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Alcatel introduces Idol 2 series to take on midrange competition
Alcatel OneTouch is slowly but surely climbing the ranks of the smartphone world, having evolved from a line of low-end featurephones and smartphones just a couple years ago to a more established brand with good quality hardware. It's not slowing down the pace at which it introduces new devices, either -- this week, it's launching roughly a dozen or so handsets. Two of them are the first devices in the company's new Idol 2 family (a successor to this lineup) -- the self-titled 5-inch Idol 2 (shown above) and its smaller friend, the 4.5-inch Idol 2 Mini -- and each one comes with a 3G option as well as an "S"-branded LTE variant. The Mini, which measures 8.5mm thick, will come out first, with an estimated launch in the first week of March. The devices will feature a qHD display, a quad core 1.2GHz processor, Android 4.3 (upgradeable to 4.4), NFC, an 8MP rear camera and 2MP front camera. The 3G model will be available for 169 euro ($232), while its LTE sibling will go for 209 euro ($287). The former choice also offers a plastic build, while the higher-speed handset has been bestowed with a metal back and plastic at the top and bottom for attenuation. Each model comes in your choice of four colors, although the Idol S Mini includes a chocolate hue instead of hot pink. As for the larger Idol 2, it should be inbound by April or May at a cost of 199 euro ($274) for 3G and 249 ($342) euro for LTE. The duo will be around 7.3mm thick and offer improved HD Audio, as well as Android 4.3 (upgradeable to 4.4 KitKat), a 720p IPS display with nice viewing angles, Cat 4 LTE, a quad core 1.2GHz processor, NFC, 8MP rear camera and 1.3 MP front-facing camera. Fortunately, all of the above devices fit pretty well into the Idol family, as most of them all have the same feel, texture and genuinely decent build. They're also comfortable to hold. Overall, Alcatel OneTouch hopes that the Idol 2 series will compete well in the midrange market against legions of similar phones, but given its steady growth and increased marketing budget in 2014, we believe that they're doing something right.
Samsung Gear 2 smartwatches coming in April with Tizen OS and better battery life
Even in an industry known for evolving at an impossibly quick pace, it's rare for a product to be replaced in just five months. If you've read our review of Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch, however, it probably makes sense why the manufacturer would want to antiquate it as soon as possible -- while an interesting concept, the wearable was clearly half-baked. This morning, Samsung is starting off Mobile World Congress by announcing the Gear 2 (shown above, right) and the camera-less Gear 2 Neo (above, left), both of which (the company hopes) will address most of its predecessor's pain points when it arrives in stores worldwide this April. The absence of Galaxy branding is no typo, by the way; the new Gear will run on the Tizen operating system, a platform which Samsung has been investing large amounts of money and resources into. It's not the company's first device running that OS -- that honor goes to the NX300M camera -- but regardless, it's hard to know exactly how different the user experience will be on a Tizen-powered smartwatch instead of an Android-based one. According to Samsung, we can expect a battery life of 2-3 days (two to three times better than the first Gear's one-day life), an "enriched application ecosystem" and some sweeping changes to the external design. Check out the gallery below and join us after the break for more details.
We're live from Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona!
We're embarked upon the capital of Catalonia, where warm and sunny days are a stark contrast to the chilly snows we experienced last year. But we're happy to brave it for the opportunity to see the latest smartphones, tablets and wearables. While a few companies didn't want to wait for the show to make their big announcements, there are always at least a handful of surprises hidden within the walls of the Fira Gran Via. Some of the fun begins tomorrow, which is also when you'll hear more about our liveblog coverage. Keep it locked to our Events page to stay up to date!
