smartphone Archives - Argyll Free Press

PuzzlePhone Modular Smartphone

November 4, 2015 By Michael Turner Leave a Comment

When it was disclosed by the company in 2013, Google’s Project Ara immediately turned heads because it promised to produce a modular smart phone which would greatly reduce costs, allow users to swap just the malfunctioning or no longer working modules with new ones (instead of the total replacement of the phone), allow them to customize what modules they would want on a given phone in the first place and not least of all, help in the quest for sustainability and taking care of the environment, by greatly reducing the waste caused by throwing away such precious resources as those found in a phone.

This project is supposed to have its first pilot testing in 2016.

But it seems like another company has moved a bit faster towards the same goal, though with a different approach.

I am talking about the PuzzlePhone modular smartphone first announced by the Finnish-based companies developing it a year after Project Ara was announced (in 2014). However, despite announcing their intentions later than Google by a year, they seem to have actually managed to up-end them.

Because the first finalized PuzzlePhone is set to launch sometime in September 2016. And a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo is already open to interested early buyers.

True, Google’s Project Ara has in mind developing a series of interchangeable, individual components so you can make your phone however you like, while the PuzzlePhone modular smartphone is based on a simpler approach, namely having the same three modular components for each phone (the “brain”, “spine” and “heart”), that can each be replaced with an homologous component.

But homologous is the keyword, because these new components, apart from replacing malfunctioning or no longer working ones, can actually be upgraded, better versions of the former. So, in essence, though simpler than Project Ara, the PuzzlePhone is efficient and serves the purpose of having a functional modular phone on the market as soon as possible.

It also has some pretty cool functionalities and features, namely: 1080 x 1920 pixels 5 inch display, an octa-core processor, 3 GB of RAM, two cameras (the primary a 12 MP, the secondary a 5 MP) and 16 GB default internal storage, or 32 GB or 64 GB internal storage (depending on how much you are willing to pay extra).

It runs on Android and is made out of eco-friendly materials, both traits which will surely appeal to a wide range of users.

The starting price for the basic model, on Indiegogo, is 333$. The priciest version features engraved words of your choice and the 64 GB internal storage and costs 777$.

Image source: 1, 2.

Pepsi to Launch Mid-Budget Smartphones in China

October 13, 2015 By Cristopher Hall Leave a Comment

Pepsi to launch mid-budget smartphones in China, notes an official spokesperson. The company behind one of the most popular soft drinks on the planet has recently confirmed that is collaborating with a partner in order to release a smartphone product line in China. When? Well, in the near future. I assume that this means sometime during 2016.

In an email interview with Reuters, a company spokesperson notes that this effort resembles what Pepsi is doing with other licensed products – like accessories and apparel. She says that there are no long-term plans for Pepsi to get into the smartphone industry. At least, not now.

Along with the Pepsi announcement we also have some info leaked regarding their first smartphone. It will be called Pepsi P1 and it will be a mid-budget device. It’s rumored to come with a 5.5-inch FHD screen at 1920 x 1080. It houses a 1.7 GHz MT6592 proc paired with 2 gigs of RAM and 16 gigs of internal storage.

The Pepsi P1 is reportedly featuring a 13-megapixel primary rear-facing camera, and a secondary 5-megapixel front-facing unit for those special selfie moments. Finally, it has a 3000 mAh battery unit packed inside. It is more than capable of running Google’s Android 5.1. Lollipop. We don’t know if Marshmallow will roll out for the Pepsi P1 or not.

The Pepsi P1 will most likely retail at roughly $205, that’s CNY 1299.

As far as we can tell, the Pepsi P1 seems to feature a metallic finishing for the case. Capacitive buttons, one fingerprint sensor and, of course, the Pepsi logo engraved on the back of the smartphone.

If you’re not interested in mobile phones, but love Pepsi to bits, you should know that the soft drink company has confirmed that accessories will be available for the Middle Kingdom. Yet, the spokesperson didn’t disclose any specifics regarding what will the company actually sell.

