The UI has been simplified for the first time in a Galaxy flagship device and the usual S-based additions that Samsung offered in previous instalments are not a major focus. It is, perhaps, a direct result of Samsung’s deal with Google where the latter “forced” Samsung to provide a true-to-original Android UI experience. Also, there are Private Mode and Kids Mode, which block the access to certain features. The Ultra Power Saving Mode will keep the phone alive for longer periods of time in stand-by mode if battery is about to run out.

On the hardware side, perhaps the biggest surprise is the heart-rate sensor on the back, right under the camera. It can sense the heart-rate by measuring the pulse from the fingertip of a user. Rest of the specifications, that have leaked a number of times before, provide only customary upgrades from last year’s Galaxy S4:

So yesterday at the MWC, we saw lots of devices get revealed. Some were great while some we wished would have been a bit better (yes, I’m talking about the Galaxy S5 which was a huge disappointment for me at least) but nonetheless, we were not left to fret or teased to wait longer for great smartphones, tablets and wearables.

HTC, in my opinion, released the best looking smartphones which will be available across Europe in April/May and will be available at Home Shopping soon after. These devices are the HTC Desire 816 and the Desire 610. The former is more of a phablet with a 5.5 inch 720 x 1280 pixel display running on a 1.6 quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor (Adreno 305 GPU) and 1.5 GB RAM which should be enough to not make the phablet lag while performing operations. Also, something which we see rarely in HTC phones, it will have an SD card slot as well. With a 2600 mAh battery, 13 mega pixel rear camera and a 5 mega pixel front facing camera, video calling will be a delight and pictures taken from the main camera will definitely look great. The phone will also be available in a wide range of colours and although the phone seems to be made of aluminum (I wish!) in the pictures, it is actually glossy plastic, much like the iPhone 5C.

Desire 610

The HTC Desire 610 looks almost exactly like the Desire 816 but with a smaller display. This device has a 4.7 inch qHD display and also runs on the Snapdragon 400 processor (quad core Krait) clocked at 1.2 GHz and 1 GB of RAM. With a 2040 mAh battery, an 8 mega pixel rear camera and a 1.3 mega pixel front facing camera, the phone is a pretty good mid range device.

Anyone looking to buy a budget friendly smartphone should look no further because this is one of the best looking smartphones which will be made available at reasonable and affordable prices. Be sure to leave your comments to let us know your thoughts.

While there’s plenty of other things mentioned in the press release, much of it is the standard fluff and fanfare that most press releases come with. Ultimately, the differences come down to the spec sheet, and the Xperia Z2 has few notable changes from the Xperia Z1. Battery gets larger to compensate for the larger display, Sony added the ability to record in 4K/30p, the SoC is a minor bump from improved yields, RAM goes up to compete with Samsung’s Note 3 and presumably a future Galaxy S phone as well.

While I will admit that I haven’t properly used either Xperia Z1/Z2, I do have a good idea of the various issues that seem to be consistently repeated by Sony in their Xperia lineup. Probably the biggest question that I have is whether the Xperia Z2 truly has a better display than the Xperia Z1. While the press release talks about how “TRILUMINOS Display for mobile with brand new Live Colour LED uses red & green phosphor with blue LEDs and customised colour filters to produce a brighter and more uniform light. The result is richer colours on the screen for all of your smartphone viewing without the risk of saturation,” I am skeptical that this actually translates to better display. While it’s too early to judge whether display has truly changed from the Z1’s display with poor calibration and worse viewing angles, initially it seems that nothing significant has changed.

What can be talked about is the MSM8974AB, a SoC that was already outed by Xiaomi with their Mi-3. The differences are minor, far smaller than that of the APQ8064 and APQ8064AB/AC, which had slightly improved IPC and higher clocks. The 8974AB instead brings higher GPU clocks (550 MHz vs 450 MHz), higher memory clocks (933 MHz vs 800 MHz), and the ISP goes from 320 MHz to 465 MHz. This is almost guaranteed to be the SoC of choice for all high end flagships launching at MWC, judging by various rumblings about the internet.

