Review TechRadar: Phone and communications news 05-13-2014

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HTC One Mini 2 should be here any day now as it gets official approval May 13th 2014, 13:22, by James Rogerson We all knew the HTC One Mini 2 was coming, but while HTC itself remains tight lipped on the matter, Taiwan's NCC (National Communications Commission) hasn't stayed quite so quiet. According to Focus Taiwan, the NCC has approved the mini marvel for sale in Taiwan and confirmed its existence in the process. Sadly it didn't confirm a whole lot else about the device, other than the fact that it supports 4G connectivity on the 700 MHz, 900 MHz and 1800 MHz frequencies. Almost here However the fact that it's passed through the NCC suggests that it may be going on sale in a matter of weeks, so we should have all the juicy details soon. In the meantime you'll have to make do with rumours, which currently suggest the HTC One Mini 2 will have a 4.5 inch 720p display, a quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of built in storage, a 13 megapixel camera and a similarly premium design as the HTC One M8. So it's hardly set to be a flagship device, but it should be a tempting proposition for anyone who found the HTC One M8 too big or too pricey. There's a mini version of the Galaxy S5 on the way too. In Depth: 8 things we learned from Moto's big reveal May 13th 2014, 13:06, by John McCann The main news to come out of Motorola's press conference today may well have been the launch of the new low-cost Motorola Moto E, but that wasn't the only piece of information the firm was sharing. Here's what else we learnt from Moto's ramblings. 1. The Moto G is Motorola's best phone EVER Yep, that's right. Motorola has been in the mobile game since the beginning, but its best-selling smartphone of all time isn't some all-singing, all-dancing flagship. Oh no, it's the humble Motorola Moto G. Oh, and it managed to claim that title within just five months of going on sale. Impressive. 2. Motorola wants to kill feature phones Well, don't we all? According to Motorola, 70% of mobile owners have a feature phone purely due to the cost of smartphones. It's determined to change that statistic - which goes some way to explaining its recent budget onslaught . 3. The average cost of a smartphone is more than the G and E Hardly a surprise, but the average cost of a smartphone in the UK is £272 SIM-free (it's $521 in the US). Compare that to the £149 Moto G 4G and the £89 Moto E and you can see why Motorola is banging this drum. 4. It's got two new smartphones, not one Motorola also launched the Moto G 4G - and for those of you who are a little slow off the mark that's an upgrade of the original Moto G to include 4G connectivity. The only other addition on the G 4G is the much welcomed inclusion of a microSD slot, with the rest of the specs and design remaining exactly the same. 5. Motorola is the best at Android updates The Android KitKat adoption rate for all Android devices stands at 8.5%, while the Moto G is at 88% and the Moto X rocks up with a 91% adoption. Motorola has also been the quickest at getting KitKat out to its devices, with the Moto X receiving Android 4.4 in just 19 days. It look HTC 92 days to get it on the One, Samsung 106 days to get it on the Galaxy S4 and LG a whopping 116 days to push it to the G2. 6. Motorola really doesn't like the Galaxy Fame During the Moto E presentation, Motorola compared it to the Samsung Galaxy Fame again and again, showing how its beats it in the screen, power, battery and design departments. Take that, Samsung. 7. Motorola's idea of top-end phones is different to ours So far this year we've seen the Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One M8, Sony Xperia Z2 and Huawei Ascend P7 land, and we're waiting for the LG G3 and iPhone 6 in the coming months. Meanwhile at Motorola, it's still determined that the 4.7-inch, non full HD, dual-core Moto X is a flagship device. They 8. Motorola doesn't do budget devices Motorola's Senior VP Steve Horowitz told TechRadar "We don't look at phones as being budget phones. "We look a phones as being broadly appealing and available to people, with different trade-offs depending on which device you choose." There you have it. They are not budget phones, they just have different sets of trade-offs. Here's your first official glimpse of the LG G3 May 13th 2014, 10:31, by James Rogerson We've known for a while that the LG G3 would likely be announced at LG's event on 27 May, but now the company's gone so far as to release an official teaser video for the flagship, wconfirming that we will indeed see it on that date. It doesn't spill all the beans though, as aside from revealing the launch date it mostly just shows a bunch of images of the handset from different angles. Those images show what looks like a