The days where we walk into a carrier store to purchase a subsidized smartphone are fading. This trend, bundled with the aggressive prices that we’re beginning to see in unlocked phones, makes purchasing a phone full price a more viable option in the market.
Amazon is where a majority of us go to find the best prices of merchandise, therefore, we’ve complied a list of great unlocked smartphone deals you can find there today. Let’s check out what you can save on!
Bear in mind that these particular prices are at the time of writing. Amazon changes its prices frequently. Also, different smartphone colors often have different prices, and there may be limited quantities.
We learned on Thursday at CES 2016 that Lenovo, one of the largest electronics companies in the world and owner of Motorola, would be shuttering the Motorola name. Lenovo bought Motorola Mobility in early 2014 from Google and ever since, fans have wondered what the future of the brand would be. Lenovo currently already makes phones and owns about 5% of the global market (Motorola accounted for about a third of their sales).
But, where would Motorola’s current line-up of phones fit in? Would Lenovo continue two different brands that make phones in the same price ranges? Would Motorola remain autonomous? When you really start pondering those questions, the decision to drop the Motorola name makes more sense. We’ve seen a lot of reactions in the first few hours since this announcement. Almost all of them negative and almost all of those emotional reactions.
To see the whole picture, we need to start at the beginning.
History of Motorola
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Motorola started in 1928 in Chicago. The first products it produced were called battery eliminators, which allowed battery powered radios to run on home electricity. Its beginnings were humble. It started with only 5 employees and a weekly payroll of $63. After radio eliminators became obsolete, Motorola moved into making some of the first car radios. The ‘Motorola’ branded radio became so popular that the company changed its name from the previously named Galvin Manufacturing Corporation to Motorola Inc.
From there, Motorola began a long string of inventing technology that we still use today. In 1940, it invented the walkie-talkie; in 1946 it was the first company to carry a call over Illinois Bell telephone company’s new car radiotelephone service. Beginning in 1958, they produced radio equipment for NASA which ended up being used in the Apollo 11 mission that brought the first men to the moon. Neil Armstrong spoke his famous “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” speech using a Motorola transceiver.
In the 70’s, Motorola showed off the first portable, handheld telephone, and debuted its first 8 bit microprocessor for automobiles, computing and video games. In the 80’s, Motorola released their 32 bit microprocessor. That processor happened to be one of the biggest reasons for the computer revolution of the 80’s and powered computers from Apple, Atari and Hewlett Packard, among others.
1983 was one of the biggest years in Motorola’s history. This was the year that brought us the first cell phone. In September of ’83, the United States FCC approved the DynaTAC 8000X. Just six years later, cellular devices accounted for two-thirds of Motorola’s gross revenue.
1990 brought the Bravo Numeric Pager which became the highest selling pager in the world. A year later Motorola made a huge jump forward when it debuted the prototype for their cell phones that utilized the GSM standard that we still use today. The rest of the 90’s were busy with acquisitions and further leaps forward.
Motorola Razr V3
By 2000, Motorola had over 150,000 employees world-wide. In 2003, it introduced the first phone to combine a Linux operating system and Java to create the first real PDA. 2004 brought us one of the most infamous phones of all time, the Motorola Razr. Unfortunately, all was not rosy for Motorola. In 2007, Motorola saw a 1.2 billion dollar loss in the fourth quarter alone. A brain drain at the company saw boring and un-inventive designs come to the marketplace. Motorola fell from 18.4% market share in 2007 to 6% in the first quarter of 2009.
By 2010, Motorola had split into two. Motorola Solutions focused on police radio technologies as well as commercial needs. Motorola Mobility is the company we know today that has produced products like the Moto X and the Moto 360.
Purchase By Google
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In 2011, Motorola Mobility was in trouble. After a series of misses and terrible phone designs, the company was lagging behind companies that were innovating. No longer could it keep up with companies like Samsung and HTC that were dominating the Android space. Google stepped in in 2011 and bought the faltering giant for a little over 12 billion dollars.
