We are just a weekend away from the Mobile World Conference starting, and in the calm before the storm there are a flurry of leaks. While HTC's and Samsung's upcoming flagships are the talk of the smartphone world, Sony will also have a few smartphones making their debut at the expo in Barcelona.
The LG G Pro is a couple of years old, the Korean company's then flagship phablet has even been replaced by the G Pro 2 and the line is set to be discontinued in 2015. However, LG is still supporting its aging device it seems as the company has begun rolling out Android 5.0 Lollipop to the G Pro. Although, it is worth noting that at the moment the upgrade is exclusive to South Korea, but will almost certainly move to other regions in the coming weeks.
Welcome back! It's been a while – and things are a little different around here. Firstly, 7 days in mobile is dead… long live 7 days in smartphones. And secondly, well… actually there's nothing else to tell you. That's it.
It's still going to be the same useless frippery about the phone industry this week, your one stop shop to read a pathetic attempt to bring a humorous angle on all things smartphone (with a smattering of smartwatch, tablet and ereader stuff in there too).
That's pretty much it. Please share it with your friends. Or print off a copy for your mum.
There's nothing else that's more important in the world than the launch of a new smartphone. Nothing. At all.
After all, if there was, why would people get so angry when anyone posts an opinion on any device on YouTube? That must mean it's something very important. Very important indeed.
So imagine the levels of hysteria that are about to be unleashed onto the information superhighway when Mobile World Congress (or MWC to you and me, cheeky phone fans) spews out not one, not two, but thousands* of new phones next week.
If you don't know what the big news is likely to be, following more leaks than a Welsh farm, then, well, you've probably been doing something else other than slavishly following multiple news stories on TechRadar.
Sunday's going to be the big day in the mobile calendar, with HTC launching the new One M9, shortly followed by Samsung's unveiling of the Galaxy S6.
Thanks to the internet's army of leakers, we pretty much know all there is to know about these handsets… I'll let our excellent hubs fill you in on what's going to appear with those massive flagship phones.
But the big news this week from the two headline phones is very simple: HTC's One M9 has been leaked in a lovely long video and Samsung looks likely to have a smaller battery than last year's Galaxy S5.
HTC's forthcoming phone being leaked is almost not worth writing, if it wasn't for being able to point you in the direction of lovely phone info – it's like the brand doesn't care who knows what about its future plans.
But Samsung… there's another story. Dropping the power pack size? Really?
That seems like a very, very stupid idea when battery is such a hot space to be brilliant in, but if the rumours that Samsung isn't using the Qualcomm 810 chip are true, then it means it will be doing its own thing on the CPU front and therefore could make things a lot more efficient.
Or the South Korean brand has spent so long on making the thing out of metal that it forgot to put a battery in there, and 2600mAh is the biggest it can manage. One of the two.
*Actual number may vary
A special nod to Motorola for trying something different – rather than having a press conference in the bun fight of MWC to launch the new Motorola E, the brand decided to send the press conference to us.
This meant a lanyard attached to a small box, inside of which was a little depiction of the standard press conference shenanigans: a little press desk, a cardboard man presenting the phone, and then right at the back the Moto E itself.
The Moto E is actually a pretty decent phone, although it's no longer the sub £100 offering we loved last year. However, with a stronger processor and qHD screen, it's not a bad phone for the price. High fives for Motorola.
"What happened to him?"
"I… I don't know. I found him under a pile of BlackBerry Storms. I think he was crushed by them."
"Is he breathing?"
"Barely. He's badly hurt."
"Quick… get him into the theatre."
The unicorn's eyes flutter open long enough to see the words 'Mobonia General Hospital' above the door he's thrust through, before passing out again.
"Can you help him?"
"We can rebuild him. He won't be the same again. But we can make him better. Faster. Less obsessed with ancient phones that nobody really gives a toss about."
"You mean…?"
"Yes. He's going to become Winston the Smartphone Unicorn".
Tune in next week to read the next exciting instalment, as we discover whether our four-legged hero can ever recover from the crushing pain of the BlackBerry Storm.
While this section was largely added in thanks to coming up with the pun one sunny afternoon in Baker Street, it's always worth revisiting one of the greatest launches to ever emerge from the world of phones.
Take a bow, Asus chaiman Jonney Shih, for winning the award for 'Most committed to the part' in a press conference during the launch of the PadFone in 2012.
Let's all take a moment here to discuss what's possibly happening in this shot. Those fixed smiles seem to be saying 'quick, distract him with the fancy front display on the LG Trax while I call the police.'
Apologies for the dismal quality of this video, but it's from the past. You remember the past, right? That thing that happened before the past but is kind of close to the present?
Also sorry for the loud sting at the start. But it's worth it, promise.
