Apple is fully expected to launch a smaller (iPhone Se) this month, but what about the company's upcoming flagships that will launch at the end of year? The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus should be a near total overhaul of the current iPhone 6 range, and that could mean an even larger screen for the Plus, according to some reports.
Both Best Buy and Verizon have started shipping the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, the two new flagships from the Korean giant. Samsung said during the launch of the handsets that it would launch the devices on March 11, but it seems the two U.S. based retailers are getting ahead of the game and fulfilling pre-order commitments early.
Sony has started to roll out Android 6.0 Marshmallow to the Xperia Z5 smartphone range, the late 2015 flagships that were the last of the Z smartphones before Sony introduced the Xperia Z line at MWC 2016
Wow! Sony was not expected to launch any smartphones at the Mobile World Conference this week, but the company turned up and stole the show with a new smartphone range, the Xperia X series. We have already looked at the enticing Xperia X and its beefier sibling, the Xperia X Performance, so let's have a look at the last in the stable, the Xperia XA.
We have already seen LG's new G5 flagship, a smartphone that aims for innovation. Samsung was never going to produce something as fresh with the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, and so it proves with the two flagships revealed at MWC. Sure, fresh innovation may be missing from these handsets, but instead Samsung has set about perfecting devices that were already among the very best on the market anyway.
We have never been big fans of the LG Smart Notice, a widget that has been included on most of the company's devices over the last few years. The widget offers updates and notifications regarding numerous services and on board functions, but it has never really worked as well as LG would want it to. If you own an LG G3, the Smart Notice is much more problematic than not working well, however.
Aside from official confirmation, most details regarding the Samsung Galaxy S7 are known, from design to specs. One of the most consistent rumors has been the one that the flagship will launch at MWC 2016 in Barcelona at the end of the month. That rumor now seems to have been confirmed by tipster Evan Blass, who has posted an image of the upcoming invite for the launch event.
We liked last year's Sony Xperia C5 Ultra, it was a solid mid-range device with a huge 6-inch screen, a slick near bezel-less design, and a good camera configuration. Inevitably there is going to be a 2016 refresh of the handset, the Xperia C6, and the first render of the smartphone has apparently leaked.
Microsoft has not yet announced the Lumia 650, but the handset is already available for pre-order via a UK based online retailer called MobileFun. Of course, the company has clearly jumped the shark here, but if nothing else the listing does tell us how much the upcoming smartphone will cost.
Samsung's Z3 is the company's second handset to run the Tizen platform, it was launched in India just like its predecessor the Z. The South Korean giant has said it plans to expand the Z3 to other nations, including Russian in early 2016 and then other countries throughout the year.
Xiaomi's huge growth from being a startup company in 2010 to being one of the top five smartphone manufacturers in the world now has been unprecedented.
BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) is perhaps the clearest evidence of how BlackBerry has changed in recent years. Once one of the company's core features and one that it kept to its own platform, BBM has since moved to be a cross platform service and has been eclipsed by other messenger services. That said, BBM still has tens of millions of users across iOS and Android and the former of those platforms is seeing its BBM app get an update.
We like the Nexus 5X a lot. The LG made device built on the original Nexus 5 of two years ago, which itself was a stunning handset, and has been a success with consumers.
Google is rolling out Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow to its Nexus devices (namely the Nexus 5, 6, 7, and 9) with the factory image now available for download. So, with the freshest version of Android now rolling out what can we expect from the build?
Microsoft raised the curtain on the Lumia 550 back in October, the first budget smartphone to run the Windows 10 Mobile platform. The company said at the time that it would launch the handset on December 8th, but a bit earlier than planned (the 7th) Microsoft has launched the Lumia 550 in Europe.