Pepsi to launch mid-budget smartphones in China doesn’t really come as shocking news – we expect Coca-Cola to up their game and announce their home-bred smartphone anytime soon. Take Lamborghini, they unveiled just at the dawn of 2015 their very own smartphone. It’s called the 88 Tauri and it comes with a hefty price tag of $6000. Still, it doesn’t beat the new Vertu Signature Touch smartphone that starts at a whooping $10,000 – it comes with a sort of personal valet.

Marshall, a company famous for their music gear such as amps, pre-amps and the likes, has recently announced that they too are branching out to the mobile industry with the Marshall London designed for audiophiles.

We are curious to see if Nestle or Ikea both announce their homegrown smartphone in the near future.

Anyway, would you buy a Pepsi P1?

Image Source: 1, 2, 3,

The Huawei Mate S Review – A Newcomer In the West

October 13, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Straight from the Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer Huawei comes the latest smartphone model – Huawei Mate S – that brings more than just great functionality, a large 5.5” AMOLED display and sleek design; it is, as a matter of fact, the host of the Force Touch technology that you might have heard of before as being used by Apple in several of their products.

The Huawei Mate S is a successor of Huawei Ascend Mate 7 that brought the 360 degree fingerprint sensor to the series and this time around it takes it up a notch. With great incorporated utilities, a great design that will possibly take you back to the HTC One series as its source of inspiration and the hardware to back it all up – the Huawei Mate S packs everything that you would ever wish for in a smartphone destined for the European and American markets.

Taking into consideration the hardware specs that it comes with and the price range that the Huawei Mate S falls into, the model is a bold release on the smartphone market – considering that it would be competing with phones such as Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and Nexus 6P. Let’s see if the Mate S has what it takes to be considered a worthy opponent on the telecommunications equipment market of late 2015.

Huawei Mate S Design

Even from the first look, the design of the Huawei Mate S is undoubtedly elegant and brought to the highest western standards – coming with an extremely thin all-metal frame that despite its pretty impressive size only makes up for a 156 gram phone. Size-wise, it’s narrower and shorter than the iPhone 6 Plus even if the screen size of both models is the exact same, summing it up to a 73.9% screen to body ratio.

The sharp diamond-cut sides however are not the most comfortable aspect of the frame in spite of the visual effect on the model, having elicited a number of groans from several users. On the other hand, the curved edges and phone rear help alleviate the grip issue, giving the Mate S a good feel when held in one hand.

The phone has its headphone jack questionably placed on its top along with a microphone, leaving the bottom to house the unfortunately only mediocre speaker.

But while that might be a downside of the Mate S, the haunting problem of antenna lines on smartphones was heavily discussed even during the first showcasing of the phone and improved on: this particular model was designed to only need 2 antenna strips, built thinner than previous or competitor models (only 1.5mm thick in comparison to iPhone 6’s 2mm) but also less visible and aesthetically irritating.

The Huawei Mate S was made available in 4 different color versions – Titanium Grey, Luxurious Gold, Mystic Champagne and Rose Gold – allowing the sleek exterior design to appeal to any taste.

Huawei Mate S Display

As mentioned before, the Mate S has a display as large as the popular iPhone 6 Plus – 5.5 inches to be precise. Here, the Chinese model falls behind its other top-end competitor handsets of the year; instead of the quad-HD panels that most of those smartphones come with, the Huawei Mate S limits itself to a 1080p display.

That’s certainly no reason to be disheartened however, as the on-screen images are still crisp and particularly detailed, with a highly-varied color range and decent contrast. The AMOLED technology helps the display produce adequately bright images that are visible even in sunlight. However it suffers a small bit on over-saturation of some colors.

It’s fairly important to mention a setting that the phone comes with – it allows you to change the screen temperature higher or lower, customizing the palette to your liking. Lastly, the panel is covered with a layer of Gorilla Glass 4 that allows great viewing angles and no gap whatsoever between the actual display and the cover. The screen has a 1920 x 1080 resolution meaning that you end up with a 401 ppi pixel density – on par with the iPhone 6.

