Smartphones

Motorola Is Making a Flagship Android Phone Called the Moto X

Motorola, a company trying to figure out why it still exists, is apparently making a flagship Android phone called the Moto X. Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside confirmed it in his interview at the D11 conference. Could the Moto X be the mysterious Motorola Google lovechild phone we spotted before? https://gizmodo.com/does-this-mystery-motorola-reveal-googles-influence-5990275 Motorola has been very quiet…

LG Optimus G Pro Review: The Fastest Big Phone Out There

Fun fact: In a sprint, the hippo is one of the fastest land mammals, despite also being one of the largest. Similarly, the LG Optimus G Pro is unquestionably one humungoid phone, but it runs about as fast as the top speedsters out there. Whether or not you should consider buying it, however, is up…

Control This Lovely Wireless Speaker By Just Putting Your Phone On It

Dismayed by the over-complicated control schemes of wireless speakers that usually result in redundant playback and volume controls, Victor Johansson, an inspiring product designer, came up with a better solution: a minimalist ceramic speaker that only cares about where you place your phone. Instead of buttons or other physical controls, the speaker uses a set…

Why the HTC One Lacks a Micro SD Slot

According to technical reasons we are not clever enough to be able to argue with, the version of the HTC One sold in the US lacks an SD card slot due to internal space restrictions. Because of something to do with our mobile radio frequencies. That’s what HTC says and we’re powerless to argue. The…

The First Jolla Smartphone: Quirky, $500, and Android-Friendly

When a band of engineers fled Nokia in 2012 to develop a MeeGo-derived OS called Sailfish, they needed a vehicle to carry the software. And this is it: the first Jolla phone, which is as quirky as the OS it runs. Featuring a 4.5-inch display, dual-core processor, 8-megapixel camera, 4G, 16GB of onboard storage, and…

How the Nokia Lumia 925 Stacks Up to the Competition

Confirming yesterday’s gorgeous leaked images, Nokia’s finally unveiled its newest flagship Windows Phone, the Lumia 925. And just as the photos promised, this latest Lumia incarnation comes to us in a sleek, aluminum-cased beauty of a body. Now that’s all good and dandy, but the real test comes with what it’s packing under the hood.…

Nokia Lumia 925 Hands-On: The Windows Phone You’ll Want (Updated)

Nokia’s just unveiled the Lumia 925—and it’s the Windows phone that you’ll want. Gone is the all-plastic traditional Lumia, subsumed by a much more refined feeling metal-polycarbonate mix. This thing looks and feels great. So, what’s it like? Well, if you take the Lumia 920, remove about 20 to 30 per cent of the weight,…

Nokia’s New Lumia 925: A Sleek Metal Frame and Fancy Camera

Nokia’s just taken the wraps off its latest flagship Windows Phone. We’ve heard rumours of a PureView-packing beast, but confirming yesterday’s leak it’s the Lumia 925, an updated, metal-clad version of the Lumia 920, and it sure is a looker. So, not the true PureView-packing EOS, sadly, but just the Lumia 925 — a move…

Following rumors that Samsung is readying a klutz-proof version of the Galaxy S4, just such a phone has appeared on the Bluetooth Special Interest Group’s (SIG) Bluetooth-certification pages. Looks like it’s on its way, then.

Newt Gingrich Can’t Work Out What His Phone Is

“Here at Gingrich Productions, we’ve spent weeks figuring out,” ponders Newt Gingrich. “What do you call this?” It’s a phone, Newt. “But think about it. If it’s taking pictures, it’s not a cellphone. If you can get Wikipedia or go to Google, that’s not a cellphone.” Sigh. Newt is clearly puzzled by the shiny black…

This Sony Xperia Is Waterproof to 5 Feet

Snorkelers rejoice: Sony’s decided to push its current trend for water-resistant phones to new heights, with the launch of the Xperia ZR which is waterproof to 5 feet. The 4.6-inch Android phone even has a big ol’ camera button on its side to make sure its easy to take pictures and film HD video while…

WSJ: Amazon’s Working on a Smartphone With a Crazy 3D Display

The WSJ reports that Amazon is devloping a battery of new devices, including a smartphone that would use a crazy-sounding glasses-free 3D technology. If it’s true…what in heavens? This better not be just another HTC Evo 3D. We’re worried because that’s what this sounds like. If there was a lesson from that catastrophe, it’s that…

Sony Xperia ZL Review: Behind the Curve Everywhere It Counts

Sony’s Xperia Z and ZL, were the two most exciting smartphonesat this past January’s Consumer Electronics. But that feels like years ago now, and with the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 now on the scene, it takes a lot more to be a top-tier device. What Is It? One of Sony’s two flagship smartphones…

HTC Reportedly Working on a Smaller Version of the One

Evleaks is reporting that HTC is planning to release a trimmed-down version of its current flagship phone, the One, which will pack a 4.3-inch screen. The rumors suggest that HTC has been working on a miniaturized version—codenamed M4—which it plans to announce before the end of June. According to Evleaks, the phone will feature a…

This Sensor Will Give Your Phone a 1080p, 60fps Front Camera

Most front-facing phone cameras suck. It’s not their fault, though: they have to be squeezed in to a tiny gap, which puts obvious limits on their geometry. Fortunately, this new Omnivision sensor squeezes a lot more performance into that minuscule frame. The new OV2724 shoehorns a 1080p sensor into a component that’s just 5mm by…

Time for an upgrade, AT&T users! Beginning May 1, you’ll be able to trade in your current smartphone for at least $100 off a new one (as long as you re-up for another 2 year contract). That means you can get an iPhone or a Galaxy S4 for a bill less than usual, even if…

Finally, Phone RAM as Good as the Stuff in Your Computer

Samsung has just announced that it’s rolling some pretty exciting new memory into production, which will finally bring computer-like RAM performance to your mobile. Of course, to work that out you have to sift through all the mention of 20nm manufacturing techniques and LPDDR3 naming. What you really need to know is that it’s fast:…

Set Your Phone’s Photos Free With the Wikimedia Commons App

Wikipedia just wouldn’t be the same without its pictures, but someone has to go out and take ’em. Now you can help, armed with nothing but a smartphone and some stuff to shoot. The new Wikimedia Commons apps for iOS and Android make uploading pictures to Wikimedia’s Creative Commons archive a piece of cake. By…

Of the 418.6M cellphones shipped last quarter, more than half were smartphones at 216.2M, a first, according to IDC.

Nokia has announced that it will hold a Lumia event in London on May 14th—brace yourself for new phones.