The upcoming Samsung Google Nexus Prime handset will come with the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, according to an exclusive video received by The Mobile Indian from one of its sources. The smartphone is set to be unveiled in a couple of days at the Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2011 event to be held in San Diego, USA from October 11.

Sources have said to The Mobile Indian that the device will come with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. The Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) has the interface that reflects mixture of Honeycomb and Gingerbread. The menu has two major columns &#151 Apps and Widgets. Clearly, the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will be have more widgets support than the predecessors.

Lockscreen of the Android 4.0 ICS has been revamped and now will carry a short cut to camera &#151 just like the one iOS 5 will bring for the iOS devices. Take a look at the few screenshots of Android 4.0 ICS and the bit out of focus video below.

The Google Nexus Prime is being manufactured by Samsung. It carries codenamed Tuna and has GT-I9250 as its model number as reported number of times previously.

Samsung Google Nexus ‘Prime’ GT-I9250 will expected to sport a massive 4.65 inch Super AMOLED Plus HD Contour display with 1280×720 native resolution.

Earlier also, Samsung had released a teaser of Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2011 event. From the video also one can make out that the display is curved and the profile of the Google Nexus is super slim.

Reportedly, the Nexus Prime will house a dual-core 1.2 Ghz TI OMAP 4460 mobile processor coupled with PowerVR SGX540 graphics and 1 GB RAM. This device will debut the most awaited Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update as well.

At the back, this smartphone will have a 5 Megapixel camera capable of recording 1080p HD video and a 1.3 megapixel camera in the front for video chat. The hardware is capable enough for 1080p HD video playback and 1080p Stereoscopic 3D gaming.

For wireless connectivity, the smartphone will support HSPA+/LTE based on the carrier and of course, WiFi (802.11 a/b/g/n) support. Google Nexus Prime will also feature Near Field Communication chip and most likely will become de-facto in all major high-end Android smartphones.

Noteworthy part of the Google Nexus Prime details is the 1750 mAh battery pack that is expected to power the massive 4.65 inch device which would be good enough for a user to enjoy it an entire day. Google Android based devices suffer from the inconsistent battery life based issues and hopes rest on Ice Sandwich to bring some stability on power management.

G’Five, a Chinese handset brand, is planning to launch two tablets based on both Android and Windows 8 operating systems by December this year.

Arshit Pathak, managing director, Kingtech Electronics India (G’Five’s parent company) in an interaction with The Mobile Indian, said, “The tablets will be launched by December using Windows 8 and Android platform, and will include tablets with 7 inch and a 10 inch screens. All the tablets will be based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipset.”

He added, “While we will continue to have very basic phones, we are also looking to move up in the value chain, as there are a lot of upgrade customers who are looking to buy a better handset than what they already have and this does not mean that we will not offer cheaper products, we will just offer more feature per rupee that the customer spends.”

Windows 8 operating system is designed for tablets and hasn’t yet been released.

Pathak added, “These devices will again be targeted at the bottom of the pyramid -tablet customers who want quality products at an affordable price.”

Interestingly, all the G’Five tablets will come with WiFi as well as 3G capability, as the company thinks that India is still developing as a WiFi market and therefore a combination of 3G and WiFi will help customers stay connected all the time.

G’Five has recently started giving 20 free movies (stored on the 4 GB SDcard that comes free) with its devices. These include some of the latest movies like Dabang, Golmal-3, 3 Idiots etc. Similarly, it offers 1,000 free games with some gaming centric phones. The company is also likely to bring a similar offer with its tablets. However, this was not confirmed by the spokesperson.

The exact configuration of this device and its price weren’t disclosed.

MTS has just announced two Android handsets – Livewire and Mtag, with bundled offers. With a price tag of just Rs 4,999 for Livewire and Rs 5,499 for Mtag and with free bundled voice, data and SMS, the two phones look like a great deal for prepaid users.

The deal looks even better as there are no monthly contractual fees to be paid. On top of that you get the cheapest smartphones.

In the GSM category, Spice Mi270 at Rs 5,700 seems a competitor for the newly launched MTS handsets but it does not have 3G and hence does not support high speed connectivity. Other options with 3G are more expensive – such as Karbonn A1 for Rs 6,400 , Micromax Andro A60 at Rs 5,713 and Vodafone 858 Smart (it is the GSM version of Mtag) at Rs 6,695.

