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The Note name carries a lineage of power user productivity. Does the Note 5 continue Samsung’s phablet dominance? It’s time to review one of the most anticipated phones of the year! Let’s do this!
Shop the Note 5 and accessories on Amazon
Note 5 Speaker Test
Note 5 Mega Camera Review
Continue reading “Samsung Galaxy Note 5 on AT&T – Still the “Power User” Smartphone King?”
I’ll be honest. With the rise of phablets like the Note and Lumia 1520, I’ve almsot entirely stopped using mini-tablets like my Nexus 7. Lenovo is doubling down on big screen phones with the Phab Plus.
We can joke about what this might look like holding it up to your face, but the calls are no longer the primary use for our “phones”. We expect excellent data driven experiences. In a way, it is kind of silly that our LTE enabled tablets can’t make and receive calls…
The Phab Plus sports a 6.8″ 1080p screen paired with a Qualcomm Octa-core CPU and 2GB of RAM. 32GB of storage is built in, and you can add more via MicroSD. A 13MP rear camera and 5MP FFC should handle most photo and video tasks, and the larger body means there’s more room for a larger speaker and “sound chamber” Lenovo claims will offer a more immersive audio experience.
This LTE device will have a 3500mAh battery which Lenovo claims is good for “up to 2 days of battery”, but I would imagine this will likely be a “charge every night” kinda phone.
From a design standpoint, it follow in the footsteps of their Vibe series, rounded aluminum frame.
This mini-tablet phone wont break the bank. $299 seems pretty reasonable for such an audacious experiment. We’re still waiting out shipping info, but expect the Phab Plus before the holidays.
Announced today. Sony took the wraps off their newest flagship phones. The Z5, Z5 Premium, and Z5 Compact.
Sony is first to market with a 4K display on a phone. The Z5 Premium will sport the Qualcomm 810 with 3GB of RAM, 32GB of built in storage, and the ability to add more via Micro SD card. Quite a feat shrinking that resolution down to a 5.5″ screen.
The bread and butter Z5 shrinks down to a 5.2″ display and reduces the resolution to 1080p, but retains largely the same overall experience.
The 4.6″ screened Compact also returns, continuing Sony’s track record of producing a smaller form factor phone which matches most of the specs found in their larger flagships. Always happy to see a smaller premium phone rather than gimped “mini” budget phones.
For all three, Sony’s hard edge rectangular design retains the Xperia feel we all understand. Water resistance seems to be improves ala Samsung, where ports no longer require awkward flaps.
Sony produces most of the top tier camera sensors found in competing phones, so it makes sense they would save “the good stuff” for themselves. Their newest sensor is a half inch 23MP beast with an f2 lens aperture, and they’re touting the world’s fastest smartphone auto focus. Combined with OIS, it should make for a solid competitor to the current crop of flagship phones.
Lastly, the side mounted power button gets upgraded to include a fingerprint sensor, a fairly ingenious design, providing one action for turning the phone on and unlocking, without resorting to a hardware Home button or rear mounted scanner.
The family of Xperia Z5 phones should be shipping in October, with country and pricing info to follow. You can catch Sony’s full press release below.
So the Doctor replies “then stop doing that”.
Why is this joke funny? Because we all recognize that the doctor isn’t really addressing the problem, and we’ve all shared in situations where we’ve felt an issue has been ignored or dismissed.
The Galaxy Note 5 suffers from a design flaw. If you insert the S-Pen into the stylus cavity the wrong way, it breaks the sensors in the phone which detect the S-Pen has been removed. In some cases, the Pen can become lodged in the slot, making removal extremely difficult.
Samsung’s official response to this issue?
We highly recommend our Galaxy Note5 users follow the instructions in the user guide to ensure there are no issues.
“Just don’t do that, and you’ll be fine.”
Continue reading “Samsung Galaxy Note 5 “PenGate” – Doctor it HURTS When I Do This…”
Rumors have been swirling that a Microsoft phone shakeup was in the works. Recently sparked by internal discussion of “touch choices” facing Microsoft, and how the CEO Satya Nadella might completely scrap the Windows Phone line of products to focus on moving Microsoft apps to iOS and Android.
For fans of Live Tiles, thankfully that doesn’t seem to be the case in light of a new employee memo from Nadella.
Microsoft will be moving forward with new phone hardware, but will be reducing the number of offerings. The Lumia line is kind of a mess leading up to the release of Windows 10. Currently consumers can pick from 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1300, and 1500 series phones made within the last year. It’s a confusing collection with lots of product overlap.
In the near term, we will run a more effective phone portfolio, with better products and speed to market given the recently formed Windows and Devices Group. We plan to narrow our focus to three customer segments where we can make unique contributions and where we can differentiate through the combination of our hardware and software. We’ll bring business customers the best management, security and productivity experiences they need; value phone buyers the communications services they want; and Windows fans the flagship devices they’ll love.
-CEO Satya Nadella
This year we got an early glimpse at the future of this strategy with the entry level Lumia 640 and 640XL. Now it seems very likely we’ll see Microsoft whittle down this collection to six individual phones. Entry level, mid-range, and flagship. At each of those three tiers we’ll probably see a “normal” sized phone and a “phablet” with the XL designation.
Though industry layoffs are always a sad story, fans of the platform can certainly benefit from more focus. You can read Nadella’s full email below.
Continue reading “Microsoft Laying off 7800 Employees, Streamlining Phone Portfolio”
LG continues their experiment building curved phones with bent screens. The G Flex 2 is a fairly significant departure from their first phablet offering. Having used the phone for a couple weeks now, let’s see if it lives up to the legacy of its predecessor!
Shop the G Flex 2 on Amazon.
Flex 2 vs LG G3
Flex 2 vs Flex 1
Flex 2 Camera Review
Flex 2 Speaker Test
Flex 2 camera vs Lumia 930
I’m really glad that LG is continuing the “Flex” experiment. Is the G Flex 2 a worthy successor to the original? I think it’s time for a good old fashioned showdown!
We’ve already started our long term review of LG’s newest curved screen phone, and you can catch a speaker test, a full camera review, and a pair of comparisons for the G Flex 2.
Good news for bendy phone fans on AT&T, as this LG smartphone will be landing on Big Blue for $299 on a two year contract, or purchased outright for $708.99. Expect to see the G Flex 2 online and at select AT&T stores starting April 24th.
Are you looking forward to a curved screen phone? Drop us a comment, watch our comparison between the G Flex 2 and its predecessor, or read AT&T’s full press release below!