Tag: smartphones

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Microsoft Unveils Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL Smartphones at MWC 2015

Microsoft took the wraps off a pair of new Lumias in Barcelona. Unfortunately no flagship phones were to be had, but the former Nokia hardware team showed off handsets adding even more pressure to the mid-range market.

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The Lumia 640 looks like it’ll be fairly standard Windows Phone fare. A 5″ 720p display will be paired up with a Qualcomm 400 and 1GB of RAM and a 2500mAh battery. The rear camera will be an 8MP shooter and the front will have a 1MP sensor for video chat.

The Lumia 640 XL takes the place of the 1320, moving the size up to 5.7″, a 13MP camera, and a 3000mAh battery. Both phones come with 8GB of internal storage with support for up to 128GB MicroSD cards. Both phones will ship with Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1, but will be updated to Windows 10 when available.

The design is plastic, polycarb shells in a variety of classic colors Orange, White, Yellow, and my favorite Cyan. The naming convention should be less confusing than the lower powered 1320, which had a higher number naming convention than Nokia’s flagship phones.

The positioning makes sense, placing these features in-between the upper entry-level Lumia 635 and the higher mid-range Lumia 830.

Microsoft also showed off a new fold-able Bluetooth keyboard specifically designed for phones.

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Buying one of these new Lumias will come with a one year subscription to Office 365, which includes a license for a tablet or PC, 1TB of cloud storage, and 60 minutes a month for Skype. A one year Office 365 license sold on it’s own costs $70.

Not bad at all considering the 640 will retail for 139€ for a 3G version and 159€ for the LTE variant. The 640 XL will sell for 189€ for 3G and 219€ for LTE. Both phones should be available in April worldwide with partnerships already announced with AT&T in the United States.

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SanDisk Reveals 200GB MicroSD Card, But Can Any Phone Use It?

We continue to see a battle between hardware and cloud solutions for how our data should be consumed. It’s great if you’ve got all your data backed up online, but if you don’t have an internet connection, having locally stored files is tremendously helpful.

As multimedia and gaming gets more storage intensive, popping in a larger memory card is becoming an attractive solution for those phone owners that have the capability to upgrade their storage. Now SanDisk is showing off the largest memory card on the market with their 200GB Ultra MicroSD.

Of course having HUGE storage isn’t particularly helpful if you have slow transfer speeds. SanDisk claims their card will be good for up to 90MB per second data transfer, which means you should be able to fill the whole card up in under 40 minutes on a solid USB 3 card reader. That speed is really helpful for app and camera performance, and is one of the reasons why Google does not provide memory card slots on the Nexus, to guarantee system performance. Sorry prospective Samsung Galaxy S6 shoppers… No memory card slot for you either…

While this is exciting, we’re still not entirely sure how well this card might work with phones that only outright support card capacities up to 64GB or 128GB. Also, having the biggest storage on such a tiny card means stepping up to a really big price tag. This Ultra Card will sell for $399, or four times the price of Sandisk’s $128GB Ultra card.

Being on the bleeding edge doesn’t come cheap. You can read SanDisk’s full press release below.

Continue reading “SanDisk Reveals 200GB MicroSD Card, But Can Any Phone Use It?”

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HTC Announces One M9 and RE Vive VR Headset with Valve Partnership

HTC took the wraps off their next flagship smartphone and showcased partnerships with Valve and Under Armour for a new VR headset and fitness tracker respectively.

Screenshot (12)The One M9 has been leaked and discussed, but we now have confirmation that the shell will be very similar to last years M8. We’re treated to the same 5″ LCD 1080p display covered in Gorilla Glass 4. We’ll get 3GB of RAM and 32GB of built in storage with an SD card slot which supports up to a 128GB card. Those BoomSound speakers return, everything we’ve enjoyed from the M8 is back.

What’s new is the Qualcomm 810 chipset will be powering this new phone. Should be interesting to see how performance is managed in an all metal phone with an HD display.

Screenshot (13)HTC has also updated the camera, walking away from the gimmicky dual sensor shooter on the M8, to a single larger 20MP rear shooter. It’s expected that this camera and chipset should deliver UHD video, 60fps 1080p, and a high speed slow motion mode, but we’ll have to wait for devices to confirm that.