Rumors flew at the time about Google’s true motivation behind the purchase. Would Google use Motorola to produce their own hardware for the first time? Were they gearing up for a war with Samsung? With Apple? It turns out that Google wanted Motorola for its patents and their experimental projects like Project Ara. Google soon sold off what remained of Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for only 2.91 billion, almost 10 billion less than they purchased for, two years later.
In an interview with CNET, COO Rick Osterloh said “We’ll slowly phase out Motorola and focus on Moto”. Motorola hasn’t used the ‘Motorola’ name on their phones since the 2013 Moto X. Motorola Mobility will continue to exist as an arm within a greater Lenovo company. They will continue to be the “engineering and design engine for all mobile products”, according to a statement by the company.
Still, Lenovo retiring Motorola’s name hurts. The emotional reaction was immediate and strong. Motorola was a strong American company that helped the US win World War II and put a man on the moon. To have it go away at the hands of a Beijing backed company stings.
But Lenovo is doing the right thing.
Lenovo’s stated intent with the Moto purchase was to get into the United States market. They’re already big in computers and now it wants to dominate phones in the same way. There are few more efficient ways to enter a market than buy an established player at a bargain price to use their business connections, purchasing power and established business relationships to leverage their own brand. If all Lenovo wanted to do was make a few bucks, they make have kept the Motorola name, but they’re in it for the long haul.
You don’t become a Samsung or Apple by selling someone else’s name.
So, where do we go from here? Lenovo will continue to sell the premium Moto X line and call it ‘Moto X by Lenovo’. It will also enter their Vibe line into the market in a larger way. The Vibe line of phones are budget phones normally around the one hundred dollar price point. You’ll see a lot of these unlocked and on sale straight from Lenovo or through carriers like Boost Mobile.
What’s unclear now are what happens to products that overlap. It seems silly to kill the ultra-popular Moto E and G lines so we’ll most likely see at least one more generation of Moto E by Lenovo and Moto G by Lenovo, but after that, it’s anyone’s guess. We’ll almost definitely see the Moto 360 continue and improve. It leads the Android Wear market currently, and the only Lenovo smartwatch has been a prototype. Lenovo has stated it wants to cover every segment of the market with its products. Whether that’s with a Lenovo or Moto branded product is yet to be seen.
What is clear, however, is that Lenovo has a lot of work to do. Android enthusiasts are pretty smart and a large part of the Moto X buyers. They pay attention to things like Superfish. If that name rings a bell, it’s because Lenovo got slammed in the press for installing Superfish onto their computers. It has been described as adware by some. Things like this have undoubtedly damaged their reputation with consumers. Can we trust them not to install software like this on Motorola phones?
Losing a company name that has been around for almost a hundred years is never a positive thing. Some, if not most, develop emotional attachments to their products and the companies that make them. To see something you care about going away frankly sucks. What you have to realize is that the Motorola you thought you knew hasn’t existed in a long time. The electronics powerhouse that innovated everything from radios, to television diodes, to mobile phones has been gone for years. The only way for Motorola to survive is within Lenovo. Living in Motorola’s shadow doesn’t help Lenovo at all.
Use the comment section down below to voice your opinion. Do you agree with this article? Disagree with it? Tell us and add in your favorite Motorola device or memory.
Following up on a promise made by Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure in early August, we are seeing some evidence that the carrier is finally doing away with 2-year contracts for smartphones. A leaked internal document indicates that Sprint customers activating a new account will no longer have the option to purchase a smartphone on a 2-year contract. Since no official announcement has been made yet, Sprint is technically the last of the four major carriers to ditch the contract model (AT&T stopped offering contracts as of today).
According to the document, sales reps are being encouraged to promote Sprint’s leasing and Easy Pay plans as alternatives to subsidized on-contract phone prices. The change does not affect tablets, which helped bolster Sprint’s numbers last year as its phone subscriber base shrunk. It is unclear if the 2-year contract change will eventually apply to tablets as well, but we suspect that’s something Sprint executives want to decide after seeing the figures on tablet sales.