The great new feature that is incorporated in the Huawei Mate S is – as previously mentioned – the Force Touch technology. Long story short, the Force Touch is a new feature that detects the amount of pressure you apply to the screen through force sensors and provides different effects.

Even though the effects in question revolve around zooming in on images and previewing larger thumbnails, the Force Touch feature is still in its incipient stages of development meaning that there’s a limited functionality to actually making use of it. But it’s fairly certain that in the near future, when app developers shift their attention towards this sector of technology the feature will gain more and more applicability. Sure, there’s that one application that allows you to weigh objects by placing them on the screen that was showcased during the phone’s presentation but that only earns you so much.

The bad news however, is that Force Touch technology is currently only included in the 128GB version of the phone, and not on its smaller 32 and 64GB brothers respectively. Overall, the Force Touch does only currently come as a luxury feature that you probably won’t get as much as you expect from and should be taken as such.

Huawei Mate S Specs & Features

Also present in its predecessor, the Huawei Ascend Mate 7, one of the most worthwhile features to talk about is the fingerprint sensor placed on the back of the device. The company has claimed that having the sensor on the back is more convenient given the way you’re normally holding your phone and gave it several functionalities to make your smartphone operating life easier. You can tap it to trigger the camera shutter when trying to take selfies, and swiping on it in different directions can either allow you to access the notification center or navigate your photo gallery for example.

In comparison to the Ascend Mate 7, the fingerprint recognition on the Mate S has dramatically improved in both speed and sensitivity. Issues that so many other devices have with fingerprint recognition such as it being sluggish or downright unresponsive when your hands are sweaty are close to inexistent here.

In matters of hardware, the Huawei Mate S packs a Hisilicon Kirin 935 octa-core processor – meaning it is comprised of two separate quad-core processors: a 2.2Ghz and a 1.5Ghz processor respectively. Along with the octa-core processor, you get the Mali T628 MP4 graphics processing unit which, while a couple of steps behind the Adreno 330 GPU that most of the top-end smartphones of the market make use of nowadays, can still hold its own fairly well with most, if not all games and mobile apps out there.

As a further compliment to the hardware specifications of the Mate S, you get no less than 3 GB of RAM memory. With this entire arsenal of medium to high end technology, the smartphone runs exceptionally well in nearly anything you choose to have it running.

The Mate S has nearly everything you would ever wish for in terms of connectivity – hotspot, Bluetooth and even near-field communication though the latter may be limited with devices from different manufacturers of course. The phone also has a great amount of support for photo, video and document editing.

On top of that, the Huawei Mate S packs three microphones meant to be used with its smart directional algorithm for directional audio recording. In a more user-friendly way of saying it, that means that recording is greatly improved on this model, allowing you to cut background noise as well as either automatically or manually detect audio sources to focus on – making it a great device to use as an audio recorder for interviews and such.

Huawei Mate S Camera

Like any other high-end smartphone on nowadays’ market, the Mate S graces us with two cameras – both front and rear. The rear presents a 13MP 4128 x 3096 pixel camera gifted with a four-color RGBW sensor; this is one of the features that the manufacturer proudly presented as being an addition to what other competitor smartphones have to offer when it comes to capturing vibrant photos.

To make things even better, the camera also packs a 1.2 degree optical image stabilization that helps remove shakiness from both image and video captured using the Mate S. The developers have certainly given the development of the camera a lot of thought and effort as they also implemented a color temperature LED flash with it; its purpose is to reduce the flash-generated tinge that most smartphones struggle with when capturing photos in various circumstances.

Furthermore, in terms of protection, the rear camera is covered with the same sapphire glass that is used in the Apple Watch, making it particularly durable.

The front camera has had plenty of attention given to it too, featuring a fully-optimizable Digital SLR level sensor that can be fiddled with at the fullest using the inbuilt camera app. Selfies can be taken to the next level with no less than 8 megapixels along with the LED flash capability that makes it easier to take shots in dark environments.