It's Apple o'clock – the Watch is going to be given its own event on 9 March, so perhaps the reviews won't be far away?
There's a secret love story behind the launch of the LG Watch Urbane – and our friends on T3 have uncovered it.
LG has gone a little bit bonkers at MWC – it'll be launching a quartet of phones that are 'selfie stick ready' (urgh) and an LTE version of its Watch Urbane, but one that won't be based on Android Wear, and will have a much bigger battery.
But you can use it was a walkie talkie and make calls with it. That's a win right there.
Come back next week to see whether we made it through the madness… and of course to find out what happened to Winston.
If you listen carefully you'll hear a whooshing sound. It's the sound of faraway planes, trains and automobiles carrying hundreds of hacks to Barcelona, because next week sees the biggest event in the mobile tech calendar: MWC 2015. Inevitably that means lots of leaks, stacks of speculation and tantalising teasers – so we already know about some of the most exciting new kit that'll launch next week. Not only that but we've got Steam in VR, a superb phone at an unbelievably low price and a completely baffling thing that the record industry is doing. It's enough to make Madonna fall down some more stairs.
Whether by accident or design, the Samsung Galaxy S6 has been leaking for weeks - and the latest leaks include photos of it and its Galaxy Edge sibling in actual use. It doesn't look dramatically different from the Galaxy S5, although if you look carefully you'll notice the slimmer bezel, metal frame and glass back. Apparently it "feels solid as heck".
The S6 will launch just in time for this year's Mobile World Congress, aka MWC 2015. It's the biggest date in the smartphone calendar, and we're expecting to see some more showstoppers including the HTC One M9 and some interesting things from Microsoft. Did someone say HTC One M9?
What's the difference between the HTC One M8 and the HTC One M9? If you answered "one" you'd be right, but there's more to the new flagship than a slightly different number. The UltraPixel camera is now on the front for selfie-related shenanigans, there's a 20MP rear camera and the Boomsound speaker are apparently even more boomy. We'll find out more next week.
The Xperia Z4 tablet was supposed to stay secret until MWC, but Sony's accidentally (we think) leaked it: an image of it appeared on the official Xperia Lounge app, and Sony didn't spot the leak or yank it quick enough. All we know so far is that the tablet will have a "stunning 2K display", but the lack of words such as "compact" suggest it'll be a fairly big device. Other hints include "latest ultra fast processor" and "industry leading battery performance", which makes us think there'll be a Snapdragon 810 in there. We can't wait to find out more.
We mean Moto Es, of course. The new 2015 Moto E is really important, not because of its specs – which are pretty good – but because of its price. The 2015 version is just £109.99, and for your money you're getting a pretty good smartphone running Lollipop. That makes it a serious rival not just to other phones, but to MP3 players and media players too.
We do, and this week we're watching a brand new watch: the Pebble Time, which hit its Kickstarter target faster than you can say "Apple Watch and Android Wear rival". With seven-day battery life, a super-low price and both iOS and Android compatibility, it's an easy sell.
Meanwhile at the other end of the financial universe, Apple appears to be making a watch for the famed 1%: it looks like the gold Apple Watch Edition will cost more than many people's cars. The figure of $10,000 is being widely quoted, but it might cost even more than that. Better start saving…
We thought this one was an April Fool, but it's far too early for that: starting later this year, all new music will be released at 12.01am on a Friday. As Ian Morris explains, "It will benefit artists who communicate with fans on Twitter, but who, apparently, aren't capable of talking about any time that isn't midnight Friday." We're as baffled as you are.
Fancy Steam on your face? It's coming: Valve has announced that it'll be showing off its Steam VR system at this year's GDC event alongside its Steam Machines and "new living room boxes". Let the Half-Life 3 rumours commence! Again!
This is one of those rumors that we hope will not come to be true. Reports in Korea are suggesting that the Galaxy S6 Edge that Samsung will launch on Sunday alongside the Galaxy S6 flagship will actually be called the Galaxy S Dual Edge and will feature two side screens and not just one. All good so far, but now things get a bit disappointing as those dual screens will apparently have little functionality and will be mostly for aesthetic purposes.
Samsung is apparently discussing the ins and outs of mobile payment with PayPal with a view to launching the so-called Samsung Pay alongside the Galaxy S6 next week. With Apple already in the mobile payment market with Apple Pay, it seems that now is the right time for Google to enter the fray too. The Search giants will apparently announce Android Pay at the Google I/O developer conference in May.
It's the end of the week and we're finishing up with some more TechRadar Deals!
Xbox One: This one was so popular last time out we thought we'd include it again as the deal is still available! You won't find a new Xbox One any cheaper than this anywhere, it's a white model and even comes with a copy of super-fun game Sunset Overdrive.Get the console and the game for just £279.99 all-in.
