Despite we are only getting unconfirmed rumors and leaks everywhere, we have some good news. It has been confirmed that Samsung Galaxy III will be powered by Samsung’s very own 32nm 1.4GHz quad core processors which enables not only faster processing powers, but also consumes less energy. Samsung recently revealed that the manufacturing of Exynos 4 Quad processor on-going and will be released into the next Galaxy smartphone that will be unveiled in May.

Attributing to its High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) low power technology, the latest Exynos 4 Quad is 2 times faster and yet produces 20% efficient energy savings compared to its predecessor, the 45nm process-based Exynos 4 Dual. Similar to all multi-core processors,Exynos 4 Quad processor improvement in performance and multitasking. In addition, Samsung implemented hot-plug functional to support on-off switching for each core as well as per-core dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS). This produces incredible reduction in power consumption by applying different levels of voltage and frequency when handling different tasks.

“The quad-core processor offers phenomenal multitasking abilities surpassing any single or dual application processor. Since all the cores must share a single battery, the power management and efficiency in the limited battery capacity are indispensable for mobile computing devices. Given the diverse functionalities consumers are demanding from their mobile devices today, the Exynos 4 Quad meets those high-performance needs while keeping power consumption very low.” – Taehoon Kim, Vice President of System LSI Marketing, Device Solutions, Samsung Electronics.

For more detailed information about the processor, head over to Engadget.

Building on the market success of GALAXY Ace, the affordable Samsung GALAXY Ace 2 features upgraded processor, camera and display from its predecessor. This handset runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread with TouchWiz 4.0 running on top of it. Regarded as the new king among Samsung’s mid-range Android smartphones, GALAXY Ace 2 is equipped with 3.8 inches, increased from 3.5 inch on the original Ace. Resolution is also upgraded from 320 x 480 to 480 x 800 pixels. This smartphone also boasts a 5MP rear camera with LED flash capable of capturing 720p HD videos as well as a front facing VGA camera.

The most impressive feature is a dual core 800MHz processor, an outstanding feature for a mid-range device. The fast processor ensures efficient multitasking, lightning-fast screen transitions and high-quality graphics for even the most demanding applications and games. This phone comes with 4GB internal storage and a 1500mAH battery ensures sufficient usage for active and demanding lifestyles. Web browsing and content downloading is extremely fast thanks to the HSPA 14.4 connectivity. GALAXY Ace 2 will be available in UK from April 2012.

If you feel that the existing range of 7in and 10in Tablets is too small for your daily needs, then you might be interested in Toshiba’s humongous Excite 13 Tablet – a massive device that has the biggest display compared to any other Tablet in the market. This mammoth tablet is best suited for home use whereas other smaller tablets like the iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab range are more suitable for outdoor use. The Excite 13 Tablet is relatively slim at 10.2mm and is fitted with Micro USB, Micro HDMI ports and full size SD card slot.

The gorgeous 13.3″ AutoBrite LED Backlit display with 1600×900 pixels sports 10 finger touch support and great viewing angles for picture and video. Other notable specs include a quad core nVidia Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of memory, a four speaker sound system and up to 13 hours of usage time. Running on Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the Excite 13 is equipped with 5 megapixel rear camera and 2 megapixel front camera. The Excite 13 Tablet will be available from the beginning of June and will be priced from US$650.

Announced simultaneously as HTC’s One X and One S at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow in Barcelona, the One V is ideal for consumers with a tight budget. Although it does not have impressive features as the quad core One X, the single core 1GHz processor One V still has basic features to meet the challenges of demanding lifestyles. Approximately the size of Apple iPhone 4S, the aluminium clad One V feels great on the hand, albeit smaller compared with the larger One X, but the One V is just nice to be used with one hand. The handset is also very light at just 115g and is thin at 9.2mm.

Sporting a 3.7 inch WVGA (800×480 pixels) Super LCD 2 display with Corning Gorilla Glass, the One V looks great in all angles. We noticed the phone comes with physical touch sensitive buttons rather than onscreen keys found in other premium smartphones. Unfortunately, the 1,500mAH battery cannot be removed. Despite being labelled as low cost smartphone, the One V runs on Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) with the HTC Sense 4.0 user interface. Performance wise, its just average due to the fact the single core 1Ghz processor does not seem to be powerful enough to meet the demands of all tasks. Users may encounter lag when playing graphics intensive games.

Boasting a 5 megapixel camera, the One V comes with backside illuminated (BSI) sensor. The camera is capable of taking fast action shots and can take excellent photos in adverse lighting conditions, thanks to aperture of F2.0. Overall, the photo quality produced is not great, just acceptable. The One V boasts Beats Audio, which delivers superior sound clarity. Other than that, connectivity options include HSPA, Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi. Despite having only 4GB of onboard storage, the microSD card slot allows users to up to 32GB additional storage. In in all, One V is a great bargain if users just wanna fiddle with a cheap Ice Cream Sandwich device.

