| Moto G Cinema leads a bunch of new mystery Motorola phones May 9th 2014, 14:11, by Hugh Langley 
Motorola's firing up the engines ready for quite a few new phones, it seems, one of which looks set to be named the Moto G Cinema. With this being the first time we've heard this name mentioned, it's tough to guess what it could be. A screenshot outing the name was posted by the oft-reliable @evleaks who snapped it from Motorola's support website. But it's not the only new device to get a mysterious placeholder. Three other pages have appeared, each containing a reference to a different phone and price tag. Three's companyThere's the Moto 3G Global 4GB ($179, same at the Moto G launch price), the Moto 4G Global ($179) and the Moto 4G Global ($189), all of which are rather mysteriously named. And all of which come just in time for Motorola's big May 13 London event, where the Moto E is expected to be announced. But with indications that the Moto E will be cheaper than the Moto G, it appears that this trio is hinting at a different phone entirely – quite possibly the new G itself. The aforementioned Moto G Cinema could easily be one of these handset. Could we see some, or even all, of them at next week's event? We'll be there to bring you the news as it breaks.        |  | Updated: Did Dr. Dre just confirm that Apple has bought Beats? May 9th 2014, 12:00, by Michelle Fitzsimmons 
Updated: A Facebook video uploaded by actor Tyrese Gibson hints that Apple be snapping up Beats electronics. In the video, Dr. Dre says "The first billionaire in hip-hop, right here," seemingly confirming the aquisition. Or maybe he just had a really good month in eBay sales? We're holding out for something more official - watch this space. Interestingly, the video has now been taken down, but a ripped version has appeared here (warning: lots of swearies). Original story below... Apple may soon drop a few billion to pick-up Beats Electronics. According to sources of the Financial Times (paywall), Apple is in talks with the Dr. Dre-co-founded firm for a deal that would turn the headphone purveyor over to Cupertino for $3.2 billion (about £1.8b, AU$3.4b). The purchase could be announced as soon as next week, though nothing is final and, depending on how discussions between Apple and Beats play out, may still fall through. Beats made a name for itself with headphones slung on by celebrities from every ilk, but recently the company helmed by Jimmy Iovine broke into the streaming game with Beats Music. TechRadar asked Apple and Beats for comment on the reported sale, but we'll update this story if and when we hear back. Apple re-pressed playDespite the cool factor afforded by celebrities sporting Beats by Dre headsets, Apple's true interest in Beats may lie in its streaming music offering. To be sure, Beats headphones are a staple of Apple's online and retail stores, but the iPhone maker may consider Beats Music the real catch. iTunes Radio launched in October 2013, but iTunes itself has been rumored for a "radical overhaul" for several months now. Where it once ruled the one-and-done download space, subscription services services are increasingly taking consumers into their streams. A Beats Music/iTunes Radio mash-up could be what Apple needs to reinvigorate its musically inclined revenue stream. If the deal goes through, it would potentially be Apple's biggest purchase to date. It'd certainly rank for name-recognition; the Mac maker typically sticks to lesser-known loot. Stay tuned for TechRadar for more on Apple's Beats buy. We're sure to hear more in the coming days if the report proves true. - Did Apple make the best tablet of 2014 in the iPad Air?