Along with the beauty algorithms that you get to set up the first time when you use the front camera – destined to help with improving real-time selfies by giving you brighter eyes and smoother skin – the Mate S is a selfie powerhouse.

Both cameras support video recording in 1080p, maybe slightly disappointing to some users given that the 4k option is always the better one, but under no circumstance greatly inferior to most high-end phones in terms of performance.

Huawei Mate S Battery

The Huawei Mate S comes with a non-removable 3000 mAh power pack. While the non-removable part is not a problem and basically a trend with its own ups and downs, the power of the battery is questionable. On par with the LG G4 but smaller than the ones featured in comparable sized phones, the Mate S battery may prove to not live up to the expectations. Developers promised over a day of usage with a single charge, but results may vary depending on a number of factors. Naturally, under strenuous conditions the phone doesn’t fare that well and sadly doesn’t come remotely close to the “over a day” statement.

On the upside, however, the Huawei Mate S is fast-charging enabled meaning that you can hook it up for 10 to 30 minutes and have it keep going for another few hours. Along with a low power mode setting, the phone can go into a sort of hibernation mode when battery levels are too low for the full feature phone to keep functioning, meaning that you would only have access to calling and texting.

Huawei Mate S Software

The Huawei Mate S runs on the v5.1.1 Android Lollipop operating system and also incorporates the Emotion UI 3.1 feature – a trademark customization layer for all of the Chinese company’s products as a matter of fact. The user interface is made simple to navigate and provides some great usability features to the phone and it takes onto the iOS model of designing operating systems – with an accent on removing the folder and sub-folder clutter, overly complicated settings menu and stuffed UI.

However, this comes at the cost of an inexistent app tray, meaning that all of your apps will rest on your home screen like they normally do on iOS for example, taking a leap away from the things that the regular Android user may be accustomed to. There’s some more customizability available when it comes to themes and icons but that means that you’d be giving up the minimalist and tidy way things look on your regular Android device.

Huawei Mate S Verdict

On paper, the Huawei Mate S makes for a great phone altogether. The close to state-of-art components that it packs may prove to be adequate for some but not enough for others. However, given that the smartphone can be purchased for prices lower than the flagship devices on the market, this could prove to be a worthy purchase in the end.

The phone is beautifully designed and will cater to any of your needs. However, the real downside of the Mate S is that while it does everything wonderfully, it doesn’t exceed any of his competitors in anything; its purpose seems to have been to at least be as good as other smartphones of this caliber.

While one could argue that the Force Touch feature on it could make up for this to some extent, the technology is not yet much of a thing of the present and won’t bring you much consolation at the end of the day.

The Huawei Mate S costs $739 for the 32GB version and $799 for the 64GB variant. There has been no price set for the 128 GB model yet.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Elbows off the table and smartphones in your pocket

August 26, 2015 By Nancy Young Leave a Comment

We take our smartphones everywhere with us: on first dates, to the hospital, to dinner with our parents, to swimming lessons and even to church. We can no longer deny their ubiquity. Despite being everywhere, we still lack an etiquette for using smartphones. When is and when isn’t acceptable to take out your device and glaze your fingers over the screen, immersed in Facebook, Twitter or Reddit content?

The Pew Research Center took on the task of carrying out a survey on 3,217 Americans, out of which 3,042 were smartphone users. The results point to the fact that we all have different opinions on cell phone etiquette. Most of us are annoyed when someone takes out their phone at dinner, but we’re all guilty of the same thing.

A look at the numbers from the report shows that nine out of ten adults carry their smartphones everywhere they go, and the majority of interviewers with ages between 18 and 29 think it’s ok to use their gadgets in public places like crowded buses.

If a staggering ninety percent of the surveyed young adults said they wouldn’t shy away from flipping through Facebook on their smartphones on a crowded subway, only eleven percent agreed that using the phones in quiet places like a movie theater is acceptable.