brushed metal finish, though if rumours are to be believed this is likely plastic with a metallic effect. There's also a shot of the camera lens moving, which may suggest the inclusion of optical image stabilisation. The handset looks quite slim too and there are a couple of shots of the speakers, which might mean that LG has done something interesting with them, though what that would be is anyone's guess. Keeping it simple The video also contains the line 'Simple is the New Smart', which could mean a focus on ease of use over gimmicky features. Certainly the rear buttons on the LG G2 were designed with ease of use in mind, even if there was a mixed reaction to them. It could also be a hint at the rumoured personalisation features, which would adapt the interface to fit a user's needs at any given time. If anything the video leaves us with as many questions as answers, which is probably a good thing, because it would be nice to be at least a bit surprised when the LG G3 is properly unveiled. YouTube : www.youtube.com/watch?v=cofGDKkUli4 Could Samsung be about to spoil LG's fun with a Galaxy S5 Prime? New image leak pits iPhone 6 against 5S and HTC One M8 May 13th 2014, 10:09, by Hugh Langley If you're sick of iPhone 6 leaks, then it might be best to just unhook the internet, go outside, find yourself, and come back in September. There are going to be a lot more in the coming months but this latest one has particularly caught our attention. The new pictures showed up on Taiwanese website Mos Coat (spotted by Mashable) and give us the clearest look at the alleged iPhone 6 yet. The dummy unit has got the larger 4.7-screen and thinner body we've been hearing so much about, with the handset put next to an iPhone 5S (or the iPhone 4, as in the picture below) for perspective. Supersize me The curved iPod Touch-style shape looks particularly nice when put against the older model. We have no idea why the iPhone 6 is also being compared to Doraemon, but it is. There's also a picture of the handset against the HTC One M8, demonstrating just how phablet-y Apple may be going with the iPhone 6. Don't assume that this is the final design, or any sort of confirmation about where Apple is going with the iPhone 6, but we'd be pretty happy with a phone like this. iPhone 6: all the deets LG's first Windows Phone 8.1 handset spied on Twitter May 13th 2014, 09:34, by James Rogerson LG has been pretty focused on Android lately but it did recently confirm that it's having another stab at Windows Phone - and a new leak suggests we could see the fruits of that labour sooner rather than later. Seasoned Twitter tipster @evleaks posted an image of the 'LG Uni8', though aside from the fact that it's running Windows Phone 8.1 there's not much that can be deduced from the image. Physically it looks like your average rectangular handset, albeit one that's possibly quite slim and has a smarter look than its Lumia rivals. There are a couple of things to take from it though. For one thing there doesn't appear to be a physical shutter button on the side, so presumably it will rely on a virtual button. The LG Uni8 also has on-screen home, back and search buttons rather than hardware ones. Big windows It's also likely to be a fairly large screen device, as a lot of Live Tiles have been jammed into it, though sadly no specific specs accompanied the image. The tweet says '2014' so we should be seeing the handset this year if it's for real. Perhaps at LG's event on 27 May? Perhaps not, that might be a bit soon, but we live in hope. LG's newest Android flagship is on the way too. In Depth: Motorola Moto E release date, news and features May 13th 2014, 08:52, by John McCann Motorola returned to the mobile game in a big way during the second half of 2013 thanks to the launch of the Moto G. It wasn't an all-singing, all dancing flagship smartphone; instead, it sported mid-range specs and a low-end price tag. And it was that excellent value for money proposition which saw it fly off shelves, and Motorola is attempting to do the same thing again with the Moto E. Instead of being a direct replacement of the Moto G, the Motorola Moto E becomes the firm's new entry level device, coming with dialled down specs and a lower price of £89. Cut to the chase What is it? Motorola's new super-cheap smartphone When is it out? By 20 May What will it cost? £89 in the UK (around $150, AU$160) Moto E release date Motorola scheduled an event for May 13 in London and New Delhi, and used this to launch the all new Moto E. The phone will launch 'later this week' in the UK, which means you'll be able to have it stored safely in your pocket for not much cash by 20 May. This will be the first handset to come out of Motorola since it was sold by Google to Chinese firm Lenovo, and will be joined by a 4G version of the Moto G. Moto E price and specs As you can