Items tagged with mwc2017
It has been over five years since Apple introduced Siri, which came baked into the iPhone 4S. Since that time, the idea of using a digital assistant has become popular in the mobile space with other players introducing their own digital assistants. One of them is Google. Android users have grown accustomed to using Google Assistant, and though the virtual assistant is primarily an Android tool, it may be making its way to iOS.The notion of Google Assistant sitting alongside Siri on iPhone devices was revealed at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this past weekend. Google product management director Gummi Hafsteinsson hinted of the possibility of pairing the two, though also noted that there...
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Xiaomi is taking a page from some its competitors by announcing a new smartphone that is powered by its own silicon. The new Mi 5C, as Xiaomi has named its new phone, features a Surge S1 processor inside. The Surge S1 is Xiaomi's first in-house produced System-on-Chip (SoC). According to Xiaomi, the Surge S1 offers better performance than Qualcomm's Snapdragon 625 chipset. This is the same approach that companies such as Apple and Huawei take. The same goes for Samsung, though it often uses two different processors for its smartphones, based on region. In this case, the Surge S1 is built by Pinecone, a subsidiary of Xiaomi that was created in October 2014. It took until now to build a fully functioning...
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There are phones galore being announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, including one that Sony says is its most ground-breaking smartphone to date, the Xperia XZ Premium. We will not argue against that claim—the Xperia XZ Premium is the latest in a long line of high-end Xperia products, and the first from Sony to combine a 5.5-inch 4K Ultra HD resolution display and High Dynamic Range (HDR) support with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 system-on-chip (SoC). Those two features alone are enough for some people to consider the Xperia XZ Premium, though there is more to digest here. Sony's newest flagship also boasts 4GB of RAM, 64GB of built-in storage, a microSD card slot supporting memory cards...
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The budget smartphone category is not exactly overflowing with tantalizing options. There have been attempts to change that over the past year, especially among Chinese manufactures such as Huawei and Xiaomi, though now we can add Lenovo to the list. Utilizing the Motorola Mobility brand it acquired from Google for $2.91 billion three years ago, Lenovo announced a pair of sub-$300 smartphones with premium styling, the Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus. Lenovo says the Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus are both the result of what it learned from surveying 12,000 adults in nine different countries about what features are important to them in a smartphone. One of the biggest things is the overall quality. With that...
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For many professionals, today's work environment entails a fair bit of traveling. The mobile workforce is growing and to keep up with the trend, HP on Sunday announced the Pro x2 612 G2 (just Pro x2 from here on out), a "dynamic new commercial detachable" designed for professionals who want a stylish device that's easy to use, and one that is also suitable for work chores in field services, government, healthcare, and other professional sectors requiring enterprise-class security. "Today, more than 60 percent of millennials work from more than one location and by 2020 they will be a majority of the workforce. They want sexy mobile devices that meet their on-the-go work styles and IT needs these...
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Lenovo just cruised into this year’s Mobile World Congress with three new Windows 10 convertibles. The Miix 320, Yoga 720 and Yoga 520 all feature versatile designs and varying screen sizes to match your specific productivity needs. The first of the lot is the Miix 320, which comes with a 10.1-inch 1920x1200 display. If you need to settle down at your desk to get work done, you can use it in notebook mode with the included full-size keyboard. However, if you’d rather veg out on the couch and surf the internet or check out a few YouTube videos, you can detach the tablet from the keyboard base for more freedom. Lenovo Miix 320 The Miix 320 is powered by an Intel Atom X5 processor, up to 4GB of...
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It seems as though everyone is out to paint a target on Microsoft’s back when it comes to challenging the likes of the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book. Samsung is the latest to rise to the occasion with the unwrapping of the Galaxy Book 12 and Galaxy Book 10. Both tablets run Windows 10 and are backed by 12-inch and 10.6-inch displays respectively. The flagship Galaxy Book 12 comes with a Super AMOLED display that has a resolution of 2160x1440. The display also supports 10-bit HDR, which should help videos and other digital content spring to life. This high-end tablet is powered by the latest Intel Kaby Lake Core i5 processors (no fan required) and can be equipped with either 4GB or 8GB...
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Most Android users will be happy to know that Google is actually working to make Google Assistant as universal as possible across a myriad of devices. The AI assistant will be rolling out to all smartphones running Android 7.0 Nougat and Android 6.0 Marshmallow eventually but will also be available on some newly announced partner devices like the fabulous new LG G6 (our hands-on preview). What is Google Assistant and why would you want it in the first place? Google Assistant is an intelligent personal AI that was recently only available on Google proper devices like Pixel and Pixel XL phones, Google Home, Google Allo, and Android Wear. The system was similar to Google...
