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Compared to years past, CES 2013 was pretty light on phones. The focus was more on health/fitness gadgets and 4K UHD TVs. But among the few phones at the show, we some good ones. Here are the top five.
ZTE Grand S
The hardware of the ZTE Grand S is really lovely. It’s extremely thin and extremely light, yet it’s got some serious specs. A 5-inch 1080p screen, quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, two gigs of RAM, a 13MP camera, 16GB of built-in storage and an SD card slot for more.
The software side was definitely disappointing. It runs Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), but the UI is ugly and confusing and there was a lot of lag. It probably won’t hit the UK until Q2, so hopefully they can clean up the software before then.
Huawei Ascend D2
Pretty much the same story as the ZTE, Huawei is trying to establish itself with the Ascend D2, and it actually looks really good. It has essentially the same specs at the Grand S above, but the Huawei packs in a 3,000mAh battery, which is music to our power-user ears.
The Ascend runs Android Jelly Bean, it has built-in augmented reality navigation, and split-screen multi-tasking. Plus: it’s splash-proof. This was a lot snappier than Huawei’s gigantic 6.1-inch phablet, which we were not such a fan of. No word on exact release dates or which network it’ll be on.
Lenovo K900
I’d better say this right off the bat so you don’t get your hopes up: the K900 is not destined for the UK market. If you want it, you’ll have to move to China. That said, it’s gorgeous piece of hardware. It has a 5.5-inch 1080p screen, which is going to be too big for some people, but it’s very easy on the eyes. It’s super thin, at just 6.9mm thick, and it weighs just 5.7 ounces.
It operates on Android, and it has a 13MP camera with a Sony Exmor image processor. It’s also running Intel’s Atom z2580 processor, with a (rumoured) clock speed of 2GHz. If you ask real nice maybe Lenovo will make a European version.
Kogan Agora
Kogan is a a budget Android smartphone priced to make the Nexus 4 look like a bit of a rip-off. It’s a fairly modest piece of hardware, packing in a 1GHz dual-core Cortex A9 processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of on-board storage, and a 5-megapixel camera. But boy is it cheap — at £119, this is the best deal you’re likely to get on an Android smartphone in the near future.
The screen measures 5-inches on the diagonal with a resolution of 800×480. The device doesn’t support 4G, instead one slot is 2G and one slot is 3G. Yeah, two slots — it’s sporting dual-SIM capabilities. The Agora is running Android 4.0.4 out of the box, though Ruslan Kogan told us that he’s not sure about future updates to Jelly Bean and onwards, but is still in negotiations with the as yet undisclosed manufacturer.
From our hands-on, we left deeply impressed: though it’s worth noting that the camera isn’t stellar; the device is quite heavy; and the screen leaves a bit to be desired when it comes to viewing angles, for £119 are you really going to complain? The Agora is available for pre-order now and it ships in February for £119.
TOP PICK: Sony Xperia Z
The Xperia Z, ultimately, is every bit as much of a flagship as the ZL. It has the same exact screen, guts, camera, and software. It does, however, add one very impressive trick: It’s waterproof to one metre for 30 minutes. All. Phones. Should. Be. Waterproof.
This Xperia is thinner than the ZL, but a little wider and longer. There’s also no IR blaster or physical camera button, and the battery is a hair smaller at 2330 mAh. It’s just a gorgeous piece of hardware and it performed really well, so we decided to give it the nod over its brother, but it will come down to personal preference (and availability). The bottom line: Both of Sony’s new phones are looking good.
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The Ascend D2 looks really rather nice especially given the large battery. Hopefully it will see a UK release.
Apple are going to have a field day with all these round cornered rectangles
Yeh they invented corners and they did curves before the 4 so they musta invested curves too…. what else is there for them to sue about? The invested Touch screens, tablets, mobiles, mp3 players, music, my mothers cunt and god too?
LOL!
Is anyone else massively bored with these cut n paste ‘witty’ comments?
Design rights and trademarks on shapes exist globally. Would you argue against the fact that Coke have a highly distinctive trademark in the shape of their bottle? Probably not. They win every infringement case they bring.
Apple have sometimes managed to argue that the shape of their devices is novel, sometimes they have failed. That’s because their case is (much) less strong. It’s still there to be made though, and there is a system in place to decide if it’s a valid argument.
‘Passing off’ laws are international, well accepted, and important in most industries otherwise any nice design would be copied in days. Along with patents, which I know many on here also disagree with, they form a vital defence that the company I own relies on daily to protect the core of our business against the multi-nationals. If they want our stuff, they have to buy it from us.
“Is anyone else massively bored with these cut n paste ‘witty’ comments?”
That is unfortunately what Gizmodo UK comments are often reduced to. Ars Technica, or even The Verge, this certainly isn’t. With that little rant out of the way, you make a good point regarding patents – they are rather essential and are generally a good thing. They become an issue, however, when the patent granted is too broad which seems to be a recurring theme in technology patents.
(This is just coincidence that I’m replying to you twice in close succession Ontologica)
But I think a lot of people would start to question how “good” and “essential” patents are in software and mobile devices now. When the patents are only used by massive players, they’re not really that “good” for anyone.
Patents are mostly useful for the little man.
Noted! Coincidences do happen! I think patents are nigh on essential for entities such as pharmaceutical companies (where the money is funnelled back into the incredibly expensive R&D process) but for software it is all a little vague.