       | | Updated: Apple promising mega-pics, not megapixels with new camera patent May 9th 2014, 10:30, by Rob Edwards 
Are you ready for an upgrade over your iPhone 5S' camera picture quality? A patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office suggests that Apple is prepping a "super-resolution" imaging engine for future handsets. The patent covers "super-resolution based on optical image stabilization," meaning your next iPhone (or more likely one several generations down the line) will rapidly take a series of images at a range of slightly offset angles. These images will then be stitched together by an image processing engine, resulting in a "super-resolution" image. The tech will allow Apple to significantly increase the iPhone camera's picture resolution without worrying about boosting those pesky megapixels. How it worksAs your iPhone's camera fires off a series of images, the optical image stabilization position will tilt the camera along a known optical path. During this process a positioning sensor indicating tilt angle will help ensure the accuracy of the final image. Each shot is then transferred to the "super-resolution" imaging engine, which combines them into a single dense image by interpolating and remapping them to a high resolution grid. The engine puts the finishing touches on the image by applying techniques like gamma correction, anti-aliasing and other methods of color processing. With the patent first filed in 2012, it's unclear when Apple's "super-res" camera will make its way into our handsets. But the current bulkiness of physical image stabilization when compared with digital solutions suggests it probably won't be in the iPhone 6 when it launches later this year. Update: This technology sounds like it has some remarkably similar attributes to Nokia's PureView oversampling system, currently used in the likes of the 41MP Lumia 1020. So it's lucky that Apple's just snapped up Ari Partinen, one of the writer's of Nokia's white paper on the subject, to join its team. Partinen announced the news on Twitter, although didn't give any information on what he'll be doing at Cupertino - one thing's for certain though: he won't be working in the audio department, given his admission of a 'passion to push digital imaging to the next level'. Via: AppleInsider and Engadget        | | Week in Tech: Week in Tech: Nintend-woes, marvellous Morpheus and Apple's unknown foes May 9th 2014, 10:20, by TechRadar 
As Mad Men's Joan put it: "one minute you're on top of the world, the next minute some secretary's running you over with a lawn mower." This week the mower seemed to be heading straight for Mario, but Nintendo isn't the only tech giant hitting hard times: as we discovered, the Chinese are coming and smartphone firms should be scared. Boo! Wii U fails to wooNintendo's latest financial results are out, and they're even worse than we feared: it sold just 310,000 consoles in the last quarter, propelling losses to a staggering $456 million for the year. Nintendo's answer? Skylanders-style NFC figures and new consoles for developing countries. That's Huawei to do itThe rumours were true: Huawei's going after high-end Android handsets with the Ascend P7, which was officially launched this week in Paris. It's good, says John McCann, but it's not quite good enough: while it isn't exactly poorly equipped, "it's not in the same league as the Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One M8 or Sony Xperia Z2." Chinese Fakes AwayChina's reputation as the home of knock-offs and me-too devices is out of date: as Ben Stinson reports, it's now the home of "genuinely innovative and alternative handsets… Huawei and ZTE are already making moves into the developed smartphone nations, and they're set to be followed by a legion of Chinese smartphone makers in the next year or so." You might not be familiar with all of the brands Stinson describes just yet, but they have big ideas and the budgets to match. If the current smartphone kings aren't worried, they aren't paying attention. G3 is the magic numberHas LG sneakily released its G3 phone in disguise? If history is repeating, the new Isai FL shows the LG G3 just like last year's Isai presaged the G2 - and that means a 538-pixels per inch display, a quad-core Snapdragon, 2GB of RAM and a cracking 13.2 megapixel camera. That screen "will make it the flagship phone to beat this summer", says Gareth Beavis, unless LG is overly optimistic about battery life and manufacturing yields. If it is, then the firm "is gambling pretty stupidly on a technology that could make or break the company's fortunes in the smartphone industry." Small-ish. Beautiful?Microsoft is having a "small gathering" on May 20, at which it's expected to unveil the much-rumoured Surface Mini. That's the good news. The bad: it looks like it'll run Windows RT. Sony - in your face!It looks like Project Morpheus, Sony's VR system, has been hiding in plain sight: as Hugh Langley can exclusively reveal, it's the reason for the always-on lightbar in the DualShock 4. We like what we've seen of Morpheus so far and Sony's promising more joy to come: the headsets will be improved significantly by launch, and we may see a "landmark" Morpheus game at this year's E3. You can go check out our updated Project Morpheus hands on review. Facebook - in your face!Fancy living inside Facebook? If Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe has his way, that's where VR is heading. Facebook will become a metaverse "joining disparate virtual worlds together," Iribe predicts, and the only thing preventing that from happening is the teeny-weeny detail that it'd require a bigger network than actually exists in the world today. Uber, the hills, and far awayGoogle's added a bunch of new features to its iOS and Android mapping apps: there's support for car-calling app Uber, lane guidance for driving directions, more detailed information about businesses and points of interest and easy saving of maps for offline use. It's the biggest Google Maps update for some time and keeps it way ahead of rivals such as Apple. We were promised jetpacksWhat's white and invisible? That jetpack! According to future-gazing Google X head Astro Teller, the best example of nominative determinism we've seen since urologist Richard "Dick" Chopp, Google considered making a safe-to-use jetpack but had to scrap the project. There's still no news of metal trousers or meals in pill form either. - Hands-on with the Huawei Ascend P7 - will this hero handset frighten the flagships?
