If Samsung’s Galaxy range of smartphones are anything to go by, you don’t really need premium hardware or insane features to taste runaway Android smartphone success. All you need is smart pricing and billions of advertising dollars. Sony, much like HTC, tries to buck the trend with the Xperia Z that boasts premium design, top-of-the-line hardware specifications and some water resistance for added measure. A price tag of approximately Rs 39,000 doesn’t feel steep either, especially with its chief competitor – the HTC Butterfly – priced at Rs 46,000. But will it be enough for Sony to make people believe in the Japanese brand once again? It is about time we find out. DESIGN
At a time when every phone looks alike with some kind of plastic body with rounded corners and curved back, the Xperia Z is a big departure. Like the iPhone 4/4S and the Nexus 4, the Xperia Z features a tempered glass back that looks premium and different. The black version looks better than the white one, but both variants stand out and won’t leave people guessing which phone you are holding. It is very much like the iPhone – it has a distinct persona of its own and screams trademark Sony (not Sony Ericsson) design language of straight lines.The edges also have a lining of tempered glass and all ports are hidden with flaps that provide the much advertised water resistance. In fact, it took me a while to find out the micro USB charging port, which doesn’t have any marking, unlike other ports. The phone feels extremely solid and as expected it doesn’t creak or rattle when held in a tight grip.While the combination of straight lines and flat back looks good, holding the phone is a different matter altogether. Despite shaving off the bezel, any phone with a 5-inch display is difficult to maneuver with one hand and in this case the lack of curvature doesn’t help. I found the edges to be a bit too sharp for my comfort, though the corners have been subtly rounded off. Apple can have an iPhone with a flat back solely because of its smaller footprint, which certainly isn’t the case with the Xperia Z. Ironically, it was Sony Ericsson that introduced the “human curvature” with its Xperia smartphones, something that probably got lost in translation somewhere.Another gripe I have with the design is the placement of the speaker on the lower right edge, which ensures that it is muffled every time you hold the phone in your right hand. You just cannot miss covering the speaker with the fleshy part of the palm. HARDWARE
Android smartphones in the last couple of years have entered a specification arms race with brands trying to strike a fine balance between having the latest and greatest specifications possible while forgetting about the user experience. That reflects in the marketing as well, which is focused on hardware specifications like processor, display size, internal memory and megapixels without really thinking about whether they would really make a difference in the user’s life.That’s not to blame Sony for putting the best possible specifications on its flagship smartphone but somewhere they seem to have lost the message of why one needs top-notch hardware. Take the 5-inch full HD 1080p display with Bravia engine enhancement, for instance. The Xperia Z has the best display I have encountered on a smartphone when viewed front-on but the viewing angles are terrible – an issue that has plagued Xperia smartphones in the past and I hoped Sony would fix it by investing in better quality displays especially when it attempts a comeback. Despite having the Bravia Engine at work, I find the HTC Butterfly to have a better display. Considering that the display is what you’d end up interacting with all the time, this is bit of a let down.Display aside, rest of the specs are top-of-the-line, especially the combination of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz combined with 2GB of RAM. It essentially chews and spits everything thrown at it with no lag. Some might find it an overkill but this firepower is required for some processor intensive tasks like HDR video recording among others.Talking about the camera, the 13.1-megapixel camera churns out good shots provided you have optimum lighting condition. Daytime shots are comparable with any other high-end smartphone but it is the indoor and low-light shots that leave much to be desired. Photos taken outdoors at night and indoors in low-light are average at best, which can’t be compared with even the iPhone 5, forget the Lumia 920. If you were looking for a bigger proof that megapixel count isn’t everything, look no further. Image stabilization mostly worked and I even tried shooting video in HDR mode, which works in certain extreme conditions (shooting under direct sunlight, for instance). I believe this will soon become a common feature in most high-end smartphones. SOFTWARE
The Xperia Z runs on Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2, which isn’t the latest version but that is par for the course. Sony has promised to update it to 4.2 soon and the company has been pretty prompt with its updates in the past. I like the fact that the UI on top of stock Android is minimal and that Sony has gone with onscreen navigation controls than having three buttons below the display.There is a bit of bloatware in form of Sony’s own web apps apart from McAfee antivirus. Sony has said that the Xperia Z will come with some music store offering but my review unit didn’t have it.Sony has also added a “Stamina Mode” as a software feature, which the company claims could potentially quadruple the battery performance of the phone. The feature essentially kills all background updates while the display is turned off and saves battery during standby mode. It is a nice addition for non-power users and it is customizable too to add apps to the whitelist that can access the Internet during that time. PERFORMANCE
