High-end specs usually come at a high-end price, but it looks like you can circumvent that problem by going with a less recognized brand. Case in point is the newly announced Xiaomi Phone 2, an Android Jelly Bean smartphone boasting a 4.3-inch 720p IPS display and Snapdragon S4 Pro quad core processor. The thing is that it sells for just $310 outright. That’s about half the price as a Galaxy S III or new iPhone.

Even though Xiaomi may not be a household name, the Xiaomi Phone 2 comes packed with some respectable names inside. As mentioned, the processor is courtesy of Qualcomm. And you know that IPS display? It’s a Sharp panel. You also get an impressive 2GB of RAM to go along with the fairly standard 16GB of storage capacity. The rear camera is a bright and wide 27mm F/2.0 8MP shooter, whereas the front-facing camera is a 28mm 2MP unit.

Android Jelly Bean has been overlaid with Xiaomi’s MIUI ROM, which adds such features as enhanced security, phone finder, a Chinese voice assistant (Siri’s Android-flavored Chinese cousin?), 5GB of cloud storage and interactive themes. It looks like one of these themes, based on the images provided, is “inspired” by Angry Birds.

The Xiaomi Phone 2 is set to launch with China Unicom and China Telecom in October for an outright price of about $310, though they’ll likely offer subsidized pricing on contract too. The interesting thing is that while this won’t be made officially available in North America, the Xiaomi Phone 2 does support WCDMA 850/1900/2100, so it should work with AT&T if you unlock it. If you’re willing to go through the import process and chance it with an unrecognized Chinese brand, this phone looks like it’s quite the beast for a pretty amazing price.

[Source]

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It’s just a leaked phone with no confirmation from the Korean electronics giant at this point, but the LG “B” uses the same kind of IPS tech in its display as the Cupertino counterpart. The kicker is that while the iPhone is only 3.5-inches, the screen on the LG B is a full four inches. Further still, while the display on the iPhone 4 “only” boasts 500 nits of brightness, the LG B is said to boast 700 nits. By comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S is only rated at 300 nits.

As far as the rumors go, the LG B also rocks a 1GHz processor and weighs in at 105 grams. It’s been referred to as the LG “Speed” as well, so the assumption is that the smartphone is able to hum along at a pretty decent pace. And yes, it’s powered by Android, though we’re not sure which version it rocks.

I’ve never been a huge fan of LG cell phones, but on paper, the LG B is starting to sound pretty impressive. Is eye-scorching brightness enough to catch your attention?

[Android Central]

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