       | | HTC One M8 Mini may come with a sizable price tag May 9th 2014, 08:59, by Hugh Langley -470-75.JPG)
We all expect the HTC One M8 Mini to make an appearance soon, but we didn't think it would be priced quite as highly as two retailers are claiming. Finnish sites, Systema Store and Multitronic, currently list the phone for around 520 Euros, which converts to about £425/$720 - a fair bit more than the launch price of the first One Mini. They're also naming the phone the HTC One Mini M8, rather than the HTC One Mini 2, as it's been mooted until now. Mini-MeRumours and leaks so far suggest the smaller M8 will be wearing the same aluminium body of its HTC One M8, but the screen will be shrunk to 4.5 inches with a 720p display. It'll also downgrade the Snapdragon 801 to a 400, allegedly, and could come with a 13MP rear camera. All these factors taken into account, the price tag listed by these websites seems a bit much. But don't take anything as gospel - retailers often get these things wrong.        | | Preparing your enterprise for the internet of things May 8th 2014, 23:00, by Désiré Athow 
Since nearly everything that technical and business innovators want to do around the internet of things (IoT) needs to make use of Internet-level protocols, the intersection of the IoT and the future will to a very great extent happen on the web. What is critically required is an entirely new architecture - a 'web communications' architecture - since the 'things' these innovators want to talk to are typically encircled by web infrastructure like firewalls and proxies. We speak to Vikram Mehta, CEO of KAAZING, a San Jose-based web communications infrastructure company and provider of IoT Websocket software, whose mission is to accelerate the Web for ensuring the performance of the IoT is maximised. TechRadar Pro: What impact will the Internet of Things (IoT) have on an enterprise? Vikram Mehta: If you look at the explosive growth in connected devices, predominantly web-enabled and Web-accessible devices, the demand for live and event-driven information over the Web, or as some call it IoT, will grow exponentially. At this expected rate the growth of data distributed over the Web, and Internet, will outpace the performance principals of Moore's Law, which we depend on to ensure that our hardware can keep up with our needs. The legacy systems that we are currently using and deploying were never designed for the performance and scalability demands required by the new generation applications that are accessed at any time and anywhere, from any device. It's a simple matter of physics and computer science - the traditional web and internet technologies of the last 18 years won't take us through the next ten years. Rather than relying on legacy solutions and continue down the traditional technology path, enterprises should select new established IoT technologies, such as that of KAAZING. Technologies that are designed from the ground up to support this new world will offer greater ROIs, better TCO's, and greatly improved user experiences and security. TRP: How can CIOs and IT professionals keep up with IoT and incorporate it into their business? VM: The definition of IoT is not new, in fact it's been around for over a decade. What has changed is the public's awareness that the technology we use on a daily basis has caught up on the vision of an always on, always connected World. If you look into the details of what comprises the IoT then you'll see that it includes everything from cloud computing, big data analytics, web communication, applications, network, storage - it is essentially including everything connected online from hardware to software, or as we like to say, it's an internet of many different things. The difference is that what has in the past been disparate and disconnected systems are now rapidly becoming uniform, connected, and always-on systems. This shift in computing triggers new demands and requirements that will put existing infrastructures to the test. This will most likely cause massive disruption in the technology ecosystem, as the old players can't keep up with new more agile players. As with any major technology shift it is important to stay open minded to new ideas and emerging technologies - those that may help you stay ahead in the next ten to 20 years. I have met with many CEOs and CIOs in my career and they have all been very active and eager to know how new players, like KAAZING, can help them stay ahead of trends and benefit from the new connected World. TRP: What industries do you see benefiting the most of IoT? VM: We see industries such as banking, transportation, travel, logistics, healthcare, and emergency services requiring this type of implementation in order to rapidly execute delivery of their mission-critical, guaranteed, larger-sized