Samsung's new Galaxy Gear wearable will come in two models, according to fuzzy leaked images
It definitely looks like a new Galaxy Gear. There's definitely two of them and... that's most of what we can discern from what appear to be some cannily sniffed-out thumbnails from, well, somewhere. According to @evleaks, they'll be known as the Galaxy Gear 2 and the Galaxy Gear Neo. Samsung's branched off its Galaxy phone range in a similar way, and if that's any indicator, the Neo smartwatch will be a cheaper model with presumably some hardware drawbacks to go alongside that discount price tag. If you squint extra hard, you should be able to make out a physical button below the screen, with the one on the left (presumably Gear version two), getting more of the metallic design love than its stablemate. Are they really running on Tizen? Has Samsung solved the battery gripes of its first smartwatch launch? These important answers (alongside some higher res images, please) should be mere days away.
Mobile World Congress 2014: What to expect at the biggest mobile show on Earth
If you care about the latest smartphones, you need to pay attention to Mobile World Congress. The annual show will be held in Barcelona next week, and it's going to be filled to the brim with handsets, tablets and wearables of every shape, size and color. We've compiled all of the major rumors, teasers and official company announcements to give you a glimpse at what's to come. For more from Samsung, Nokia, LG and beyond, follows us after the break and keep it locked here next week for more from MWC.
Smartwatches are dumb, but they don't have to be
If recent trends are any indication, there are two roads that lie ahead for smartwatches and the companies foisting them upon us: the all-you-can-eat, tracker + smartphone approach and the single-minded focus on health and wellness bands. One meanders off to a fuzzy horizon laden with disregarded Dead End signs, a jumble of features and an overload of quantified-self data. And the other... well, that narrowly focused path to wellness simply falls off a cliff. It's not because dedicated health and wellness devices have no place in the wearables market -- right now, they do. It's because that area of lifestyle tracking will inevitably be consumed by the smartwatch borg as a subset of ancillary features. And yet, here we are -- about to enter into the irrevocable phase of mobile technologies as wrist-worn wearables with questionable (for now) benefits. A future we'll preview more intensely at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as some big-name manufacturers unveil their in-development takes on what can currently be described as redundant lifestyle tech.
Huawei's Media Pad X1 leaks with calling capabilities and smart cover
A few cats have escaped from Huawei's bag ahead of Mobile World Conference, namely images of its 7-inch MediaPad X1 and mid-range Ascend G6 handset. A Chinese Weibo site nabbed live pics of the MediaPad X1, and thanks to a previous visit through China's FAA, we know its specs: quad-core 1.6GHz HiSilicon 910 CPU, 2GB of RAM, 16 GB memory, a 1,920 x 1,200 display and a 6,000 mAh battery. It's also reported to have telephonic capabilities for those with headsets (or no shame), and optional LTE. Interestingly, the pics also show a faux-stitched smart cover with a secondary display, à la Samsung's S View. All that puts it on the high-end side, and the coup de grace would be a rumored price tag of around 1,200 Yuan (about $200), which we imagine would be sans LTE or the cover. Meanwhile, rumor-monger @evleaks has outed pics of Huawei's Ascend G6 smartphone (after the break), a 4.5-inch model said to have a quad-core 1.3GHz MediaTek chip, 1GB of RAM, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and an 8-megapixel front / 5-megapixel rear camera. Its standout feature is a slim 7.5mm profile, but it otherwise seems destined for bargain shoppers. We know nothing else about pricing and availability, of course, but we imagine we'll find out soon at MWC 2014 -- which is shaping up to be rather epic. Update: Huawei just tweeted an image (embedded after the break) to tease the four devices it will be announcing at MWC. It looks like the X1 and the G6 are listed there, along with a larger stereo-sounding tablet and a mobile hotspot. But where's the smartband?
