In the smartphone world, Apple is getting all the attention this week. Before that, it was Samsung with its Note 4 announcement, and it's likely to be Samsung again in a few weeks when the Note actually comes out. But there are a lot of other companies making quite interesting smartphones, many of which were introduced around the IFA show a couple of weeks ago, and these are worth considering.
Most of these phones run Android, although Microsoft did make an effort with the Lumia 830, 730 and 735, aiming at the more affordable part of the high-end phone range and the midrange market. In other words, the phones look good but aren't trying to be technical breakthroughs. They emphasize offering theWindows Phone at lower price points for a mainstream market, which sounds good, though the appeal of Windows Phone would be larger if there were more and better applications.
Within the Android world, the two phones from IFA that stood out most for me were the HuaweiAscend Mate7 (above) and the Sony Xperia Z3.
Huawei Goes Big
At Huawei's press conference, which had the theme of "make it possible," Richard Yu, CEO ofHuawei's Consumer Business Unit (above), said the Chinese company, which is one of the leading companies in providing LTE infrastructure worldwide, had grown to become the No. 3 maker of smartphones with a 6.9 percent market share, according to IDC.
The major product he introduced was the Ascend Mate7 with a 6-inch display and Huawei's own Kirin 925 octa-core processor.
In both of those cases, the product is a bit unique. Yu said the phone is the first to use a new display from Japan Display Inc. (JDI) with what he called a "negative liquid crystal display" (IPS-NEO), which gives it a high contrast ratio and increased brightness but with lower power.
In the Ascend Mate7, that is set off with an extremely thin bezel, with Huwaei touting the larger percentage of the size of the screen compared with the size of the phone. The phone measures 81 by 157mm and weights 185 grams, making it slightly bigger and heavier than the Galaxy Note 4, though with a larger (but not as high-resolution) display. Note that the 6-inch Mate7 isn't as tall as the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus. It has a 4100 mAh battery, which Yu claimed would last for two days in normal use (we'll have to see), but the unit itself is only 7.9mm thick at its thickest point.
The company uses its own Kirin 925 processor, which has four 1.8GHz ARM Cortex-A15 cores and four 1.3GHz Cortex-A7 cores in a big.LITTLE configuration, along with Mali-T628 graphics and an i3 sensor coprocessor, which supports a proximity sensor, gyroscope, accelerometer, and compass. It also includes Huawei's own LTE modem with support for LTE category 6, which Yu said made this the first octa-core processor with LTE Cat-6 support. It is manufactured on TSMC's 28nm HPM process.
Other features include dual antennas, so it works better wherever your hand is held on the phone, a single-touch fingerprint reader, microSD slot, 13-megapixel rear camera based on aSony image sensor, and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera, designed to be good at group shots. It comes in a metal case in black, white, and gold. This will sell for 499 euros and 599 euros, depending on memory, though it's unlikely it will ever be broadly offered in the U.S.
The other product the company announced was the slightly smaller 5.5-inch Ascend G7. (It's pretty amazing that the 5.5-inch product is the smaller one.) This is slightly smaller in all dimensions, has a 1,280-by-720 display, a LTE Category 4 modem and a 3000 mAh battery, and similar cameras to the Ascend Mate. It runs on a 1.2GHz Qualcomm processor.
Both of the new phones run Huawei's proprietary EMUI (emotion user interface) 3.0 design on top of Android, which emphasizes a series of circles and dots. We'll see whether this makes much of a difference. Although it's likely not to make much of an appearance in the U.S., Huawei clearly has global ambitions in the smartphone market.
For more, see PCMag's hands on with Huawei's Ascend Mate7 and G7.
Sony
I've often thought that Sony's Xperia line of Android phones haven't gotten the attention they deserve, as they've been top-notch phones for a long time. At the show, Sony introduced the Xperia Z3, which builds on the company's long-term emphasis on imaging and audio and adds in a couple of unusual features that make the phones stand out from the crowd.
It has a 5.2-inch, 1,920-by-1,080 screen with what Sony calls its Triluminous display, which does seem to increase saturation. It features a 20.7-megapixel rear-facing camera using Sony's 1/2.3 Exmor RS sensor and a 25mm wide-angle lens with the company saying it was the first smartphone camera with ISO 12,800 sensitivity. It can also record video at 4K, and a new feature lets you use multiple Xperia devices to capture and combine multiple angles (not that I think most people will do that). It also supports Sony's new high-resolution audio, a feature that is unique toSony's phones, and may well appeal to audiophiles.
One of the unique features is how it integrates with the Playstation 4, with Sony emphasizing how the phone can be used both as a remote to control your games while playing on the PS4 or to have some games move between the devices. It's a very cool feature.
In addition, Sony introduced a smaller Z3 Compact, essentially a 4.6-inch version with a 720p display, and a larger tablet version, the 8-inch Z3 tablet compact. It also announced the mid-range Xperia E3 with a 4.5-inch display and a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor.
I've been disappointed at how little we see of Sony smartphones in the U.S., but Sony seems to have made a few more inroads with the Z3, slated to arrive at T-Mobile shortly. For more, see PCMag's hands on with the Z3 and Z3 Compact.
I was also intrigued by some of the ways Sony seems to be embracing the Internet of Things, showing a sensor for major-brand tennis rackets and an application that lets you track your swing.
HTC and Motorola Update As Well
Also of interest is the HTC Desire 820, which the company said at the time would be the first Android phone with a 64-bit processor, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 615. That chip, which has four 1.5GHz ARM Cortex-A53 and four 1GHz Cortex-A53 cores, is likely to be running in 32-bit mode for now, as the 64-bit version of Android hasn't yet appeared, but the new instruction set looks like it could be more powerful. It will be interesting to see how it performs in the real world.
(Since then, there have been stories saying that some versions of the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 will use the Samsung Exynos 5433, with four ARM Cortex-57s and four Cortex-A53 cores on a 20nm process, and that this may actually ship first in some markets. Again, this would likely run in 32-bit for now.)
In other respects, the Desire 820 is a large mid-range phone with a 5.5-inch 1,280-by-720 display, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage, expandable up to 32GB via MicroSD. The Desire 820 has a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera and 8-megapixel front-facing one, both of which support 1080p video recording.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, Motorola announced a new version of its Moto X, which has a 5.2-inch 1,920-by-1,080 display and a 2.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, which has been a standard on high-end Android phones for much of the year.
It's good to see Motorola increasing the specs on its flagship phone, which has been a leader in how it uses sensors. It emphasizes a pure Android software experience without any special UI or anything to get in the way of the Google Android OS. But it stands out through the immense array of customization you can do to the case, which is available in all sorts of colors and styles, including the Moto Maker site, where you can design your own. Motorola Mobility has recently been part of Google and is slated to be acquired by Lenovo.
In general, I've been impressed by the array of Android smartphones, all with slightly different strengths. Samsung embraced both a larger size and a stylus early. HTC emphasizes a lovely design along with great speakers and an unusual start screen. Sony is focusing on imaging, audio, and now gaming. LG offers size, convenience features, and its unusual rear-key. Motorola gives you more customization options than anyone else. And Huawei is trying to increase screen size in the same size phone and adding its own UI. That's why as much as I like looking at the new phones from Apple and Samsung, it's important to remember that there are lots of other companies trying new things in the smartphone market.
--source: PCMag.com
