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The Huawei P10 and P10 Plus arrive with front and rear Leica cameras in tow

Matt Adams
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Mobile World Congress 2017 has gotten off to a fast and furious start. Hot on the heels of LG, Huawei has unveiled the P10 and P10 Plus, its newest phones with Leica branded cameras.

The P10 will have a 5.1″ 1080P display, while its big brother, the P10 Plus, will have a 5.5″ 2560 x 1440P display. Both are powered by the Kirin 960 processor and have 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a 3,200mAh battery. The Plus also has an upgraded model that offers 6GB of RAM, 128GB of Storage, and a 3,750mAh battery. Both devices will offer memory expansion via a micro USB card and come with Android 7.0 with EMUI 5.1 atop it.

While we haven’t seen nearly as many leaks about the P10 and P10 plus as say the LG G6 or Samsung Galaxy S8, we have seen a few floating around the internet. What all of those leaks seemed to have missed is the movement of the fingerprint sensor. The sensor that used to be featured on the rear of the device will move to the front, much like that of the HTC 10 or OnePlus 3T.

Huawei continues its partnership with Leica on its dual-rear camera but also adds a Leica branded front-facing camera as well. The rear lenses are a 12MP shooter for colors and a 20MP lens monochrome sensor that is designed to capture as much light as possible. Huawei went as far to say that the P10 and P10 will have studio like lighting, but that’s a big claim that we’ll have to determine in our full review.

Both cameras come with high touted facial detection but where they differ is the aperture. The P10 has an aperture of f/2.2 while the P10 has an aperture of f/1.8. The front-facing camera is said to offer an adaptive selfie feature that can tell how many people are in the shot and adjust the angle to suit.

LG finally releases the oft leaked G6. Here’s everything you need to know

Matt Adams
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This morning in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress 2017, LG finally gave us our first official look at the G6. The successor to last year’s G5 has some big shoes to fill after the disappointment that was the modular mess of 2016. LG is shooting for the moon this year and taking some chances. Here’s what the G6 looks like.

Specs

  • Display: 5.7″, 2560 x 1440 IPS LCD
  • Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 821
  • Memory: 4GB LPDDR4 RAM
  • Storage: 32 or 64GB UFS 2.0 (expandable up to 2TB)
  • Front Camera: 5MP wide-angle F/2.2
  • Main Camera: Dual 13MP Wide (f/2.4) and Stanard (f/1.8)
  • Battery:  3300mAh embedded
  • Operating System: Android 7.0 Nougat
  • Dimension: 148.9 x 71.9 x 7.9mm
  • Weight: 163g

What immediately jumps out to me is the processor. We’d heard rumors for a while now that since Samsung had snapped up all of the new Snapdragon 835 processors that Qualcomm could produce LG would have to rely on old silicon for the G6. Looks like that’s true. It’ll be interesting to see if LG comes out with an updated G6 later in the year or if it will live with a less powerful processor like it did with the G4 when it used a Snapdragon 808 instead of the more powerful Snapdragon 810.

We’re getting a somewhat expected (for flagships) memory pairing of 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. LG will offer 64GB variants, or you can use a micro SD card of up to 2TB. Android 7.0 Nougat was expected for the G6, but what we hadn’t heard much about was Google Assistant. While Samsung has been busy developing its own Bixby assistant, LG has been working with Google to integrate Google Assistant out of the box.

“It works seamlessly and intuitively with LG apps, empowering users to get fast answers, manage everyday tasks, enjoy the best music and videos and search the G6 more quickly and efficiently than ever. And with theremote after-service utilizing artificial intelligence, the more Google Assistant is used, the more personalized it becomes because it knows more about the user.”

-LG Electronics

The camera on the LG G6 is getting a bit of an upgrade over the G5 which launched last year. This year we’re treated to dual 13MP lenses that can reach a width of up to 125-degrees so you can fit all of your friends into that picture or make sure you capture as much of that breathtaking mountain range as you can.  LG says it worked hard to make it as seamless as possible when transitioning between the two lenses while zooming, even during 4K video capture.

LG has also included a wide-angle lens on the front of the phone too. The 100-degree field of view camera comes in at 5MP and is wide enough to make sure you won’t need a selfie stick. Because who wants to carry around a selfie stick?