business messages out to all their connected devices and customers. TRP: How can enterprises prepare and ready themselves for IoT? VM: With any new trend there is initially some uncertainty that can cause concern and technology is no different. However, looking at some of the new industry standards that have emerged in the past three years, such as WebSocket and HTML5, the adoption curve and people's natural curiosity have helped soften this, and I believe we will see a similar trend with IoT. TRP: With the adoption of IoT technologies to accumulate even more intelligence about consumers and their behaviour, how can CIOs tackle the likely challenge of user resistance? VM: This is a loaded question and will, hopefully, stay at the top of the agenda at every CIO's staff meetings for a very long time. At KAAZING we believe in people's right to protect their privacy and although it might seem to contradict where the technology industry trend is heading it is still very important that we all care and protect one another's privacy as much as we want others to protect our own. TRP: Are enterprises and consumers racing into IoT without properly assessing the security impacts of such deployments? VM: Yes, and I don't think it is only consumers of enterprise technology; enterprise technology companies are doing it as well. It is important for consumers of technology to properly evaluate what is being signed off on before deploying an IoT solution. Right now there are many companies that are trying to ride the wave of IoT without considering this seriously. TRP: When do you believe we'll see proper adoption of IoT in the enterprise, and how can CEOs prepare their organisations for this now? VM: With awareness comes demand, and with demand comes requirements to deliver on that demand. In combination with our desire and need to react on data in a timely manner, the burden on an enterprise's existing software and hardware infrastructure will increase. At KAAZING we are already seeing deployments of what the industry now refer to as IoT solutions in industries such as transportation and logistics to entertainment. Remember that IoT is many things to many industries with an almost infinite number of decisions to be made. The best way to prepare is to fully understand your customer demands not just now but also in the near future, and your competitive landscape. This will tell you if you are fine with what you have or if you have to reconsider your technology choices. TRP: Looking at 2014, what impact will IoT have on the industry? VM: As was stated by many large enterprise companies at the Cisco IoT World Forum in Barcelona - the IoT market will not only be much bigger than anything we have ever seen in the tech industry, it will also move and change the industry faster than anything we've seen so far. The year 2014 is just the start.   | | A Japanese carrier just announced the HTC J Butterfly 2 May 8th 2014, 21:44, by Michael Rougeau 
New smartphones often get leaked before they're officially announced, but usually not by the carriers that are going to support them. This one's an exception, then: Japanese carrier KDDI may have just tipped the world off to the HTC J Butterfy 2 (which might wind up as the HTC Deluxe 2 if it goes international). KDDI mentioned the new HTC handset on a slide as the carrier unveiled its summer 2015 lineup. That means the J Butterfly 2 could hit Japan in the next few months - as long as HTC actually announces it first. Sugar, babyThe original HTC J Butterfly was announced in 2012, but it went global under the name HTC Deluxe. The sequel was rumored once before, in early April, when it appeared in AnTuTu's benchmarking database with a full list of specs. Those included Android 4.4.2: KitKat, a Snapdragon 801 chip, Adreno 330 graphics, a 1080p display, a 13- and 5-megapixel camera, 2GB of memory and 16GB of storage. In other words the HTC J Butterfly 2 might wind up more or less on par with the current flagship, the HTC One (M8) (besides the lack of ultrapixels). It will be interesting to see how HTC might differentiate the two if it does decide to take the J Butterfly 2 international.        | | This iPhone 6 dummy looks like it might be a little curvy May 8th 2014, 19:03, by Michael Rougeau 
The rumors all agree: the iPhone 6 is going to be the biggest iPhone yet, and it could be even slimmer than its predecessors. The latest leak supports those rumors, and more; the iPhone 6 dummy model portrayed in these photos looks like it has a slightly curved screen, too. The photo came by way of Sonny Dickson, whose leaks have been on the money more than once in the past. The iPhone 6 model in these photos by no means shows the final design, but since it was probably created for case-makers to use for reference, its shape and size may prove accurate. 