imagine with a phone that's packing low-end specs, the price is very competitive: we're talking £89 (around $150, AU$160) for a phone that would have cost five times that much not very long ago. We're still waiting for prices internationally, or even a plan to release it in other territories, so stay tuned. Moto E display The Moto G might sound like it has a small screen, but in reality it's larger than the iPhone by 0.3 of an inch, with a 4.3-inch display sitting atop a 960 x 540 256ppi resolution. That's pretty low sharpness for a smartphone, but broadly equivalent with most tablets on the market at the moment. That's a touch smaller than the 4.5-inch Moto G - and sadly isn't as high-res as the older generation of low-cost motorola smartphone, which packs a 720p resolution. Moto E power and OS One of the attractive points about the Moto G was its 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, giving the handset a decent amount of grunt under the hood. Moto E owners will have to make do with a dual-core offering, as the Moto E will feature a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 200 processor and 1GB of RAM - this isn't going to be a lot of grunt if you want to mess around with higher-power apps, but it's at least enough to keep things chugging along better than a single core variant. That RAM allowance should ensure that Android 4.4.2 KitKat runs smoothly on the Moto E, which is kinder on the power draw compared to the older versions of the OS. Similar to the operating system on the Moto X and G, Motorola hasn't tinkered with Android too much. That means you'll get an almost stock version of Google's mobile platform, with a handful of additional features thrown in. Moto E camera The Moto E inherits the same 5MP camera that you find on the Moto G, but round the front there's no good news. It appears that Motorola has chosen not to include a front facing snapper on the Moto E which may deter the young, selfie-obsessed market. Battery and connectivity With a smaller screen and less powerful processor inside the Moto E we can at least expect half decent battery life from the handset. The Moto E as sports a 1980mAh battery, which is bigger than expected. That's slightly smaller than the 2070mAh power pack in the Moto G, but larger than the 1450mAh offering in the Lumia 520. In terms of connectivity don't look for 4G capabilities on the Moto E, as the phone arrives in a 3G variant only. We're still waiting on confirmation of the internal storage, but we're expecting to see it come on the lower end of the scale (around 4GB), which is pretty poor, but a microSD slot is housed beneath the removable rear cover allowing you to build on that paltry offering by up to 32GB. Updated: Motorola Moto E launches as super cheap smartphone May 13th 2014, 08:30, by John McCann Motorola has officially launched the low-cost Moto E at a special event in London, as the now Lenovo-owned firm looks to dominate the budget market. Instead of replacing the excellent Moto G, the Motorola Moto E falls in below and thus becomes the firm's new entry level device. The Moto E arrives with a 4.3-inch, 960 x 540 256ppi display, 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon 200 processor, 1GB of RAM, microSD slot, 1980mAh battery and Android 4.4 KitKat. That resolution might seem to be a little on the low side, but is claimed to be 'best in class' by Motorola, which makes sense when compared with the rest of the similarly-priced phones around. Death of the selfie Round the back you'll find a 5MP camera, like on the Moto G, but there's no front facing snapper here, which might mean that the selfie trend could begin to die a death for the younger generation who can afford this phone. The screen is also protected by Gorilla Glass and comes as 'splash resistant' - without a definitive IP rating, we'll assume this isn't in the same class as the Samsung Galaxy S5 or Sony Xperia Z2, but will probably happily motor on while it's pouring down with rain. And for those that like to keep things fresh you can use the new Motorola Shells to change the colour of your Moto E, making it all lovely and personal. Harking back to the days of the Nokia 3310, jumpers for goalposts, what-ho! lashings of top quality string. And the price? Well it will be available in the UK this week for £89 SIM-free. Moto G with 4G official, gets a microSD slot to boot May 13th 2014, 08:20, by Kate Solomon While busily announcing the new Moto E, Motorola has also seen fit to unveil an update to its much-loved Moto G handset: it's giving it 4G smarts. The device is much the same as the original Moto G, but with the addition of a microSD slot and the new 4G connection topping things off nicely. Bloatware haters will be pleased to hear it's coming with Android KitKat and no extra bells or whistles, while the colour options for the front