Mobile rumours: Lumia 730 teaser, Swarovski Gear S, mid-range HTC phablet
The world of mobile news is scary and complicated, with rumours flying about all over the place about what the many different companies are planning on doing. If you don’t know what you’re looking for then chances are you won’t get very far, so to ease your burden here are some of today’s biggest mobile rumours.
1. Samsung is teaming up with Swarovski to release a crystal-encrusted version of the Gear S smartwatch
Is the Gear S’s 3G connection not good enough for you? Maybe it’s too plain and boring? In that case you might want to get your hands on the Gear S Strap, a version of the Gear S smartwatch with a crystal-encrusted strap. If that’s not your thing then maybe a crystal-encrusted Galaxy Note 4 is more your style? Samsung hasn’t specifically mentioned that it’ll be the Galaxy Note 4, just that the “next flagship” will have a crystal-encrusted variant as part of a deal with Swarovski.
To be fair most people probably won’t be able to afford this, but it’s nice to think that you could buy one if you won the lottery or something. [Trusted Reviews]
2. Rumours indicate that HTC is working on a mid-range phablet, the HTC Y5
HTC hasn’t had much luck in the tablet department, and even though it’s rumoured to be working on the new Nexus tablet, they haven’t really focussed on the tablet market recently. But what about phablets? Accoring to @upleaks, HTC is working on a brand new mid-range phablet, the HTC Y5.
Apparently the phone will run on the Yellowstone operating system, and will have similar hardware to the Desire 816. If you don’t remember what the Desire 816 was like, it had a 5.5-inch 720p display, 8GB of internal storage, a 13MP camera, microSD expansion, and a Snapdragon 400 processor. Sadly there’s no word on when we might see this in the flesh, so we’re going to have to be patient. [@upleaks via Ubergizmo]
3. Microsoft releases a new Nokia Lumia 730 teaser ahead of IFA
This week sees the return of IFA, one of the biggest events in the tech calendar, where we will undoubtedly see a massive number of new releases. One of these rumoured releases is the Nokia Lumia 730, Microsoft’s so-called “selfie phone”, and Microsoft has released a teaser that definitely seems to be relevant to the phone’s launch.
The teaser points to an event on the 4th of September at 10am Central European Time (9am here) along with the hashtag #morelumia. We can only assume that this is when Microsoft will be announcing its new phones. But we’ll just have to wait and see. [Phones Review]