Lastly, it looks like HTC has finally seen the light on ergonomics, and joined the rest of the Smartphone world in moving the power button to the side of the phone.

Partnering with Under Armour, HTC also took the wraps off of the Grip fitness tracker. Looking a bit like a Nike Fuel or Gear Fit. The P-OLED display should provide decent battery life, and the entire build is sweat and water resistant.

Perhaps the most exciting announcement from HTC however was watching them step into the world of Virtual Reality headsets with the RE Vive. Partnering with Valve, the headset is a high end competitor to Samsung’s Gear VR. Instead of using a phone as the display, Vive is a self contained unit with dual 1200×1080 resolution displays with 90Hz refresh rates providing smoother and faster responses than Oculus which pumps out 75Hz.

Over 70 sensors on board track not only movement, but when paired with a pair of SteamVR base stations, it will create a 15 by 15 foot action area. Instead of being tethered to one spot, Vive will track your movement.

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Vive will ship with a pair of game controllers, but we still don’t have details on price, shipping dates, or how this unit will be powered. Will HTC require an HTC phone? Will this be a standalone product? We’re all waiting to find out!

You can catch the full HTC Press conference below!

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Review: Microsoft Lumia 435 Dual SIM – The Best Budget Windows Phone?

I think the most exciting area for smartphone growth is the entry level and developing markets. The Lumia team has shown a real talent for providing smartphone solutions which aren’t painful to use at incredibly low price points. The Lumia 435 pushes this idea even further with a dual SIM card edition. Let’s take a look!

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Blackberry Passport and Classic coming to AT&T February 20th

blackberry_passport_left_943x432Blackberry might not be as popular as they once were, but I’m still glad to see the Canadian company producing alternatives to the current crop of rectangular “slabs of glass” design that pretty much every other phone manufacturer has agreed on.

While it’s a bit more niche, for those of us who still enjoy a hardware keyboard, the Passport and Classic BB smartphones will be available on AT&T starting February 20th. The higher end Passport will drop for $199 on two year agreement, and the Classic will go for $49.99 on contract.

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Are any of you thinking about jumping back on the BB bandwagon? You can find more info here, and AT&T’s full press release is below.

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Verizon Surprises Lumia Icon Owners with Denim Update

***UPDATE: We now have a full review of the 4K video quality embedded below!***nokia lumia icon denim update verizon wireless somegadgetguyComing down the pipe this morning, if you happen to own the oft neglected Nokia Lumia Icon, you’re in line for a BIG update.

Jumping the line over all the missed updates and patches, skipping over the Lumia Cyan firmware, VZW will be skipping directly to Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 with Lumia Denim. Go directly to GO, Collect $200. Fantastic.

In the updates arms race between AT&T and Big Red, Windows Phone users have been left out in the cold of late. The Lumia 1520 phablet still a ways behind it’s international brethren, but now Icon owners have a little something to brag about.

We’ll be tearing into the new Lumia Camera app soon, as we can’t wait to try out the new 2160/30p shooting mode.

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An OTA should be pushing out soon, but if you don’t want to wait (and you don’t mind completely wiping your phone) you can use the Lumia Software Recovery Tool.

You can see our real world benchmark test of the Icon shooting UHD video below!

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LG to Release Free Plastic Version of Google Cardboard VR Headset to G3 Owners

LGE_VR+G3_5002We’ve seen a few companies build out variations on Google’s “inexpensive” solution for using a phone as a VR screen.

Based on that template however, LG will be building a plastic rig, designed specifically for the G3, and if you’re looking to buy LG’s current QHD screened flagship smartphone, chances are you can score a headset for free. We don’t have details yet on how or when LG might start shipping, but you can read their full press release below for more info!

Continue reading “LG to Release Free Plastic Version of Google Cardboard VR Headset to G3 Owners”

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Smartphone Review: Nokia Lumia 830 on AT&T – Flagship Style, Mid-Range Price!

While Microsoft didn’t deliver a new flagship this quarter, they did make good on a new mid-ranger boasting high end design and build quality. The Lumia 830 is masquerading as a high end phone. It can talk the talk, but can it walk the walk? Let’s check it out.

Shop the Lumia 830 and Accessories on Amazon: http://goo.gl/g1ksKa

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