are black or white. The Moto G 4G is launching in the UK in "the coming weeks" with a price-tag of £149 - that's £50 more than the 3G edition. That £149 price converts directly to $259 in the US, although Amazon is listing the 4G-imbued Moto G at $220. No word on an Australian launch yet, but it should come in at around AU$270 if/when it does. "A stunning phone for very little money" - the best value smartphone just got better In Depth: 10 best Android launchers: amazing ways to supercharge your phone May 13th 2014, 08:01, by Chris Mills Best Android launchers: 1- 5 Spend more than three minutes with any Android fanboy, and you'll quickly learn that the real beauty of Google's operating system lies in the potential to customise it. Any problem can be solved by downloading enough apps. Nowhere is that more true than for Android's homescreen – so we've rounded up the best alternative Android launchers for your modding pleasure. On an Android phone, the launcher is the app responsible for the home screen, the app 'grid', and launching the aforementioned apps. Phones generally come with either the stock Google launcher, or more commonly, a launcher whacked on top by a hardware manufacturer like Samsung. But, if you don't get on with your phone's default launcher, installing a new one just takes a quick visit to the Google Play Store. 1. Google Now Launcher Google's very own stock Android launcher is now up for grabs – but just because it's the Android standard, doesn't mean it's boring. For your money (well, actually, it's free), you get easy access to Google Now, button-free voice controls, and enough transparent window-bars to make you think you're back in Windows Vista. It's compatible straight out of the box with all Nexus and Google Play Edition devices, and two minutes with a computer will get it running on all Android 4.x handsets. Just be careful what you say around it – the Big G's always listening, probably. 2. Nova Launcher Nova and Apex (below) are the two standout Android launchers – both strike an excellent balance between having enough features to customise things, without bogging you down with unfeasibly long options lists and 17 levels of sub-menu hell. Nova's arguably the better of the two, with a few more options available in the free version (there is also a Prime version), and slightly better performance – but really, we're splitting tiny Android hairs trying to find a difference between the two. 3. Apex Apex Launcher, just like Nova, blends smooth performance and ease-of-use with a good level of customisation to create a genuinely appealing alternative to most standard Android launchers. Standout features on Apex include a superb tablet mode (finally allowing Nexus 7 owners to rotate the home screen); and the Pro version has the fantastic Apex Notifier service, which pushes notifications to a widget on your home screen. (Although, Notifier requires running an extra app in the background, which is a small drain on battery life.) Once again, the Pro version does cost money, so it's worth downloading the free version first. 4. Launcher Pro Launcher Pro is aimed at users with phones that are yet to taste the frozen goodness of Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, and are still stuck with Gingerbread. Although it lacks some of the bells and whistles of its more advanced stablemates, Launcher Pro is a solid upgrade from the stock launcher, with much faster scrolling and more customisation options, and even some sleek tricks like unlimited widget resizing in the full-fat, paid-for version. 5. Buzz Launcher Buzz Launcher packs the standard set of customisation options, but with a killer advantage: a user-created library of thousands of themes and widgets you can browse, download and tinker with. Whereas other launchers feel like masterpieces of efficiency – trying to find you the app you want, with minimum hassle – Buzz is all about the aesthetics. There are certainly more powerful launchers out there, but if you're all about matching the colour of your shoelaces to your cravat (and don't have an iPhone), then this is probably the launcher for you. Best Android launchers: 6 - 10. 6. Action Launcher Pro YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Aj-PRdU7xA Action Launcher has some nifty, unique features – stuff like a quick-access set of shortcuts (all customisable, of course), special gestures for launching apps from within folders, and a cool one-touch method of creating widgets from apps. Sadly, you have to pay the requisite couple of quid for the premium version if you want to get your hands on the goodies. 7. ADW Launcher ADW's probably the ultimate modder's launcher – anything you want to tweak is tweakable, from the particular shade of Gmail red, to the precise gesture needed to open an app. Sadly, it all comes at a price – ADW is complicated to use and sluggish compared to other offerings. More worryingly, development has ground to a halt, with no new releases to support versions of Android after 4.1. 