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Huawei today trotted out a couple of new flagship smartphones for photography buffs at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain. They include the P10 and P10+ (or P10 Plus), both of which the company says it co-engineered with Leica to bring studio-like effects to enhance portrait photography. It's not that Leica actually had a hand in building these devices, but it did provide the cameras. To that end, both phones feature a front-facing 8-megapixel shooter with an f/1.9 aperture made by Leica. It's the first time that Leica's sensors have been used for a phone's front camera. And just as interesting are the rear cameras—the P10 and P10+ each boast dual cameras provided by the German optics...
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After months of leaks, the LG G6 has finally been officially unveiled. LG has gone completely back to the drawing board versus its predecessor, the questionably modular LG G5. In its place is a sleek, amazingly compact and efficient aluminum unibody design with a large 5.7-inch display. It's a truly premium flagship device and we got some quality hands-on time with it in New York last week. That display is the main focal point of the G6, and it has a rather unorthodox 18:9 screen ratio, which LG says allows the device to fit better in your hand. The thin bezels of the new flagship also give the LG G6 an 80 percent screen to body ratio. LG notes the aspect ratio is being adopted...
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Our favorite gadget leaker has just handed over specs for Samsung’s much ballyhooed Galaxy S8+ Android smartphone. The Galaxy S8+ will be Samsung’s next flagship, a distinction that it will share with its smaller Galaxy S8 sibling. According to Evan Blass, the Galaxy S8+ will have a massive 6.2-inch Super AMOLED display with a QHD+ resolution (3200x1800), which is a nice upgrade from the QHD (2560x1440) resolution displays found on previous generation Samsung flagships. Other specs aren’t too surprising given what we’ve learned about the phone over the past few months. The smartphone will feature a 12MP dual pixel rear camera, 8MP front-facing camera, iris scanner (which was cribbed from...
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Mobile World Congress kicks off in about a week and a half in Barcelona. While there are sure to be plenty of surprise announcements, some companies have revealed plans ahead of time. For example, Samsung confirmed it will not be launching its Galaxy S8 at MWC, as it needs some additional time to test the phone's batteries to avoid another Galaxy Note 7 scenario. But while Samsung will not be launching a flagship handset, Chinese rival Huawei will. Huawei is planning to unveil its P10 smartphone at MWC. There is not a lot we know about the device at this point, other than it being Huawei's next flagship phone. In a video Huawei put together that teases the P10, it hints that there will be a dual-lens...
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The LG G6 isn’t expected to officially be unveiled until MWC 2017 in Barcelona next month, but LG has already starting dropping hints on what to expect. But it isn’t just LG, insiders are also leaking information on the G6 including the latest revelation that it will be the first non-Pixel smartphone to come with the Google Assistant built-in. If you recall, the Google Assistant was introduced with the Google Pixel and Pixel XL flagship Android 7.0 Nougat smartphones in the fall of 2016. The Google Assistant use artificial intelligence (AI), which learns more about you as you use it and interacts in essence like a chatbot. It can also present information to you in useful ways (including your...
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BlackBerry isn’t ready to completely throw in the towel on the smartphone market just yet. Even though its market share has fallen to below one percent in recent years, BlackBerry is still soldiering forward with a new Android-based smartphone. First officially unveiled in prototype form at this year’s CES (and leaked weeks prior), BlackBerry confirmed this week that the ‘Mercury’ will launch on February 25th at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Those of you expecting a flagship-level smartphone may be disappointed. The Mercury is rumored to ship with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, 3GB of RAM, 3,400 mAh battery and will feature a 4.5-inch display. When it comes to cameras,...
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Mobile World Congress is still a month away but that just means a few more weeks of leaks ahead of the annual convention in Barcelona. The latest leak is a press photo what is presumed to be the LG G6, the company's upcoming flagship Android smartphone. It is not a full shot of the device, though enough is visible to make out a premium design that looks every bit as good as the competition.The G6 is expected to arrive with a 5.7-inch display sporting a not-so-common (in the smartphone space) 2:1 aspect ratio. Part of the reason for that is because LG wanted to minimize the bezels—the phone features an impressive screen-to-bezel ratio of 90 percent. The bottom of the handset is not visible in...
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Having survived the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, Samsung is in the process of some final housekeeping (officially presenting results of its investigation into what caused the Galaxy Note 7 handsets to overheat and catch fire) before putting the matter to rest and looking ahead to what is next. We already know what that is—it's the Galaxy S8, Samsung's next flagship phone, but surprisingly it will not make a debut at Mobile World Congress.Samsung mobile boss Koh Dong-jin confirmed as much during a press briefing on Monday. The revelation is somewhat a surprise because Samsung has typically used the annual convention in Barcelona as a launchpad for its Galaxy S series, and many expected that would be...
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