During my testing that lasted for a week I could barely pass through 15 hours with my heavy usage with two email ids, a Twitter account, about two hours of calls and about four hours of Internet usage. I had both 3G and Wi-Fi turned on and had switched off the Stamina Mode. With similar usage, the HTC Butterfly lasted me for slightly almost 22 hours. Having said that, switching on the stamina mode improves the performance drastically. The Xperia Z should easily see through a day of medium usage.I did not experience any lag whatsoever and the phone essentially would take on any app or game currently available on Android Play Store with no difficulties. I did not face any problem with the call quality and neither did I face any call drops. It performs its job as a phone. VERDICT
The Xperia Z is really a mixed bag kind of device. The design is pretty but has its own set of flaws. The camera has the highest resolution sensor available in the market on an Android smartphone today but its performance is average. The battery performs above par if you are willing to sacrifice being online at all times. The display has the highest pixel density on a smartphone (for now) but suffers from poor viewing angles.The only thing that really works for the Xperia Z is its pricing but that is more about HTC failing to price the Butterfly sensibly. It is water resistant too but it remains to be seen whether that is a killer feature for which buyers would choose the Xperia Z.And let’s not forget the elephant in the room – the Samsung Galaxy S IV, which will be unveiled on March 14 and should be available in India sometime in April, if the Galaxy S III roll-out from last year is taken as a precedence. Add to it the HTC One that is also getting launched in India in April and the Xperia Z starts looking a generation old already. Photographs: Rohit Sharma First published in BGR.inWritten by Rajat Agrawal
Back in January Samsung had announced the Galaxy S II Plus, but the South Korean company didn’t reveal when it would launch the device in India or at what price it would retail. Heck we also saw the device back at Samsung Forum which was held in Hyderabad, but at the time the company did not say it was launching the device in India. However, the device is now available with online retailers for Rs 22,900.The Samsung Galaxy S II Plus sports a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus WVGA (800×480 pixels) display and is powered by a 1.2GHz Dual-core Broadcom BCM28155 processor and 1GB of RAM. Other features included in the phone are an 8-megapixel rear camera, 2-megapixel front camera, 8GB of internal storage which can be expanded using a microSD card, connectivity options like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0 and a 1,650mAH battery. On the software side of things, the Galaxy S II Plus runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.Essentially, the Galaxy S II Plus is just a refurbished version of the erstwhile Samsung Galaxy S II, which was Samsung’s flagship smartphone for 2011. While specs wise it remains more or less the same however, Samsung has replaced the mesh like back plastic cover with a more glossy hyper-glaze back finish that we have already seen in newer Samsung products.-Sambit Satpathy
I have been very critical of Windows Phone 8 smartphones, especially in the high-end segment where I believe they cannot compete with Android smartphones. Despite having great hardware, Nokia’s high-end Lumia smartphones leave much to be desired especially on the OS and UI front, which are essentially Microsoft problems. However, yesterday I played with the Lumia 720, which could possibly be the first Lumia smartphone that I’d actually want to buy. Read on for my first impressions.
The first thing you’d notice about the Lumia 720 is how sleek it is and how good it feels in the hand. I’m a big fan of Nokia’s new design language and the premium-feel materials Nokia is using for its smartphones. The Lumia 720 feels just right and with a thickness of 9mm it doesn’t come across as too flimsy or too thick as most Lumia smartphones tend to be. The rounded edges ensure a comfortable grip and I like Nokia’s color palette too.The Lumia 720, in my books has lots going for it. I am already sold out on its design and Nokia has managed to price it realistically and has confirmed it will be available under Rs 20,000 when it is launched in India next month. This makes it a very good value for money smartphone, especially if it delivers on all the claims that Nokia is making. Some of the biggest deal makers for the Lumia 720 could be its 2,000mAh battery that is rated to provide up to 23.4 hours of calls on 2G or 13.4 hours of calls on 3G. Or its 6.7-megapixel camera with a relatively large 1/3.6″ sensor and f/1.9 arperture, which Nokia claims would provide great low-light performance. Then there is Nokia’s Music Store and Mix Radio offerings as well as its Maps and navigation software. Not to forget 8GB of internal storage apart from a microSD card slot.I’m willing to sacrifice the Windows Phone app ecosystem and the few UI idiosyncrasies if the Lumia 720 actually performs as claimed. For a sub-Rs 20,000 smartphone, it offers a good bang for the buck on paper. Whether it does that in reality is something we will find out in our upcoming detailed review.Originally published by Rajat Agarwal for BGR
How does one come up with a successor to the best-selling Android smartphone of all time? Samsung showed the world how it is done by unveiling the Galaxy S4. You don’t fix what ain’t broken seems to be the mantra this time as Samsung continued with the same design as its predecessor. But everything simply gets bigger and better. Read on for our first impressions of the Galaxy S4.The Galaxy S4 has a bigger 4.99-inch full HD 1080p display but the overall footprint doesn’t seem to have gotten much bigger. The phone fits as comfortably as the Galaxy S III, though surprisingly it feels much lighter. The back cover is no longer the thin, cheap plastic that has become associated with Samsung smartphones. Instead, Samsung has gone for polycarbonate plastic but it doesn’t feel at par with what you see on HTC or Nokia smartphones. Yet it feels much better than the Galaxy S III though a bit more prone to fingerprints.