Display and Body

The two most notable features of the LG G6 are the display and the physical construction of the device and they go hand-in-hand.

The G6 will stick with an IPS LCD display instead of joining the host of other devices that now use AMOLED. I wonder if that has anything to do with LG refusing to make its excellent OLED displays available for its phones. What is different about the G6’s display is the unconventional display ratio.

Most phones stick with the 16:9 ratio. It’s the same ratio you get on your HD TV and has been an industry standard since television started going high def. LG is now switching it up and moving to an 18:9 (or 2:1) display, which in theory, offers up more room to display information on your device. LG says that the new display will offer a more immersive experience when streaming video or playing a game. I don’t know how much more immersive you can get than filling the entire screen, but we’ll be sure to pay attention to this point during our full review.

A 5.7″ is gigantic. And, normally you need a gigantic phone to hold a gigantic display but LG is calling this a one-handed phone. An ergonomics team at Penn State tested the LG G6 for stability when holding the phone in various grips. They also tested muscle fatigue for holding the phone for long periods of time and LG came out with the highest marks possible in all categories. Again, we’ll wait for our full review to see just exactly how one-handed this thing actually is.

The display on the G6 is the first to feature Dolby Vision technology. It also supports HDR 10.

LG is able to stick a huge display in this phone and call it one-handed because it went back to the drawing board after the G5 bombed last year. The phone that was supposed to usher in a modular revolution fell flat and was quickly shuttered.

Gone is the painted over aluminum and removable bottom and here in its place is an attractive aluminum and glass sandwich that comes in black, platinum, and white. LG calls the design minimalistic and based on what I’ve seen so far I would agree. The smooth to the touch metal frame wraps around the perimeter of the phone which means for the first time in four years, the G6 will have an embedded battery.

While the embedded battery is a bit of a disappointment, we do get IP68 water and dust resistance. The IP68 rating means it’s safe to immerse the G6 in up to 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes.

Exclusive Features

Depending on which country you buy your phone in, you may get different features. For some reason, Wireless Charging is exclusive to the US version of the LG G6. LG says the demand isn’t high enough in the rest of the world to justify it anywhere else. We’re left to wonder if this means the US version will have a higher price or a different construction to allow for the wireless charging.

If you wanted a Duad-DAC in your G6, you’re going to have to buy the Korean version and miss out on Wireless Charging. Unfortunately, LG decided that the US version wouldn’t carry the quad-DAC so heavily marketed in the V20. The US, Europe, South America and MEA models will leave out the quad-DAC while the Korean and a few as yet to be announced Asian countries will have the DAC.

In the specs section, we listed the 64GB storage option, but it looks like unless you live in Korea, Hong Kong, India, or some other Asian countries, you’ll be stuck with 32GB of onboard storage. This one hurts a little less since we have the micro SD card in the G6 this year, but it’s frustrating none-the-less. As our good friend Dan Treccagnoli said “It’s frustrating that you can’t get the quad DAC 64 GB wireless charging all in one”

So, there it is. The first big announcement from Mobile World Congress 2017. Be sure to stick around here at AndroidGuys.com and on our Twitter as we’ll have some pictures from the show floor from our own Alexandra Arici.

What do you think about the G6? Are you going to pick one up or will you wait to see what Samsung announces next month? Let us know down in the comments.

Sprint’s new contest is giving customers a chance to get away

Matt Adams
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1

Are you a Sprint customer? Is daily life getting you down? Do you need to get away? Well, Sprint’s new contest is here to help.

Until March 10, current Sprint customers can enter to win 100,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® miles, $2,000 spending money and a new Samsung Galaxy J3 Emerge. Sprint will also be giving away Samsung Galaxy J3 Emerge phones to 20 winners. You can head over to Sprint’s Getaway Giveaway website to enter once a day, but if you want an even better chance of winning, follow either @Sprint or @SprintLatino on Twitter and tweet with the hashtag #SprintGetawaySweepstakes for an addition entry every day.