For novel, commercial software implementations (think a snazzy bit of UI design that does something rather unique) I am all for them. For general tasks such as “Make a calendar entry” I feel such patents shouldn’t be granted. If it is in software used for scientific purposes then patents are fine in so much as the code is tangible and can be viewed so as to allow reproduction of results clearly.
Mobile design patents? This “trade dressing”? No – it is normally design patents that are trotted out by Apple in an attempt to stifle their competition. In this case, they are indeed better off with the little man.
I’m not sure I’d agree they are not working. Largely, and with obvious flaws, they do work.
Patent trolls are a problem, largely because a lot of people will just roll over if challenged. The recent example of some company having a dubious patent on scanners and pursuing end users is an example. However, there are very stiff penalties for this sort of thing – undue threats in cases like this can and will attract huge fines, and are therefore very rare. The guys in the scanner case are likely heading for a massive and catastrophically expensive fall.
The important thing to remember is FRAND. If you invent something that is essential for something to work – an algorithm that makes cellular data work for example, then there is a system in place that requires you to licence it to anyone else that wants to use it on Fair and Reasonable terms.
By definition, anything that is essential falls under this. The rest is innovation, and there is no reason at all why a company should have to share an innovation that makes its product more attractive. It may chose to do so, by licensing or franchising it, but likely it wants to keep it as a reason you should buy their product and not a competitors.
For example. My company invented an optical system that doubles the resolution of our particular type of medical images. This gives an advantage to us in the marketplace, and means that we can compete and win against the only other operator – a huge multinational. As we have a patent, we can insure against someone infringing it, so we could afford to defend it if necessary.
We don’t have to licence to our competitor, and we’re not going to. Instead, if they want to compete, they either have to come up with their own ideas to improve things, or they need to buy us or the patents, or they need to accept their offering is not as good. We win, the patients win (better images), and it means we have so far raised more than £6.5 M in investment to let us move our business forward. Our good idea is rewarded, and the patent lets us benefit from having made the invention.
This is good for us, and it’s good for patients as it drives innovation.
Sorry, that was a bit long, but there is so much ignorance around what patents are for and why they are broadly a good thing.
The circlejerking here is strong, especially when it comes to anything Apple related.
Perhaps they could refer to the corners as ‘quarter-circle’ squares?
An electronics retailer I worked with called them “Squircles” (TM)(R), Patent Pending
Looking at these really are boring. Anyone else miss unique looking phones (i.e. phones that aren’t a bloody shiny rectangle)? Phones like the Moto Aura, nGage and the Nokia Communicators. Hell, I still use my 9210i to this day and hasn’t let me down once.
I get what you mean but I can’t say I do. The physical form of my phone matters to me in as much as it wont shatter when I drop it and it fits in my hand but that’s about it. The central point is the screen and that’s what my attention is going to be on when I’m using it. It also means that manufactures have to concentrate on differentiating themselves where it matters – hardware and software.
Besides most people wrap them up in cases anyway so there’s not a lot of incentive for manufacturers to put a lot of effort in.
I was watching The Matrix Reloaded the other day, and was amused to see them using this monstrosity:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_SPH-N270
Frankly, I’m glad those days are over, and am quite glad we’re all just using different sizes of Star Trek PADDs.
Looks awesome!!
I actually really like the Xperia Z. Also, I hope they price the Huawei Ascend P1 (not included here) at around £99. That should throw the cat amongst the pigeons.
Sad thing is by summer we’ll all be talking about the GS4 and iP6 and maybe RIM’s new BB10 dual 4K screened sliding slingshot keyboard phone.
That Xperia Z turns me on like no phone should.
You really shouldn’t be putting it there.
Although being somewhat waterproof you should be able to clean that up nicely.
The Ascend P1 is reportedly $450 unlocked. I doubt we’ll be seeing it for £99 unless you mean £99 with a decent contract plan.
None of these are as good as the Note II IMO. 720p AMOLED beats 1080p LCD hands down. 3100mAh battery. Great camera which doesn’t just waste space with excessive megapixels far higher than the sensor can sense.
I’m guessing you have a Note 2
‘snot the point!
It is
Were there ANY news Windows phones announced? I know Apple and Samsung do their phone announcements at their own shows and BB10 and Ubuntu aren’t ready yet, but I don’t recall hearing any WP news.
prototype bendy windows samsung phone was shown off, but apparently new nokias are being announced at WMC in feb i think.
Just the Ascend W1 and the Samsung ATIV Odyssey which are both lower end to midrange devices. There has been some murmurings that an improved version of the Huawei W1 will be announced and released over the summer and some news broke about Sprint adopting Windows Phone 8 soon.
test
testTEST
ICLE
FAIL
PHABLET
The Sony Xperia Z looks sort of great and then I read “waterproof” and swooned. Then I read no physical camera button… poop. Unless they’ve found a way to make the touch screen work effectively under water then what’s the point other than safety. The number one reason people want to use their phone in water is to take pictures of fish and stuff!
Bath and shower phone. Surely that is the number one reason for a waterproof phone?
Just think of all the bath time instagram photos!
Actually I had a lifeproof case for my iPhone (which broke when I snorkeled down to 10m… oops!) and It was great being able to take it in the shower. I also had some waterproof earphones which were great while swimming!
Your bath time Instagram photos would be just as useless without a button though. Capacitive touch screens don’t like being wet…
Tell me more about the xperia z screen, is it powered by Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2.0?