8. Facebook Home YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKHCQyuPj-U Facebook Home is Mark Zuckerberg's mess of a Facebook takeover for Android. It serves a single purpose: making sure you share every waking moment of your life with your 639 closest friends. As such, Home turns your lock screen and home screen into a torrent of Facebook statuses; whether or not that's an improvement depends on how witty your friends are. On the upside, though, it's a beautifully designed app, with slick graphics and user interfaces, provided your handset's got the horsepower to run it. 9. Next Launcher YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2KNJTZ_mhk Some will consider Next Launcher jaw-droppingly cool – a 3D launcher that's completely different to the standard grid-with-some-widgets-whacked-on-top. Of course, it's insanely impractical and a complete battery hog, but it might just impress a girl at the bar on Friday night. However, it costs more than a Blu-ray, which is money that could be better spent buying drinks at the aforementioned bar instead. 10. Zeam Zeam is at the other end of the spectrum to the rest of these launchers – all the developers seem to care about is speed. It's the stripped-out racing version, ditching pretty much all the customisation options or swanky floating menus of the other versions, in favour of a minimalist code-base. The upside of course is super-smooth performance, even on the oldest, crummiest phones around. If you're looking for a speed boost for a handset running Gingerbread (that's Android 2.x to you and us), Zeam fits the bill pretty well, and it's also free. Best Android games: 50 of the greatest games in a handy list Cheap and cheerful Nokia Lumia 630 arriving in Australia this month May 12th 2014, 23:00, by Rob Edwards Microsoft's first smartphone to launch with Windows 8.1, the Nokia Lumia 630, will be landing in Australia this month and it may be very welcome if you're on a budget. Retailing for just $249 outright, the Lumia 630 packs a surprisingly powerful 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and a 4.5-inch LCD display. While that won't compete with flagship handsets like the Samsung Galaxy S5 or HTC One M8, at this price it won't have to. The Lumia 630 also features a 5-megapixel camera that will deliver serviceable if unspectacular snaps, all juiced by its 1830mAh battery. A splash of colour Should the mood take you you can add a little vibrancy to the handset's dull matte black polycarbonate body via one of five interchangeable and brightly coloured covers. The Lumia 630 also features Nokia's SensorCore, which will keep track of your steps and the calories you've burned without draining much power. The Lumia 630 can be purchased outright from May 27 and if you're comfortable being locked in to a carrier you can grab one from Vodafone for $179 prepaid from June 4. Looking for a Lumia but after better specs? Why not check out our Lumia 930 review? iPhone 6 supplier renders reveal longer body, redesigned buttons and more May 12th 2014, 19:43, by JR Bookwalter A new week, a new set of leaks for Apple's next flagship smartphone. This time, a set of 3D renderings have reportedly surfaced straight from the hallowed halls of Cupertino's favorite Asian supplier. Over the weekend, Chinese website Wei Feng (via GforGames) managed to get its hands on a handful of 3D renderings allegedly straight out of Apple's supply chain, which offers yet another look at the forthcoming iPhone 6. By this point, nearly every aspect of the eagerly anticipated smartphone has been leaked, but the five 3D schematics appear to be further evidence that a big refresh is on the way this year. Curiously, the renderings are said to have come directly from "Foxconn or its affiliates," and seem to match those used to create dummy units that made the rounds only last week. The little things For starters, the wider, longer renderings appear to confirm the rumored 4.7-inch display, showing off the more rounded edges of the handset. Although the Lightning and headphone ports remain largely unchanged at the bottom of the device, the volume keys on the left edge have been elongated, and the power button at top has been moved to the right side. The other obvious change is the LED flash, which is now shown as a circle rather than the flattened oval from the current generation iPhone 5S model. Subtle differences to be sure, but something tells us Apple has more up their sleeves than we've seen from the leaks leading up to the Worldwide Developer Conference in just three short weeks. Take another look at our iPad Mini 2 with Retina display review!

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