Polaroid announced on Wednesday their new range of unlocked smartphones. No beginner in the market, we have previously seen a few Android devices from the company known for its camera’s. The new range comprises of two smartphones with reasonable specs, the one model with different screen sizes. They are on display at CES 2016, but will be available in the market within the next few months.
The interesting model here is the Polaroid Snap. It comes in three different variants, each with the same specs but with different screen sizes – namely 5″, 5.5″ and 6″. All variants have a 720p display. An unnamed quad-core processor runs with 2GB of RAM. The 16GB storage can be expanded with a MicroSD card, which should also help with the large images coming from the 13MP back shooter. Stock Android Lollipop 5.1 is installed.
The different screen variants is something we’d like to see on upcoming flagships.
The Power model is the one with the good spec sheet however. Coming in at a large 6″, the 64-bit octa-core CPU is complimented with 3GB of RAM and expandable 32GB storage. A 13MP shooter adorns the back while a reasonable 3000mAh keeps the lights on (although you get a 8000mAh battery pack thrown in the package).
The Polaroid Snap comes in a variety of colors including black, white, blue, and pink. The SRP is between $129.99 – $179.99 and it will be available by February. The Polaroid Power only has one color, platinum, and it will retail for $249.99. It is expected to become available around spring.
In addition, budget phones will be released as part of Lenovo’s existing Vibe range.
“We’ll slowly phase out Motorola and focus on Moto.” – Motorola COO Rick Osterloh
Motorola was once considered a pioneer in mobile phone technology. The company released the world’s first cellular phone device in the early 1980s, while it enjoyed huge success with the Razr range of phones in the mid-2000s.
Motorola has not gained much traction in the smartphone market, with its devices making up 36.2% of Lenovo’s shipped units, itself a paltry 4.7% share worldwide in the second quarter of 2015. Lenovo has stated last year that increasing competition, especially in China, has hurt Motorola’s profit margins.
It will be sad to see the Motorola brand die, even if a small part of its legacy will live on some of Lenovo’s future smartphones. It was the company that created the cell phone. And almost everyone I knew had a Motorola Razr a decade ago, with that unmistakable ringtone.
What are your best Motorola memories? Do you even remember their first ever mobile device, the DynaTAC? Leave your comment down below.
New Balance, the famous makers of shoes and sporting related stuff, is getting into digital sports industry via an announcement this morning at CES2016. The official name is the New Balance Digital Sport division that will focus on all types of digital sports, tracking and the community centered around it.
The first device that New Balance plans on releasing is an Android Wear smartwatch for people who run and designed by those who run. This new Android Wear watch will of course be powered by Google as well as Intel. It’ll have a GPS embedded and allow runners to take music on the go with them, which means no need for a phone on the body during workouts. Other than that, no other details have been provided in terms of specs or price or feature set, but New Balance is hoping to launch the device by this years holidays.
This sounds very familiar to what Nike has done in the past with the Nike+ platform with their Fuel Band and other similar items they have put out on the market. While it’s no surprise New Balance doesn’t want to fall behind the already bigger companies doing this similar thing, I’m definitely curious how they will make it better or different for it to catch on in the sporting industry. Their plan is team up with companies such as Google, Intel, Strava, Zepp and others to create a full line of apparel and shoes that will have this new technology included to help keep and get people into shape.
You can read the full press release below for all the details that New Balance has given up to this point. Unfortunately as I stated above pricing isn’t yet available so it’ll be interesting to see exactly what all the device will include as far as specs and how much it’s going to set us back to keep track of all of our physical fitness related stats.
