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I guess it was bound to happen: Google Assistant is finally breaking free from the shackles of the Pixels and launching onto the millions of devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow and above, no need for GApps or root.
Oppo showed off some impressive camera innovations at MWC. Dubbed "5x Dual Camera Zoom," the breakthrough allows for 5x lossless zoom in a camera module that is only 5.7mm thick. That means little to no camera bump, in theory. The Chinese OEM is calling this the world's first "periscope style dual-camera technology."
MediaTek has been busy in the last few months. In December, the semiconductor company launched the Helio X23 and X27 system-on-chips, which were upgrades to the previous X20 and X25, respectively. Then, just earlier this month, we saw the announcement for the Helio P25, a new SoC that hoped to bring some premium smartphone features (especially in regards to photography) to a mid-level chip. And now we have the Helio X30 announced at MWC, MTK's newest high-end entrant that could start a new chapter for the company.
The Huawei Watch, released in 2015, was arguably the best Android Wear device on balance until very recently. Accordingly, its sequel has been much-awaited by fans hoping that the device would be modernized with new features like NFC and Android Wear 2.0 while maintaining the simple elegance that made it such an aesthetically versatile smart timepiece. In fact, I think most Huawei watch fans would actually just be OK with using the same watch body from 2015, albeit with a newer chipset and Android Pay support, and maybe some new finish options or additional buttons.
Motorola is making a big push for modular phones, with the company promising at least 12 Moto Mods a year and showing off several upcoming ones earlier today. The success of Moto Mods relies on convincing customers that they are actually useful, and to that end, Motorola shared some concepts for future mods at Mobile World Congress today.
Samsung's big announcement for today was the Galaxy Tab S3, but if you happen to be interested in virtual reality, Samsung has another product to sell to you. Oculus and Samsung have partnered up again to develop an updated Gear VR, this time with a fancy motion controller.
Mobile World Congress 2017 has only just started, but Samsung's already looking forward to bigger things. A teaser image that was sent out has revealed that a Galaxy device (pretty clearly the Galaxy S8) will be "unboxed" at 11am EST on March 29th, 2017 at Samsung's Unpacked event in New York City.
Motorola's big announcement today was the new Moto G5 and G5 Plus, but it also had some news for Moto Z owners. The company previously committed to at least 12 new Moto Mods every year, with several announced today to be released over the first half of 2017.
I have fond memories of Nokia, like many others, so I was excited to watch the Finnish firm's announcements today at MWC. The presentation started with more talk on the OZO 360° virtual reality camera, which was used to livestream everything to YouTube 360. Also of note was that Nokia is finalizing its purchase of Withings, the French connected devices company. Most importantly, however, were the phone announcements.
Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona has begun, and manufacturers are releasing new tech left and right. This year, Motorola/Lenovo brought along the Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus, which make some pretty significant changes over their predecessors, mostly for the better.
Samsung seems to be pretty much the only player in the shrunken market of premium Android tablets – even Google doesn’t appear all that keen on any new Pixel tablet hardware. The Galaxy Tab S line started with a bang as the only tablet option with an AMOLED screen, while the Tab S2 aligned Samsung’s designs more closely with Apple’s iPad Mini and Air. The latest version of the hardware, announced today at Mobile World Congress, seems to be aimed squarely at the 9.7-inch version of the iPad Pro, thanks to a redesigned metal/glass body and a stand-alone “S-Pen” stylus.
After the new P10 and P10 Plus, Huawei used its time on stage at Mobile World Congress to unveil the follow-up to its Huawei Watch. And just like we suspected from the previous leaks, this new watch is... nothing like the first. It's chunkier, sportier, blacker, and has a busier look and feel.
Beside the LG G6 and Galaxy S8, one of the most leaked devices in the past couple of weeks has been the Huawei P10 (and P10 Plus), the follow-up to last year's loved and respected P9 and P9 Plus. After seeing it in small renders that showed all its potential colors then catching it in a better resolution, we now have the official device in front of us, ceramics, sandblast, colors, and all.
To put it gently, the G5 was a controversial smartphone. Many took issue with LG's modular approach, which came at the expense of ruggedization, battery capacity, and, well, expense. But even disregarding its most-cited flaw, the G5 simply wasn't a smartphone that was appreciably better at just being a smartphone than much of its competition - and that's certainly part of what sank it. I won't belabor the point, but after using the G6 for some time (albeit in preproduction guise), I think LG really has taken criticism of the G5 seriously. (Perhaps a little too seriously in some ways.)
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LG announced the G6 in Barcelona at MWC 2017 today, confirming the heavily leaked handset's existence. Specifications are largely as expected, but LG has not announced specific pricing or availability information today. (For the US, you can probably expect that news to come via individual carriers, not LG.) The phone will come in three colors - white, silver, and black.
Sony can't catch a break. Following the XZ Premium leak from just a few hours ago, a picture of four unannounced Sony smartphones has surfaced, courtesy of our old friend @evleaks. One of those is the aforementioned XZ Premium, but what are the other three?
It's pretty much impossible for a smartphone to launch these days sans leaks, and LG's G6 is no different. The upcoming flagship has already been exposed several times, both through renders and in the flesh. However, these are the most detailed pictures we've seen yet, and they leave essentially nothing to the imagination.
BlackBerry has forged a partnership with TCL to push its Android hardware forward. We've seen a few phones come out of this association so far, but they've been recycled Alcatel designs. The KEYone is all new and all BlackBerry. This phone was pre-announced as the Mercury, but now it's official and coming to the US and Canada in "early Q2" and elsewhere shortly thereafter.
The Sony Xperia XZ was announced at IFA last year, and later released in the United States in October. As you might expect from a phone initially costing $699, it's powered by a Snapdragon 820 CPU with 3GB of RAM. Now Xperia Blog has posted the first image of the upcoming XZ Premium, and it's very shiny.