Opera's Sponsored Web Pass gives you free mobile internet if you watch an ad
Did you know that people like free stuff? Opera knows, which is why it's now launching an ad-supported version of its Web Pass platform. Mobile operators can now easily take advantage of this tool to not only sell duration-based passes (like unlimited browsing for a day or just Twitter for a week), but to also offer them for free. The catch? You just have to watch an ad before each session begins, which doesn't sound too painful. Users also have to stick with the Opera Mini browser, in order to leverage its cloud-assisted web compression technology. We're talking about saving up to 80 percent of data traffic here, hence the cheap or even free web passes -- like Malaysia's DiGi offering unlimited browsing via Opera Mini for just $0.60 per day. Of course, you can still use Opera Mini to save money in other scenarios, especially when data roaming. With the upcoming Opera Max service, smartphone users can save even more by having their app and video traffic compressed. If you're based in the US or Western Europe, you can now go ahead and pre-register for the Opera Max's open beta.
This awkward wearable might be Huawei's upcoming smartwatch
Look, the truth is most smartwatches just aren't that stylish. Take for example the clunky wearable in this pic, which might actually be one of Huawei's upcoming devices. A Huawei exec has posted this image and the one after the break on Weibo (a Chinese social network) with a caption that says: "My new toy. Do you like this color?" Since the company's expected to launch a smartwatch at Mobile World Congress, it's easy to assume that this is the device in question, but we'll know for sure in a few days. By the way, these images were taken using a mysterious Glory X1 device, which could be the MediaPad X1 7.0, the watch itself or something entirely new. Despite these pictures, it might still be worth checking back for Huawei's smartwatch next week. After all, this baby blue bracelet could just be an early prototype... or a high-tech toy from a cereal box.
Volvo tests grocery delivery to connected cars instead of your home
We've seen connected cars do a lot of things, and now they could save those precious minutes you spend at a drive-thru pickup or the hassle of missing a FedEx stop. At Mobile World Congress, Volvo is set to demo it's "ground-breaking" Roam Delivery service concept (developed with help from Ericsson) that brings your purchases to your vehicle wherever it happens to be parked. Why, you ask? Well, the company cites the headaches that surround missing the UPS driver and having to coordinate a second attempt. Once an order is placed online and your vehicle of choice is selected as the drop-off, a courier is given GPS coordinates to that location and a one-time use digital key. After accepting the delivery via smartphone or tablet, the digital key is activated, allowing access to the trunk and disappears once the goods have been placed inside and your car is locked. Although no retail partners have been announced just yet, Volvo has been running a pilot program and found 92% of the participants preferred the convenience of a mobile delivery over the necessity of being at home. As far as we're concerned, the fewer packages left out on the stoop, the better.
Archos intros 8-inch Helium 4G tablet, octa-core Oxygen smartphone ahead of MWC
Even though Mobile World Congress 2014 doesn't officially kick off until February 24th, Archos has gone ahead and revealed some products it will be bringing to the event. For starters, there's the 80 Helium 4G, an 8-inch, £230 tablet that packs a Cortex-A7 quad-core processor, 4G/LTE and Android 4.3. Additionally, Archos is also introducing a 5-inch, dual-SIM smartphone called 50c Oxygen, which features a 720p IPS display, MediaTek octa-core CPU, Jelly Bean (sorry, no KitKat here) and a 6.77-mm thick body. Archos' 80 Helium 4G and 50c Oxygen won't launch until later this year, but the company is indeed planning to show them off in Barcelona -- and you know we'll be there.
HTC's new flagship gets approved by the FCC
At this point, the followup to HTC's One flagship is a lock for late March, and we've even been blessed with leaks that show off what the phone, codenamed M8, looks like. Now the device has made its way through the obligatory FCC approval process, and the actual design of the phone -- complete with its soft curved corners -- made it through without the veil of confidentiality attached. There's nothing new here, but it at least confirms earlier leaks. In the way of additional details, it looks like this particular version of the new One will have AT&T-compatible LTE as well as a few extras (it features bands 2, 4, 5, 7 and 17), but we have a feeling that HTC will have regional variants to ensure every corner of the globe is covered with the necessary connectivity. There's also NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, dual-band 802.11ac WiFi, and we'll update you if we come across any other goodies as we dig. Just about a month left until the company fills in all the missing pieces.
Which Android phones win at gaming?
