LG Optimus G Pro

Introduction

LG's first 1080p droid is also the company's first smartphone to cross the 5" mark, but a massive screen isn't the only thing that warrants the Pro tag. The LG Optimus G Pro boasts a new chipset too, and a significant software update over the Optimus G.

LG Optimus G Pro official photo

Key features

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support

3G with HSPA; LTE

5.5" 16M-color 1080p True HD IPS Plus FullHD capacitive touchscreen; works with gloves

Android OS v4.1.2 Jelly Bean; LG Optimus UI

Quad-core 1.5 GHz Krait 300 CPU, 2 GB RAM, Adreno 320 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset

13 MP autofocus camera with LED flash, geotagging, Intelligent Auto, image stabilization, Time catch shot, smart shutter and VR panoramas

1080p video recording @ 30fps with continuous autofocus and stereo sound; HDR mode, Dual recording

2.1 MP front-facing camera, 1080p video recording

32GB of built-in storage; microSD card slot

MHL-enabled microUSB port, USB host support

Independent content output over MHL (Dual Screen Dual Play), Miracast

Bluetooth v4.0

NFC

Wi-Fi a/ac/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA

GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS

Standard 3.5 mm audio jack

Stereo FM radio with RDS

Voice dialing

Multi-tasking with mini-apps and optional transparency (QSlide)

Accelerometer and proximity sensor

Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic

User-replaceable 3,140mAh Li-Po battery

Wireless charging support (Qi)

IR emitter for remote control of home appliances

Samsung Galaxy Grand I9082

Introduction

This is by no means intended as a moment of relief from the building tension, but our timing isn't without a sense of humor. Assuming that all eyes are set on Samsung to, again, deliver the godfather of Android smartphones, the one we're about to review is more like the...grandfather.
It may seem quite unfortunate for the Galaxy Grand that a week from now it'll be yesterday's news. But on a second thought, it has a better insurance policy against irrelevance than most of last season's Samsung phones that tried too hard to emulate the Galaxy S III.

Samsung Galaxy Grand official photos

Key features

Quad-band GSM (SIM 1 & SIM 2) and 3G (SIM 1 only) support
Dual SIM stand-by
21.1 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support (SIM 1 only)
5.0" 16M-color TFT capacitive touchscreen of WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) resolution
Android OS 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with Nature UX
1.2 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, Broadcom VideoCore IV GPU, 1GB of RAM
8MP autofocus camera with LED flash, face and smile detection, image stabilization
2MP secondary camera
1080p HD video recording at 30fps with stereo sound
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n support; DLNA and Wi-Fi hotspot
GPS with A-GPS connectivity and GLONASS; digital compass
8GB of inbuilt storage, microSD slot
Accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
microUSB v2.0 port with MHL
Stereo Bluetooth v4.0
FM radio with RDS

HTC One

Introduction

HTC One official photos
The HTC One is like a supercar - it's the best that current technology has to offer and while not everything is completely practical, it looks and handles great and is ready to wow its owner. And much like a car dealership, HTC is ready to offer you money if you trade in your old HTC phone - it's $100 or the value of the old phone, whichever is greater.
The biggest bullet point in the features list is the camera - a 4MP "ultra-pixel" camera. Yes, the resolution sounds too low, but this camera marks a first in the mobile phone imaging world, which puts it next to the Nokia 808 PureView and Lumia 920.
Speaking of a feature list, here it is. The One (camera aside) is basically a Butterfly with bumped up specs and a cool aluminum unibody.

Key features

General: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, quad-band UMTS/HSPA, optional LTE Cat 3 (100Mbps downlink, 50Mbps uplink)
Form factor: Aluminum unibody touchscreen bar phone
Dimensions: 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3 mm, 143 g
Display: 4.7" 16M-color 1080p (1080 x 1920 pixels) Super LCD 3 capacitive touchscreen, 469ppi pixel density; Corning Gorilla Glass 2
Chipset: Qualcomm APQ8064T Snapdragon 600
CPU: Quad-core 1.7 GHz Krait 300
GPU: Adreno 320
RAM: 2GB
OS: Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with Sense 5
Memory: 32GB/64GB storage
Camera: 4 megapixel auto-focus camera with ultra-pixels and Optical Image Stabilization; LED flash
Video camera: Full HD (1080p) video recording at 30fps with HDR; 720p @ 60fps
Front camera: 2.1MP front-facing camera, 88°; 1080p@30fps video with HDR
Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, standard microUSB port with MHL and USB host, GPS receiver with A-GPS and GLONASS, 3.5mm audio jack, NFC, IR port
Battery: 2,300mAh Li-Po
Misc: Beats Audio, BoomSound stereo speakers on the front, HDR microphone, HTC Zoe photo gallery

