At the ongoing Mobile World Congress, HP has unveiled a Windows 10 smartphone that it claims can be used as a full-fledged laptop as well as desktop. Dubbed Elite x3, the device offers some high-end specs, including Snapdragon 820 SoC, and 4GB RAM.

The handset has 64GB of internal memory (which can be further expanded to 2TB via microSD), and packs in a large 4,150mAh battery that can be wirelessly charged. The phone also utilizes biometrics – there’s an iris scanner on the front and a fingerprint scanner at the back (the latter wasn’t present on the unit shown at MWC).

The Elite x3 also utilizes the Windows 10 Continuum feature that allows you to use the handset as a PC replacement whenever you want. One problem with Windows 10 phones until now has been that they can’t run full desktop apps. HP is aiming to solve the problem by offering an app catalog – dubbed HP Workspace – that’ll give you access to virtualized apps on the new device.

HP has also built a couple of accessories for the phone. These are the Desk Dock and Mobile Extender – both are optional. The former includes a DisplayPort, two USB-A and one USB-C port, as well as a wired Ethernet port.

On the other hand, the Mobile Extender is basically a 12.5-inch diagonal display notebook form factor that wirelessly connects with the Elite x3 to offer a laptop-like experience. HP says the phone will be available this summer, although no exact date or month was mentioned. As for the price, it will be disclosed “closer to date of availability.”

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Rumors that Samsung’s newest flagships – the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge – will come with the Always On feature turned out to be true when the devices were unveiled yesterday. However, if you already own a Galaxy phone and are hoping that your device will get the feature, you’re sadly out of luck.

The South Korean company has confirmed that none of the existing Galaxy handsets (not even flagships) are getting the feature. So, if you have your own reasons for purchasing a Galaxy S7 or S7 edge, add this one to the list as well.

For those who aren’t already aware, the Always On feature allows your phone to show some information – including clock, calendar, as well as a background image – even when it’s locked and display turned…

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>As most others focus on phablets, Sony showed the 5″ market a lot of love with the new Xperia X series. The Xperia X Performance is essentially a Z-phone in disguise. Better even, not even the Z5 has a brushed metal back.

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Just a couple of weeks after there were reports that only the 32GB variant of Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 edge will be available in some European markets, the South Korean company has confirmed that the 64GB variant won’t be available in the US as well.

There is currently no information on if and when the 64GB variant will be made available in these markets. As for the reason behind the move, reports say it’s purely a business decision as both Europe and the US are major markets for Samsung and the 32GB variants of both S7 and S7 edge are said to have higher profit margins than their 64GB equivalents.

Looking from consumers’ point of view, this shouldn’t be a very big deal for most given that both flagships come with expandable storage. Keep in mind, however, that although Android 6.0 is capable of treating expandable memory as internal storage, it isn’t yet clear whether or not Samsung’s newest flagships offer the feature.

Via 1…

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This year Sony’s MWC conference was really short and to the point, perhaps even too much so. Besides the new Xperia X handset family, the Japanese giant also introduced us briefly to a slew of accessories and other intriguing tech, sadly, without going into too much detail. Here is what we managed to gather.

Xperia Ear

As the name suggests, the small device is essentially an earpiece, but Sony has intended it to be more than a slick handsfree. It also doubles as your own personal assistant, equipped with voice prompts for relaying most useful information from your phone. This includes incoming calls, messages, calendar events, weather, traffic and news reports. And the communication works both ways, you can easily ask for any of the aforementioned information streams to be narrated and also initiate calls and even dictate quick messages or navigate to a logation.

The device is said to communicate with your handset through NFC or Bluetooth, and it is built for continuous operation with the promise of an all-day battery and IPX2 water protection.

Xperia Eye

Again, the name tells most of the story. The Xperia Eye is a tiny camera that is intended to easily clip on to clothes. It appears to have the right shape and form for an action cam, but its exterior suggests that Sony might not market it as such, but instead focus on its use as a daily life-vlogging or journal device. It is equipped with a 360-degree spherical lens for a natural field of view.

The camera itself is also said to be smart enough to accept voice commands for hands-free operation and even detect faces and automatically snap stills. Specs on the actual camera and sensor are still pending.

Xperia Projector

Information gets even scarcer at this point, but we think we got the gist of it. The projector is housed in a rather compact tower-shaped enclosure, obviously intended to stand close to the projection surface, be it a wall or a table.

Judging from the quick video demo, it is not particularly bright or powerful (our best guess would be around 500 lumens or so, but official specs are still pending). It is, however, equipped with touch input technology, so you can create a quick interactable experience, albeit not on a very large scale.

Xperia Agent

Last, we have a rather odd-looking vase-shaped device. It is equipped with a rotating camera, touch display and also voice interactions. Its main purpose seems to be a hub for home automation. The demo clip shows it automatically turning on the lights and greeting its owner upon return, but its IoT implications might actually extend further than…

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Sony just pulled a joker out of its sleeve and announced a whole new series of smartphones the company successfully kept under wraps until now. Totaling three 5-inchers at this point in time, the X series spans the midrange to high-end segments and bears a newly-refined design language.

The new range needs proper introduction and the PR team has kicked off with a series of promo videos highlighting key features. The Xperia XA sits lowest in the lineup and gets the most light-hearted presentation, also flaunting its edge-to-edge display.

The Xperia X (a model in itself) gets the 23MP camera of the flagship and and the video addresses that. The video of the Xperia X Performance focuses on, you guessed it, power. You can watch the videos below and get acquainted with the new range in wait of actual release this…

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Sony kept it short and sweet – it launched a new phone line, the Xperia X, and the first three phones in it. Meet the Xperia X, XA and X Performance.

