With the megapixel race fizzling out, Optical Image Stabilization seems to be the “next big thing” in mobile phone cameras. But it’s very rare – only two phones currently on sale have it, while the rest rely on digital processing to stabilize the image. CNET did a test to see how some of the most popular phones on the market cope with a user’s shaky hands.

The Nokia Lumia 920 and HTC One naturally were involved in the test (the two phones that do have OIS), then there are the Samsung Galaxy S III and S4, the Sony Xperia Z and the Apple iPhone 5. Read more »

The Nokia Lumia 925 recently took over the reins from the 920 as the new WP8 flagship. The Lumia 928 is similar but it’s a Verizon exclusive. Anyway, the 925 brings a much needed redesign of the body, a new AMOLED screen and several software improvements.

Just to be clear, the Lumia 920 didn’t need a redesign in terms of looks – it’s the thickness and especially weight that needed work. It weighed 185g, 2g heavier than the Samsung Galaxy Note II, which has a screen that’s a full inch bigger. Dropping to 8.5mm thickness from 10.7mm is a welcome change as well. Read more »

Aluminum construction and OIS camera of the Nokia Lumia 925 got the most attention when the new WP8 flagship was announced, but the screen is pretty interesting too. It’s an AMOLED display like the Lumia 928 has and not an LCD like on the Lumia 920.

Besides the slimmer profile allowed by AMOLED, there is custom software to make sure you have the display set up just the way you want it. Read more »

HTC is leveraging Twitter’s obsession with what is known as “vadering” to promote its HTC One flagship. The message accompanying the photo reads “We find your lack of aluminum disturbing.”

There’s more going on with this post than just a dig at the plasticy competitors of the One. Read more »

HP is following up on its x2 line of tablet/laptop hybrids with two new models – the 13.3″ Split x2, running Windows 8, and the 10.1″ SlateBook x2, running… Android. Both are laptops with detachable screens, which turn into tablets on their own.

The 13.3″ screen of the HP Split x2 is an IPS LCD with 1,366 x 768 resolution. The device is powered by a 3rd generation Intel Core i3 or i5 (Y-series with 7W SDP / 10W TDP) with 2GB RAM (upgradeable), and has a 128GB SSD with an optional 500GB HDD. Read more »

NVIDIA surprised everyone at CES with its Project SHIELD handheld gaming console and now the chip maker released the full specs along with launch date and price. SHIELD is powered by NVIDIA’s own Tegra 4 chipset, which packs for Cortex-A15 cores, a fifth power-saver core and a mobile GeForce GPU.

The gadget runs pure Android 4.2 with TegraZone pre-installed – this is a repository of Tegra-optimized games. In an impressive demo, SHIELD ran a ported PlayStation 3 game with better graphics than the PS3. Read more »

Some lucky fellow apparently had a Nokia Lumia 928 for quite a while, as he took it to a large number of concerts and shot videos with it. Concerts are dark venues with bright flashing lights and loud music – just about as bad as it can get for a video camera. The Lumia 928 however, actually did a pretty good job at it.

The camera has been optimized for low light, but the HAAC microphones are perhaps even more impressive as they captured clean audio despite the thundering music. Read more »

With Google I/O getting close (it kicks off in just two days) we were bound to see Motorola X rumors heat up. A device claiming to be it surfaced in GFXBenchmark scores as Motorola XT1058 (supposedly AT&T’s version of the Motorola X).

The X phone already showed up in AnTuTu scores, showing an uninspiring result for a 1.5GHz processor. Read more »

Nokia spent a lot of time releasing teaser videos for the Lumia 928 and then without much fanfare announced the phone itself (even the Asha 501 got its own event). Anyway, the ad campaign continues with the first TV ad.

The ad focuses heavily on the camera features of the Verizon-bound flagship. The Nokia Lumia 928 is the first phone in a long while to pack a xenon flash. Read more »

The third generation of Samsung Galaxy Tab lineup only has one official member so far (the Tab 3 7.0), but the rumor mill is adamant that there are 8″ and 10.1″ versions on the way. And the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 may have just shown up in GLBenchmark scores.

The device listed as Samsung SM-T311 runs Android 4.2.2 on a 1.5GHz processor with Mali-400 GPU. Read more »

The Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4, the Snapdragon 600 one, got a software update and while we felt like a new battery test was in order. A lot has changed since we released our first test and we were curious to find out how it has affected the smartphone’s power autonomy.

After the update, the battery life of the phone did improve overall. Here are the new results. Read more »

You have to hand it to Samsung – it really, really cares about features. The Samsung Galaxy S4 for one is the most feature-rich phone ever and Samsung just keeps coming up with new features. SideSync allows a computer and a smartphone to work as one.

When you hookup a Galaxy phone to a computer running SideSync, files on the phone will be backed up and then the magic starts to happen. Read more »

Things were going well for the Ouya team – they were accelerating the rate of shipments for Kickstarter backers and the console design got a great reparability score from iFixit. It turns out a bit too well as now they’ve pushed back the retail launch by a three weeks to meet higher than expected demand from retailers.

The original launch was planned for June 4, but the new launch target is June 25. This means more Ouya consoles will be manufactured and be put on the shelves on launch day. Read more »

Nokia just announced it’s revamped Asha platform and the phone that leads the way – the Nokia Asha 501. The phone combines Lumia looks, MeeGo-like interface and a good balance between price ($99 before prices and subsidies) and features (plenty of social networking, including free access to Facebook without a data plan).

There’s going to be a single and a dual-SIM version of the phones and the first promo videos for both are out. But more interesting is the Fastlane video – it’s a feature that promises to show you the past, present and future. Read more »

The Ouya team has been posting shipping updates as promised (you need to be a backer to read those) and while there are still units waiting to head out to their owners, iFixit received one and – you guessed it – took it apart.

So, what exactly do you get for your $99? Well, two things – the console itself and a Bluetooth controller. Read more »