22
Jan
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We've been taking a close look at some of Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo's 2013 offerings: LG's flagship Optimus G Pro, Panasonic's similar Eluga X, and the dual-screen NEC MEDIAS W. DoCoMo announced three other phones at the same time, all of which are at the head of their manufacturer's lineups. We've already seen Sony's Xperia Z, Xperia Tablet Z, and Huawei's Ascend D2. Fujitsu's ARROWS X F-02E matches up to both, more or less. In the more mid-range areas are Sharp's Aquos Phone EX and a new 10-inch tablet from Huawei. 

Fujitsu ARROWS X F-02E

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The ARROWS X F-02E (not to be confused with the earlier F-10D and F-05D models) is the latest in a smartphone family that hasn't seen much action outside of Japan.

21
Jan
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There have been a few cautious entries into the world of dual-screen Android devices from the likes of Kyocera, Sony, and Samsung, but Japanese manufacturer NEC is hoping to leave these efforts in the dust with their new smartphone. The MEDIAS W has a form factor that's distinctly different from any yet seen in the Android world: two 4.3-inch screens in equal resolution, side-by-side. It's a bit like a smaller, inverted version of the Sony Tablet P turned 90 degrees, or the old Microsoft Courier concept shrunken down.

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The MEDIAS W was revealed in prototype form at Mobile World Congress 2012, almost a year ago.

21
Jan
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In case there was any doubt that 5 inches is the new standard for Android superphones, Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo has removed all of it with a new hardware series. Right at the top of the list is a new device from Panasonic in their relatively young Eluga family, this one christened the ELUGA X P-O2E. The 5-inch LCD screen is naturally 1080p, and hides a 1.5Ghz quad-core Snapdragon Pro processor, and a 13.2 megapixel camera. Colors are a flat black and a more interesting teal, as seen below.

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Other specifications include an increasingly pedestrian battery capacity of 2320mAh, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage (with a little over 8 dedicated to the system), LTE, and Android 4.1.

21
Jan
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When the specs of the supposed LG Optimus G Pro leaked last week, it seemed almost too good to be true – like one of those fanboy wishlists you see populating forums and sub-Reddits across the web. Now Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo has announced the device as part of its DoCoMo Next 2013 Spring lineup, and the reality matches the leak quite well.

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The LG Optimus G Pro will be following the trend of big and beautiful screens. It's another 5-inch 1080p display, and the bezel is razor thin. There is a faster 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro inside to push all those pixels, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage with a microSDXC card slot, and a massive 3000mAh battery to keep it all chugging along well into the night (well, maybe the late afternoon).

21
Jan
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The Optimus G on Japan's Docomo network is an interesting device, as it ships with a mandatory access control system that basically prevents remounting system, reading boot, executing tasks with root privileges, and things of that nature. Thus, the root process for this version of the Optimus G was a tricky one.

A backdoor found by Android hacker giantpune will be used, which allows the bootloader to be unlocked, a modified boot.img to be flashed, and some security features to be disabled – ultimately allowing root access to be achieved.

Now that you have the basic idea down – a couple of noteworthy things:

  • Graphical glitches will occur while in the bootloader.
27
Aug
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The LG Optimus G, the tantalizing flagship device for which LG released an teaser video last week, is finally official.

The phone, which we know to be packing a 4.7" 1280x768 display, 2GB RAM, a 1.5GHz quad-core S4 Pro processor, and a 13MP rear camera, is slated to launch in Korea next month, followed by a yet undated global release expected to start with Japan in either October or November. The Optimus G will also be packing a 2100mAh battery pack, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and a super slim 8.45mm body.

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The Optimus G's Japanese debut on NTT Docomo will see it getting a red paint job and a few extra features including an infrared transmitter, waterproofing, and LG's Palette UI.