Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 is the Korean giant’s latest entry into the market for premium full-size tablets. Launched alongside a compact variant with 8″ display, the ultra-thin newcomer is aimed squarely at Apple’s iPad family in its segment.

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Just a short couple of days ago we brought you word of a new smartphone in development at Motorola. Up until today this was known by its codename – Bounce.

It will however be sold as the Moto X Force when it eventually launches. Along with the official name, we have a new leaked render of the device for your viewing pleasure.

It keeps the trademark Motorola design, so you’re not definitely not going to confuse this with an offering from a different manufacturer. Since we’ve so far heard that there’s a Droid Turbo 2 in the making for Verizon, it now seems likely that would be based on the Moto X Force, since Big Red’s other Moto launch, the Droid Maxx 2, is basically just a rebranded Moto X Play. Then again, the carrier could have gone with the Moto X Style for its next-gen Turbo, we’ll see.

The Moto X Force will apparently be “shatterproof”, which suggests a military MIL-STD rating of some sort. This could be paired with water and dust resistance through an IP factor.

Inside the Moto X Force we’ll find the Snapdragon 810 chip from Qualcomm, 3GB of RAM, 32 or 64GB of storage, as well as a 3,760 mAh battery (which, amazingly, is even bigger than that of the Moto X Play). The screen will be a 5.43-inch QHD affair, while the main camera will be the 21 MP unit seen in both of the other Moto X-branded devices launched this year, paired once again with a 5 MP selfie…

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Sure, the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium was the star of today’s show, but the less flashy models have their place under the sun, too. The marketing teams have duly released promotional videos, which were meant to showcase the key features and position the Xperia Z5 and Z5 Compact in their respective target groups.

The first video is big on colors – it shows the three models with all of their available options, including the eye-candy mirror-like Premiums. Design details are also highlighted and a few “serving suggestions” hint at possible accessories.

The plain Xperia Z5 comes next with the focus shifted towards its fast-focusing 23MP camera. Of course, no Sony promo video can go without a mention of its water resistance and two-day battery life.

The Xperia Z5 Compact is aimed at tiny purses, apparently, if we’re to believe Sony’s ads. Fashionistas seem to be fans of ultra-fast autofocus and environmental sealing,…

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Fresh out of the beauty salon, the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium is just now getting its first official promo videos.

In true Sony fashion the maker is going to YouTube for its promotional videos – in this case a flashy promo of the golden Xperia Z5 Premium staged amid beautiful timelapses of Hong Kong and a second video which is a quick-look with focus on the smartphone’s highlight features.

The promo video naturally makes you lust after the 4K 5.5″ display of the insane 806 ppi. Built into an artsy, night-time atmosphere the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium shoots and displays native 4K throughout the video.

Below you can check out the brochure-styled quick look at the “First 4K Smartphone! The Xperia Z5 Premium”.

And if you want a more intimate look at the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium, check out our…

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Sony’s back, and it returns with aplomb. The company has brought us an entire Xperia Z5 family of smartphones ranging from the Xperia Z5 Compact for small pockets to the 5.5-inch Xperia Z5 Premium with the industry’s first 4K display in a production smartphone.

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Alongside the Xperia Z5 range, Sony announced a number of accessories to complement the high-end smartphones. For starters, there are flip cover cases to fit each of the three devices, which come in the respective colors and feature a window to display the clock and notifications.

A built-in NFC connection inside the case allows it to communicate with the device. This activates the case window interface and also offers you to download a theme matching the color of your case of choice.

Flip cover case on the Xperia Z5

A minor gripe is that, the displays being LCD, they need to be lit up entirely whereas AMOLEDs could save some mAhs when kept in such a case and used mostly for voice calls.

Flip cover case on the Xperia Z5 Compact

Additionally, the cases don’t seem overly keen to stay closed and have a tendency to flap around. The units we got to fiddle with were prototypes too, so who knows, the commercially available ones might be superior.

Cases to match the color options on each of the three smartphones – Z5, Z5 Compact, Z5 Premium

A high-end headset model was presented as well, and in some markets it will be part of the bundle that comes with the smartphones.

The Sony MDR-NC750 supports Hi Res Audio and active noise cancellation.

The first is a broad set of standards for audio encoding and playback, which relies on a higher sampling rate (24bit/96kHz or 24bit/192kHz), compared to the 16bit/44.1kHz of the CD. The end-result is, well, higher sound quality. Notable examples of file formats that can handleHi Res Audio are .WAV, .FLAC, and ALAC.

Active noise cancellation comes courtesy of a mic in each earbud, which captures ambient noise, sends it to the smartphone, the built-in software analyzes it and then sends back to your ears the music you’re listening to, accompanied by sound waves that cancel out the sound waves of the environment. More or less.

