On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

Nokia promises a mobile photography "revolution" with the Nokia 808 PureView-- a smartphone carrying an impressive 41MP sensor (via PureView pixel oversampling technology) together with Carl Zeiss optics.

PureView technology uses "oversampling"-- taking image data from 7 neighbouring pixels and combining it into one pixel to generate a single 2/3, 5 or 8MP image (technically not 41MP, but still impressive for a mobile device).

The chunky camera module measures nearly 1cm (in width, height and depth), offering "superior" low-light performance and 1080p video recording. Nokia also insists the optics (a co-development between Nokia and Carl Zeiss) are some of the best in the smartphone arena.

As for the device itself... the 4" display handles nHD (640x360) resolutions, while inside are a 1.3GHz single-core processor and 512MB of RAM. The choice of OS baffles, being the latest Symbian iteration (Belle) rather than Windows Phone.

Nokia says it would be "reasonable to expect" PureView technology to appear on other phones. Meanwhile the photography enthusiasts among your customers will be able to pick up the 808 PureView soon enough.

Go Nokia 808 PureView

Asus announces an April 2012 launch for the PadFone at Mobile World Congress 2012-- the 4.3" smartphone with a 10.1" docking tablet, which in turn slots into an optional keyboard dock.

Think of it as a smartphone-tablet-notebook combo... or an excuse to sell lots of different docks.

Inside the PadFone are a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor together with an Adreno 225 GPU and 1GB of RAM. The display is a Super AMOLED handling 960x540 resolution, while the OS is Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

The tablet dock (or PadFone Station) has a 10.1" 1280x800 capacitative multi-touch display, with a battery Asus says boosts PadFone life by 500%. Using "Dynamic Display technology," it should alow seamless transition between regular phone and tablet displays.

Meanwhile the keyboard dock is very similar to the one the Transformer Pad Prime uses.

A rather unexpected announcement at MWC is the stylus headset-- allowing users to use the tablet as a sketchbook while handling phone calls (via Bluetooth-connected mic and speaker) when the Padfone is docked.

Go Asus PadFone

Samsung refreshes the projector-phone combo at Mobile World Congress 2012 with the Galaxy Beam-- an Android 2.3 handset packing a built-in pico projector.

The most interesting feature, of course, is the projector-- a TI DLP number offering images nHD resolution (640x360) with 15 lumens of brightness, with projected image width of up to 130cm (50-inches).

Inside the phone is a 1GHz dual-core processor, 8GB of built-in storage and 4" WVGA display. Powering all is a 2000mAh battery, which Samsung says should provide up to 3 hours of continuous projector use on a single charge. It is also not too thick, at just 12.5mm.

Samsung also promises docks (stabilising the phone and boosting sound) should be available "in select markets" sometime in Q2 2012-- once the Galaxy Beam hits the market.

Go Samsung Galaxy Beam

According both MCV and Edge Online Game is closing down 43 UK outlets-- including 12 Game stores, 6 Gamestation stores and all 25 concessions in Debenhams stores.

The retailer is also closing down the Gameplay.co.uk site, and will migrate all customers to Gamestation.co.uk from March 2012.

The announcement follows the retailer's "Dedicated to Gaming" strategy-- where Game will reduce store count will pushing multi-channel and digital offerings. One part of strategy is an upgrade on in-store IT systems, connecting stores to the online platform (enabling click and collect retail).

The holiday season also proved to be fairly disappointing for the retailer, and is now going through severe credit issues. Game plans to reduce its count of 610 Game and Gamestation highstreet stores to 550 outlets by Q4 2013.

Go Game to Close Gameplay.co.uk, Stores (MCV)

Go Game Group Confirms Multiple Store Closures (Edge Online)