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LG AKA hands-on

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LG AKA is an extraordinary smartphone and in a good way. Its key feature is the front mask, which allows the AKA to use its signature feature – the eyes. At first we thought about Tamagotchi, but the AKA isn’t a pet you need to look after. Each of the four AKAs has different personality, but they have one purpose only – to notify you about missed events in a cool way.

Outside the notifying eyes and front mask, the AKA is no different than the LG G2 mini. It’s a well-build phone with the iconic rear control deck and the premium laser-assisted auto-focus LG’s proud of. The rest is rather unimpressive – a 5″ 720p display and a dated Snapdragon 400 chip with 1.5GB of RAM. Read more »

Scientists make a breakthrough in aluminum batteries

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Scientists from the Stanford University made a breakthrough in the aluminum batteries – an area that saw very limited innovation in the last decade. The new prototype aluminum battery is flexible, thinner, much safer, charges super-fast, and its lifecycle is 7.5 times better than Li-Ion batteries.

Today the Li-Ion batteries seem to have reached their full potential and the only improvement lately is the fast charging technologies provided by companies like Oppo and Qualcomm. The lithium batteries aren’t getting any thinner, smaller and their capacity increases at very modest rates. We need something better and the aluminum battery at Stanford might be just the discovery we need today. Read more »

Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7 hits Germany in May, costs 299 euro

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Samsung Galaxy Tab A is the newest mid-range lineup of slates, which should replace the Galaxy Tab 4 series soon. The Galaxy Tab A 8 and Galaxy Tab A 9.7 tablets went official last month in Russia with attractive designs and mid-range specs.

Both Galaxy A Tabs feature similar specs – 8 or 9.7″ 4:3 screens of 1024 x 768px, a quad-core 1.2GHz processor (courtesy of Snapdragon 400 or Snapdragon 410 chips), 2 gigs of RAM (1.5GB for the Wi-Fi model), 16GB expandable storage, 5MP cams and Android Lollipop OS. The battery capacity for the 8″ model is 4,200 mAh, while the 9.7″ has a beefy 6,000 mAh unit. Read more »

Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge battery life tests

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The wait is over, guys, the retail units of the Samsung hottest duo made it to our office. As promised we are updating our Galaxy S6 review with the final results of each test, plus our in-depth Galaxy S6 edge review is already live on our homepage.

Both Galaxy S6 and S6 edge utilize Quad HD Super AMOLED screens and are powered by identical Exynos 7420 chips. The battery capacity of the S6 edge is just a whisker larger than the power unit inside the regular S6 model, but we are unsure if that’s enough to make a difference. Read more »

Creating and sharing themes for Samsung Galaxy S6 coming this April

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The latest version of Samsung’s proprietary launcher – TouchWiz – finally introduced themes support. The Galaxy A series (A3, A5 and A7) were the first devices to feature TouchWiz themes, joined by the Galaxy Note 4 and the Galaxy S6 later on.

Unfortunately the default themes are just few and may not be everyone’s cup of tea. The Chinese models of the Galaxy A5, Galaxy A7 and Galaxy Note 4 already have a solution – a theme creation tool that allows you to design and share your very own theme. Read more »

Meizu m1 note battery life test

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The Meizu m1 note is a very affordable and yet powerful mid-ranger with a 5.5″ 1080p display, a MT6752 chip with an octa-core processor, a 13MP snapper and a 3,140 mAh battery. It runs on Android 4.4 KitKat skinned with Meizu’s Flyme launcher, which is clean and feature-rich.

The Meizu m1 note is also a dual-SIM smartphone capable of connecting to 3G and LTE networks, while the second SIM works via GSM networks only. The phone supports dual-SIM standby and uses microSIM cards. Read more »

Thinking of getting the Apple Watch? Don’t. [EDITORIAL]

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Last fall Apple Watch looked great. The smartwatch announcement was very brief and while some criticized it for its non circular design, it made a generally positive impression. The Watch sure looked premium and its software promised seamless transition from your iPhone.