I won’t delve into hardware specs, which you can find in our launch post. Instead the real beauty of the device is in the software additions that Samsung has added. Samsung has incorporated some of the best features from its rivals and then added many of its own. Take for instance the HTC One. While the Galaxy S4′s camera doesn’t have any ultrapixels, it does have most of the software wizardry in terms of being able to remove unwanted elements from photographs as well as stitch multiple shots clicked in burst mode into one shot. It also does dual camera recording, just like the LG Optimus Pro. The touchscreen can now work even when the user is wearing gloves, a feature found in Nokia’s new Lumia smartphones.But that’s not to say that the Galaxy S4 doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Instead, Samsung has innovated with features that could make a big difference. My favorite is a multiplayer feature that lets users to play the same song over multiple devices, which could convert into a 2.1 or 5.1 setup depending on the number of devices available. 
The Galaxy S4 also brings the Air View feature from the Note II, the big difference being it works with fingers rather than a stylus. Smart Stay now adds Smart Pause that pauses a video if the phone detects the user is not looking at the display and resumes it when the user’s gaze returns to the display. There is also a translate feature that can provide output in both speech and text in 19 languages in real-time.Samsung has also added a suite of sensors that can detect the temperature, humidity apart from regular stuff. Samsung is betting big on health monitoring apps and is also looking at selling accessories like monitoring bands, wireless scales and others. The phone in itself would challenge fitness device makers like Fitbit among others.All this is powered by Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa processor with a relatively massive 2,600 mAh battery. If the success of the Galaxy S III is any indication, the Galaxy S4 would only be an even bigger hit.Yes, it does not have a camera with a huge sensor size to take photos in darkness and it might not have a premium metal chassis, but if that was a prerequisite, then the Galaxy S III wouldn’t have been the success that it has been. Folks, all hail the new king in Android town.
Lava’s sub-brand Xolo has launched its third Intel powered smartphone in India – the Xolo X1000 for Rs 19,999. It is based on the first generation Intel Atom Z2480 processor codenamed Medfield that Intel released last year. Unlike the Xolo X900, this chipset is clocked at 2GHz with hyper-threading and was previously seen in the UK bound Motorola Razr i. This also fits perfectly with what we reported a few hours back.To supplement its processing prowess there is PowerVR SGX540 GPU, and 1GB of RAM. Intel claims that this is its fastest phone ever and we believe them however in light of newer Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU based devices we would say this phone is not the fastest one can buy in the Android landscape. Nonetheless, this chipset is quite nimble and overall performance should be quite swift.It has a 2.5D 4.7-inch edge-to-edge curved glass screen that has a 720p resolution and delivers 314 pixels per inch. It’s also remarkably thin at 9.1mm and weighs in at just 140 grams. It flaunts an uni-body design and there is 8-megapixel rear camera and a 1.3-megapixel front facing camera. The rear camera can shoot pictures at 15 frames per second and can shoot full HD 1080p video.There is also 8GB of internal memory, a microSD card slot and a 1,900 mAh battery. Unfortunately as Intel’s chipsets are not yet optimized for Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the Xolo X1000 is stuck on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.This becomes even more telling when one realises Lava itself does make smartphones that run on ARM chipsets with the latest version of Android.
