It’s no secret that for the last few years Nokia have been falling behind competitors such as Apple, Samsung, and HTC in the smartphone market. While Nokia appear to understand the lower end of the market very well they just can’t seem to get it right with their more high-end handsets. It looked as though things might change when they released the Lumia 800, a very capable smartphone at the time which ran Windows Phone 7, but while the phone was well received it didn’t become the massive seller Nokia were hoping.
They haven’t given up on Windows Phone however and their newly announced Lumia 925 looks like one of their best smartphones yet. Visually the Lumia 925 is much more comparable to high-end handsets such as the iPhone than previous Lumia devices. An aluminium frame gives the phone a much more premium look and feel then previous Lumia handsets and at the same time the Luma 925 is nice and light thanks to the new design. Underneath that aluminium body there is a dual-core 1.5GHz processor and 1GB of RAM which may sound weak compared to some of the top Android phones but for a Windows Phone device it’s a pretty powerful handset.
The 8.7-megapixel camera should take some decent snaps and they’ll look great on the phone too thanks to the 4.5-inch AMOLED display running at a resolution of 1280 x 768 (slightly above 720p). The screen also has a high-brightness mode to make things a bit clearer outdoors on a sunny day. The camera is one of the real talking points as Nokia have not only a high-quality sensor but their excellent software means you’ll get good quality images with plenty of extra features.
While it won’t be easy to catch up with the iPhone and top Android devices like the HTC One there can be little doubt Nokia know how to construct a great quality phone with some nice features. By sticking with Windows Phone however they may be putting off a lot of potential customers and you have to wonder whether jumping on the Android bandwagon would be a better choice for them. The Nokia Lumia 925 is set to arrive in Europe in June and is a great option for any Windows Phone fans.
Now we’re firmly in the era of smartphones it isn’t often a handset has many truly unique features as most phones do just about everything. Often the most stand out thing about a new phone will be a slightly faster processor or larger screen but these are things which are quickly replicated by competitors and before you know it are just commonplace. Despite being over shadowed by devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One the Sony Xperia Z is still worth taking at a look at thanks to a fairly unique feature in the form of water-resistance.
It’s always nice to see the announcement of a new dual-SIM handset, they’re rarely particularly exciting phones but they aren’t many of them so practically any new options available are always welcome. Samsung have a few dual-SIM phones and their latest model is the Samsung Galaxy Core, a low-end device but still one of the better dual-SIM phones on the market.
According to research company IDC, of the 418.6m mobile phones shipped during the first quarter of 2013 just over half were smartphones. 216.2m smartphones were shipped in those months accounting for 51.6 per cent of all mobile phone sales. As smartphones become more affordable and user demands increase this trend seems likely to continue.
For a while the iPhone seemed to be the only mobile phone anyone was interested in but over the last couple of years Samsung have produced a series of top notch phones which have eaten away at Apple’s domination. Of course it’s not just Samsung producing great phones, manufacturers such as LG, HTC and BlackBerry continue to produce popular and well made devices but it’s phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S III which have really caught the attention of not just the media but consumers.
While HTC established a strong following with their excellent (at the time they were any way!) Windows Mobile devices it was when Google selected them to manufacture the first publicly available Android phone, the HTC Dream (widely known as the T-Mobile G1) that they started to get noticed by your average mobile phone user. A string of very capable handsets such as the HTC Hero and HTC Desire cemented their place as a top mobile manufacturer but despite more recent phones such as the HTC Sensation and One X being neither bad phones or total commercial failures, things haven’t been going quite so smoothly for HTC in recent times.
Visually the One seems a little plain at first but the switch from a plastic body on the One X to the metal body on the One makes a massive difference. This phone looks expensive and it feels it too, leaving the plastic body behind means the One weighs more than the One X but it’s certainly not too heavy and it actually means this looks and feels like a much more high-end phone. In terms of styling the One resembles most Apple products more closely than the iPhone does, or at least the silver version does. The combination of aluminium body and black bezel around the screen make the One look like the phone version of an Apple MacBook Pro and that’s no bad thing.
The hardware is great but in another step forward the HTC Sense themed version of Android has seen a huge improvement. While many will still prefer the untouched Android found on phones like the Nexus 4 the alterations made by HTC are better than ever before and while the new BlinkFeed home screen isn’t to everyone’s taste you can always set your home screen to a different panel and forget all about it. The other big addition is the TV app which doesn’t just show you what’s on the box but thanks to an IR blaster that doubles up as the power button you can actually control your TV using your phone, of course your TV probably came with a remote so you’re unlikely to find this feature incredibly exciting but it’s a nice addition any way.
Last year Samsung built on the success of the Galaxy S II by launching the wildly popular Samsung Galaxy S III and ever since many have been thirsty for the Samsung’s next flagship smartphone. Over the past year phones such as the Galaxy Note II have impressed but everyone knew the Galaxy S4 had to be just around the corner and many have eagerly waited for the successor to one of the most popular Android handsets on the market. In recent weeks HTC have raised the bar by announcing the HTC One and many have been desperate to know if Samsung’s latest offering can surpass it.
With an impressive 2GB of RAM the Galaxy S4 should have no problems running out of memory and the incredible eight-core 1.6Ghz processor will make the S4 one of the very fastest handsets on the market. Despite having a 2,600mAh battery and larger screen the S4 is actually lighter and thinner than the Galaxy S III and the rear camera has been bumped up to a 13MP sensor while the front camera is now 2MP. Impressively you can record video on the front and rear cameras at the same time, something people are bound to find some very imaginative uses for.