The tablet market will continue to expand next year, and Samsung has just announced hardware that surely will be powering some of the first next-gen devices.  The Exynos 5250 is a SoC (System on Chip) with two 2GHz Cortex-A15 processors, offering roughly twice the processing power of current Cortex-A9 Exynos  processors.

Other features of the Exynos 5250 include improved graphics performance, display resolutions up to 2560×1600 (iPad 3 Retina display territory), 12.8 GB/s memory bandwidth, and support for 3D stereoscopic displays.

Mass production of the new hardware is expected to begin next spring.

Source: Samsung (Translated from Korean)

Now this is a Thanksgiving sale!  Now through Monday, November 28th, Amazon Wireless is selling every non-Apple phone for just $0.01 when you sign up for a new two-year contract.  The so-called Penny Pincher sale also includes free two-day shipping.

This sale price is not good for upgrades – though many smartphones at Amazon are already $0.01 on contract – but only for new contracts with Verizon, AT&T & Sprint.

Visit Amazon Wireless for details.

As recently as last week, the best price for the Verizon Wireless Droid RAZR was $199 with a new two-year contract; but now there’s a newer low price for the thinnest Android phone in the world: $0.01.

Amazon.com has the RAZR for one cent, but this price is only good when you sign up for a new Verizon Wireless account and sign a two-year service agreement.  The direct Verizon price is $299, and the best upgrade price remains $219 at Wirefly.com.

We’ve seen several release date rumors for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus Android 4.0 smartphone, ranging from today (November 21st) to the day after Thanksgiving, to the first week in December.

But new screenshot leaks posted by Droid Life – supposedly from a Verizon Wireless employee – show a new, even later release date: December 8th.

Of course, we’ve seen purported screenshots before that turned out to be less than spot on.  Still December 8 is just as possible as any other upcoming date since the Galaxy Nexus is widely expected to ship before the end of 2011.

Guess if you’re looking for the best Verizon Wireless Android phone, you should hold off a bit longer unless, to you, best means thinnest.

Samsung’s brand new Windows Phone 7.5 smartphones, the Focus S and the Focus Flash, are now available for purchase from AT&T.  The Focus S has a direct price of $199 with a two year contract; the smaller Focus Flash goes for $49 on contract.

If you’ve got your eye on either of these phones, each can be yours for less than the direct price from Amazon.com. 

Amazon has the Focus S for $174 with a contract, both for new customers and eligible upgraders.  The Focus Flash is also available for $0.01, same conditions.  Both are shipped free.