Samsung will launch the Galaxy S IV later today at an event in New York city. Samsung will hope that the new device will build on the success of the Galaxy S III, which by far was the best selling Android smartphone in the world for 2012. The success of Galaxy S III was only eclipsed by the iPhone 5 that arrived in Q4 of 2012, but even after its arrival it has given Apple’s signature product a tough fight. The arrival of the Galaxy S IV could make things difficult for the iPhone 5 as the next iPhone is expected to be launched at a much later date.Over the last few weeks we have seen Samsung post teaser videos for the device and today it even invaded Times Square in New York with a group of mob dancers. The Galaxy S IV is expected to have a 4.99-inch 1080p display, a 8-core Exynos Octa 5 processor, which is based on ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture, 2GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel camera, a larger battery, wireless charging, Android 4.2, some eye tracking capabilities and a new version of the TouchWiz user interface.People hope that with the Galaxy S IV, Samsung abandones its brash favouritism for a plastic industrial design, but recent comments by Samsung executives and leaks suggest that to be unlikely.While there are already many smartphones like the Sony Xperia Z, the HTC Butterfly and the soon to be launched HTC One that offer features comparable to what one expects of the Galaxy S IV, undoubtedly the Samsung flagship is the most highly awaited of the lot. Pricing wise it should be competing with the iPhone and one can expect Samsung to pull all the stops in terms of marketing the device.Photographs: Rohit Sharma
Rumors of a more affordable iPhone for emerging markets took an interesting turn Friday, as the major news organization Reuters opted to rescind a story originally filed, based on comments allegedly made by Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller.
Reuters issued an update Friday morning informing readers that it had withdrawn the story, which featured the headline "Apple exec dismisses cheaper iPhone as a market share grab — report." It was based on a report from the Shanghai Evening News, but that original story was later updated with "substantial changes to its content," which prompted the significant retraction.
AppleInsider also cited the same story on Thursday, noting that Schiller allegedly told the newspaper that Apple is not interested in making a "cheap," low-profit iPhone. The Next Web had reported that it confirmed with Apple that Schiller's comments came from an "official interview," as did the report from Reuters, which is now rescinded.
It's unclear exactly what the "substantial changes" made to the story are. As of Friday morning, the original story remains hosted at jfdaily.com, claiming that Schiller said Apple will not develop "cheap smartphones."
The original Chinese report gained considerable attention due to recent rumors claiming Apple plans to build a more affordable iPhone this year. The Wall Street Journal said that the device would be geared toward emerging markets such as China, where cheaper smartphones that can be bought without a service contract dominate the market.
Currently, Apple's cheapest iPhone model is the iPhone 4, which can be had for free with a new two-year service contract. But when bought contract-free, the iPhone 4 costs $450 in the U.S., and taxes increase that price to $490 in Chin and $750 in Brazil.
Barely two days after news came of Acer planning to launch the Iconia B Android tablet in India, it has appeared on the company’s India website. At the time of filing this post, the tablet page was still going up on the company’s US site. The Iconia B is rumored to be priced at $99 and aimed at emerging markets. It is expected to be launched in India for Rs 7,999 later this month.The site does not list many details but reveals that the Android Jelly Bean running tablet will have a 7-inch display and will be powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz processor. It weighs at 320 grams and will have a front-facing camera and a microSD card slot.We expect Acer to make an official announcement at CES, which begins on Monday, January 8.
Are you the kind of person who always loses the remote control ?Maybe you get off the couch, head to the fridge to grab a beer and some pickled cabbage pretzels and leave your remote control in the vegetable drawer – then over the next 3 days, you tear the house apart searching incessantly for it ?In my case, it’s the car keys. I’ve lost my keys so many times, I tried to install a clapper on the keyring – but the awkward size proved to be a bit uncomfortable in my pants pocket.Well, essentially the same thing kept happening to a Florida based electronics designer…. And he finally decided to do something about it.Known as Stick-N-Find, the black, adhesive backed button-like devices send out Bluetooth low-energy signals that can be tracked like radar blips on a smart phone screen. Simple right ? Well, it is in theory at least.You simply take the bluetooth sticker button, adhere it to your car keys, remote control, ipod, wallet, prom shoes, cat’s collar or anything you typically misplace. And when it’s lost, you fire up your smartphone and start the interactive game of Marco Polo.The closer you get the the sticker, the stronger the signal shows. It’s like a maxwell smart interface, a blipping radar screen on your iphone – and it’s range is about 100 feet.Read
It is that time of the year again when we start hearing rumors and seeing alleged renders of Apple’s next iPhone and Samsung’s next Galaxy S flagship smartphone. We have already been hearing loads about the two phones but today we have the first alleged render of the Galaxy S IV courtesy Sammobile.The fake-looking render essentially shows a device with an even thinner bezel than the Galaxy S III that also lets go of the physical home button. In our books this photo screams fake as we have found the ease with which these renders are been faked these days. This is just the beginning of the render faking season.Forgery notwithstanding, word on the street is the Galaxy S IV could sport S-Pen input just like the Galaxy Note II and is expected to have a 5-inch 1080p HD display. It could also feature a 13-megapixel camera and would run on an Exynos processor on ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture that would have a A7 processor for basic tasks coupled with an A15 processor for processor intensive tasks. Read
Karbonn has launched the A21 and A9+ Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich smartphones in India for Rs 11,990 and Rs 9,990. Notably both devices use dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processors and have Dual-SIM capabilities. The A21 features a 4.5-inch display with a qHD resolution of 960×540 pixels, while the A9+ on the other hand has a smaller 4-inch display with a WVGA resolution of 800×480 pixels. Besides this, both the devices tout a wide array of features like 5-megapixel rear cameras, 1.3-megapixel front facing cameras, 3G support, 512 MB of RAM, and microSD card support. The A21 has a 1,800-mAh battery, and the A9+ has a 1,420-mAh battery.
