the way, but that it was called Google Babel not Babble. The service was to come with a bunch of new emoticons and Google+ built-in so you can jump from Babel chat to hangout. A leaked Google memo on 10 April provided a few more juicy details including talk of a new UI and synced conversations between mobile and desktop.

On 10 May, we discovered that Babel would launch as Google Hangouts, and on 15 May we saw it come to life for devices running Android 2.3 and up. So much for it debuting on Android 5.

Following an 18 April tear-down of the Google Glass app MyGlass by Android Police, it looked as though there may be an iOS Games Center-like service coming to Android 5.0.

Android Police found references in the code to functionality that doesn't exist in Glass, which suggested that developers accidentally shipped the full suite of Google Play Services with the Android application package.

The files in the package contained references to real-time and turn-based multiplayer, in-game chat, achievements, leaderboards, invitations and game lobbies.

As expected, we found out more about Google Play Games at Google I/O, but it's not an Android 5.0 feature after all as it has been made available already.

Android 5.0 interface

While this is pure speculation, we're wondering whether Android 5.0 might bring with it a brighter interface, moving away from the Holo Dark theme that came with Android 4.0.

Google Now brought with it a clearer look with cleaner fonts, and screenshots of Google Play 4.0 show Google's app market taking on similar design cues. Is this a hint at a brighter, airier look for Key Lime Pie?

On 6 August 2013, we learned that Google had applied to patent a rather cool piece of functionality whereby an Android user would be able to launch different apps by drawing different patterns on the lock screen.

If this feature makes it into Android 5, we could be able to launch the camera app by drawing one pattern and Twitter by drawing another.

Source : techradar[dot]com

With the Nokia World event scheduled for tomorrow, we're all pretty excited to see exactly what Nokia has in store for us.

However it seems that someone got a little too excited, with a Nokia Lumia 1520 page appearing over on Nokia's store on Chinese website Tmall.

The page offers up a few tidbits of information, appearing to confirm the rumoured quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and 20MP PureView camera.

Big is the new black... cyan, or yellow

All this will cost you a pretty penny, however, setting you back 4999 Yuan (around £510, $820, AU$850) although obviously the actual international prices will probably be different.

The anticipated 6-inch 1080p screen will mean that Nokia and Windows Phone venture into phablet territory for the first time. This puts the Lumia 1520 up against the new HTC One Max and the Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

Both the larger screen and quad-core support were made possible by the recent Windows Phone 8 update 3 that was announced last week.

• Check back soon for our Nokia Lumia 1520 review, but for now you should see what we know right now.

Source : techradar[dot]com