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New “Digital Sport” Division To Develop Innovative Digital Experiences and Wearable Technologies, Launching With Smartwatch in 2016
BOSTON, January 5, 2016 – Global athletic leader New Balance announced today at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas a new division dedicated exclusively to connecting consumers with the technology they desire to improve their athletic performance. New Balance Digital Sport will focus on understanding, motivating and improving the lives of athletes through digital experiences and wearable technologies. The first consumer product to launch from the new division will be a smartwatch, expected to begin retailing in the 2016 holiday season.
“New Balance has a 110-year heritage of product development and innovation in the running category, and, our new Digital Sport division represents our newest commitment to invest in athletes and runners around the world in their pursuit of extraordinary physical feats,” said Rob DeMartini, President and CEO of New Balance. “Digital technology has truly revolutionized, very quickly, this industry and New Balance wants to continue to be a brand on the forefront, arming our athletes with the cutting-edge products that will help them reach peak performance.”
New Balance Digital Sport will develop a comprehensive athlete-focused digital ecosystem featuring innovative New Balance-branded wearable technology products designed to improve physical performance. The company will partner with leading digital, hardware and software companies, including Intel, Google, Strava and Zepp, to incorporate smart technologies, optimized for wearable consumer products, into footwear and apparel lines across a variety of sports.
Digital Sport will initially focus on three product categories: devices, including the smart-watch; embedded technology, such as intelligent sensors integrated into New Balance footwear and apparel; and performance sport, including sports equipment micro-fob that senses, analyzes and provides feedback on the athlete’s performance.
The division’s inaugural product will be a smartwatch that will enable athletes to work out while untethered from their smart phones. Specifically designed for runners by runners, the watch will track runners’ routes via GPS and also enable them to run with music, all without carrying their smartphones. Google and Intel will be providing the athlete focused smartwatch platform powered by Android WearTM.
“Technology has tremendous power to make the amazing possible, and nowhere is that more apparent than in sports and fitness,” said Brian Krzanich, CEO, Intel Corporation. “As an avid runner, I look forward to seeing how our collaboration with New Balance and their deep intelligence about the running experience can unlock the performance potential for runners everywhere.”
Following the smartwatch launch at Holiday 2016, New Balance will market other devices throughout 2017 and 2018. To complement the wearable consumer products it is developing, New Balance Digital Sport will also create digital experiences, the first of which will be New Balance Run Club. This digital and physical community of runners will be powered by Strava and utilize its platform to bring more New Balance runners together, online and offline. Run Club runners will use Strava to connect with each other, track performance, share their favorite routes and celebrate accomplishments. Run Club athletes will also participate in group and individual virtual training programs for key races and running events, as well as virtual races between individuals and clubs. Additionally, physical Run Club activity will be centered in New Balance stores and includes local runs, group training, alternative training and classes. The first Run Club will launch in Boulder, CO in early 2016; others will launch in key running markets in the U.S., Europe and Asia in 2016.
New Balance, headquartered in Boston, MA has the following mission: Demonstrating responsible leadership, we build global brands that athletes are proud to wear, associates are proud to create and communities are proud to host. New Balance is the only major company to make or assemble more than 4 million pairs of athletic footwear per year in the USA, which represents a limited portion of our US sales. Where the domestic value is at least 70%, we label our shoes Made in the USA. New Balance owns five factories in New England and one in Flimby, U.K. New Balance employs more than 5,000 associates around the globe, and in 2014 reported worldwide sales of $3.3 billion. To learn more about New Balance, please visit www.newbalance.com.
Motorola isn’t known to be shy about rounding up discounts along its lineup of devices every now and then. Typically, the sales are aimed at older inventory, but the latest puts the two of Motorola’s hottest devices front and center. Let’s run through it.
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Moto X Pure Edition + Moto 360 (2nd Gen.)
If you don’t yet have the latest Moto X or Moto 360 (but have been eyeing them both), this might be your chance to take the leap. Motorola is knocking off $100 if you make the combo purchase (a 15% savings on the total of the base costs).