The final change of note in the Xperia Z2 are the stereo front facing speakers, which are finally in a phone that doesn’t start with One or Butterfly in the model name. While there aren’t many details on the quality of the speakers, just putting them on the front is great. However, just like with HTC devices, it seems that the speakers have added a great deal of bezel to the front of the device. While some may not mind the difference, there are definitely a great deal of people that voice their complaints over the size of bezels in phones.

Outside of hardware, it should be noted that Sony is advertising a “built-in noise cancelation feature with certain earbuds. These would use two microphones located on the earbuds and leverage the smartphone for the noise cancelation processing.

Following up Sony’s launch of the Xperia Z2, they’ve also launched the Xperia Z2 tablet, which fits the name well, as it is effectively has the same internals as the Xperia Z2, only made into a tablet, which means removing the data/voice modem for the Wi-Fi variant, increasing the screen size to 10.1”, and changing the camera from the 20.7MP, 1/2.3” sensor found in the Xperia Z2 to an 8.1MP unit on the back, likely of either 1/4” or 1/3” format. There are some changes to battery size, thickness, and weight, but everything else is carried over, such as the FHD Triluminos display, IP55/58 rating and the front-facing stereo speakers.

Finally, Sony launched the Xperia M2, a mid-range device that seems to directly target the Moto G based upon its platform and spec. I say this because the SoC is the Snapdragon 400 with quad core Cortex A7s at 1.2 GHz. The one major difference is that this phone has LTE. This means that it’s probably the MSM8926 running inside, unless Sony is packaging a separate modem to enable LTE, which is rather unlikely.

This is an interesting device because it’s not a simple refresh. The display is likely to not be competitive with the Moto G unless its calibration is much better, but Sony has also introduced LTE into their device. The camera could be noticeably better, as the 5MP camera in the Moto G is certainly not targeted at anyone that intends to use their phone as a primary camera of any kind. The Xperia M2 also has a dual-SIM variant, although that device won’t have LTE. While the press release doesn’t have any indication of whether or not the Xperia M2 will have microSD, it should be a relatively safe bet to say that it will, based upon Sony’s continued inclusion of microSD even at the high end of the market. Overall, depending upon price, this will be competitive with the Moto G, as they trade blows in specifications.

What are your thoughts on these devices by Sony? Let us know in the comments section below.

I am sure all the Nokia fans around the country have long waited for this moment to actually get the perfect combination, Nokia + Android, or at least the pleasure of experiencing Android apps on Nokia. Well, if Nokia would have decided to go for this a couple of years ago then things would have been different for them. Anyway, let’s just not go there and stick to the joy and excitement part.

Like we saw in an earlier leak, Huawei’s Ascend G6 4G is a mid-range smartphone that sports a 4.5-inch qHD screen (950×540), 8-megapixel rear-facing camera (5-megapixel front), 1.2GHz quad-core processor, NFC, 2000mAh battery and a frame that’s just 7.85mm thick. Nothing to stand out in any particular way. But the device actually comes with LTE support for up to speeds of 150Mbps. That’s blazing fast (if your network supports those speeds), and should allow folks to stream movies with ease.

It appears Huawei is also unveiling a plain old Ascend G6 during Q1 this year that won’t get those blazing speeds, so it just depends on the market you’re in and what you can afford. That device will come in black, white, pink, gold or blue. The Ascend G6 4G, meanwhile, will be available starting in April, and arrive in black with light gunmetal grey or rose gold highlights, or in white with pink or champagne gold highlights.

Of course, should there be any changes regarding the schedule, we'll be quick to update it! Take a peek, and stick with us, for we're all in for quite the ride. What do you think, is it going to be an interesting show?

World's Biggest Event for Gadgets Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014's is about to start  pretty soon in Barcelona. No doubt the Samsung Galaxy S5 will be the main highlight of this year's MWC, but this ain't means that we will not see exciting devices from manufactures like Sony,LG,Huawei are also here and they are expected to hold press events.

