Reviews, cheap phones, and updates – Week 29 recap: week in review

Posted on by Adam Doud

The technology world is a fast moving one, and hence, there are more than 100 stories we publish on a weekly basis here on Pocketnow. Those include reviews, videos, editorials, news, and more. With this new, weekly series, we’re making it easier for you to look back at the most interesting, exciting, and popular topics of the week, in case you missed anything.Look for the Pocketnow Week in Review every Saturday morning. It contains the most popular ten stories of the week printed on the portal, as well as top ...

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LG G3 Beat vs Sony Xperia Z1 Compact: phones in totally different leagues

Posted on by Rithvik Rao

When it comes to small phones, Sony’s Xperia Z1 Compact has reined supreme for most of 2014, with no real competitors in sight. Now that there’s a new kid on the block, we decided to quickly compare the two through specs — so here is LG G3 Beat vs Sony Xperia Z1 Compact.This one’s pretty much a no-contest. It’s pretty ridiculous how the Z1 Compact is able to massacre the G3 Beat in almost every spec, and ...

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Pick up a Sony Xperia Z1 Compact for just $350

Posted on by Rithvik Rao

We really like the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact. It crams flagship specs into a pint-sized body, and that makes us miss the phone for the most part, so when it goes on sale for a ridiculous price we find it hard to pass up. Check below to see where and how you can get in on this Sony Xperia Z1 Compact deal.The phone features some impressive specs, as mentioned earlier. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core 2.2 GHz SoC makes up the brains, while the display is a ...

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Unlocked Sony Xperia Z1 Compact now up for sale in the US

Posted on by Rithvik Rao

It seems like an eternity has passed since the Xperia Z1 Compact launched (and we reviewed it), but it was only this year. As promised, Sony Xperia Z1 Compact availability has expanded to the US, though not in the grandiose way that many of us have wanted Sony to do in order to make a dent in ...

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Empty Nest: what I miss (and don’t) about the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact

Posted on by Michael Fisher

I’ve learned that there are two things about being a mobile technology reviewer.The first thing: you get to handle awesome gadgetry days or weeks ahead of its official release date, and you’re not just allowed to use the heck out of it; you need to, in order to do your job. That’s the awesome thing.The other (less-awesome) thing: you eventually have to give it all back.Empty Nest is a recurring column discussing what I miss -and what I don’t- about the devices I’ve had to ...

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Samsung Galaxy S5 mini vs Sony Xperia Z1 Compact: spec-to-spec comparison

Posted on by Anton D. Nagy

If you look at the Samsung Galaxy S5 mini vs Sony Xperia Z1 Compact spec comparison sheet below, you’ll immediately realize that, while both “mini” phones, they’re in different leagues. While Samsung is packing a lot of features (both software and hardware) in the S5 mini, the phone that borrows the flagship’s name doesn’t pack specifications that are worthy of a flagship.The general mentality OEMs have used in ...

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Sony already delivering Android 4.4.4 updates, leaving other OEMs in its wake

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

When did Sony become the manufacturer to compete against when it comes to delivering timely Android platform updates to its smartphone lineup? Lately it’s felt like Motorola had the upper hand in that department, quickly getting Google’s latest releases out to its near-stock handsets, but Sony might be raising the bar even higher this week, as it distributes Android 4.4.4 updates to a number of its smartphones.Granted, Android 4.4.4 isn’t a big update itself, but it only even started rolling ...

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Sony talks US availability (or lack thereof) for latest Xperia models

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

April’s almost ready to start wrapping up, so it’s only fitting that we revisit a story that helped kick-off the month. Back then, we were wondering about Sony’s plans for sales of the new Xperia Z2, and specifically what the situation would look like in North America. We got a little update about the phone’s arrival up north in Canada, but were left hanging when it came to the US. This week we finally get an answer, but it’s not great news. While Canada will see the Z2 arrive in May, the ...

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Sony delivers fix for Xperia audio glitches

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

Yesterday we spent a little time looking at reports of some hardware issues with the Xperia Z2, the latest Sony Android to hit the scene, but far from the first to run into a few problems. In addition to other Xperia models experiencing their own share of hardware faults, we’ve also heard about a few software bugs in our time. Luckily for users, those tend to be a lot easier for a manufacturer to resolve, and Sony is committed to getting such ...

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KitKat updates incoming for Sony Xperia Z1, Z1 Compact, and Ultra

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

So far this year, Sony’s introduced us to plenty of new hardware, including the Xperia Z2, the Z1 Compact, and the Xperia Z2 Tablet; that’s all well and good, but what’s cooking over on the software side of things? Sony’s been working at updates for a number of its Android models, and today announces the start to distribution of KitKat updates for the Z1, Z1 Compact, and Z Ultra. Android 4.4 is on its way to all three of those handsets beginning today, but expect the usual regional delays as ...

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There’s nothing ‘G2′ about the G2 mini

Posted on by Taylor Martin

There are plenty of miniature things in this world that are great. Love or hate it, the Mini Cooper S is an incredibly fun car to drive. The iPad mini is a smaller, more affordable version of the iPad Air with just as much power and prowess. Even mini golf is one of my favorite time wasters to partake in when I’m on vacation. If my opinion on “mini” were instead based on the mobile industry’s meaning of the word, I would hate practically everything with the mini tag. ...

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Four reasons we want more Sony smartphones in 2014

Posted on by Michael Fisher

While Pocketnow’s North American roots come in handy quite often, the arrangement isn’t without its snags. We do miss out on the occasional smartphone release by virtue of our location, and the brand most often affected by this is the somewhat Euro-centric Sony. As listeners of the Pocketnow Weekly podcast are aware, this causes us some heartburn; it’s frustrating to miss the chance to go hands-on with the latest and greatest. But we almost always manage to snag Sony demo units somehow. Over the past ...

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Bring on the salt water smartphones

Posted on by Michael Fisher

Confession time: I’ve destroyed a review unit or two in my day. I lost a brand-new LG flagship in the back of a cab once. During a durability test late last year, I did enough damage to an LG G Flex that we ended up having to buy the thing from Negri Electronics. And just a couple weeks back, you all saw me

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Sony Xperia Z1 Compact vs Motorola Moto X (Video)

Posted on by Michael Fisher

With the Moto X, Motorola succeeded in (briefly) shifting the Android smartphone conversation from “how to bump specs even higher” to “how to make smarter use of the horsepower we already have.” With the Z1 Compact, Sony finally heeded our long-unanswered call for a premium smartphone in a palm-sized package. Both devices were well received by the Pocketnow team. The Moto X earned high praise for finally fulfilling some of ...

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Sony Xperia Z1 Compact review: small phone, big performance

Posted on by Michael Fisher

“Where have all the small phones gone?” “Remember when mini smartphones were actually small?” “Why do small smartphones have to suck on the spec sheet?” Those blurbs, taken from two years’ worth of Pocketnow editorial headlines, succinctly illustrate our historic frustration with the smartphone sizing problem. For the past few generations, average device size has skyrocketed: HTC’s HD2 was considered massive when it ...

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