Curve test dummyThe yellow ring around the iPhone 6 dummy's home button is certainly not final, though it could be a stand-in for a light down there, which would be a new addition. In terms of shape, though, there's no denying that this iPhone 6 resembles popular current handsets like the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S5. Interesting too that the new iPhone might wind up more similar to the original iPhone than the iPhone 5S. All that said, the most important question is obvious: what the hell is the iPhone 6 model resting on in these photos? Unfortunately Apple probably won't address that one in September, when we expect the iPhone 6 to launch.        | | More leaked LG G3 photos, but this time 'G' stands for gilded May 8th 2014, 18:41, by JR Bookwalter 
Smartphone manufacturers have been on a veritable gold rush lately, so it will probably come as little surprise that LG apparently plans to offer this year's flagship handset with a touch of 24-karat hue. Just when you thought there was no more to see, GSM Arena dug up a pair of new images of the LG G3, which show off the forthcoming Android smartphone dressed up in a new shade of gold. Previous leaks have focused on white, grey and brushed metal casings for the highly anticipated successor to the LG G2, although the latest scuttlebutt claims all of these housings will actually be made from plastic cleverly disguised as other material. Despite the decidedly blurry nature of the photos, the latest leaks actually reveal quite a bit about what LG might be introducing later this month, with a two-day launch spread out between the US and London on May 27, followed by Asian markets on May 28. 
It's a frickin' laserAccording to the tipster who provided the images, LG plans to utilize a 13MP rear-facing camera with OIS+ stabilization and the capability of recording video in up to a whopping 4K resolution. To help users snap awesome night shots, the LG G3 appears to include a small laser beam to the left of the camera lens, although no one seems to know for sure if the handset will include infrared or some other form of invisible-to-the-human-eye technology. Around front, the 5.5-inch QHD display with a pixel density of 534ppi doesn't leave much room for bezels, but is said to feature a front-facing camera capable of snapping selfies with a voice command or even clapping two hands together. The rest of the specs line up nicely against previous rumors, right down to the Snapdragon 801 processor with 3GB RAM, 32GB of internal storage expandable via micro-SD card and a reportedly removable battery with 3,000mAh capacity.        | | Exclusive: Huawei CEO claims smartphone 'Quick Charging' is bad for batteries May 8th 2014, 15:50, by John McCann 
Smartphone battery life - the bane of life for those who can't go much longer than a day on a single charge before running for a plug socket. One solution is Quick Charge from Qualcomm, allowing you to give your smartphone a quick boost without having to wait hours - but it may not be as good as it sounds. Huawei CEO Richard Yu told TechRadar at the launch of the Ascend P7 in Paris that he had big concerns with the technology. Yu says that quick charge negatively "influences the life cycle of the battery," meaning your battery may deteriorate quicker over the lifetime of your phone. Extending life, not decreasing chargeThat can be especially troublesome if the battery is locked away under the chassis as you won't be able to just go out a buy a new one. Huawei is instead focussing on extending the life of the smartphone power pack and is continuing its research and development into new battery technologies, chipset design and interface efficiency, according to Yu. Unsurprisingly, Yu added, "we're in no hurry to implement quick charging on our devices."        | | Early view: Huawei Ascend P7 vs HTC One M8 vs Samsung Galaxy S5 vs Sony Xperia Z2 May 8th 2014, 08:00, by John McCann 
Design, screen, power and OS Huawei has joined the 2014 flagship show with the launch of the Ascend P7 at a special event in Paris. The Chinese firm is still trying to grow its presence in a market which is dominated by the likes of Samsung and Apple, plus with HTC and Sony also launching high-end devices this year Huawei has its work cut out to keep up. We've brought together the Ascend P7, One M8, Xperia Z2 and Galaxy S5 to see how they all shape up. Which one takes your fancy? DesignThe phone that really stands out in terms of design is the HTC One M8. Its impressive metal unibody, rounded corners and curved back make it a joy to hold and it oozes premium quality. That said the Sony Xperia Z2 isn't far behind with a sturdy, industrial design which may well appeal to some more than the M8 - although the sharper corners and flat rear mean it doesn't sit as nicely in the hand. 
