Sony might unveil new smartphones in Berlin on August 29, Hayabusa and Mint could lead the line-up

The CES, MWC and IFA electronics tradeshows used to be the events where new trends were made and products were unveiled. But lately some of the big manufacturers have shifted their strategies. Samsung, Sony, and Asus have all started to hold exclusive events of their own, to ensure that all the spotlight is on their products.
The Samsung Unpacked event from May, when the Galaxy S3 was unveiled, was probably more popular than both this year’s CES and MWC together, and now Sony is trying to do something similar with an exclusive Berlin press conference and “booth unveiling”.
Sony’s special announcement will take place just two days before the beginning of IFA 2012 (also set to be held in Berlin), and, while we haven’t yet got an invitation from the Japan-based tech giant, we’ll cover the event extensively, right from the “crime scene”.

The guys over at GSM Arena have received one of the first invitations from Sony, but unfortunately it doesn’t say much about what products are to be revealed in Berlin. The invite doesn’t specifically mention the company’s mobile division, but the fact that it was first sent to a website like GSM Arena is a clear indicator that we’ll see one or several new Android smartphones.
There are only a few likely suspects for the headline title of the event, but Sony might also be prepping a surprise. The LT29i, a.k.a. Hayabusa, a.k.a. the global version of the Japanese Xperia GX, could well be made official on August 29, although we frankly expect it to come much sooner.

The LT30 Mint is another high-end Sony smartphone expected to be launched quite soon, with rumors from January stating that it could start selling in September. That possibility seems pretty slim right now, but it’s not impossible that we’ll see the Mint unveiled in Berlin and made available a few weeks later.
Towards the lower end of the range, there are two other Sony smartphones leaked in that launch schedule from January, but both of them are still wrapped in mystery. We haven’t heard a thing about the “AFFM” or the “Atlas” over the last six months, so there’s a good chance they have been either postponed or canceled altogether.
The August 29 event, which is set to start at 16:15 and end at 17:00 (CET), could also be the perfect occasion for the unveiling of  a non-smartphone Sony product. We might see a new Walkman or even the much awaited Playstation 4 get some attention.
No matter what devices Sony is planning to unveil next month in Berlin, it’s pretty clear that we’re all in for a treat, so don’t forget to check back to our website to find out what this event is all about.


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Galaxy Note 2 Might Run Fastest Exynos 4 Quad Yet

For all the rumors we’ve heard about the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, there’s been very little in the way of convincing claims made about its hardware. The idea of moving to a slightly-larger 5.5-inch screen sounds plausible, but the rest of it seemed more like guesswork than anything we could really count on. As we continue to look for more info on the phone’s specs, some new benchmark data has arrived that may give us our best glimpse at the Note 2's hardware to date.

Before we get into things, GLBenchmark has apparently removed the relevant data from its site since news of this story first broke. For now, it’s unclear what’s going on, but we have to at least consider the possibility that this info was taken down due to questions regarding its legitimacy.
While it lasted, the site was showing results for an unknown Samsung model, the GT-N7100. Since the first Note is the N7000, it’s not big a leap to think this model might be the Note 2. According to the data, the phone would run an Exynos 4 Quad, like the GS3, but clocked all the way up to 1.6GHz. This info also suggests that the phone would feature a 720p resolution, rather than the 1280 x 800 employed by the first Note.

Without feeling too confident about this new data, and still lacking plenty of info on the Note 2's hardware design, we’re anxious to get a much closer look at the handset; hopefully we’ll get a chance before its rumored late-August announcement.

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