Smartwatches are the talk of the street right now and for a very good reason. They are cool, capable and understated. At the IFA 2013 expo, both Samsung and Qualcomm announced their smartwatch representatives: the Galaxy Gear and Toq. Naturally, we had to compare them to the Sony Smartwatch 2, which was announced a couple of months ago.

You may be thinking that smartwatches aren’t really our scope, but remember that while we are professional phone reviewers, we are also geeks. This puts the smartwatch product category right in our alley. Read more »

One of the headlines that has come out of IFA 2013 so far is the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. It sports a plethora of new software features and awesome integration options with the just announced Galaxy Gear smartwatch.

So, in order to familiarize potential Note 3 owners with some of its new software tricks, Samsung has made a lengthy hands-on video of the phablet. Read more »

When it first came out a couple of years ago, the original Samsung Galaxy Note was welcomed with mixed feeling and reactions. Back then nobody would have thought that today we would be cheering the third installment in the lineup with an even bigger screen. Well times change, and in this industry, times literally flee.

But this time around, the Note 3 is not the only option. You see, Samsung may have opened people’s minds to the phablet realm, but it also inspired a lot of companies to launch rival products. Nothing wrong in that of course, as it leads us to this post where we pit the Galaxy Note 3 versus the LG G Pro and the Acer Liquid S2, with the latter being another fresh announcement off the IFA 2013 floor as well. Read more »

The high-end smartphone spectrum has never been this charming, as we have the freshly announced Sony Xperia Z1 rivaling the newborn LG G2 and the still hot Samsung Galaxy S4. Each of them is nothing short of a powerhouse and each of them has enough charisma to charm the birds out of the trees.

In fact, it’s the Sony Xperia Z1 that will capture them best while doing so. With its 20.7MP G Lens camera with Exmor RS sensor and an updated 5″ full HD Triluminos display with the X-Reality display engine it is the replacement the Xperia Z deserved to get. The same can be easily said for the other two rivals as well – the LG G2 and the Samsung Galaxy S4 are both the high-tech pinnacles of their respective makers. Read more »

Samsung announced yesterday the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition – its latest attempt to occupy your living room by providing a one-stop entertainment and media consumption tablet device. We’ve decided to pit it against Apple’s and Sony’s best in a virtual Mexican stand off so we can gauge what amount of novelty does the newcomer bring to the (living room) table.

Samsung has long learned the cold hard truth that a 10.1″ tablet must be able to do pretty much everything you throw at it, and thus the Note series of slates was born. Sony agrees with this as well, but doesn’t bet as much on the software chips as it does on the hardware ones. Its Xperia Tablet Z offering is both ultra thin and waterproof, the second one being a true rarity in the tablet space.

Apple, as a pioneer in the mass consumer tablet space, is pretty comfortable with its 4th generation iPad. The company is expected to unveil the next-generation iPad in October, so for now we’ll take what it offers and throw it in the mix. Read more »

Day after day, Oppo continues to tease its upcoming N1 cameraphone. Today, the company released the second teaser video, which strongly suggests the Oppo N1 is going to flaunt an aluminum body.

The video shows what seems to be an Oppo factory, where the build process of the N1 takes place. In it, we get a short glimpse of the phone’s back panel. Notably, it features two cutouts – one for its alleged 12MP camera and one for the LED flash. Read more »

The Sony Xperia Z1 (previously dubbed Honami) is now official and with one of its promo videos now out in the wild, the company has now launched a second one, showcasing some of the phone’s capabilities.

Naturally, the main accent falls onto the smartphone’s 20.7MP camera with Sony’s G Lens and Exmor RS CMOS Image Sensor. Its demoed on a number of occasions including low-light scenarios as well as a short trip underwater for some adventurous video shooting. Read more »

Oppo has outed yet another piece of the N1 cameraphone puzzle. In a tweet, the Chinese phonemaker has revealed that their upcoming Oppo N1 will sport a 5.9″ display.

This will put the phone right against the likes of the yet-to-be announced Samsung Galaxy Note III, which too is rumored to pack a similarly sized display. However, the Oppo N1 will probably be more about advanced camera performance, as the latest teaser hinted. Read more »

Sony has unveiled two portable battery chargers that are now available for the Indian market.

The portable chargers in question are the CP-F5 and CP-F10L, which sport a battery capacity of 5,000mAh and 10,000mAh respectively. Read more »

Google’s Gmail, YouTube and Google Play services apps are the top downloaded Android apps from the Play Store with Maps and Facebook following. The five apps have an install base between 500 million and 1 billion each.

The information has been gathered by tech blog Digital Inspiration, which has used data from the Play Store. The graph above shows the average user rating of an app (blue bars) as well as the total number of users that have left a rating for said apps (orange line). Read more »

Acer has decided not to wait until IFA officially kicks off and has announced its Iconia A3 10″ tablet in both Wi-Fi and 3G versions.

The slate is running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean on a 1.2GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU. The 10″ display is of IPS variety and features a modest 1280 x 800 pixel resolution resulting in a pixel density of 149ppi. Read more »

Despite we haven’t heard from ASUS as much as some other manufacturers recently, the Taiwan company is going to be on the IFA showfloors and is preparing a surprise on its own.

ASUS posted on its Facebook page a teaser for seemingly a 10″ Android tablet, which simply says “We transform your mobility.” Wonder what that could be all about. Read more »

Right on time, Oppo has released a teaser trailer for its upcoming N1 cameraphone.

Just as you’d expect from a video of this sort, it doesn’t show the phone itself nor does it spill any details regarding the N1′s camera. However, it does show something unexpected – a glimpse of a ISO chart camera sample taken with the phone. Read more »

We already saw the HTC One Max in the flesh flaunting its imposing figure next to the HTC One and HTC One mini. The phone is yet to debut, but weirdly you can pre-order an HTC One Max case right now.

Case maker Trident has outed its Cyclops series of cases for the HTC One Max confirming some of the phone’s features. The large cut-out at the back of the case is further evidence for the fingerprint scanner that has been rumored as one of the phone’s unique offerings. Read more »

We met the Sony Xperia Z Ultra at its official announcement and now it’s finally graced our office! Sony’s beast of a phablet has come to our headquarters for a thorough examination, and we’ve already started giving it the full review treatment. Until that is complete though, you might want to check out a short video of its unboxing, followed by a UI walkthrough.

The list of tricks the Sony Xperia Z Ultra knows is almost too long to fit on even its sizable screen. Seriously, this beast is packed to the rafters with cool features. It slots between the Xperia Z and Xperia Tablet Z, using the same sleek OmbiBalance design and philosophy – “glass is good, thin is better”. Read more »