On to the Huawei Ascend P7 and you'll find it keeps up the premium appeal with Gorilla Glass 3 covering its front and rear, sandwiching a metal frame. At just 6.5mm in depth, the Ascend P7 is also the thinnest handset out of the four. Bottom of the pile in terms of design is the all-plastic Samsung Galaxy S5. It's by no means shoddily put together, with a high build quality, but it does look and feel cheaper than the other three. If you're looking for a smartphone which has a bit more resilience to it then both the Xperia Z2 and Galaxy S5 are dust and waterproof - perfect for long baths or when you get caught in a downpour. ScreenFull HD resolutions are the order of the day for all four flagships here, and screen sizes range from 5 to 5.2 inches. The biggest of the lot is the Sony Xperia Z2 with a 5.2-inch display, while the Galaxy S5 sports a 5.1-inch screen and the Ascend P7 and One M8 make do with 5 inches. 
That means the Huawei and HTC handsets have an ever so slightly greater pixel density of 441ppi (Huawei is claiming 445ppi), compared to 432ppi on the S5 and 424ppi on the Z2. In real terms this doesn't mean a great deal as all of the screens are exceptional sharp, although the Galaxy S5 stands out thanks to the Super AMOLED technology which really makes colours pop. PowerThere's a lot of power between the four handsets and the Xperia Z2, Galaxy S5 and One M8 all share the same quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor and Adreno 330 GPU. The S5 has the 801 clocked slightly faster than its rivals at 2.5GHz, while the Z2 and M8 make do with 2.3GHz. The Xperia Z2 wins the RAM race packing in 3GB, while the M8, S5 and Ascend P7 feature 2GB each. 
We've extolled the virtues of the 801 processor in our reviews, as it delivers impressive performance and battery life. Head over to the Ascend P7 and things are a little more unknown. It's packing a 1.8GHz quad-core processor from HiSilicon - a firm which Huawei owns - as well as a Mali 450 GPU. It's lower powered and the overall operation isn't quite as slick as its rivals. Operating systemThe good news when it comes to operating system is all four phones are running the latest version of Google's platform - Android 4.4 KitKat. None of the handsets are running the stock version you find on the Nexus 5 however, with each manufacturer putting its own stamp on the software. The Galaxy S5 comes equipped with Samsung's now familiar TouchWiz UI, which is heavy on pre-installed apps (and bloatware) while also providing a whole host of additional features. HTC's new Sense 6 overlay graces the One M8, and like TouchWiz it's a heavy skin with plenty of additional features - including BlinkFeed - and applications. It's a more attractive offering which we find easier to use. Sony's UI doesn't come with a fancy name and it isn't as detailed as Samsung's and HTC's offerings. The lighter skin allows more of the natural Android interface to shine through and things are a lot less cluttered. 
The interface which has seen the most tinkering by a manufacturer though is probably Huawei's Emotion UI 2.3 on the Ascend P7. The Chinese firm has completely removed the app draw in favour of having all your applications on the homescreens. For those who are new to Android it is a simpler implementation which may be easier to learn, but Android stalwarts may find in frustrating. The other issue with Emotion UI is its design - everything looks a bit childish and that detracts from the overall experience. If we were to rank the overlays it would go Sense 6, Sony UI, TouchWiz, Emotion UI 2.3 - although the top three are easily interchangeable depending on preference. Camera, battery storage and priceCameraIt's a real mixed bag when it comes to the cameras adorning these four flagship smartphones, with widely varying specs on the front and rear. Taking a look at the rear cameras and the Sony Xperia Z2 comes out on top in terms of megapixel count with a 20.7MP Exmor RS sensor. That's followed by the Samsung Galaxy S5's 16MP snapper, the 13MP camera on the Huawei Ascend P7 and then the slightly left field ultrapixel offering on the HTC One M8 which translates to 4MP. 