High-end headset with active noise cancellation

Then comes the Bluetooth headset SBH54. Easily paired via NFC, the bundle consists of the clip-on amplifier/battery/remote control piece and a pair of headphones.

Bluetooth…

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Capturing and displaying true to live images has long been close to Sony’s heart and today they revitalized that passion. The Sony Xperia Z5 Premium is the first to reach the next benchmark in display smartphone technology – 4K resolution – and comes with a much-improved camera to match.

The 4K Triluminos display is an IPS panel has 3,840 x 2,160px resolution, that’s four times 1080p or just over 8MP. It puts 806ppi pixel density in the palm of your hand for crystal clarity of 4K footage from Netflix, YouTube or some that you’ve shot yourself.

You can do that with the brand new camera, the first major upgrade since the Z1. The Xperia Z5 Premium packs a new 1/2.3″ Exmor RS sensor with 23MP resolution (shared with the other Z5s). The sensor sits behind a Sony G Lens with an f/2.0 aperture and tech borrowed from Sony’s α line of lenses.

The camera captures 4K videos with improved Intelligent Active Mode and SteadyShot technology for smooth, sharp videos at day and at night. ISO for videos goes up to 3,200, for photos the maximum jumps to 12,800.

The new camera locks focus faster than you can blink – it needs just 0.03 seconds so it gets perfect focus even in spontaneous action-packed moments. The upgraded sensor and lens also promise clear night photos and 5x digital zoom with minimal quality loss.

Selfie photography is handled by a 5MP shooter with an Exmor R sensor. It features a 25mm wide-angle lens to fit more in the frame and can record 1080p video with the same software magic as the main camera.

Audio also focuses on quality and resolution. High-Res Audio handles playback of high frequency sound for a “studio quality experience” while DSEE HX takes regular audio and upscales it to near High-Res levels. For the full experience you’ll need a compatible headset – Sony’s MDR-NC750 (€93) supports High-Res and its noise cancellation snuffs out up to 98% of the noise around you.

For Bluetooth headsets the LDAC codec promises a 3-fold improvement over the basic audio streaming. Finally, the phone has a good pair of speakers on its face if you want to share the music with those around you.

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium

The Sony Xperia Z5 Premium has a stainless steel frame (unlike the other Z5s, which are made from aluminum). It’s painted in Black, Gold or the unique Chrome option (a mirror finish). The body is IP65/68 rated – dust-tight and waterproof with a cap-less USB port.

A new addition to the Z family is the fingerprint sensor on the redesigned Power key. Things naturally flow from waking the phone with the key to unlocking it with the sensor, which also supports the FIDO standard for online payment services.

The phone runs Sony-flavored Android 5.1, naturally, powered by a Snapdragon 810 chipset with 3GB of RAM. You get 32GB of storage out of the box and can add up to 200GB more with a microSD card if you need extra room for those 4K videos.

The Sony Xperia Z5 Premium will launch globally in November, pricing will be revealed around that time. It will come in single and dual-SIM versions, both of which support Cat. 6…

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The Sony Xperia Z5 and the Xperia Z5 Compact are now official. The new generation “mainstream” flagship and its pocket-friendlier brother were just announced at a press event two days before the IFA expo opens to the public.

The regular-sized Xperia Z5 comes with the familiar 5.2-inch diagonal established with the Z2, and the Z5 Compact retains the 4.6 inches of the last Z3 Compact. The Z5 has a FullHD panel with a 428ppi density, while the Compact sticks to 720p resolution, resulting in 323ppi. Both displays are IPS units with the TRILUMINOUS and X-reality technologies inside and undisclosed make chemical tempered glass on top.

Sony Xperia Z5

The mighty Snapdragon 810 powers both smartphones with a dual quad-core CPU, ticking at up to 2GHz, and Adreno 430 GPU. You get 3GB of RAM on the vanilla model, but only 2GB on the Compact. Both models will have 32GB of built-in storage, though the Compact may ship with half than in certain markets. The microSD slot is universally available, though. The entire Xperia Z5 family will run on Android 5.1.1 upon launch.

Number one on the new features list is the 23MP camera. It uses a custom-made sensor, exclusive to Sony, housed behind a 24mm-equivalent f/2.0 lens. The sensor’s effective area is actually larger, as we’ll try to explain, and you’ll be able to shoot 23MP images in 4:3 aspect or 20MP in 16:9. The camera app has been thoroughly redesigned as well for a more contemporary look and improved usability.

The Xperia Z5 bears a strong resemblance to the previous model, but a few new design elements clearly set it apart. Chief among those is the reworked power button, now doubling as a fingerprint sensor. The now aluminum frame has an Xperia logo engraved on the side, while a frosted back panel replaces the glossy predecessor, aiming to put an end to smudgy backs and to achieve a more unified look between front and sides.