This March Apple finally detailed the Watch, its features, its specs, pricing and availability. By the end of the event many of the people watching or reading about it were left wondering what happened? Do we really need this watch? Read more »

HTC Re camera goes on sale in US, get it now for $99.99

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HTC Re camera is quite interesting gadget with 16MP sensor, capable camcorder with time-lapse and slow-mo support, plus it’s very easy to control. The camera connects rather easily with smartphones, so you can browse your photos.

If you are keen on snapping around with a Re camera, but you didn’t get one because of its $200 price tag – then we have some great news for you. Read more »

HTC updates Dot View app, gets ready for One M9 release

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HTC Dot View case for One M8 became the best-selling accessory HTC has ever released. It was made available for other smartphones following the M8 success – Desire 510 and Desire Eye. Quite naturally HTC will be launching a One M9-copmatible Dot View case in time for the flagship’s official release.

As a preparation for the upcoming One M9 and One M9 Dot View case, HTC updated the Dot View app with new features. Those should be compatible with all existing Dot View cases and devices, of course. Read more »

Samsung Galaxy S6 storage performance test

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Samsung Galaxy S6 is the company’s first flagship not to offer microSD expansion. Until the S6 and S6 edge duo all Galaxy Note and Galaxy S smartphones had memory expansion, and, in fact, it was one of the highlights of both series.

Samsung even supported moving App to SD card even when Google disabled the feature – a rarity these days. So, what happened with Samsung’s love of external storage?

Well, the company came up with its own UFS 2.0 storage, which uses “Command Queue” tech (as seen in Solid State Drives) for accelerating the speed of command execution. The new technology promises 2.7x faster performance than the eMMC 5.0 memory found in the previous crop of flagships and yes, the Galaxy S6 has one.

There lies to the key to the lack of a microSD slot. If you were to put an SD card on your Galaxy S6, you’d have compromised this blazing-fast performance. This is actually true for all 2014 high-end phones, but it seems Samsung wanted users to truly feel the difference this time around and has decided on not including the storage expansion on the feature list even if it made a lot of users sad.

Let’s see how fast it really is. Read more »

Here are the 25 mobile phones this mobile editor has owned through the years [EDITORIAL]

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I was recently cleaning up my old room at my parents’ and I happened to find my first ever mobile phone – the Nokia 3210. It brought back many memories. It was a reminder of a completely different time, where the phones were not the tools we are used to play with today.

I was in high school, just a 15-years old kid, when my father told me it was about time I got a mobile phone of my own. It was the best day in my life as I thought back then. My mother already had a Benefon Dragon, while my father was very happy with his Sony CMD J70. But guess what I wanted…A Nokia 3310. Read more »

Watch all the Apple Watch promo videos here

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Apple Watch was detailed today at the company’s dedicated event. Now we know all there is to know about the wearable gadget – the materials and functionality, the pricing and availability.

Apple Watch will be available in aluminum, stainless steel and gold flavors. You can check how those are made on the promo videos below. Read more »

Apple CarPlay is coming to every major car brand

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Apple announced today the CarPlay service has received a warm welcome among car manufacturers and support for it will spread even wider through 2015.

Currently the CarPlay functionality has been integrated in lots of the popular car brands, but by the end of this year Apple promises we’ll see CarPlay integration on every major car brand. Read more »

HTC outs HTC One M9 promo videos, Robert Downey Jr. narrates

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The HTC One M9 is company’s latest flagship announced recently at the MWC in Barcelona. It packs a 5″ 1080p display, runs on the Snapdragon 810 chip and comes with a 20MP rear camera. The One M9 should be hitting the shelves as early as next month.

Quite expectedly, HTC is now busy promoting its latest gadget. You can now enjoy the device’s introductory video as well as a promo narrated by Robert Downey Jr. Read more »

The rumored 12″ MacBook Air to offer Retina display resolution

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The 12″ MacBook Air has been in the rumorland for quite some time. As the Apple’s latest event is almost upon us, the rumors are once again ignited.

The last time we heard the 12″ MacBook Air is expected to enter mass production in the first quarter of this year and its shipping should happen through April – June. The device supposedly will be a high-end product with limited availability. Read more »