Beetel, a Bharti enterprises group company, today announced the launch of GD-470, a dual SIM 2.8 inch full touchscreen mobile phone for the Indian market. The new GD 470 mobile will be available in India at an Rs 3,300.

While unveiling the product, Vinod Sawhny, executive director and chief executive officer, Beetel, said, “The Beetel GD 470 is our first touchscreen mobile phone and we have put tremendous efforts to provide all the necessary features at an extremely competitive price-point.”

Adding, he said, “As per our commitment to introduce advanced mobility devices which offer great value-proposition for the Indian customers, we will keep introducing technology products which will create milestones in the Indian market.”

As per Beetel, GD 470 comes with a 1000 mAh battery which gives 3-4 hours of talk time and 200 hours of standby time. It also features like Bluetooth, video play of .3GP, .AVI, .MP4 formats up to 25fps and MP3 playback facility. GD 470 supports MIDI, AMR, and WAV formats of music as well.

Beetel GD 470 is equipped with a 1.3 Megapixel camera, FM radio and it can support expandable memory up to 8 GB storage capacity. The handset can also be used as a Modem for internet connectivity.

GD 470 offers “Beetel World” packed with a number of social networking and infotainment features like Facebook, Snaptu, Mig 33, Yahoo, ibibo, Vuclip, Reuters, Hungama and Penguin. This mobile phone has Indian calendar feature so that users can check Indian Festival and Tithis while on the move. GD 470 can also be used as a sound recorder.

After announcing its plan to launch the cheapest Android tablet, Fly Mobile has now told The Mobile Indian that it will launch two Android phones priced below Rs 4,500 in the Indian market.

Mandeep Chaggar, group product manager, Fly Mobile, said, “We are targeting first-time Android users by launching these two very attractively priced Android handsets within the next two months. What is important is that these phones will have very good performance as the chipsets we are using are ARM 8 and 9 based, and are low cost because these are made by MTK and Rockchip.”

He also said, “The touchscreens of these handsets will be resistive but very responsive as resistive technology is also maturing, providing low cost but user friendly touch technology.”

Both phones will be based on Android 2.2 and will sport 2.8 and 3.0 inch screens. The one based on a Rockchip Chipset will have a 1 GHz processor with faster 512 MB DDR3 RAM. The two phones will cost up to Rs 4,500.

The other Android handset will have an MTK chipset. According to Fly Mobile, the Rockchip chipset will also have a better power management solution for improved battery life. It will have a separate RF (communication) chip for connectivity.

Other features that are common in Android phones like GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and the Google App suite will also be available in these handsets. Currently, Spice Mi270 is the cheapest Android phone in the market but it lacks 3G data connectivity.

With Apple set to launch its next generation iPhone 5, several handset makers have now lined up their products to give it competition.

iPhone 5 will come with iOS 5 operating system which is reported to have 200 new features. The phone will also have the iCloud service from Apple which will allow users to store their music or files on remote services for easy access across different devices including iPhones, iPods, iPads or even personal computers.

Other rumoured features of the iPhone 5 include a 4 inch screen, Near Field Communication chip, 8 Megapixel camera and compatibility with both GSM and CDMA networks. The phone is likely to run on an A5 chip at 1.2 GHz.

At the same time, it was never expected that Apple’s competitors would sit quietly even as Apple releases its killer iPhone 5.

Google Nexus Prime

The first phone that looks as promising as iPhone 5 is the Google Nexus Prime from Samsung. Nexus Prime is expected to run Android Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. It is to have a Super Amoled 720p HD display.

Google Nexus Prime will run on Texas Instruments OMAP4460 Chipset at 1.5 GHz. The physical Android menu buttons will not be present on the phone as everything would be accessible through software.

The device will also feature a 5 megapixel camera with improved sensor so it can capture high quality images. It will have a one megapixel front facing camera.

Motorola Droid Bionic

Another likely competitor of iPhone 5 is the Motorola Droid Bionic. It has already been released in the USA.

Droid Bionic runs on Android Gingerbread 2.3.4 and has a dual core 1 GHz processor. It has a screen Resolution of 960 x 540 pixels, a 1 GB RAM and an 8 megapixel auto-focus camera which captures full resolution (i.e. 1080-progressive) high definition videos. The device has internal storage of 16 GB, expandable up to 32 GB.

Samsung Galaxy S2

The LTE (long term evolution) version of Samsung Galaxy S2 was showcased at IFA Germany recently. In a way it is an improved version of Galaxy S2 &#151 both in size as well as hardware. It has a 4.5 inch Super Amoled Plus display and screen resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. This phone will have an 8 megapixel back facing and a 2 megapixel front facing camera. It will run on Android Gingerbread.

Google on Wednesday announced a partnership with Intel, which will help it optimise Android tablets for Intel chips. The two companies announced their partnership at the Intel developer forum in San Francisco on Wednesday.

With this latest collaboration between Intel and Google, future versions of Android operating system will support Atom class processors.

As reported by The Mobile Indian earlier, Intel is looking at a custom Android Gingerbread version optimised for Intel’s next generation series E6xx Atom processors. With this custom built Android Gingerbread, Intel is looking at achieving better battery optimisation and much needed efficiency.
Intel till date has been quite behind as far as mobile devices are concerned and now the company is looking to get back in the arena with this new venture.

Intel has also revealed that it is working on a new Atom Haswell chip, which will be ready by 2013. The new chip will reduce idle platform power by more than 20 times over current technology designs, making it appropriate for use in mobile devices.

HTC has launched a new version of its flagship Sensation smartphone. The new HTC Sensation XE is the refreshed version of the older Sensation but has the same form factor and design.

Sensation XE is the first smartphone to benefit from the HTC and Beats Audio partnership. Besides, Sensation XE gets a minor cosmetic upgrade as well in the form of Beats inspired red accents all around the phone.

HTC Sensation XE features a faster 1.5 GHz dual core Processor promising faster performance and better battery utilisation. As compared to its four month old sibling, the Sensation XE gets a bigger battery as well to keep the juice flowing longer.

Sensation XE is the first handset to offer Beats Audio, a combination of software and hardware that allows you to hear music in the best possible way. It also comes with an exclusive Beats in-ear headset which allows the handset to automatically switch the bespoke Beats by Dr. Dre sound profile, delivering audio tracks tuned specifically for the headphones.

The in-ear headphones also feature a remote control, allowing you to pause, play or skip through tracks and answer/end calls while the phone is in your pocket.

“Audio is a crucial part of any consumer’s mobile experience and we are continually pushing the audio boundaries to encompass not only improved voice but music, movies and games,” said Jason Mackenzie, president of global sales and marketing, HTC. “The HTC Sensation XE offers a truly incredible experience that demonstrates our commitment to place consumers at the centre of their mobile worlds.”

The Beats Audio tuning for Sensation XE allows the device to deliver superior audio quality not only while playing music but while using other applications and even while gaming.

Sensation XE will also ship with a high capacity micro SD Memory card (8 GB/16 GB depending on the location) and will be available in the Indian market by the end of September or early October. Final price and date of launch is yet to be confirmed by HTC India and we will keep you updated with the details as and when they arrive.