I had the pleasure to write the first ever public post on the GSMArena blog back in October 2009. Today, almost six years later, I have the honor of writing the last one too.

Don’t you worry, we are not scrapping the project, just on the contrary – we’re promoting it. As part of our redesign and reorganization efforts, from now on, the usual blog content that you know and love will become an integral part of our main website content as a separate tech column.

Throughout all these years we kept the blog running almost like a separate website, using an entirely different content management platform compared to our main website found at GSMArena.com. This presented with lots of challenges in terms of re-using and interlinking content between the two, updating both with new features, patching vulnerabilities and even training editors to work efficiently with two different types of user interfaces – it has generally been a big headache for our developer’s team trying to keep the looks of features and styles consistent across the two outlets.

In the same time we are humbled by the fact that so many people keep choosing us as their source for news about all things tech on a daily basis. We’ve been amazed by the audience response and we’ve been enjoying a healthy traffic growth rate throughout all these years. So we decided that it’s time to make our lives easier and take this blog to the next level with it becoming a fully-fledged part of GSMArena’s homepage where it rightfully belongs.

All the content that we’ve produced as part of blog.gsmarena.com will remain accessible here forever for your perusal – the same goes for the Disqus commenting subsystem. Our new blog column will use the main website’s commenting system where you will have the option of either posting anonymously or logging in with either your Facebook or Google+ account.

It was a fun ride. But there are a lot more fun times ahead and we’re merely changing lanes here. So hop on as we push ahead.

This way to GSMArena Blog 2.0

The latest smartphone that can boot an OS it will likely never need is Asus ZenFone 2. A crafty XDA Developers member ported Microsoft Windows 7 to the Intel Atom-based smartphone.

The desktop OS was ported on the ZE551ML variant of the ZenFone 2. Read more »

Oppo’s Find 7 and Find 7a aren’t new devices anymore, as they were last year’s flagships for the Chinese company. That said, Oppo is still selling them, but at a steep discount – at least if you choose to buy one before July 14.

This applies if you’re in the US and order from Oppo’s official online store. If so, you can purchase a Find 7a for only $289, and the higher-end Find 7 for just $329. Read more »

If you’re in the US and are after Samsung’s top of the line phablet at the moment, here’s a deal that might interest you. The Korean smartphone maker has started a new promotion in the States today, one that will last until July 26.

It goes something like this. You purchase a Galaxy Note 4 at full retail price, and then Samsung will give you back $200 out of what you paid. Read more »

LG’s arm in Israel has decided to film a new promotional video for the G4. That in itself would be nothing out of the ordinary. What is a bit special in this case, however, is that most of the video is actually shot on the G4 itself. Which is strapped to a drone.

Now that drones are so hip and fashionable, LG thought its G4 should get some of that flying action too. Furthermore, the handset is filming its travels, so it can document what it’s seen. The music is dramatic, and the scenery is certainly spectacular. Read more »

If you are looking for to buy a Samsung Galaxy S6, now might be a good time. A an eBay power seller in the United States is offering a factory unlocked G920F variant of the handset for $499.99.

Of course, the above mentioned price tag will land you a 32GB version of the Korean giant’s flagship smartphone. Read more »

Oppo R7 is quite an interesting smartphone, which upgrades on the super thin Oppo R5. The new R7 brings back the 3.5mm jack and adds extra battery capacity at the price of 1.4mm of extra thickness. We also get dual-SIM connectivity, a microSD expansion slot, a higher-res selfie camera and enhanced rear snapper this time around.

The Oppo R7 keeps the same key hardware specs – a 5″ AMOLED 1080p display, the same Snapdragon 615 chip, this time around with 3GB of RAM, and runs on the aging Android KitKat. The older Oppo R5 returned a disappointing endurance rating and we hope Oppo managed to fix this issue for the successor. Read more »

Blind tests have now reached mobile device related marketing. HTC has taken exactly this approach in three new ads for its One M9. The handset maker’s representative has regular people test three aspects of smartphone use by using three devices which are fully covered by big, bulky cases – so as not to give away what they are.

If you’ve guessed that the HTC One M9 wins every single one of these tests, you were right, amazingly. App opening speed? Check. Sound quality? Check. Low-light selfies? Check. Read more »

Back when it revealed that it would launch its next smartphone in VR, OnePlus also made its own version of Google’s Cardboard official. The Chinese company promised to make this available to people before its grand unveiling event for the OnePlus 2, which will happen on July 27.

And now you can order one, straight from the OnePlus website. The rather surprising fact is that it’s free. You only have to pay for shipping, which is going to be $5 if you’re in the US, £5 if you’re in the UK, or €7 if you’re elsewhere in Europe. Read more »

Following Motorola’s UK summer sale, which saw the Nexus 6 smartphone being offered on discounted rates, Google has also slashed the price of the handset in the country.

The 32GB and 64GB models of the device – which usually sell for £479 and £549 – are now listed at £304 and £379 on the Google Play Store. It is, however, not yet known whether or not it’s a temporary price cut as Google hasn’t yet officially announced it. Read more »

If you are planning to purchase an HTC One M9, here is a deal that might interest you: the Taiwanese company is offering a $100 Google Play credit to those who purchase the flagship smartphone from Verizon.

The promotion has already begun, and it runs through August 31. To claim your $100 Google Play credit, you’ll have to visit a specific webpage (click the Source 2 link below), where you’ll be required to provide proof of purchase, your contact information, as well as the smartphone’s IMEI number. You can redeem your $100 credit by September 30. Read more »

Last month, LG ran an interesting promotion for its G4 smartphone in the US. The company offered people who purchased the handset a free microSD card, a second battery, and a charging cradle. This month, LG is up to something very similar.

Only this time around the microSD card in the giveaway has been replaced with a leather back cover. You still also get a second battery with a charging cradle. Read more »

Samsung Galaxy S6 Active features a massive 3,500mAh battery. The rest of the rugged device’s internals are identical to those found in the regular Samsung Galaxy S6, so we were quite curious to put it through our battery test.

The 2,550mAh battery of the SM-G920 was sufficient enough to propel it to a stellar endurance rating of 73 hours. With roughly 40% more battery capacity than its non-rugged sibling, Samsung Galaxy S6 Active commands seriously high expectations. Read on to find out if the device delivers! Read more »

The Android 5.1.1 update for the Samsung Galaxy S6 has been out for a while and it finally landed in our grasp so we updated our unit and took it for a quick spin. And we do mean quick as the changelog is particularly short.

We dug around the interface, tried shooting a RAW image and ran some benchmarks. Our findings are pretty slim – the 0.1 update brings only a handful of features. Read more »

The Lenovo A7000 is one of company’s budget smartphones, slotted between the A6000 Plus and the new K3 Note. But while we will be taking a look at the latter in a future post, it’s time to take a closer look at the A7000.

Despite its budget positioning, the A7000 does come with a good set of features, including a 5.5-inch HD display, 64-bit octa-core processor on a MediaTek chipset, 2GB RAM, 8 megapixel camera, LTE, dual SIM support and a 2900mAh battery. It’s also the world’s first phone to have Dolby Atmos-certified audio. Read more »