Dropped something in the dark cinema and need some light to find it? Need a source of light when there is power outage? Well, you will appreciate this Android app, the ingenious Tiny Flashlight + LED delivers fastest, brightest and simplest light. With just a touch on the touchscreen, this app will use your device’s camera LED as a torch. We think that Tiny Flashlight is currently the best LED flashlight app on the Android Market because of several reasons including, it supports the widest range of devices with camera flashlight, it has several widgets to choose from and has a variety of screen lights. Best of all, its FREE!

Among the light sources are:

Camera LED flashlight – It utilizes your phone camera flashlight (led flash) to emit bright light. Even if there are some phones which does not have a camera flashlight, this app is able to use one of the screen lights.

Screen Light – The front display basic white screen flashlight is sufficiently bright for daily use. You can use it as your main flashlight option in the event your phone does not have a camera flashlight or to save on battery consumption.

Warning Lights, Police Lights, Color Flashlight, Strobe Flashlight, Morse Code, Text to Morse, Manual Morse Code – A variety of different light sources which may be handy in many situations. Imagine if you are stuck in somewhere and need to send SOS signals. This app allows users to change the brightness and colors of the signals.

Download Tiny Flashlight at Google Play Store here.

Opera Mini Web Browser
Opera Mini loads web pages blazing fast and comes with efficient controls put it ahead of all other browsers, thus its not surprising most people claim its the world’s fastest mobile browser. One of my favourite features is tabbed browsing which allows users to browse several sites simultaneously. With page sizes, address bars and toolbars that adjust automatically, its as easy as web browsing on a desktop computer. Best of all, Opera Mini is just 755kb in size and helps users to reduce data costs by up to 90% with its unique compression technology.

Dolphin Browser HD
This browser not only delivers speedy web browsing, but also easy to use and performs exceptionally well in high quality graphics. Dolphin Browser is the world’s first Gesture, Sonar and Add-on enabled mobile web browser on Android. Sonar means Dolphin listens and allows users use their voice to search on the Internet, share on your favorite social networks, bookmark their favorite website, navigate and more. Dolphin browser is equiped with a wide range of fancy themes, multiple tabs browsing, multi touch zooming and most importantly, vivid sharp graphics.

Skyfire Web Browser
Skyfire enables richer, smarter and more fun mobile web browsing experience. Its also enriched with social features like easy access to Facebook and Twitter news feeds, profiles, friends, inbox, events and places. The Skyfire’s Toolbar can be customised based on user’s browsing preference. Users will also see more from their searches with video and social results. Its most intriguing feature is the ability to play millions of flash videos from the web that otherwise do not play or play poorly on mobiles.

Maxthon Android Web Browser
Maxthon is quickly gaining popularity due to the fact that its extremely fast and its also smart. Packed with cool features like the ability to sync to the cloud to enable users bookmark always available no matter where they are, Private browsing, Advanced Gesture, Download Manager, Tab browsing and Powerful Personalization, it definitely worth checking out.

Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is one of the most popular browser for web browsing, but unfortunately it is not so popular for mobile web browsing. Users have reported that Mozilla is slow, scrolling is choppy, the interface can be slightly unintuitive at times, delay on refocusing txt and images while zooming and does not support flash. Its better to give other mobile web browsers a try.

HTC and Sprint struck the right chord with the introduction of the latest high end model in its smartphone line-up called the HTC Evo 4G LTE, which focuses on exceptional improvements in camera technology, audio and voice quality on both the network and device. The newest addition to the EVO range is the first Sprint handset to feature HD voice, which generates fuller, more natural-sounding and less fatiguing voice quality and at the same time reduces annoying background noises. This handset is also Sprint’s first device with HTC’s Authentic Sound experience combining Beats Audio which delivers thundering bass, soaring mid range and crisp highs.

Enclosed in an aluminium spaceframe in an anodized black finish, HTC EVO 4G LTE features a slim and unique design. Sporting a 4.7″ Super LCD screen (1280 x 720 resolution) and 80 degree viewing angle, its definitely easier to share pictures and video with friends and family. A multiposition kickstand is also included to allow users watch movies without holding it. Running on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with HTC Sense 4 sitting on top of it, HTC EVO 4G LTE boasts best in class features including brilliant 4.7 inch HD display, 1.5GHz dual core processor paired with 1GB of RAM, long lasting 2000mAH embedded battery, 16GB of built-in storage, rear facing 8 megapixel camera with simultaneous video and still photo capture plus an auto-adjusting flash and a front facing 1.3 megapixel camera with instant capture capabilities. HTC EVO 4G LTE will be available from Sprint in the second quarter for $199.99 (excludes taxes and surcharges) on a new two-year contract.