And even though you are not paying a premium price you will get 150 minutes of calls, 150 SMSs and 150 MB of data free every month for 12 months. And this kind of offer is not available with any other phone, not even with the Vodafone Smart which despite being launched by an operator offers no free usage except free Facebook access for one year.

For postpaid users pricing is more attractive with Livewire available for Rs 2,999 and mTag 3.1 for Rs 3,500. However, there is a 12 month contract during which you will have to pay Rs 250 each month, but then you will also get 250 minutes of calls, 250 SMSs and 250 MB of data free every month of the contract period.

But does the offer justify buying a SIM locked device?

While it is true that the bundled offer is not worth Rs 10,800 as the company claims, it is probably worth at least Rs 3,000. In addition, MTS is not asking for any premium in terms of handset price. Also, it must be noted that MTS is offering the cheapest call rates amongst all the operators and the data speed and Network coverage is also good. Being a CDMA network, data charges are much lower as well.

While Livewire is essentially a ZTE phone, mTag 3.1 is a Huawei phone. Both these companies are of repute and are major supplier of telecom equipments to almost all the operators in India and across the world.

In terms of specifications mTag has slight edge, which reflects in the price also, as it has a 2.8 inch capacitive screen with 320 x 240 Pixel resolution. Livewire has a similar screen with the same Resolution but comes with a resistive touch input.

With just 528 MHz Processor with 256 MB RAM, mTag 3.1’s performance is expected to be just acceptable, but then that’s what you expect from a low cost smartphone. Livewire has a slightly bigger 600 MHz processor. However, since it employs a resistive touchscreen, the overall performance of mTag is expected to be better.

We have used both devices, although for a very short while, but we found their performance quite acceptable especially considering that they are in the lowest smartphone category.

What is most worrying is that mTag and Livewire use 1050 mAh and 1000 mAh batteries respectively. Although the claimed Standby time is 200 hours, getting a full day’s backup for normal usage would be a surprise.

Other features of the Android phones are all available including Bluetooth, WiFi, A-GPS, 3G (CDMA EVDO, 3.1 Mbps), and Google products suite are all available. Also, the devices can be used as modems.

If you look at the specifications of other Android phones with 2.8 inch screens, they all come with resistive touchscreens (except Vodafone Smart), and comes with similar hardware and software but are more expensive, and aren’t bundled with any service offers.

Verdict

On the face of it it is an offer well worth considering. However, we will reserve our verdict till we finally get to test the device. If some of you do buy these handsets do let us now your experience.

Things are looking good for Windows Phone with the roll out of the new Mango update. Microsoft has announced the Mango update is taking place ahead of schedule and about half of the eligible handsets have already received the update so far. Since the company has achieved 50 per cent availability of the update within six days flat, there is no reason why complete release of the update should take very long.

Selected users who have Windows based smartphone will first get a notification on their phone about Mango update. Once they get the notification, they need to connect their Windows Phones with their personal computers to get the update from the Zune client on their PCs.

Before applying the update, users also need to ensure adequate power and enough free memory in their devices. As a precaution, users should get the data on the device backed up on the computer. Users would also do well get the update through wired connection rather than on WiFi. The update is also time sensitive so the phone should display correct time and date at the time of update.

The Microsoft blog post says, “Why not 100 per cent? Because we’re still collecting and analyzing installation data from our smaller operators, and need to watch it little bit longer to make sure everything is OK.”

It’s clear the company is moving cautiously on the Mango update, which is not without reason. The task of delivering software update to different handsets across different countries is hugely complicated, and the company had struggled with the release of earlier NoDo update.

Those who have experienced Mango update have posted good reviews for it, which is not surprising since the update works well even on the first generation Windows smartphones. While it is not realistic to expect Windows Phone will go on to become the top revenue generator for the Microsoft right away, but the potential is definitely there.

With webOS and Symbian already on their way out, Windows Phone is the only viable option for the independent device manufacturers, since the Motorola acquisition for Google has planted a seed of doubt in the minds of these manufacturers. Even Gartner and IDC estimates suggest the Windows Phone will manage to beat Apple’s iOS by 2015.