Measuring 146mm x 72mm x 7.3mm, the Z5 is identical to the Z3 in terms of dimensions and thus marginally thicker than the Z3+. Weighing in at 154g it’s heavier than either of the two older generations, but its battery is smaller, at 2,900mAh. Both have IP68 certification for the lineup’s signature dust and water resistance.

Sony Xperia Z5 Compact

The Xperia Z5 Compact shares the fingerprint sensor and the Xperia logo in the frame but looks a lot chunkier. It measures 127mm x 65mm x 8.9mm so it’s not really thin, it’s just that the Z3 Compact did a much better job at masking its waistline. The 138g of heft are justified here by the 2,700mAh cell capacity.

The Sony Xperia Z5 will be available in the more formal White and Graphite Black, but also Gold and Green, while the Z5 Compact spices things up with Yellow and Coral. The smartphones will be on store shelves globally starting in October, but pricing remains to be…

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Huawei just pulled the wraps off the Mate S – a smaller alternative to the Ascend Mate 7 with a few nifty touches of its own.

The Huawei Mate S is built around a 5.5-inch AMOLED display with FullHD resolution and “a screen color saturation of 105 percent”, whatever that is. A lot more tangible is the 2.5D Gorilla Glass 4 that covers the display. Using a Force touch sensor the Mate S incorporates an improved version of the Knuckle control feature, which debuted on the P8, for new and ingenious ways to control your smartphone. A fingerprint sensor on the back ticks another checkbox on the specsheet.

Huawei Mate S Knuckle Control 2.0

The device is powered by an in-house Kirin 935 chipset with a dual quad-core processor, ticking at up to 2.2GHz. There is 3GB of RAM on board and internal storage will be 32GB for the Standard version and 64GB for the Premium version. An even roomier 128GB variant will be announced later.

The primary camera is one of the headline features. It uses a 13MP BSI sensor with an RGBW array for improved light-gathering capability, and is helped by the f/2.0 lens and a dual-LED flash. The camera also comes with optical image stabilization, capable of correcting for up to 1.2 degrees of shake. The front element of the lens is made of Sapphire crystal for added protection.

Selfie enthusiasts are well covered too, as there’s an 8MP front camera with an LED soft light. The aperture is dimmer though, at f/2.4, and the focus is fixed.

Huawei Mate S

The smartphone measures 149.8 x 75.3 x 7.2mm, though at the sides the thickness goes all the way down to 2.65mm. It weighs in at 156g, while having a 2,700mAh battery to keep it powered up.

The smartphone boots Android 5.1.1 with Huawei’s EMUI3.1 on top. There’s the usual connectivity package, including Wi-Fi and GPS, but also NFC and an FM receiver.

The Huawei Mate S will be launched in numerous markets around the globe later this month. The price of the Standard version is set at €649, while the Premium on will set you back…

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The Huawei Mate S is now official and the Chinese OEM has truly outdone itself yet gain. Huawei’s new high-end, premium course of development has really paid off, as evident by the Mate S – a true flagship offer, uncompromising in every way.

We were extremely pleased with our hands-on experience with the exquisite smartphone and we will be sure to bring you our initial impressions, but in the meantime, Huawei has taken the liberty to give us a closer look at its latest creation with a few videos.

Simply put, the Mate S is a stunning device. It is like you ordered a brand new luxury sedan and checked every possible customization box, even some that you never thought were there. The first of the said clips dives into the design of the Mate S. It comes in an all metal unibody with premium materials, an equally impressive finish and a thin profile, measuring 7.2mm and only 2.65mm at the edges. The 2.5D 5.5-inch AMOLED display is also at the top of its game. It offers FullHD resolution, 105 percent screen color saturation and 1800000:1 contrast ratio.

The second clip tells the rest of the story of the Mate S and proves it is just as impressive on the tech side of things. The aforementioned stunning display is also equipped with Force Touch technology, just like the latest iPhones are rumored to be. This allows for advanced gestures and a whole new level of intuitive control inside EMUI 3.1.

Speaking of EMUI, Huawei’s latest custom take on Android 5.1 is now smarter than ever. The demo highlights some of the interesting new gestures, supported by the Mate S, like knuckle taps and knuckle gestures.

But amazingly, Huawei has managed to cram even more advanced technology inside the new Mate. Just like its predecessor, it has a fingerprint sensor, conveniently located on the back of the unit, but this time around it has gotten even smarter. Now you can also use it for navigation, making one-handed operation even easier.

The rest of its specs sheet includes a fast Hisilicon Kirin 935 SoC, 3GB of RAM and an impressive 13MP OIS, BSI and Auto Focus enabled main camera. Overall, calling the Mate S an impressive package would definitely be an understatement and we can’t wait for it to hit consumer markets.

Update: The promotional videos just keep pouring in and we definitely encourage you to take a…

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