A simple kind of happiness reigns in the world of mobile gaming. The app stores are brimming over with four-star ratings; popular titles are making billions of dollars for their creators; and folks on the morning commute seem generally content with what they're playing -- sometimes destroying rows of fruit, sometimes rows of candy. Few of us expect or demand anything deeper on a tablet or smartphone, and surely none of us would be crazy enough to choose our next handset based solely on a criterion as narrow as 3D gaming performance. Right? Well, yes and no. Things certainly get more complicated when you look at the cutting edge -- especially on Android. The industry is pushing the boundaries of what a mobile game can be, what a mobile processor can do and what an Android-based gaming device can look like. And as ambitions escalate, so do the risks. The old nemesis of fragmentation means that certain titles may stutter, or cause excessive battery drain, or fail to run at all, so that those glowing reviews turn into one-star complaints and customers go back to playing it safe. The industry is pushing the boundaries of what a mobile game can be That's why we reckon it's a good time to take stock -- to measure how well some current and older Android devices handle a sample of graphically demanding games. We've got cold, hard numbers to show you, which should help to pinpoint the most future-proofed products. We also have a secondary aim, which is to set a benchmark against which we can judge the next wave of hardware, soon to be announced at Mobile World Congress. Indeed, it's already becoming clear that, from a gaming perspective, smartphones don't always progress in the manner or at the rate that we might expect.
Oral-B smart toothbrush will make sure you're following your dentist's advice
Two can play the smartphone-savvy toothbrush game, it seems. Procter & Gamble tells Reuters that it's releasing an Oral-B toothbrush (pictured above) that, like its Kolibree rival, will talk to your smartphone via Bluetooth to show how well you're cleaning your teeth. Dentists will play a more important role here, however -- they can program the companion app to make sure you're cleaning spots you tend to miss. Ideally, this will prevent the tendency to slack off following a check-up. The smart brush will be one of the priciest models in the Oral-B line at £199 ($331) when it ships in June, but it may be worth the expense if it spares you from any cavities.
HTC's new smartwatch may be previewed next week with Qualcomm guts
Remember when HTC's Cher Wang said that her company solved the smartwatch battery life conundrum? Rumor has it the answer was Mirasol. According to Bloomberg sources, the company is preparing to share its smartwatch prototype with carriers at Mobile World Congress next week, a wearable that's said to be based on Qualcomm's Toq. If the would-be watch matches that model blow for blow, it'll have a Mirasol touchscreen, wireless charging capabilities and the ability to handle calls, music, calendar data and limited text messaging (read only) directly from the device. Bloomberg's leaker also said that the firm is also working on a second watch that leverages the power of Google Now as well as an "electronic bracelet that plays music." Variety may be the spice of a good product portfolio, but we'll admit, we're not sure what to make of that last item.
Your carrier wants you to buy into early upgrades, but should you take the bait?
We get it. It's been a year since you got a new phone, and it doesn't have a Super Ultra HD screen, 80MP camera or fancy pants 50-core processor. You pine for the latest and greatest mobile toy, but it's probably going to cost you a lot, right? Well, yes. But in the past year, every major US network has eased the pain by introducing device installment plans, many of which allow you to trade in your current phone for a newer, hipper model. Most of these plans, which are designed to let you pay off your device over several months, are still more expensive than the average two-year contract, regardless of who you sign it with. But whether you like it or not, they're here to stay. T-Mobile gets credit for starting the movement: Shortly after it announced its installment and early upgrade plans, AT&T, Verizon and Sprint all followed with options of their own. Ever since, the new plans have led to a massive pricing war, and the resulting price drops (most recently from AT&T and Verizon) have made them more tempting. But what does it all mean for you?