Exactly how many of these young adults admitted to using a cell phone on their last social gathering? The survey showed that as much as eighty-nine percent of them answered affirmatively. Guided by the “always on” motto, the young generation seems to crave being online at all times, no matter the social circumstances.

This can have serious effects on multiple fronts. Scientists worry human interactions are sacrificed to the benefit of Whatsapp and Reddit. But using your smartphones also disables you from multitasking. Texting or talking while driving is the best example to illustrate that inattention can be fatal.

Eighty-two percent of the Pew survey respondents admitted that whenever their friends are more interested in their smartphones than in their companies it ruins the atmosphere and it can hurt the whole gathering.

Although meant to help people connect, these gadgets seem to be a double-edged sword. The survey revealed that young adults often use their smartphones to engage or disengage from a social gathering.

So what is everyone looking up on their smartphones at parties? The same survey found that fifty-five percent sent text messages, emails or posted something from the gathering they were attending. Fifty-three percent of the respondents said they posted a photo or a video while fifty-one percent googled something they thought the group would be interested in.

Maybe Pew Research Center should repeat their survey with teenagers. The results, I’m sure, will be worth our time.

Image sources 1, 2, 3

Huawei is One of the Manufacturers for Google Nexus

June 19, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

A source that’s close to the Chinese manufacturer spilled the beans on the whole thing. Now we just have to wait for an official announcement, but we all know now that Huawei is indeed one of the manufacturers working on Google Nexus.

Almost a month ago Deborah talked about Google Nexus 2015 rumours, and the possibility that Huawei is going to build a phablet for Google.

A source that is working for Huawei in the UK has noted that the company will most likely build a phablet, and that the Chinese manufacturer is looking at other models to build for Google. If the Huawei-made phablet is successful, the company can finally break through the western front. Huawei is already the fourth largest smartphone manufacturer behind Lenovo, Apple, and Samsung, but westerners don’t yet seem to fully trust the Chinese company.

The new device is rumoured to feature a 5.7-inch display, a Snapdragon 810 processor, and of course, it will come with Android M built-in. Google likes to announce, and launch its Nexus launch in the Fall – at least 3 more months until we see some news from the big G.

What the Huawei-built Nexus might look like

We’re awaiting confirmation from either Google, or Huawei – this will make Huawei the sixth manufacturer that Google has worked with. LG, Samsung, HTC, Asus, and Motorola have worked in the past with big daddy G whether it was for smartphones, or for tablets.

Google’s Nexus product line is always the first to get the company’s newest Android software, and more so, it’s always the most stable one on the market.

Nexus has made its first steps back in 2010, and since then Google has released some really great smartphones, but their last one, which was built in partnership with Motorola, isn’t a device that I would recommend to my friends – nor my enemies.

The 2014 Motorola-build Nexus which is actually more of a phablet than a smartphone, featured 5.96-inch display, at 493 ppi. In the performance department you can notice a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 quad-core 2.7GHz processor, and camera-wise it has a 13 megapixel unit. Not bad, you would say. Unfortunately, it’s poorly made, and has stability problems. It could have been one of the best smartphones.

This is Huawei’s chance to make a name for themselves in the western market. They are struggling in US, and Europe, even though they are the fourth largest smartphone manufacturer in the world with 18.1 million units sold. If they botch this release up, they’ll be scrutinized without mercy.

Are you going to buy a Huawei-built Nexus phablet? Or you’re sticking with the LG one? Tell us in the comments section below!

Image Source: 1, 2, 3

Microsoft Launched Two New Cheap Smartphones

January 17, 2015 By Nancy Young Leave a Comment

Just recently, Microsoft launched two new cheap smartphones. The two Lumia devices, the Lumia 435 and Lumia 532 are very affordable and have pretty impressive specs for their price.

After the gold editions of their high end mobile phones, Lumia 930 and Lumia 830, Microsoft has announced two other Windows Phones which, the company wishes to target at a whole new branch in the market consisting of phones under $100.