Megapixels aren't everything in the camera world though, and even though the M8 has a 4MP snapper - it actually has an additional depth sensor on the rear too. This allows it to capture more information on every photo you take, opening up a range of editing possibilities in post production, from background defocus to a freaky 3D parallax effect. The M8's camera and production speed is the quickest out of the four handsets here, with HTC's own imaging chip working alongside the imaging support on the 801 chipset from Qualcomm. For the best day to day photos the Xperia Z2 comes out on top with a high level of detail, and along with the Galaxy S5 it can also record 4K video. 
In general though you'll be able to take some pretty decent photos will all four handsets - even the M8 - so we'd recommend trying them out in store first before making up your mind completely. Turning out attention to the front facing snappers and in recent months these cameras have been given a lot more attention from manufacturers thanks to the increased popularity of video calling and the selfie craze. It's the Huawei Ascend P7 which heads the pack here with a world-leading 8MP camera looking you dead in the face. There's even a dedicated selfie mode as well as the option to take a panoramic selfie. 
Unsurprisingly the Ascend P7 is one of the best front facing cameras we've witnessed and it easily tops the 2.2MP Xperia Z2 and 2MP Galaxy S5. Its closest competitor is the HTC One M8 which sports a 5MP front sanpper - amusingly that's a higher megapixel count than the rear camera - and it does a decent job of capturing your mug. BatteryBattery life has seen an improvement in the latest generation of flagship devices, partly thanks to the 801 processor inside three of the handsets here, with the phones easily lasting a whole day on one charge. We've been impressed with the battery life on the One M8, Xperia Z2 and Galaxy S5, and with careful usage you can eek out a day and a half and sometimes even two days on a single charge. The Xperia Z2 has the largest battery at 3200mAh, followed by the S5 at 2800mAh and then the One M8 at 2600mAh. Even though the M8 has a considerably smaller battery than the Z2 there's only a slight difference in battery life between the two, with the latter coming out on top. 
Battery life on the Huawei Ascend P7 is currently unknown, but due to its slender frame it houses the smallest power pack of the four at 2500mAh. With an untested, and lower powered, processor we'll have to wait for our in depth review to see how it performs. All four manufacturers have also improved their power saving modes, allowing you to make the most of every last drop of juice by reducing functionality and shutting off various data hogs. StorageThe good news for storage fans is that all four smartphones come with a microSD slot allowing you to build on the allotted internal space. You'll find the Galaxy S5, Xperia Z2 and One M8 can handle microSD cards up to 128GB in size, while the Ascend P7 is a little more restricted with support for cards up to 32GB. All four also come with 16GB of internal storage, but if you're willing to splash a bit of extra cash you can pick the HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5 up in 32GB variants as well. PriceWhen it comes to price the Huawei Ascend P7 is in a league of its own with a recommended retail price of €449. A direct conversion sees that translate into £370, although add on some taxes and the SIM-free P7 will probably go for around £400 in the UK. Meanwhile the Galaxy S5, One M8 and Xperia Z2 all retail for more than £500 SIM-free, making them considerably more expensive than the Ascend P7. Early verdictAll four handsets are solid offerings and you're unlikely to be disappointed with any of them. We're really being spoilt by manufacturers in 2014. The One M8 is great for design, the Xperia Z2 boasts the best camera, the Galaxy S5 has a stunning screen and the Ascend P7 is the most affordable - there's something for everyone here. If none of these take your fancy though fear not, for there's the LG G3 and iPhone 6 on the horizon, and if you're on a tighter budget you'll want to check out the OnePlus One.   | |
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