So, the airline miles and spending cash are cool, but what exactly is the Samsung Galaxy J3 Emerge? Well, it’s the newest midtier phone from Samsung who apparently released 31 phones in 2016. It features a 5-inch, 720p display with expandable storage, and 5 MP camera capable of taking 1080p pictures. It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor, 1.5GB of RAM, and a 2600mAh battery. If you don’t win a free one in the Getaway Giveaway promotion, you can pick one up for $168 upfront or $7 a month for 24 months.

[graphiq id=”kDExFe3qc2p” title=”Samsung Galaxy J3″ width=”600″ height=”548″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/kDExFe3qc2p” ]

Huawei MediaPad M3 Tablet: A true mid-level Android option (review)

AndroidGuys
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3

Introduction

Today’s tablet world lacks a lot of parity. On one hand you have the premium devices like the iPad lineup, or the Samsung Galaxy Tab line. While these devices are extremely durable, high-performing, and very pretty, their respective prices can make them prohibitive for a lot of potential buyers.
But the problem is that the alternatives to these high-end devices (and I’m talking specifically of the Android space here) drop off rather quickly, into a sea of B-brand (and sometimes “what brand?”) tablets that can go from merely adequate to god-awful to use. To find a truly good but not super-high-end Android tablet has become somewhat of a unicorn hunt.

Enter the Huawei MediaPad M3 8.0 tablet. For about $300 (buy here from Amazon), you get a pretty nice set of specifications:

  • 2560 x 1600 IPS display
  • 4 GB RAM
  • Ultra-thin bezels
  • Fingerprint sensor
  • Dual Harmon/Kardon speakers
  • MicroSD slot for cards up to 128 GB
  • 5100 mAh battery

[graphiq id=”iwpHfv1Q60Z” title=”Huawei MediaPad M3 Overview” width=”600″ height=”800″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/iwpHfv1Q60Z” ]

While the Huawei makes no claims at being an iPad slayer, it also in no uncertain terms has to, either. I believe there’s a lot of folks in the tablet market who are looking for a device that isn’t bottom-dollar cheap (and works like it), nor is very nice but happens to cost as much as a very decent laptop. Let’s take a tour of the M3 and see how it stands up, shall we?

Unboxing

The MediaPad M3 arrives in a stylish white, square box. Opening you find the tablet itself front and center, with access panels for the charging plug & cord, and the SD slot access tool & lithe manual. Hidden within the cover is a complimentary screen protector.
In all it’s a very modern, clean presentation, giving you just what you need without any extraneous distractions. Sadly no earbuds come with the 32 GB model; though the 64 GB version arrives with a very nice set of AKG earbuds in tow.

Feel & Finish

The tablet itself is a great combination of density and thinness; it has a great iPad-like heft to it without feeling bulky (Sorry, I know this is an Android-based website, but Apple has always gotten it right with tablet design in my book.).
I tend to have bigger hands than most, so consider the source when I say that the Huawei is darn near a one-hand device, just beyond phablet. Now that I write that and look back at the tablet, it has a definite smartphone look to it.

The shell is uni-body CNC-machined aluminum, and is quite nice to look at as well as feel in your hands. the back is a very, very light etch; but nothing that provides any real added grip. The front side bezels are tiny; so small that I’m not sure it remains a feature. What I mean is that holding the tablet in portrait mode, it becomes all-too-easy to touch the screen, creating a likely not-wanted action on the device.
While the left side is devoid of any features, the right side has both the power/sleep and volume buttons (again, like a lot of phones out there). The top has a traditional 3.5 mm headphone jack and one speaker. The bottom has a mic port, micro-USB (no USB-C here) port, the 2nd speaker, and the SD card slot.

On the front you have a single multi-function home button, as well as an 8-megapixel selfie camera….a similar 8-megapixel shooter resides at the rear, sans flash. There is no special “Camera” section to this review: It’s a tablet. It has cameras. They work. They’re OK but not great. And they’re on a tablet. Let’s move on.

Display

Here is one of the tablet’s prime features; a very nice 2560 x 1600 IPS display that is pretty impressive. Colors are well-saturated right out of the box. Huawei also includes the option to manually adjust the temperature of the device, which can have quite a visual impact. Also built in is an “eye comfort” setting, which takes a lot of blue hues out of the display for late-night viewing (the idea that the reduction in blues reduce the potential interruption in sleep patterns). The one caveat with this display is glare: there is tons of it, and unless you have the brightness cranked up and angle it right, viewing this beauty in the sunshine is likely a no-go.