LG's G2 mini is a smaller flagship by name, not by nature
LG's not left much to the imagination before this month's Mobile World Congress. After it confirmed the G Pro 2 last week, the Korean phone maker today officially announced a smaller version of its current Android flagship: the G2 mini. If you were expecting LG to take a similar approach to Sony, which crammed impressive specs into its Z1 Compact, the G2 mini has its fair share of drawbacks. In that regard, the device is powered by Qualcomm's quad-core Snapdragon 400, the same chip found in the Moto G, while its smaller 4.7-inch display boasts a rather unflattering 960 x 540 qHD resolution. The handset also features 1GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel camera, 8GB of onboard storage, and retains the same unique backside as its bigger brother, where the volume rocker and power button are placed just below the rear camera. LG has, however, equipped the mini with Google's latest OS, Android 4.4 KitKat, and will port its custom knock-to-unlock and Guest Mode features over from the flagship G2. The mini is set to go on sale in Russia from March and roll out across Europe, the Middle East and Latin America shortly after. Given the specs, we're looking at a low-priced handset but we don't know yet how low LG will go. Hopefully it'll share more details at MWC next week. Update: Now that an official press release has dropped, it's clear that the version of the LG G2 mini destined for Latin America and the Middle East will come with an NVIDIA Tegra 4i chip rather than a Snapdragon 400. We're pretty sure this is the first appearance of that processor in a retail handset, but don't get too excited: the Tegra 4i isn't actually current-gen Tegra 4, but rather a bunch of less powerful Cortex-A9 cores with integrated LTE.
Do you really need a 4K smartphone screen?
See those two screens up there? Pretty soon the smartphone will have the same resolution as the much bigger panel (a 27-inch Dell U2711 monitor with 2,560 x 1,440 pixels). While the snappiest CPUs, more RAM, better cameras and other frills are a must for the latest handsets, the current marketing pièce de résistance is a higher-resolution screen. In four years, we've passed from a norm of 800 x 480 to 960 x 540 and up to 720p, 1080p and soon -- likely on Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S5 -- 2,560 x 1,440 Quad HD (QHD). That works out to a borderline-insane 500-plus pixels per inch (depending on screen size) and manufacturers aren't stopping there. But is more resolution worth the extra expense if you can't even see the difference? Well, it's complicated.
Sony Xperia Tablet Z2 leaks hint at KitKat and an even thinner design (update: more shots)
Sony's Xperia Tablet Z may be too old to justify buying for some of you out there, but don't worry -- it looks like a replacement could be just around the corner. Frequent tipster @evleaks has posted both an image and specs of what's reported to be the Xperia Tablet Z2. The 10.1-inch slate would preserve the waterproof design, 6,000mAh battery and cameras of its 2013 ancestor, but with a much faster 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 processor, 3GB of RAM and an even thinner 6.4mm (0.25in) body. It would also ship with Android 4.4 KitKat, so you may not be pining for an OS upgrade as soon as you open the box. There's no mention of a ship date in the rumors, but Mobile World Congress is just a week away; we wouldn't be shocked if Sony unveils the Z2 in sunny Barcelona. Update: We've since been tipped off to a series of additional leaked images from @gadgetleaks that show a Z2 variant with a white back. We've included one of the pictures below.
LG's L Series III budget smartphones tout KitKat and smart covers
LG isn't just bringing high-end smartphones like the G Pro 2 to Mobile World Congress -- it's also launching its L Series III phones for the budget-minded among us. The 3.5-inch L40, 4.5-inch L70 and 4.7-inch L90 are subtle evolutions of the Optimus L II range in terms of hardware. All of them sport faster 1.2GHz dual-core processors and refined designs that are more in line with the company's higher-end devices. There's a larger 1GB of RAM on the L70 and L90, too. However, the real stars of the show are the L Series III's software and accessories. They're some of the first big-name budget phones to run Google's efficient Android 4.4 KitKat; they're also LG's first non-flagship devices to support optional Quick Window covers, letting you check an incoming call without exposing the whole screen. There's no word as to when these third-generation handsets will hit store shelves, although they're built for markets where 3G data is the best you'll get. In other words, don't expect them to reach LTE-obsessed American carriers any time soon.