Apple iPhone needs no introduction because its (arguably) the best phone on the market, especially when everyone is fascinated with Siri Virtual Assistant. Siri on iPhone 4S allows users to use their voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and many more. Running on iOS 5, it brings over 200 new features to iPhone 4S. Although it does not allow many customizations nor packed with the fastest data connection, but it has best in class camera, tons of applications, decent battery life, strong signal strength and stunning display. iPhone 4S is powered by dual core A5 processor which deliver up to two times more power and up to seven times faster graphics. It is also equipped with iSight camera which can capture 8 megapixel resolution and a custom lens with a larger f/2.4 aperture. The camera is also capable of shooting 1080p HD video at 30 frames per second. iPhone 4S takes advantage of iCloud which stores your contents and wireless pushes it to all your devices. iPhone 4S also offers Retina display which enables crisp text, sharp graphics, and stunning images.

Number 2: HTC One X

The HTC One X which will be available from AT&T this spring may take the lead as the top Android smartphone with robust hardware, snappy performance, top of the line camera and audio improvements that will take your breath away. The HTC One X encased in polycarbonate unibody design is powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 CPU, with a 1.5GHz Super 4-PLUS-1 quad-core processor and an integrated fifth Battery Saver Core. HTC One X also sports a 4.7-inch, 720p HD screen crafted from contoured Corning Gorilla Glass, 32GB internal memory, 1GB RAM, Bluetooth 4.0, 8 megapixel camera with f/2.0 lens and Beats Audio. HTC One X runs on Ice Cream Sandwich with newly streamlined HTC Sense 4.0 UI. Despite not supporting micro SD card, Dropbox is integrated so so users can store all your music, documents and photos without fear of ever losing them again. It is also one of the fastest Android devices around with support for LTE data network from AT&T.

Number 3: Nokia Lumia 900

The outlook of Nokia Lumia 900 looks promising and is expected to shake up the smartphone market because it is one of the best of the new smartphones not only among Windows 8 offerings but also among similarly priced Android smartphones. The first 4G LTE Windows Phone with unibody polycarbonate design inherits the sleek form factor on the Nokia N9. The Lumia 900 flexes its muscles through large 4.3 inch AMOLED ClearBlack display, 1.4GHz processor, 8 megapixel camera, long-lasting 1830 mAH battery, 16GB of storage, Wi-Fi and LTE. The rear camera includes Nokia’s exclusive Carl Zeiss optics, with large aperture (F2.2) and wide angle focal length (28mm) for high-quality, uncropped images even in low-light conditions. Lumia 900 runs an updated version of Windows Phone Mango (7.5) that includes support for 4G LTE. On the downside, it runs on just 1.4 GHz single core processor and only have 16 GB of internal storage, though free cloud storage is available through Microsoft’s SkyDrive. Nokia faces uphill battle competing with the iPhone and Android but with an alluring price, improved operating system and a surging supply of apps, Nokia may be well on the right path to crafting a compelling comeback story.

Number 4: Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Samsung Galaxy Nexus hogged the limelight because it is the first handset to ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Despite several drawbacks like poor battery life and mediocre 5.0 Megapixel camera, its still one of the best smartphones at the moment with rather high end specifications that include 1.2 GHz dual core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16/32GB of internal storage, generous 4.65 inch Super AMOLED HD (1280×720) Contoured display, and HSPA+ or LTE support. Galaxy Nexus also features NFC-based sharing with a feature called Androd Beam, face-recognition unlocking, advanced battery and data monitoring options and a lot more that is possible with the enhancements brought by Android 4.0 ICS.

Although Microsoft Windows Phone platform has gained leaps and bounds over the past year, it is still crawling in comparison with rival smartphone platforms in terms of both market share and application downloads. Market analyst ABI Research estimated that the Windows Platform will account for just 2% piece of the close to 35 billion apps downloaded on smartphones in 2012. This figure is trailing behind RIM’s BlackBerry and even Nokia’s Symbian. Android and iOS takes a big chuck of the cake, about 86% of all app downloads for the year.

Although Finnish giant Nokia, the former undisputed mobile phone maker joined forces with Microsoft in bid to win smartphone war, device sales has been sluggish resulting in slow app downloads on the Windows Phone platform. Other factors contributing to its failure to gain momentum is that Microsoft has been taking its sweet time to push out its Windows Marketplace app store on the global scale and has been taking far too long to roll out in-app payments, one of the significant profit strategies. In contrast, half of the revenue from the 200 top grossing apps in the Apple Store for iPhone is now generated by freemium apps. This is even more apparent in the Google Android Market where 65% of the revenue from the top grossing apps is generated by freemium apps. Industy reviewers are skeptical that quality applications that are behind an upfront paywall will be successful without in-app purchases.

Despite countless rumors floating around commercially available Tablets running the Windows Phone platform, it still have not arrived. It is expected that the release of Windows 8 Tablets and also Windows Phone’s upgrade to the Apollo iteration should give more Windows Phone downloads, contributing to the fact that developers can reuse their code to present on various screen sizes. It was reported that in Feb 2012, Windows Phone 7 Marketplace breached the milestone of 60,000 applications worldwide and ahead of RIM’s BlackBerry App World in terms of available applications.