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Nokia has launched the 109, which it bills as an affordable phone that comes with a Nokia Xpress browser. It has been specifically designed for developing markets what Nokia calls the next billion and it has an approximate price of $42 (Rs 2,261).Like most Nokia feature phones it has an alphanumeric keypad, a color display, but its flagship feature is its Xpress Browser, which is a cloud-accelerated browser that compresses the data by up to 90 percent. Other features of 109 include social networking apps for Facebook and Twitter and EA games will offer ten premium titles for free. Additionally, it also features a FM radio, a rated battery life of 7.5 hours, a media player and a SD card slot that supports up to 32GB of storage. Nokia says it will launch in China, APAC, and Europe. So this also means it will be coming to India. It will be available in Black and Cyan.
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Nokia has quietly launched the Asha 308 in India and it is now available from its online store for Rs 5,865. The Asha 308 is the latest addition in its full-touch Series 40 feature phones that has already become a huge success for the company with the launch of the Asha 305 and Asha 306 earlier. In the last quarter alone Nokia shipped 6.5 million units of these Asha phones. On the specs front, the Asha 308 brings a 3-inch capacitive display, dual-SIM, a 2-megapixel camera, microSD card slot and pre-installed Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp clients. Like the Asha 305, it does not have Wi-Fi connectivity, which is available in Asha 309 that is essentially an upgraded variant of the Asha 306. Nokia is also bundling free 40 EA games, like it did with the earlier two phones. On the core specs front, the Asha 308 might seem similar to the Asha 305 but there are some key differences. The Asha 308 has double the internal memory (20MB), RAM (64MB) and ROM (128MB) than the Asha 305. It also has a capacitive display while the Asha 305 had a resistive display. Another new feature is the ability to record FM radio, which was not available on the Asha 305.
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) is in talks with all major Indian carriers to enable users to pay for apps in their monthly cellphone bill. The news was revealed by Sunil Dutt, Managing Director, RIM India during the inauguration of its premium store in Kolkata. The company hopes to introduce this facility by the end of this year, pending regulatory approvals, the Hindu Business Line reports. “We are in discussions with telcos and you might see us introduce a carrier billing model for app purchases by the end of this year. There are some regulatory issues on the telecom operators’ part that has to be resolved first,” Dutt told the publication. Earlier Nokia had tied up for carrier billing with Airtel, Vodafone and RCom for its Ovi Store. RCom had partnered with Google to become the official carrier partner for Android devices. The two-year deal, which was announced this April, ensured that every Google branded Android smartphone would get 1GB of free 3G data for the first month with an RCom connection. The plan was to introduce carrier billing for Android apps but that has not materialized, yet. The biggest challenge for companies like Apple, Google, Nokia, Microsoft and RIM is the low penetration of credit cards in India, which is one of the biggest cellphone markets. India has 0.02 credit card per person or just two credit cards per 100 people and almost all platforms require a credit card to buy paid apps. However, it remains to be seen how many people are willing to spend money to buy paid apps. According to many high-profile app developers we have spoken to in the past, Indian users are not that willing to pay for apps. However, they do not mind if the apps pay for themselves using embedded advertisements, which has given rise to freemium ad-supported model for app developers. Even a high profile game like Angry Birds was first launched with ad-support when it came on Android, while it was a paid game on iOS. Nevertheless, if RIM is able to crack the carrier billing model, it would be a matter of time before other platforms like Android and Windows Phone would come on board, which is always a good thing for users. Read