Samsung at MWC 2014

According to the latest reports and rumors Samsung is exptected to launch the Samsung Galaxy S5, which will be at least equipped with a 1080p display and maybe a fingerprint scanner but we are pretty sure there will be no fancy eye scanner on the Samsung Galaxy S5. But whatever is will be considerable upgrade over the current flagship Samsung Galaxy S4.

Speaking about the Samsung's skin which is called "Touchwiz" is expected to have a complete overhaul. Currently the touchwiz running on Samsung Galaxy S4 is a pretty heavy skin running on top of android, we expecting the new Samsung touchwiz will be lighter then ever and it will have some kinda flat looking icons. Just like what HTC did with it's HTC Sense.

Samsung is also expected to announce a new smartwatch with a more good looking and sleeker design, which will probably be called the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2. The Samsung's first smartwatch the Samsung Galaxy Gear was many things but it wasn't affordable and not very pleasurable to use, at least to most of the consumers. What are we expecting about the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2? Samsung actually acknowledge itself that the original Samsung Galaxy Gear has a bulkier design, so we pretty sure that the new one will have a slimmer and lighter design. And the Samsung Galaxy 2 will be priced at $200 or less which make it more appealing.

LG at MWC 2014

Sometimes LG reveals the specifications of it's upcoming devices ahead of their worldwide launches. That's what happened recently with the LG G Pro 2, which is probably an over sized Note 3. Although it is not a surprise that MWC 2014 will be first opportunity to hold the LG G Pro 2 in your hands, so we are expecting a lot of hands-on and comparison videos. We are also excited to see how the Smart Knock unlock feature works on the LG G Pro 2

And we are also looking forward to LG new budget L series III of budget smartphones, which are with good specs, nice design and affordable price. We are hoping for some surprises. But who knows LG might deliver some surprises at MWC 2014.





Sony at MWC 2014

Sony launched it's current flag last year in September at IFA the Sony Xperia Z1. Meanwhile earlier this year Sony has also sold it's computer division to focus more on Tablets and Smartphones, So we think there actually room for a new flagship. According to the rumors it's code name is "Sirius" and it will probably be called the Sony Xperia Z2, and it will feature a 5.2" display with 4K Ultra HD Video recording. The Sony Xperia Z2 will have a slightly redesigned Sony Xperia Z design and a little bit tweaked skin running Android 4.4 Kitkat

There are also rumors going on about a new 10" tablet from Sony the Sony Xperia Tablet Z2. The Ultra Slim Xperia Tablet Z2 will be the refresh of the last year's Sony Xperia Tablet Z. So we are looking forward to see what Sony will unveil at MWC 2014.



Huawei at MWC 2014

The chinese manufacture Huawei is teasing something juciy for MWC. After the last year's Huawei Ascend P6, Huawei will be releasing at least three new gadgets at MWC. Huawei will introduce a smartphone, a tablet and a smartwatch. There are no further details available for Huawei for now. But we all we know for now is that there will not be the successor of Huawei Ascend P6 because Huawei has already planned a separate event for that.



Nokia at MWC - Nokia's first Android

Nokia is exptected to launched the Nokia X or Nokia Normady whatever you wanna call it. It may finally go official at MWC. This will be Nokia's first smartphone powering Android. But it may disappoint because it will not have the top notch hardware because Nokia is planning to make it a affordable phone maybe a replacement for it's Asha feature phones series.



HTC and Motorola at MWC 2014

HTC Doesn't have a big event planned for MWC but the rumors suggest that HTC will introduce the HTC Desire 8 next week at MWC or maybe a simple press release. But we will probably get a chance to see the HTC Desire 8 as soon as next week.




Motorola has already sent invitations for a event which is on Tuesday 25th February. Motorola probably got some new devices in the pipeline but at the moment there are no leaks or rumors available. But we all heard from the C.E.O of Motorola about a $50 very affordable smartphone, we might see that here at MWC 2014.

But it could also be keynote services and future plans instead of an device launch event. Only times will tell.