If there is one complaint to lodge against this display, it’s the glossiness of it, which can cause a crazy amount of glare. Also, combined with the fact that Huawei feels obliged to throw in a screen protector gives me the feeling that this screen could be a scratch magnet. Please note I have not experienced any scratches, but I’m borderline obsessive with protecting my devices.

Audio

Prime feature #2 is the audio system built into the MediaPad M3. The highlight are the Harmon/Kardon-branded dual speakers on this device, coupled with some fancy hardware and audio software in the inside. This is probably the loudest non-computer I’ve ever heard; and it’s not just loud for loudness-sake. The audio is quite good all the way up, relatively speaking….but please don’t mistake this for a pair of real speakers. As the volume goes up, the depth thins out. While never getting “tinny”, a small amount of vibration appears on the shell, which I guess would be expected. It won’t fill a room for a party, but for personal listening it’s more than enough.
On the 64 GB version a pair of very nice AKG earbuds come with, but alas our review model is only 32. Sigh.

Performance

Here’s where the ‘mid-level’ of this review title hits home. Looking at the specs, you may believe that this tablet could be a higher-end performance machine. But in real life it didn’t quite get there…..though it’s in no way a slouch.

Playing higher frame-rate games will cause occasional graphic stutter, though only occasionally. It’s just enough to be noticeable while reviewing the unit. And definitely sits on the higher end of the extreme-heavy tablet market. This is certainly no Black Friday discount tablet, but it also shouldn’t guarantee perfect performance, either.

The interface is what Huawei calls EMUI, an Apple-like skin (my take) on stock Android. The review tablet runs EMUI 4.1 but EMUI 5.0 is out there and imminent.
Again, it’s OK. I have such a hard time rendering judgement on stuff like this. It works, it’s kinda pretty. But I do and probably always will prefer stock Android, so there. If you do want to read up more about EMUI, here’s a link.

One interesting nugget I found on this tablet is that there isn’t the traditional 3-button layout (back, home, recent apps) along the bottom of the device. There is just a single physical home button bottom-center. It’s not mechanical, just a capacitive/touch button, along with a fingerprint sensor.
Touching the button also acts as a ‘back’ button, if you’re several clicks into something. Swiping up or down takes you directly to a Google search page, while a left or right swipe will bring you to a EMUI-esque recent apps screen to peruse.

The fingerprint sensor works, but it can take up to a full second or more for recognition and action once scanned.

Overall

Overall I really liked the MediaPad M3. I consider myself “techie-frugal”, in that I like nice stuff that works consistently, but I’ll be darned if I’m paying what the likes of Apple is demanding.

The MediaPad M3 falls in what I consider my “just-right” slot of performance, quality, and price. What you get is a super-nice display and audio, a smooth interface, and almost top-end gaming performance. And you could buy almost two of these for the price of one iPad Pro (and 25% less than a Galaxy Tab S2).

If you’re looking to get out of the discount tablet jungle, but not comfortable with shelling over top-end dollars for a new tablet, I highly, highly recommend the Huawei MediaPad M3 8.0.

You can pick one up via this link on Amazon.

 

 

Adobe Comp CC makes mobile design simple and easy (Review)

AndroidGuys
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Overview:

Adobe Comp CC is an editing and drafting program for exporting into other Adobe suite programs for easy, on the go project managing.

Developer: Adobe

Cost: Free

Impressions:

Adobe software is often used by professionals for graphic design and other media creation professions to great effect. Adobe has added most of their most popular software to the Play Store as mobile-optimized applications for on-the-go productivity. The newest member of the Adobe mobile suite is Comp CC, an all new app that eases the editing load on the go.

Comp CC is, essentially, a wire-frame and concept creation tool for exporting into other Adobe software for refinement. It has preconfigured templates for web, paper, and mobile layouts that you can edit and export to InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator as well as Adobe’s cloud where you can pull it down to any machine you wish.

