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Mobile Phones

Kantar Worldpanel: Life in a Two-OS World

23 March 2017 Marco Attard Mobile Phones

Kantar Worldpanel: Life in a Two-OS World

According to Kantar Worldpanel the days of a BlackBerry OS, Symbian or Windows Phone making "significant" impact are over, since the mobile industry is all but dominated by iOS-Android duopoly.

The biggest 5 European markets (Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain) are dominated by Android-- the Google OS accounts for 74.3% of smartphone sales in the quarter ending January 2017, a "marginal" increase over the 72.9% of the same period in the previous year. In the meantime iOS holds 22.7%, with the iPhone 7 remaining the top-selling device in Great Britain, France and Germany.

Kantar points out Nokia as a potential success story in the region, as brand owner HMD Global is focusing on quality for cost with well made mid-tier devices. Such smartphones will not rival the iPhone 7 or the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8, but do compete with the likes of the Huawei 8 and P9 Lite, both strong sellers in the price-conscious Italian and Spanish markets.

Meizu Super mCharges Phones

09 March 2017 Marco Attard Mobile Phones

Meizu claims to slash phone charging times at Mobile World Congress with Super mCharge-- a technology able to fully charge a 3000mAh battery in all of 20 minutes.

Super mCharge technology is rated at 55W (11V, 5A), significantly higher than competing technologies such as Motorola TurboPower (25.5W) or Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 (18W). It also battery temperatures do not exceed 38 °C, which is crucial since batteries can explode if put through much heat.

The Phone With a 360-Degree Camera

09 March 2017 Marco Attard Mobile Phones

The Protruly Darling is a sure contender for the strangest smartphone of Mobile World Congress 2017 award-- it features a built-in 360-degree camera and, in the case of one version, embedded diamonds.

Made by an obscure Shenzen-based company, the Darling has an unusually long design housing the aforementioned 360-degree camera. It allows users to shoot photos and record videos in all directions, which one can preview on the 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 resolution display in globe form before sharing on platforms such as Facebook and YouTube.

The phone also include a pair of regular cameras on the front and back, and runs on a 2.5GHz deca-core Helio X20 MT6797 CPU, 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. The OS of choice is Android 6.0, the battery is a 3560mAh number and connectivity comes through USB-C. Topping off the package are a fingerprint sensor and, as if the device is not strange enough, a thermal camera.

Xiaomi Intros Mi 5c

01 March 2017 Marco Attard Mobile Phones

Xiaomi presents the first smartphone running on its own mobile chipset-- the Mi 5c, a 5.15-inch handset designed mainly for the Chinese mid-range market.

The chip inside the Mi 5c is the octa-core Surge S1. It promises lower power consumption, allowing the smartphone to carry a smaller 2860mAh battery with 9V/2A quick charge support for a slimmer (7.09mm) metal body. The chip is built by Xiaomi subsidiary Pinecone, and has been in development since October 2014.

Better Sound From LG G6 With Quad-DAC

16 February 2017 Marco Attard Mobile Phones

LG continues trickling details on its upcoming smartphone flagship-- the company promises the G6 features better sound through a 32-bit quad-DAC system.

Apparently such an addition allows for the independent control of each earbud, leading to clearer, more balanced sound. It also provides analog output, meaning the G6 will most probably feature a headphone jack. The DAC comes from audio chipset specialist ESS, and is described as an improvement over the quad-DAC found in the 2016 LG V20 smartphone.

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