The time has come to wave goodbye to this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and look back at the wild ride it took us through. This year saw the announcement of many new smartphones and tablets, but also opened our eyes to new experiences – quite literally.

But first, we can’t turn a blind eye to the elephant in the room – the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge duo. Samsung certainly made it quite clear that it’s betting high on design and innovation. The Galaxy S6 edge is the epitome of Samsung’s new mantra and it hopes its dedication will pay off once the two phones launch in April.

Build around an aluminum frame and covered on both sides with Gorilla Glass 4, the two smartphones feature high end specs including a QHD 5.1″ display, the latest Exynos 7420 chipset with 14nm architecture and octa-core CPU as well as a 16MP camera.

You can read all about the two smartphones in our extended hands-on coverage including camera samples and benchmarks.

HTC also announced its 2015 flagship on the MWC floor – the One M9. More of an evolutionary than a revolutionary product, the One M9 is almost identical to the One (M8) safe for some fine external details. In addition to the updated innards of the phone including a Snapdragon 810 chipset, 3GB of RAM and a 20MP snapper, the phone also features a slightly larger camera than before at 2,840mAh.

Moreover, HTC revealed the HTC Vive – it’s a virtual reality headset done in cooperation with Steam. It’s quite different from the majority of other alternatives on the market as it allows you to walk around the artificial environment and interact with it with a pair of controllers.

Sony revealed the Xperia M4 Aqua smartphone and Xperia Z4 Tablet, as we’re yet to see the company unveil the Xperia Z4 flagship. We also saw new smartphones from LG, Huawei, Alcatel, ZTE, Acer, Lenovo, Microsoft and even BlackBerry.

Let's not forget the Nokia N1 and Jolla Tablet. The two Finnish companies aspire to soon make a dent in the industry and so far we're quite happy with the direction they're heading.

You can check them all out in our neat Mobile World Congress 2015 coverage article, which is your gateway to everything that happened in Barcelona this week.

However, we saw some very cool stuff from Chinese companies this year. The Gionee Elise S7 measures just 5.5mm thick, while Huawei Watch is one of the most beautiful Android Wear pieces we’ve seen yet. ZTE, on the other hand, revealed the Grand S3. It utilizes Eyeprint ID biometric technology. It scans your eyes and can be used for authorizing mobile payments, accessing secure content and unlocking the screen.

We enjoyed our stay here, as Barcelona has warmly welcomed us here for yet another year. We shot a brief video of the major manufacturer booths for you to check out.

We can't wait to see what Mobile World Congress 2016 will bring us.

Check out our full MWC 2015…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1w7RIcs
via IFTTT

The LG G3 and iPhone 6 aren't the only smartphones to receive awards from the GSM Association, as it turns out. While those two got the "Best smartphone" title, keep in mind that voting for the category ended in November 2014. So basically they won the title of "Best smartphone of 2014" if we're honest.

On the other hand, Samsung's newly announced Galaxy S6 edge managed to snag the title of "Best new handset, tablet or device" from the GSM Association. What that means is that the S6 edge got recognized as the best new handset launched during MWC 2015.

This win is Samsung's second in a row in this category. Last year the Korean company got the same accolade for the Gear Fit. As you might imagine, Samsung is pretty proud of the achievement, noting in the official press release that the award underscores its "ongoing leadership in mobile technology development".

Additionally, the company's Knox mobile security platform got rewarded by the GSM Association in the "Best security / Anti-fraud product or solution"…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/17W4obe
via IFTTT

With the dust slowly settling after the initial clamor of the MWC announcement of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6, we got to spend a few more relaxed moments with the Korean flagship pair.

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/18m8Y2t
via IFTTT

The rollout of Android 5.0 Lollipop for Samsung devices continues. Mere hours ago we saw the new OS making it to T-Mobile's Galaxy Note 3, and now it's time for that phone's successor to taste something sweet too.

In this case, however, we're talking about Sprint's version of the Galaxy Note 4. The carrier has posted official information about the update, and the over-the-air rollout has started today.

Of course as is usual in such cases it might be a few days before your particular handset notifies you that the update is available, since the rollout is staged. Once you do get it, after applying the update know you'll be on software version N910PVPU1BOB7.

Along with the bump in Android iteration (and every colorful thing that brings with it), this update also features some unnamed Wi-Fi calling enhancements, so if you use that functionality it might work better than before.

If you're impatient, you can always manually check to see if the update is available for you by going to Settings > System > System update and (obviously) tapping Update…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1H0IoIH
via IFTTT

LG reportedly decided on using a fingerprint scanner on its next LG G4 flagship. Until recently the company was against investing into such technology though it has been following the trend since its revival with the iPhone 5s.

Back in 2013 Apple had exclusive access to the best in-class sensors and that's the reason many companies, including LG, have decided to pass on the technology back then.

