Category: Hands-on
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Samsung Wireless Charging Pad hands-on

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Samsung launched a brand new Qi wireless charging pad alongside Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge. The flagship smartphones support Qi and PMA wireless charging out of the box.

Available in dark blue or white, Samsung’s wireless charging pad is a handsome thing too look at in the flesh. Read more »

Pong Sleek Case for iPhone 6 review

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The Pong Sleek Case is a thin snap-on protective cover for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The case is designed for users who worry about the radiation which their smartphone emits.

Based in Encinitas, California, Pong debuted its first radiation-absorbing case alongside iPhone 4 in 2010. The company’s innovative tech has been developed by a team of PhD scientists from Harvard, MIT, and University of Manchester among others. Read more »

Meizu m1 note hands-on

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We were very impressed with the Meizu MX4 and even more impressed with its bigger counterpart the Meizu MX4 Pro but to cover all interested users, the China-based maker has a cheaper phablet in the face of the Meizu m1 note.

It cuts a few of the more premium hardware characteristics but the looks and feel are every bit as good. The screen is a 5.5″ IPS unit of a lower 1080p resolution (compared to the 1536p of the MX4 Pro) but is every bit as bright and colorful. Read more »

Vivo Xshot hands-on

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Vivo is one of those small Chinese manufacturers that rarely make headlines, but when they do, it’s usually big. The company definitely deserves credit, as it is generally quite open to experimentation and has always employed a premium quality approach to their tech.

This, of course, has its down-sides, but the good news is that most every phone that bears the Vivo brand is quite distinctive in some way. The Xplay and Xplay 3S were very early adopters of cutting-edge hardware at the time of their releases and the Vivo X5 Max was the bearer of the title – “word’s thinnest smartphone”, that is before Gionee came along. Read more »

Archos 50 Diamond hands-on

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You may be excused for not being familiar with Archos but the French phone maker has made itself relevant in the markets it operates on with tablets that offer great hardware at very low price points. The company makes more than tablets though – there are also a lot of phones, and the Archos 50 Diamond is their best.

The 50 Diamond is a minimalist smartphone with clean design and a flamboyant lime paint job. It offers a balanced set of abilities that will ensure a reasonable price point and more than reasonable performance. Read more »

Sony Xperia E4 hands-on

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The Xperia E4 is Sony’s latest entry in the low-end market. The budget smartphone boats a very economic price tag of about EUR 130, but it does come with a twist. The Japanese tech giant has definitely achieved a lot with the E4, considering budget restrictions, but, naturally, a lot of corners have been cut to keep the cost down.

The phone is crafted entirely out of plastic and is available in two classic colors – black and white. While the material is definitely not premium, Sony has done a relay nice job with the finish and phone feels comfy and quite nice to the touch.

Design-wise there are some rough edges, and I mean that quite literally. The E4 comes with a removable back cover which surrounds the whole back side of the phone and makes for a quite bulky appearance. Still, it lacks a replaceable battery. Read more »

Who’s afraid of the dark: testing Galaxy S6 camera’s low-light performance

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Samsung had a dimly lit setup to test the low-light performance of the Galaxy S6‘s new camera. With a Galaxy Note Edge and a Apple iPhone 6 on hand we snapped a couple of shots.

The idea is simple – a dark box with two holes just big enough to poke the camera of a phone. Read more »

Wiko Highway Star 4G and Highway Pure 4G hands-on

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Wiko announced two new smartphones yesterday and we have the hands-on impressions for you now. The Highway Star 4G and Highway Pure 4G are are both quite the lookers but also boast impressive specs.

The higher end of the duo is the Highway Star 4G and rocks a matte aluminum unibody with flat front glass. It also comes in various color options like Silver, Gold, Grey and Bleen (the cyan one). Read more »

Gionee Elife S7 hands-on

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Gionee has become known for its ultra-thin phones, but with the Elife S7 it also wanted great battery life from a phone that doesn’t overheat. The result is an elaborate and fairly unique design.

The metal frame of the phone is built from aircraft grade stainless steel. The sides of this frame are grooved, something quite deliberate. Read more »

ZTE Grand S3 hands-on

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ZTE Grand S3 went official just yesterday as the company’s latest flagship, which introduces Eyeprint ID biometric security service. ZTE is indeed the first manufacturer to implement this kind of technology into a mobile phone.

The ZTE Grand S3 packs a 5.5″ 1080p display and runs on the Snapdragon 801 chip with quad-core Krait 400 CPU at 2.5GHz, Adreno 330 GPU and 3GB of RAM. It also offers 16GB expandable storage, 16MP rear camera with dual-LED flash and an 8MP front selfie snapper. There is also LTE connectivity, Wi-Fi ac, Dolby Sound and a 3,100 mAh battery.

We went to see the smartphone at ZTE’s booth and we found it to be quite pretty with slightly curved glass on its front. Read more »

Nokia N1 hands-on

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After Microsoft took over Nokia’s devices business we felt we’d never hold another Nokia device again. But as it turned out the company wasn’t done. It’s not exactly clear how much of Nokia there is in the Nokia N1 but after handling it we feel reassured that this is indeed a product of the quality-driven Finish brand we know and love.

The Nokia N1 launched in China solely while the rest of the world is aching to see the low-cost high-end slate launch elsewhere. However the Nokia rep we talked to assures us that the Nokia N1 is coming to Europe – so here goes a sneak peak at what to expect. Read more »

Yezz finally shows off an awesome Ara model, well, sort of

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Most of you surely remember Google’s project ARA – the ingenious modular phone concept, that started out as “Phoneblocks”, way back in 2013. Well, it is pretty much alive today it seems to be coming up quite nicely.

Project Are has drawn so much attention that there have been numerous conferences on the subject, as well as an official Project Ara Module Developers Kit and even a few actual Project Ara prototypes.

While roaming around the MWC yesterday we stumbled upon Yezz Mobile’s take on a Project Ara phone. But before you get overly excited as well, it was not a functioning unit, but rather a model, showcasing what the first Ara devices should look like, once they become a reality, hopefully some time later this year. Read more »

Saygus V2 hands-on

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When we first heard about the Saygus V2, we immediately warmed up to the idea of a smartphone with a duo of microSD card slots and wondered why anyone haven’t done this before. Having insufficient storage on a smartphone is right next to the issue of small batteries for us and the Saygus V2 could easily become a trendsetter.

The two microSD card slots can hold up to 128GB memory cards each. Combine this with the 64GB internal storage and you get a maximum of 320GB total space. But the Saygus V2 isn’t just storage and has a lot more going for it. Read more »

Motorola Moto E (2015) hands-on

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The Moto E was one of the best phones you can buy on a budget, but now we have its successor in our hands. The Motorola Moto E (2015) has grown in size and we like the design better than the original. Plus, it’s more customizable, like a simple DIY Motomaker.

With increased competition from Microsoft and Chinese Androids, Motorola has to stay on top of its game if it wants to remain popular in the entry-level segment. Read more »

Jolla Tablet hands-on

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Founded by former Nokia employees, Jolla is a company that aims to carry on the MeeGo legacy. Its open-source Sailfish OS has now reached version 2.0 and it’s getting ready to debut on the crowd-funded Jolla Tablet. We had a chance to spend some time with the slate so we now have a better idea of how the eccentric platform behaves on its reasonably capable hardware.

The Jolla Tablet comes with a 7.85” display of 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution which we found to be rather good. Its brightness levels are very high and the viewing angles were great – despite some contrast compression we were still able to make out what’s on the screen even at extreme angles. Read more »