Compared to the offerings of other Adobe software, Comp CC is rather limited. You can choose a template or create your own, import images, add text and graphics, and do some minor manipulation of color and such. From there, you can export it or share it to your email or social media. That is pretty much all it does.

The idea behind Comp appears to be that it’s something to get you started on a project, lay out a plan while on the go without having to use draft paper or lose progress by starting over on your main editing machine. It’s almost like a draft program but lets you get real progress on what would eventually become a more complex design for a web page, magazine, business card or what have you.

In terms of the app itself, it works really well but I would recommend using a larger screen device like a tablet, I used it primarily on my Samsung Chromebook Plus which has a touch screen and stylus making it a dream to use. The experience on the phone felt rather cramped and it’s not the most ideal place unless you don’t have another choice. The user interface is clean and minimal, with only a few options available. It’s easy to use and straightforward, without being confusing at all which is a big plus.

Some negative points now, but they’re minor. The app seems rather pointless without at least one or two other adobe apps to compliment it, so it’ll be a hard sell for the average user who doesn’t do any graphic design or use Adobe at all. Also, the templates for Comp CC aren’t all that helpful, as they’re just blank pages sized and oriented to the selected format. I would have liked to see some more helpful guidelines or page layout tools to help you make your own pages faster, especially if you’re a novice like me.

Conclusion:

I really like Comp CC more than I thought I would. It does exactly what it sets out to do, and is a handy tool to draft projects on the go for the busy graphic designer or other professional. It’s clean and simple and even novices can get some use out of it. I’d recommend it for anyone who uses Adobe software regularly, or someone looking for a simple editing app for basic manipulation.

Download Adobe Comp CC on the Google Play Store

U.S. Cellular is now offering unlimited lines with cheap, easy pricing

Matt Adams
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U.S. Cellular might not be the first name you think of when you’re looking for a new carrier but they’re certainly trying hard to entice customers to switch. The nation’s fifth largest carrier today announced that it’s making its pricing structure more simple to understand, doing away with a lot of fees, and will now offer truly unlimited lines– pretty cheaply, we might add.

So here’s the deal, starting today U.S. Cellular is doing away with activation fees, monthly device connection charges, phone upgrade fees and data overage fees. In addition to doing away with those fees, U.S. Cellular is also giving customers the option to pick up unlimited data.

The wireless provider will now offer data buckets of 2GB, 6GB, and unlimited with the price decreasing if you’re on a family plan. According to U.S. Cellular, the most you’ll pay for a line of service with unlimited data right now is $60 and that could drop as low as $40 a month depending on how many family lines you have.

In addition to unlimited data, the plans will also include unlimited calling and texting, video streaming, hot-spot capability, and free calling to Canada and Mexico. All of the new plans will be offered to not only new customers but current customers too. If you’re in need of a new device, U.S. Cellular offers 20, 24, and 30-month financing plans.

Your Moto Z might soon get a QWERTY keyboard slider

Alexandra Arici
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BlackBerry made the QWERTY keyboard famous, but other phones have offered such keyboards in the past. Remember the Motorola DROID 4 slider?

The phone was released back in 2012, but after that the QWERTY slider disappeared from the Motorola portfolio. Well it seems the QWERTY keyboard will make a comeback soon enough.

You’re probably aware that Motorola has partnered up with Indiegogo to attract more developers to create new Moto Mods for the Moto Z family. Motorola promised to release 12 new Moto Mods this year, all which will be compatible with the next 3 years of phones.

Current Moto Mods

Motorola has already announced the winners of its “Transform the smartphone challenge” and some have already launched crowdfunding campaigns on Indiegogo for their projects. Well another Moto Mods campaign has appeared recently on Indiegogo.

The new Moto Mod should add a slider QWERTY keyboard to the Moto Z. Besides the keyboard functionality, the accessory should add an extra battery which should offer additional 2,100 mAh. And if enough funding is raised the developer will add Qi wireless charging to the Moto Mod.

At the moment, the crowdfunding campaign is sort of minimalist. You’ll need to provide your email address in order to register to get more information about the upcoming Moto Mod project. The product generated quite a bit of hype on Reddit, so we expect this Indiegogo campaign to be successfully funded.