Nintendo: Want a Nintendo handheld to keep you entertained on long journeys? You can currently pick one up for as little as £49 at Amazon.co.uk!
iPhone speaker: Want a speaker dock for your iPhone to sit in when you're in the kitchen or your bedroom? This excellent JBL speaker will dock with any iOS device with a lightning connector, and is also Bluetooth capable for all other devices! It's currently discounted to £79 at Currys.co.uk
Portable charger: If your phone is always running out of juice, you should get a portable battery pack for those times when you need to do an emergency charge! This one will charge an iPhone 6 two times over without needing a refill, it's super compact so will slip unnoticed into a bag, and it's just £13.99 at Amazon.co.uk
Action Camera: Yep, even Polaroid is making action cams these days nad there's currently a good deal on the Polaroid Cube which uses magnets to stick to metal surfaces! It's currently going for £89.99 at Amazon.co.uk
Philips 40PUS6809 40 Inch 3D Smart WiFi Built In Ultra HD 4K LED TV - For as little as £449 at tesco
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Every year Google recruits a partner to help it create its next Nexus devices - so far we've seen products from HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Asus.
The latest in the smartphone range was made by Motorola and turned out to be the Nexus 6.
A new report found on the Chinese social networking website Weibo has suggested Google will be partnering with a Chinese manufacturer for one of two Nexus devices it has planned for this year.
The source suggests there will be a high end Nexus 7 model produced by LG while the lower-spec Nexus 7 will be created by an unnamed Chinese manufacturer.
That source did reveal the manufacturer will either go for its own SoC inside the new Nexus or a Qualcomm version.
Huawei, a Chinese manufacturer, has its own Hisilcon Kirin processor line-up that has featured in many of the companies handsets and could handle the job inside the next Nexus.
Huawei is the only Chinese company we know of that has its own processor range suggesting it is the manufacturer the source is suggesting.
At the moment this is all speculation, but if the information from the Weibo source proves to be good, it's likely the Nexus 7 will be created by Huawei before the end of the year.
The Nexus 6 launched in October 2014 so we have quite a long wait to find out about the Nexus 7.
Of course, Google also has a tablet named the Nexus 7 so it's likely we'll see a different name for the product when it is ready to launch.
Samsung's Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge are heavily rumoured to be coming at an event on March 1 and we already know quite a lot about them.
Another official image of the handsets has now leaked out with Sprint posting up the teaser and a Reddit user picking up on the image.
A "verified employee" on Reddit called iamdenden posted the following teaser revealing the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, the latter with its curved display.
It matches images we've seen previously and gives us a better high-quality look at the phones' designs, but cuts off the bottom of the handsets.
Samsung seems to be struggling to keep the new flagship devices under wraps with even the included earbuds leaking out.
SamMobile sources supplied images of the new earbuds that bear a striking resemblance to the Apple alternative headphones.
Samsung's new earbuds have been created in partnership with Sennhesier but it doesn't seem like the branding will be included on the ones in Samsung's boxes.
While Google is a dominant name globally, the company is not as powerful in China. Yes, its Android platform is the most used OS in the country, but many of the devices running Android in China are forked and not linked to Google's services (the way the company makes money from Android). The company's Nexus devices have never really been popular in China either, but that could be changing this year.
Acer's quest to join the smartphone elite will continue at the Mobile World Conference (MWC) in Barcelona next week when the Taiwanese company launches new handsets. There are reports that the company will debut a new Windows Phone smartphone, while the familiar Android toting Liquid series will also get some new additions. On top of that, Acer is also set to showcase its new wearable device.
I have written before that the continuing decline in Samsung's smartphone business will ultimately have an impact on the company's employees. Certainly, rumors have been circulating for some time that the South Korea giant will cut jobs during 2015. That would follow up on 30% of the smartphone division being cut last year, but Samsung has taken another drastic action of freezing employees' salaries this year.
The recently launched LG G Watch Urbane, a wearable that may have a claim to being the best looking smartwatch yet. The Urbane will have some other calling cards too, including LTE and from what LG says, the best battery life we have seen before in such a wearable. There will be two versions of the G Watch Urbane, a regular one, and one that is packing LTE, allowing it to make calls.
Samsung hasn't officially announced that the Galaxy S6 will come with a wireless charger - heck, it hasn't technically confirmed the Galaxy S6 at all - but as usual that hasn't stopped the FCC from letting the cat out of the bag.
The US Federal Communications Commission has published its approval of the Samsung wireless charger, which could also support Samsung's rumored upcoming "Orbis" smartwatch.
In the FCC's documents the Samsung wireless charger appears round, a decent hint that it might support both devices.
We're expecting to see the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge - which both appeared in a recent photo leak - on March 1, so hopefully we'll learn more about Samsung's wireless charging plans then.
