Articles about Smartphone

Without even turning on the HTC One A9 (which I haven't yet), the physical similarities with iPhone 6/6s are unmistakable. The smartphones share striking design ethic, separated by the shape of the home-button fingerprint sensor, placement of the rear-facing camera, and left-side SIM and microSD card slots. But these differences aren't immediately obvious.

My question: Is this the Android for people wanting the iPhone 6s look but something more flexible than the iOS platform? If there is truth in marketing, HTC's tag lines reveal much: "Design worth imitating", which while referring the company's One legacy also could be interpreted as backhanded praise or even fist-to-snub about Apple's device, which some could argue imitates earlier One models. "Power to choose"—customization and personalization options not offered on fruit-logo handsets.

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Top-end specs, a large screen, near-vanilla Android, and a price tag on the South side of $400 make OnePlus 2 a force to be reckoned in the battle for the "Smartphone of the year" award. It certainly has what it takes to get consumers' attention, as over four million reservations were made in the first couple of weeks after launch. But, hype can only get the "2016 flagship killer" so far. Question is, does it live up to it?

I have used a OnePlus 2, in 64GB trim, as my daily driver for well over a month now to find out whether it is worthy of its self-given title, and how it stacks up against some of the flagships it has in its sights, like Apple's bigger iPhone.

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You can tell the holiday shopping season has started. There's Christmas displays in the stores, Amazon has launched its store and perhaps, just maybe, the children are being better behaved. It's also the time when stores suddenly pop up, many of them are simple kiosks located in malls.

Motorola took that concept one step further as it announces its first full-blown store, located right in downtown Chicago.

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Bend tests have become a talking point after Apple's iPhone 6 Plus was found to have issues in this department. So, whenever a new flagship smartphone comes out, you can expect someone to make a YouTube video showing how easily -- or not -- it can be bent. They have become so popular that reviewers can expect millions of views.

And because such tests are a given, manufacturers are also expected to learn from others' mistakes and come up with smartphone designs that fare well in these kind of conditions. So, you can imagine my surprise when I saw Google's new Nexus 6P bending -- and, as a result, breaking -- with very little effort. Has its manufacturer, Huawei, learnt nothing from Apple's mistake?

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No matter how careful you are with your smartphone, accidents can happen. And when bad luck strikes, having accidental damage coverage can make the difference between a huge repair bill -- or, even worse, being forced to buy a new smartphone -- and having it replaced with a new one, typically after paying a much easier to swallow deductible.

In trying to make its smartphones more appealing and give its prospective customers some peace of mind, OnePlus has announced a new accidental damage coverage for those who purchase its OnePlus 2 flagship and OnePlus X mid-ranger.

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Just as Microsoft is trying to streamline its various operating systems with the approach it has taken with Windows 10, so Google appear to have similar plans. The Wall Street Journal reports that plans are well under way to merge Android and Chrome OS.

Work has been going on for two years, and an early build of the hybrid operating system is expected to see the light of day next year. A full release is planned for 2017. While described as a merger of OSes, the report suggests that Google is really looking to expand Android so that it can run on laptops. Chrome OS may well live on, but the same cannot be said of Chromebooks.

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A few days ago, Motorola announced the Droid Turbo 2 and Droid Maxx 2 phones, with the Turbo 2 boasting a shatterproof display. This phone was destined for the North American market, but Android fans in the UK are not going to miss out. Motorola is launching the same phone in the UK under the name Moto X Force.

Specs remain the same in the journey across the Atlantic, so you'll find that the Moto X Force features an octo-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, 5.4" Quad HD AMOLED display, 3GB RAM, and a 21MP camera. Motorola is also keen to shout about the handset's battery life -- a claimed 48 hours, no less, and 13 hours of battery life from 15 minutes of charging. But this is a phone that's also about choice.

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On 23 April 2014, a small Chinese company called OnePlus got a lot of press attention when it introduced the OnePlus One, an Android phone with flagship specifications for the amazingly-low price of $299 for the 16GB variant and $349 for the 64GB model.

OnePlus introduced the world to its second flagship phone earlier this year, the OnePlus 2, during a virtual reality press event. Once again, OnePlus impressed reviewers with great specifications at a great price. Now that we have quickly gone over OnePlus's past, let's come to the present day and the launch of the company's latest Android phone, the OnePlus X.

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Have you ever lost a mobile phone and wondered where it went? Security company Avast had the same thought and deliberately 'lost' 20 phones to find out what happened to them.

Avast installed three security apps on all the phones, the free Avast Anti-Theft app, Lookout Mobile Security, and Clean Master. It then randomly placed 10 phones in San Francisco and 10 in New York. Each phone was marked with contact information on where to return the device if found.

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OnePlus is taking a break from challenging flagships, as today the company announces its first mid-range smartphone. Called OnePlus X, it sports a premium design, competitive hardware specifications and a price tag of just $249. In keeping up with tradition, it too will require an invite come purchase time, but this is said to only last for the first month after going on sale.

The lower price tag -- compared to the OnePlus 2 flagship -- might lead you to believe that OnePlus X is lacking in the hardware department, but the new smartphone is actually quite impressive in terms of specs. You get quite a lot more than the price tag might suggest.

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The haughty headline from yesterday's Apple fiscal fourth quarter 2015 earnings report isn't big revenue or profit performance ($51.5 billion and $11.1 billion, respectively), but a figure given by CEO Tim Cook during the analyst call: "We recorded the highest rate on record for Android switches last quarter at 30 percent".

Blogs, and some news sites, set the statement off like an atomic blast of free marketing for Apple. The fallout spreads across the InterWebs this fine Wednesday, largely undisputed or corroborated. Just because Cook claims something doesn't make it true. To get some perspective, and to either correct or confirm the public record, today I asked a half-dozen analysts: "Does your analysis of the smartphone market support that assertion?"

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JP Morgan Chase announced its own smartphone payment platform on Tuesday, called Chase Pay. The platform, due to make its debut mid-2016, will be a direct competitor to the likes of Apple, Google and Samsung.

Chase Pay is built upon the Current C, a retailer-led mobile payment system that has largely been written off by Silicon Valley techies for its reliance on barcodes rather than the more sophisticated NFC (near-field communications) technology adopted by its competitors.

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As expected, Apple has broken its Q4 iPhone sales record, moving 48.04 million smartphones last quarter. That is an improvement of 22.33 percent year-over-year, from the 39.27 million units sold in Q4 FY2014. The boost in revenue is even higher at 36.03 percent, rising to $32.2 billion from $23.67 billion a year prior.

Android users seem to have contributed a great deal to Apple's record quarter, as 30 percent of iPhone buyers last quarter were Android switchers, according to the company's CEO, Tim Cook.

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When HTC announced One A9, the Taiwanese maker said that its new smartphone would only cost $399 when it goes on sale in US. But, as it turns out, that is in fact, a "very limited-time promotional offer", as the price will be bumped up by $100 shortly after it starts shipping.

How limited is that offer? Well, the $399 asking price only applies to orders placed before 12:01 am on November 7. Afterwards, buyers will have to shell out $499 to get their hands on the smartphone. It is a very strange decision, as the lower cost is one of the few things that One A9 has got going for it.

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Android and iOS users are about to find that Facebook is much more useful. A new update that is rolling out across the US brings personalized notifications to the app that extend far beyond details of status updates and birthdays.

To help you keep on top of your schedule, Facebook now also displays information about friends' life events, reminders about TV shows, details about events you've joined, and sports scores. There are also a number of optional components that are tailored to where you are.

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