There are other Moto Mods Indiegogo campaigns which you can fund right now. You can read more about it in our in-depth article here.

Want a free flagship phone? AT&T is having a buy one, get one sale right now

Matt Adams
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1

We recently told you about T-Mobile’s new sale offering some flagships at half-price. AT&T is now coming out with its own amazing deal and is currently offering some select flagships for free when you purchase a flagship from the same manufacturer.

Here are the nuts and bolts. You can head over to an AT&T store or its website and purchase an Apple iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, LG G5, or Samsung Galaxy S7 on AT&T Next or Next Every Year, add a line, and select another phone from the same manufacturer. You’ll receive bill credits for to pay for the second device if you cancel before it’s paid off you’ll owe the balance of the phone.

In the fine print, you find out that you need to select a qualifying plan which is minimum $70 a month. Your sales tax is due at the time of purchase and it may take up to three billing cycles for your credits to kick in.

Where this deal gets really interesting is if you decide to port in a line. Porting in a line gets you up to $650 in credits which you can put toward the first phone you’re buying. Let’s say you pick up two Samsung Galaxy S7’s which run $694 at full price. If you’re switching to AT&T you’ll get $650 in credits to cover your first S7 and the second phone will be free under this deal. Two flagship phones for $44 isn’t bad at all.

Get your dual camera phone for less than $150 this summer

Alexandra Arici
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0

Dual cameras are becoming the standard for most smartphones released today, regardless of whether they are premium affairs or middle-to-upper rangers. And Chinese manufacturers have brought prices of dual camera phones way down, so almost everybody can afford one.

The Honor 6X currently sells for $249.99, but what if we told you will soon be able to grab a dual camera phone for even less.

French low-cost phone and tablet maker, Archos has unveiled two new affordable mobile phones a few days before the Mobile World Congress kick starts.

The new comers are called the Archos 50 Graphite and 55 Graphite. They will be available for purchase staring in June for approximately $137 and will first launch in Europe, but they will eventually make their way to the United States.

Out of the two, the Archos 55 Graphite is the most advanced. It features a 5.5-inch IPS display with a 2.5D contoured edge with 720 x 1280 resolution. It features a MediaTek MT6737 quad-core chipset clocked at 1.5GHz, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (expandable up to 128GB via microSD cardslot).

While the specs are not blowing, the phone does offer some features that are usually reserved for more expensive phones. The Archos 55 Graphite takes advantage of a 13MP (autofocus and LED flash) + 2MP dual setup, while on the back there’s a 5MP selfie snapper.

On top of that the phone boasts a fingerprint scanner on the back which is are said to be able to unlock the phones in less than 0.3 seconds.

Last but not least, the Archos 55 Graphite features a 3,000 mAh battery and Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box.

As for the lighter version, the Archos 50 Graphite comes with a 5-inch display with 720 x 1280-pixel resolution, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage (expandable up to 128GB via microSD slot). The phone will take advantage of the same dual-camera setup and fingerprint scanner.

Would you be interested in an Archos dual-camera phone?

Check out the Huawei Watch 2 in all of its glory

Alexandra Arici
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0

Huawei is coming to Barcelona at MWC 2017 with a basket overflowing with goodies. The Chinese company will pull the wraps off the P10 and P10 Plus – two gorgeous flagships that will most likely make your eyes water.

But Huawei is also coming to Barcelona to unveil a successor to its gorgeous Huawei Watch. We previously told you that Huawei is gearing up to launch the Huawei Watch 2 at Barcelona and now we can show you the device in all of its glory.

Unlike the original Huawei Watch catered to the more stylish, fashion conscious crowd, the new comer with feature a sportier look – as you can very well see from the leaked press renders.

The images show us the smartwatch will feature a SIM card slot, so we can confirm the device will indeed boast cellular connectivity.

The watch will be offered in three colors including black, orange and gray. We also know the device will come pre-installed with the latest Android Wear 2.0 software. For the time being, we can’t offer you any more information about the specs, but we can hypothesize the watch will be a competitor to the LG Watch Sport.

And since Huawei plans to put the Google Assistant on some of its future products, the Watch 2 could also come equipped with it, as well as Android Pay. It remains to be seen how much Huawei will ask for it.

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