Sony Xperia X

All three phones have 5″ screens, Sony didn’t announce phablets nor minis. Sony’s traditional sleek design has been changed up a bit with a metal back. The phone has been painted with a “tone-on-tone approach,” so the front and back are a single, continuous color. Color options include Graphite black, White, Lime Gold or Rose Gold.

The “future-focused” Smart Capture camera features Sony’s Predictive Hybrid Autofocus, which lets you pick a target and tracks it. The 23MP main camera can launch and snap a photo all in 0.6 seconds. The Xperia X has a 13MP selfie camera.

The phone promises to bring Sony’s awesome battery life – two days of use between charges (the battery is 2,620mAh). The other Sony trademark, great sound – stereo speakers outside, Hi-Res Audio and DNC inside.

Sony Xperia X

The Sony Xperia X is powered by a Snapdragon 650 chipset with 3GB of RAM and runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It comes with 32GB of storage, expandable of course.

Sony Xperia X Performance

If you need more power, the Sony Xperia X Performance gets you a Snapdragon 820 chipset (3GB RAM, 32GB storage). This one is waterproof too, IP68, while the other two are not.

Other than that it has a 5″ 1080p display as before and a seamless metal back painted in a continuous color. The Graphite Black and White options feature an exclusive hairline finish.

You get the same 23MP camera with Hybrid AF and a 13MP selfie cam. The main camera can record 4K video and can boost ISO up to 12,800.

Sony Xperia X Performance

Like on the X, the power button on the Xperia X Performance is a fingerprint reader.

Sony Xperia XA

The Sony Xperia XA is a more affordable version of the X. It has a 5″ 720p screen and a 13MP main camera (8MP selfie). It’s powered by a MediaTek MT6755 chipset (2GB RAM, 16GB storage). It will launch with Marshmallow.

This one does not have a fingerprint reader, no stereo speakers either. The battery is smaller too, 2,300mAh.

Sony Xperia…

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ZTE Blade V7 and ZTE Blade V7 Lite went official at the MWC today. Both are targeting the young people and those with young hearts, as ZTE likes to say, and both will become available in selected markets later this year.

Both phones support smart gesture controls and run on the latest available Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS.

ZTE Blade V7

The ZTE Blade V7 is made entirely of metal and is thick just 3.5mm at its thinnest point. It packs a 5.2″ 1080p display covered with a 2.5D glass, and runs on the MediaTek MT 6753 chipset with an octa-core 1.5GHz Cortex-A53 processor, Mali-T720 GPU, and 2GB of RAM.

The Blade V7 features a 13MP rear camera with a dual-tone dual-LED flash. It has a 5MP front snapper, which can use the screen as a flash. The rest of the highlighted specs include 16GB expandable storage, LTE connectivity, and a 2,500 mAh battery.

The Blade V7 will be available in Germany, Spain, South Africa, Ethiopia, and Mexico in the middle of 2016. The pricing is yet to be announced.

ZTE Blade V7 Lite

The ZTE Blade V7 Lite utilizes a smaller 5″ 720p display with a 2.5D glass, and it retains the aluminum unibody design. The chipset in charge of the Blade V7 Lite is MediaTek MT6735P with a quad-core 1.3GHz Cortex-A53 CPU, Mali-T720 GPU, and 2GB of RAM.

The Blade V7 offers an 8MP rear camera with auto-focus and an LED flash, as well as another 8MP fixed-focus snapper at the front, also coupled with an LED flash. There is 16GB expandable storage, LTE connectivity, a 2,500 mAh battery, and a fingerprint scanner on the back.

The Blade V7 Lite is scheduled to launch this spring in Russia, Mexico, Spain, Germany, and Thailand. Pricing and exact availability will be specified…

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Last night we saw US and UK pricing for the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, now we wake up to Euro prices.

Germany

Amazon Germany lists both phones in Black, White and Gold. The Galaxy S7 costs €700 for the 32GB option and ships March 11. The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge is €800. MediaMarkt has the same pricing.

T-Mobile Germany offers the Galaxy S7 for €39.95 am month, the S7 edge is saltier at €139.95 monthly.

Note that Amazon does not list the Gear VR. So you might want to pre-order from the Samsung website, which will net you a free Gear VR headset.

Spain

In Spain MediMarkt charges €720 for the S7 and €820 for the S7 edge. Carrier Movil Spain has the S7 and S7 edge listed on its site, but there’s no pricing yet.

Italy

We move on to Italy where the price is slightly higher, €730 and €830 respectively.

All these prices are for the 32GB models, we didn’t see any 64GB options.

Thanks for the early morning tip,…

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Turns out the rumors were correct, as it has now been officially confirmed that vivo’s upcoming XPlay 5 flagship will have a whopping 6GB RAM, making it the world’s first smartphone to come with that much RAM. The confirmation came in the form of a teaser, which also revealed that the handset will be powered by SD820.

The XPlay 5 was confirmed by the Chinese company last week, and just a day after that it was revealed that the device will be made official on March 1, which is just a week away from now. Aside from 6GB RAM and SD820, vivo has already confirmed that the phone will feature dual-curved display.

Previous rumors have also suggested that the flagship will feature solar charging, as well as come with a 6-inch display, 16MP/8MP camera combo, and 4,300mAh battery. Given that the phone is nearing its announcement, we expect to see other key specs getting confirmed in the coming…

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