Sony always had an odd sort of relationship with the smartphone. Sure, it’s one of the world’s largest consumer electronics companies, but it’s never really cracked the code with its Xperia devices. Really, the company’s phones tend to feel more like a showcase for its latest camera technologies than truly competitive devices. The XZ2 is unlikely to change any of that,… Read More
Category: Mobile World Congress 2018
Samsung’s AR Emoji taps creepy avatars and Disney characters to compete with Animoji
We’ve known for a while that Samsung’s been planning an Animoji competitor for its latest handset. Now that we’ve actually seen (the admittedly clunkily named) AR Emoji in action, we can testify to the fact that it’s some combination of compelling and creepy. That last part first. Like the iPhone X, the Galaxy S9 takes advantage of its on-board face scanning technology… Read More
With the Galaxy S9, Samsung put the fingerprint sensor where it belongs
The Samsung Galaxy S8 is a beautiful phone with a critical flaw. The fingerprint sensor is in the wrong damn spot. A phone is only as good as its usability and, to me, the S8 is crippled with its fingerprint sensor located off center. It drives me mad but Samsung finally righted the wrong with the S9. Samsung just announced the latest Galaxy phone and we spent some time with it. It’s… Read More
The Samsung Galaxy S9 arrives March 16 for $720, with AR emojis, real-time translation and a better camera
Samsung didn’t leave too much up to the imagination this time out. The hardware giant took a little wind out of its own sails back at CES when it announced it would be launching its latest flagship sometime this month. And then, of course, the invites went out, bearing a giant number “9.” Read More
ZTE will deliver the first Android Oreo (Go Edition) handset for the U.S. market in March
Things have been mostly quiet on the Android Go front since Google announced the low-power mobile operating system back in May — aside, of course, from an unexpected name chance to the decidedly less catchy. Android Oreo (Go Edition). One of the things that’s made the offering unique from the start, however, is that unlike most of these sorts of lite offerings targeted at the… Read More
ZTE brings premium features to its mid-range Blade line
ZTE’s one of those workhorse smartphone companies you don’t hear much about, aside from the occasional misguided flirtation with a bizarre form factor, a la the dual-screen Axon M. But the Chinese handset manufacturer still powers away and manages to produce some solid handsets at bargain bin prices. The company hasn’t officially announced pricing on the Blade V9 —… Read More
Waverly Labs offers real-time translation with its Pilot earbuds
Sometimes you travel all the way to Barcelona, only to meet up with a startup that’s been operating right around the block. Waverly Labs is a 20 person Brooklyn-based company that specializes in real-time translation through a pair of Bluetooth earbuds. The startup is on-hand at Mobile World Congress this week, showing off Pilot, its first piece of hardware, which launched at the end of… Read More
Huawei launches its new MediaPad M5 tablets
Tablets may not be the most exciting product category these days, but they also aren’t quite as dead as some pundits would like you to believe — and for Huawei, they are actually a growing business. Indeed, the company argues that it’s now the third largest tablet maker in the world. It’s no surprise then that the company today unveiled two (or three, depending on how… Read More
Watch Samsung’s MWC conference live right here
Samsung’s press conference at MWC in Barcelona is happening today. The conference starts at 6 PM CET (5 PM GMT, 12 PM EST, 9 AM PST). You can also check out our liveblog to get our commentary on Samsung’s news. And of course, everybody is waiting for the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+. Details about the company’s new flagship devices already leaked, but we don’t know much… Read More
Watch HMD unveil Nokia phones live right here
HMD is holding a press conference at MWC in Barcelona to showcase some Nokia-branded phones. The conference starts at 4:00 PM CET (3:00 PM GMT, 10:00 AM EST). HMD licenses the Nokia brand so that the company can release smartphones under the Nokia brand. It isn’t the company we used to know and love, but it still says Nokia. So get ready for some new Nokia phones running Android. You… Read More
LG turns to EyeEm to add AI to its cameras
LG today announced an updated version of the V30 smartphone and it comes with a supercharged camera powered by a third-party AI system. LG turned to EyeEm to add new features to the camera. Now, thanks to the EyeEm platform, the LG V30S ThinQ and soon the original V30 can automatically detect the subject of the picture — being a hamburger or dachshund — the camera will adjust… Read More
The curious case of the LG V30S ThinQ
Welcome to LG’s new smartphone strategy. A new flagship every year, followed by an incremental upgrade six months later. It’s a strange approach that’s sure to annoy early adopters, but LG’s certainly not the first to adopt the strategy — it’s in-line with the sort of thing OnePlus, among others, have been doing for a while now. The first such handset from… Read More