Motorola says that the discount will appear in the shopping cart when they’re both added. The Moto X Pure Edition was Motorola’s 2015 flagship, which has terrific bang for buck. The Moto 360 (2nd Gen.) brought great refinements from the original, you can check out our review here.
Moto X (2nd Gen.)
If you prefer a phone a little easier on the wallet, the Moto X from 2014 is still capable. Motorola has put the 32GB version on sale for $299.
As a refresher, the Moto X (2nd Gen.) has a 5.2″ AMOLED (1080P) display, Snapdragon 801 SoC, 2GB of RAM, 13MP rear camera, and 2,300mAh battery.
Moto G (2nd Gen.)
For the even more budget conscious, The 2nd Gen. Moto G has also received a significant discount – from $179 down to $99. In contrast with the other deals, this price drop is actually permanent.
The Moto G (2nd Gen.) packs a 5″ 720P display, Snapdragon 400 SoC (quad-core), 1GB of RAM, 8GB internal storage, 8MP rear camera, and 2,070 battery.
This 6″ behemoth created quite the stir among Nexus fans at the end of 2014. It packs a 6″ QHD AMOLED display, Snapdragon 805 SoC, 3GB of RAM, 13MP main camera, and 3,220mAh battery.
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Bear in mind that some of these discounts are only live for a few days (until Jan. 12th, 10:59am CT), so you better decide soon! Hit up the source link for the sale’s launch page.
Blu, a company known for making affordable Android devices, has announced two new devices that will hit the shelves next month. Today at CES in Las Vegas, Blu unveiled its latest two smartphones: the Vivo 5 and Vivo XL. Continuing the Vivo line of devices, the two latest iterations pack most of the same specs.
As the press release indicates, the major differences between the 5 and XL can be found in build quality and materials, which of course means that we’ll see a slight price difference as well. Here are the common specs that are shared by both devices:
5.5-inch 720 x 1280 HD Super AMOLED display
MediaTek 6753 octa-core processor at 1.3GHz
MALI-T720 graphics GPU
Android 5.1 Lollipop, upgradeable to Android 6.0
13 megapixel rear camera with LED flash and 2.0mm aperture and 1080P video recording at 30 fps
5 megapixel front-facing camera
USB Type-C
Lithium-ion battery at 3150 mAh
Dual SIM & 4G LTE support
Both devices will also pack bands that work for all the GSM carriers in the U.S. We start to see the differences when we dive into the specifics of build materials. The Vivo 5, pictured above, is crafted from a single piece of aluminum, making it the first Blu device to feature an all-metal design. The Vivo 5 is also bringing 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, along with a MicroSD card slot for expandable memory.
The Vivo XL doesn’t stray very far from the Vivo 5, as it also brings a unibody metal design to the table. Blu claims the design of the XL was created to mimic that of liquid metal, with a pattern that wraps around the back of the device, giving it a mirror-like finish. The XL packs less RAM at 2GB, and only 16GB of internal storage. As with the Vivo 5, the XL will give users the option to expand memory with a MicroSD card.
Luckily, Blu has already announced pricing and availability for both of these devices, and it looks like users will be able to pick them up very soon. The Vivo 5 will be available in White-Silver and Solid Gold in February for $199 unlocked. The Vivo XL can be purchased in February as well for $149, and will be available in Liquid Gold, Midnight Blue, Rose Gold, and Chrome Silver. Both devices will be sold through Amazon and BestBuy.
Razer is joining the smartwatch segment with a watch that’s smart, but not a smartwatch. Confused yet? Razer is hoping consumers won’t be after they hear about the Razer Nabu Watch.
You may remember the Razer Nabu Band that was announced a few years ago and reintroduced in August. The Nabu Band is a wearable that connects to your phone and displays information about calendar alerts and calls among other things. Razer is now taking that strategy and putting it into a watch. The Nabu Watch is less a smartwatch and more a watch that happens to have some smart features.
