Best of World Mobile Congress 2013
MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS. - Those three words get most smartphone fans salivating at the prospect of seeing the latest and the greatest devices in the world. This year’s event didn’t disappoint, but as most big-name manufacturers preferred to hold their own events before MWC, the show took on a different form. This year Barcelona saw small manufacturers and hitherto unknowns come to the fore with mega processors, frighteningly large screens and full HD glory.
SMART PHONES
LG OPTIMUS G PRO
LG announced the massive Optimus G Pro, which updates nearly all the internals of the Optimus G. There’s a 5.5-inch IPS LCD on top with a 1920 x 1080 resolution. A Snapdragon 600 SoC ticks inside and there’s a flagship befitting 13-megapixel camera on the back along with a 2.1-megapixel unit on the front. Together, they are capable of neat tricks like dual-recording, which uses both cameras to record a PIP video, or like the VR Panorama Mode, which allows users to click panoramas more easily, just like Google’s Photosphere.
NOKIA LUMIA 720
The Finnish company filled up the mid-range void in its WP8 lineup with the Nokia 720, which replaces the Lumia 710. It adds new features and brings the Nokia design language to a mid-range phone without sacrificing on the hardware..There’s Carl Zeiss, BSI 6.7-megapixel camera, besides NFC, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS with GLONASS and the Nokia HERE location apps suite. The only against thing I found in this phone is the resolution of the 4.3-inch display, which is stuck at WVGA. But for around Rs 17,000, we can’t complain too much. But for around Rs 16500, we can’t complain too much
ASUS PADFONE INFINITY
Is it really a smartphone? After all, there are two parts to the PadFone. Asus has endowed both the phone and tablet components with 1080p displays, and the tablet dock for the phone also ensures superb battery life thanks to the additional 5000mAh battery it brings to the package. It is still a very odd device to wrap your head around, and we venture a guess that not many folks will try it, thanks to the exorbitant 999 euro (approximately Rs 71,000) price tag. For that price, at least there’s a quad-core Snapdragon 600 chip clocked at 1.7GHz and an Adreno 320 GPU, while the RAM is a healthy 2GB.
ALCATEL ONETOUCH IDOL X
Alcatel surprised one and all with this 5-inch, 1080p wonder. At only 7.1mm-thick, it’s slim but still manages to pack a quad-core 1.2GHz processor unknown make. With HSPA support, an 8 or 13-megapixel camera (market dependent) on the back, 1080p video recording, a healthy 16GB of internal storage plus a microSD card slot, this phone has all the trappings to attract a smartphone nerd. The 2000 mAh battery, however, makes us worry a little bit. On the other hand, the colourful poly carbonate shells give off a pretty premium vibe.
ZTE OPEN / ALCATEL ONETOUCH FIRE
We can easily combine the first two Firefox OS phones under one subhead. Both the ZTE and the Alcatel handsets have gone with a modest 1GHz single-core processor based on the Cortex A5 chipset. They have the same 3.5-inch display with an HVGA resolution 3.2 mega pixel cameras and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n support. The focus here is on the HTML5-based Firefox OS rather than the hardware, but initial reactions to the new operating system have been less than stellar.
HUAWEI ASCEND P2
Huawei made a splash with its Ascend P2 which has a 4.7-inch 1280 x 720 display and a homegrown Huawei K3V2 CPU with four cores clocked at 1.5GHz. The Ascend P2 runs Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and is the first smartphone to support LTE Cat 4, which means it can theoretically reach download speeds of up to 150Mbps. The 13-megapixel camera has a BSI sensor and can shoot 1080p HDR videos. But what we really love is the large 2,420 mAh battery.
TABLET
SONY XPERIA TABLET Z
Inspired by the Xperia Z, Sony’s Tablet Z is just 6.9mm in depth and still has IP55/57 certification, which makes it water and dust-proof. Powered by a Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor, it runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and has an 8-megapixel camera on the back, a 2-megapixel front-facing unit, and NFC One-Touch functions, which allow users to transfer content among compatible devices. The 16GB and 32GB versions will retail for $499 (around Rs 26,888) and $599 (around Rs 32,277), respectively.
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 510
The newest addition to Samsung’s Note family brings an 8-inch TFT LCD with a 1280 x 800-pixel display. The Note 8.0 (Galaxy Note 510 in India) is powered by an Exynos 4 Quad processor clocked at 1.6GHz, and has 2GB of RAM. It runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and comes with the S Pen. The back panel is non-removable and contains a 4600mAh battery. It supports microSD
LENOVO S6000
Alongside the A1000 and the A3000 Lenovo announced a new 10-inch tablet the S6000. It offers extended I/O options a large screen and a slim profile. The S6000 is powered by an MTK 8389/8125 quad-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz and sports a 10.1-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1280 X 800 pixels. It also has a micro HDMI port, a digital microphone, optional HSPA+ and a battery that allows for a quoted eight hours of Wi-Fi connectivity. There’s a healthy 16GB of internal storage space, which can be bumped up by another 64GB via the microSD card slot. Around back there’s a 5-megapixel camera and VGA one on the front.
HP SLATE 7
We were expecting great things from the
first HP Android tablet, but the Slate 7 which will retail for $169.99 (around Rs 9,221), is decidedly middling. The Slate 7 runs on an ARM dual-core Cortex A9 1.6GHz CPU and has 1GB of RAM. Thankfully, there is stock Android 4.1 Jelly Bean in the software department. The initial reaction of the press folk at MWC toward the FFS+LCD screen has been quite lukewarm and not just due to the low 1024 x 600-pixel resolution. Just like every new HP device, this one has Beats Audio processing. Rounding off the package is a 3-megapixel camera on the back and a VGA one up front.
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