Image source: msecnd.net

LUMIA 435

The Lumia 435 is the cheapest Lumia available so far with a retail price of just $81 before subsidies and taxes. The new device will be shipped out in February in India, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and Europe. However, a release date for the United States has not been set yet. The new smartphone looks just like the Nokia X and is Microsoft’s best effort so far to compete with the Android One program initiated by Google. The project was released last September with phone manufacturers in India such as Spice, Karbonn and Micromax which develop devices that use the Android One operating system that cost less than $100.

However, Microsoft did cut some corners in order of achieving this price. Even though the device features two cameras, the front camera can only be used for video and has a 0.3MP sensor for Skype calls and the back camera has a sensor of just 2MP. The Lumia 435 will use Windows Phone 8.1 along with the firmware Lumia Denim, which means that it will also include Cortana in available markets as well as Apps Corner and Live Folders. However, the device won’t feature the notification center by Microsoft called Action Centre. The device will also come with Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Microsoft PowerPoint and OneNote preinstalled.

The smartphone has a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 CPU and a 4 inch WVGA display with a resolution of 800 x 480 and a pixel density of 233ppi. It has 1GB memory and comes with 8GB of storage that can be expanded with a microSD of up to 128GB. The battery is replaceable and has a capacity of 1560 mAh which lasts for up to 11.7 hours talk time on 3G and 20.9 hours 2G.

While these features aren’t intended for consumers that are looking for a high end smartphone they certainly are an improvement over old low-end mobile phones launched by Microsoft. However, it’s uncertain if these improvements make the devices as good as the ones offered by Xiaomi and Motorola, which are also competitive with Google’s Android One and its partners.

The smartphone will be available in both single SIM and dual-SIM forms and will come in black, white, green and orange. Microsoft also unveiled the Lumia 532 which will come at a price of $94 before subsidies and taxes and is Lumia 435’s smaller brother.

Image source: cloudfront.net

LUMIA 532

Inside the very colorful shell of the Lumia 532 is a quad-core processor that will most likely surpass every other inexpensive Windows Phone launched by Microsoft in the past and 1GB RAM. The amount of memory will at least let users of the Lumia 532 play some of the more demanding games that made their way to Windows Phone in the last couple of years.

The Lumia 532 has 4 inch display with a resolution of 800 x 480 that isn’t high definition but looks quite good. The Lumia 532 will be available in February for about 79EUR or $94. This price doesn’t include any service agreements or discounts, however. As well as the 435, the Lumia 532 only has 8GB of internal storage but it can be expanded with a microSD memory card. Neither the 435 nor the 532 feature a flash on their cameras, which means that users won’t be able of shooting photos in low light environments.

Both smartphones will come with Windows Phone 8.1 and Lumia Denim. Windows Phone 8.1 is the latest version of Windows available on mobile phones. This version adds the Cortana personal assistant that is also coming to tablets, desktops and notebooks using Windows 10. This version of Windows also offers some options for personalization for the users. For instance, people can finally put a photo to be shown in the background of their phone. It also adds support for syncing browsing history, passwords and a lot more between several devices that us Windows 8.1.

Microsoft wishes to attract smartphone buyers away from Android One and iPhone with the help of its low prices for the Lumia 435 and Lumia 532. This kind of makes sense seeing how in the Middle East, Asia and Europe, Windows Phones are a lot more popular. Microsoft hopes to attract buyers looking to purchase their first smartphone or that want to get rid of their older iPhones that don’t receive updates from Apple anymore.

Microsoft’s problem lies in the United States, however. It’s been a long, long time since the company released a competitor for the iPhone. This means that users are far less excited about Windows Phones in the United States. Apple produced new high-end versions of its popular iPhone and their decision to make the older versions cheaper seems to have worked in the U.S. In the meantime, it looks like Microsoft is basically ignoring the United States completely.

Both the Lumia 435 and the Lumia 532 will come in dual-SIM versions as well. This feature allows users to install two SIM cards in their smartphones and switch between carriers for the best available calling rates.