The Nabu watch is a digital chronograph that displays discreet notifications, fitness tracking information and social functions. The main display of the watch is an illuminated backlit display that can do normal watch functions like tell the time, start and stop timers, and run a stopwatch. The second OLED screen underneath the main display will deliver smart information like alerts from your social media accounts and fitness info.
[blockquote author=”Razer CEO and co-founder, Min-Liang Tan”]We’re bringing together the reliability and incredible functionality of a digital timepiece, with added smart features to empower the tech enthusiasts of today. We’re also just really excited to create a digital watch that we’re proud to call our own – a natural intersection between our popular work in apparel and wearables. This was something our fans have asked for, and we’re happy to deliver.[/blockquote]
You’ll never have to worry about setting the time on your watch because the Nabu Watch syncs the time to your smartwatch. This is especially helpful to travelers. As soon as your phone adjusts to your new time zone, your watch will too with no hassle.
The Razer Nabu Watch is aiming to be a different kind of wearable. A watch first, and a smart device second. One of the biggest areas where it differs from the rest is battery life. The digital chronograph part of the watch will run for up to a year on its coin cell replaceable battery, and the secondary OLED display will run for a week on a single charge.
Some won’t see the point of this watch, and that’s fine. I personally think this is a great intersection of a workable timepiece with enough smart functions to get you through the day. I generally only use my smartwatch to tell me when I have a call or text coming in now and it seems like the Razer Nabu Watch can do that more efficiently than Android Wear currently can, while providing better battery life. Whether or not you should get one depends on how you use your wearables but this is a strong option.
The Razer Nabu was announced at CES 2016 in two versions. The Nabu Watch standard edition will be available in late January for $150. It has tough polycarbonate materials with green highlights like most Razer devices. The Nabu Watch Forged Edition has stainless steel buttons and a premium black finish for more durability and a sleeker look. It’ll run you $50 more for a purchase price of $199.99 and is available now on Razer’s website.
Product Features
Watch Hardware:
12 months battery life using replaceable coin cell battery (CR2032)
Hourly time signal
1/100 second stopwatch
Measuring capacity: 23:59’59.99″
Measuring modes: Elapsed time, split time
Countdown Timer
Measuring unit: 1 second
Full Auto Calendar
12/24 hour formats
3 multi-function alarms (Daily or weekly repeats)
World Time
Time, World Time and Alarms auto synced to phone time or manually adjusted via Nabu app
Nabu Hardware:
OLED 128×16 single color
3-axis accelerometer
Cylindrical vibration motor
Single Button for OLED Screen
Lithium polymer battery with up to 7 days battery life
5ATM water resistance rating
Shock Resistant up to 5m
Charging via magnetic proprietary USB cable
Wireless syncing with mobile device via BLE
System requirements:
iPhone 5/5S/6/6 Plus/6S/6S Plus with iOS 8 (or higher)
Android 4.3 (or higher) device with Bluetooth Low Energy (BT 4.0 or higher) capability
Blackberry fans rejoice! The first Android device from the resurgent smartphone manufacturer, the Priv will soon be released on more American carriers. Since its launch it has only been available on AT&T or straight from Blackberry, but by the end of March, you’ll be able to pick it up on the other three major carriers in the United States.
Leaks targeted the launch on T-Mobile for January 26, and it looks like they were right. The Priv will launch on January 26 for T-Mobile and Sprint customers and Verizon customers will have to wait a little longer, until the end of March. If you’re reading this from the UK, you can head over to Vodaphone and pick one up right now.
The hype around the Priv has been real since its launch. One of the only Android devices on the market with a physical keyboard, the Priv, which is short for Privacy, focusses on the features that made the company popular among businessmen and woman in the late 90s and early 2000s. The DTEK security system allows users to take control of their privacy by letting them choose what apps have access to things like the microphone and camera and what data is being sent from the phone.
The Blackberry Priv has also gotten high marks for the integrated messaging hub, huge battery and beautiful screen. Will you be picking up a Blackberry Priv when it hits your carrier? Let us know down in the comments what you think of this announcement.