At the MWC just few days ago Samsung launched its new generation Galaxies – the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge – both with fingerprint sensors and innovative Samsung Pay tech and services. Then Qualcomm announced a new type of fingerprint readers relying on 3D scanning and thus topping the Apple's TouchID in speed and security level.

In the wake of the new events LG seems to be finally entering in the fingerprint/mobile payments race. As the insider sources from South Korea report, the LG is making a last-minute change into the LG G4, inserting a fingerprint scanner on its rear Power key.

LG G4 announcement should happen this spring, so we'll know more soon. Until then take everything with a healthy pinch of salt, as those alleged last minute changes are easily done on paper, but it's entirely different story if they can actually made it to the real product in time.

Source |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1aNbv7C
via IFTTT

American telecom operator T-Mobile is hosting a contest for Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge on its official website. Though the registration page doesn't carry much information, the price of the Galaxy S6 has been listed on the Official Rules page.

For the US, the Galaxy S6 32 GB model is priced at $699 in the list of prizes for the contest. Apparently, 16 GB iPhone 6 model was priced at $599. Quite likely that the Galaxy S6 edge is priced in the $799-$899 price range.

Source|…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1FeoLvl
via IFTTT

Motorola Moto E (2015) went official a week ago with new chipset and LTE support. A less-powerful 3G-only flavor featuring the old specs – a dual-core processor and 3G connectivity – is also available and it is already on sale in the USA.

Motorola is yet to launch the new Moto E in India, but it is almost there. The company sent invites to the press for a dedicated Moto E event in New Delhi. There everyone will be able to try the successor of the best low-cost smartphone for 2014.

The new Motorola Moto E brings a bigger 4.5" qHD display, a Snapdragon 410 chip with a 64-bit quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU and 1GB of RAM, a 5MP cam and LTE connectivity on both the single-SIM and dual-SIM flavors.

Allegedly, Flipkart will be offering the handset exclusively. In case you're interested, you might want to check out our Moto E (2015) hands-on straight off the MWC…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1wJGNXh
via IFTTT

A spokeswoman has confirmed to CNET that the Moto Maker will make become available "world wide". Currently, Motorola's customization service is available only to customers in the United States, some countries in Latin America, such as Brazil and Chile, as well as in Western Europe.

It's not yet known in which regions and countries the Moto Maker will hit first. The spokeswoman has said that this will happen later this month. Last week, the company revealed that you'll be able to customize the Moto 360 as well starting next month.

Additionally, Motorola's President also made it clear that the company doesn't intend on making smartwatches with e-ink display and that the next Moto X will definitely not have a fingerprint sensor.

Expect more details about Moto Maker's availability as it becomes available…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1GZIIay
via IFTTT

The Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge were met with great acclaim at the MWC and are already available for pre-order in some countries. If you're itching to learn more about the S6 duo you can check out our hands-on from the MWC halls, but you can also read the user manual.

The Galaxy S6 manuals are available in a number of languages: English, German, Spanish, French and Dutch.

The Galaxy S6 edge manuals come only in English for now.

These are lengthy 140 page manuals (145 pages in the case of the S6 edge) and cover the operation of both devices. How the Edge screen works is of a particular interest. You can assign different colors to 5 contacts for at-a-glance notification of who's calling. This works even when the phone is face down thanks to the curved sides of the display.

There's plenty more the Edge screen can do – it offers an information stream from multiple sources, works as a night clock (like on the Note Edge) and plenty more. Details start on page 24.

Thanks, Michel, for sending this in!

Via (in…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1DPEVcv
via IFTTT

Martin Brook of Jolla just shared a quite interesting photo on Twitter. The shot is of a OnePlus One, running what appears to be Sailfish OS. This is definitely an achievement and puts the OnePlus among a select few devices that area capable of running the OS, besides, of course, Jolla's own tech.
#twitter-widget-0 {width: 590px !important;}
#SailfishOS on oneplus one. Thanks to @stskeeps for the hints. Doing it Together at #MWC http://ift.tt/1BaDmHi Martin Brook (@vgrade) March 5, 2015

This was achieved by using Sailfish OS's Hardware Adaptation Kit. The same process was employed to get the code running on the Nexus 4, 5 and 7, as well as the Samsung Galaxy S3 and S4.

The OnePlus One has an established reputation for being widely-loved by all sorts of developers. Running custom software and catering to tinkerers and mod creators is kind of part of its nature. Besides the CyanogenMod ROM, that it comes officially packaged with, the device can run modified versions of Ubuntu Touch, as well as almost every other major Android ROM modification in existence.

So it does make quite a lot of sense to bring Sailfish to the OnePlus One.

Martin also promised that he will share more about interesting project one he gets back from MWC in a few days, so stay tuned for an update.

Source |…

from GSMArena.com – Latest articles http://ift.tt/1MarQRk
via IFTTT