Samsung Galaxy Express

Introduction

The Samsung Galaxy Express represents an interesting mix of features. The latest Jelly Bean flavor, the impressively fast processor, the LTE connectivity, the spectacular 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus screen, and the Galaxy S III looks are all attention-grabbers.
Yet, the Galaxy Express only offers a 5MP camera with 720p video and the screen is only of WVGA resolution. As usual, unless you go for the flagship, it's always a question of compromises in the midrange and the Galaxy Express is yet another mix of gives and takes, which would hopefully satisfy a good part of the consumers.
Ever since Qualcomm's dual-core Krait made its debut on the HTC One S, it has been making the headlines with its top-notch performance at a decidedly more affordable price point. While other chipsets have since narrowed the performance margin, the Krait architecture continues to be one of the most successful chipsets around, particularly in the dual-core arena.

Samsung Galaxy Express photos

Key features

Quad-band GSM, 3G, and LTE support

21.1 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support

4.5" 16M-color Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen of WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) resolution

Android OS 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with Nature UX

1.2 GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8930 Krait CPU, Adreno 305 GPU, 1GB of RAM

5MP autofocus camera with LED flash, face and smile detection, image stabilization

1.3MP secondary camera

720p HD video recording at 30fps with stereo sound

Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n support; DLNA and Wi-Fi hotspot

GPS with A-GPS connectivity and GLONASS; digital compass

8GB of inbuilt storage, microSD slot

Accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor

Standard 3.5 mm audio jack

microUSB v2.0 port with MHL

Stereo Bluetooth v4.0

FM radio with RDS

Great benchmark performance for its class

Nokia Lumia 620

Introduction

Nokia is the first manufacturer to go all in with Windows Phone, using its mapping and multimedia strengths to help the platform gain momentum. The last quarterly results were certainly encouraging, but we'll have to wait another three months to see if that was actually a blip or a hint of things to come.
Nokia will certainly be hoping that the global launch of the Lumia 620 will help it push more WP smartphones in the first three months of the year, despite the weaker seasonal demand, as It makes the platform more affordable than ever.
Besides, the Lumia 620 holds a less vulnerable position in the midrange market, leaving it to worry about only two rivals - the Huawei W1 and the Windows Phone 8S by HTC. Let's have a look at the colorful Lumia 620's strengths and weaknesses

Nokia Lumia 620 photos

Key features

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support

Quad-band 3G with 21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.7 Mbps HSUPA support

3.8" 16M-color ClearBlack LCD display with WVGA resolution

5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, 720p@30fps video recording

VGA front-facing camera

Windows Phone 8 OS

1.0 GHz dual-core Krait CPU, Adreno 305 GPU, 512 MB of RAM

Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band

GPS receiver with A-GPS and GLONASS support

8 GB of inbuilt storage, expandable through the microSD card slot (up to 64 GB)

Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic

Built-in accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor

Standard 3.5 mm audio jack

1300 mAh user-replaceable battery

microUSB port with file transfers

Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP and EDR

NFC support

Full Office Mobile experience

Great build quality

Free lifetime voice-guided navigation via Nokia Drive

Excellent social integration

Xbox Live integration and Xbox management

Nokia Music streaming service

7 GB worth of SkyDrive storage

Attractive price

Sony Xperia E dual

Introduction

In 2012, Sony decided to alter its smartphone strategy and launched numerous affordable entry level smartphones, aiming to bring solid Android at prices close to those of some featurephones.
It seems the move paid off handsomely, as the company is continuing the push at the start of this year. The Xperia E dual, like its name suggests, is the dual-SIM half of the wallet-friendly and reasonably feature-packed Xperia E duo.
 
Sony Xperia E dual official pictures
The Xperia E and Xperia E dual have identical internals, with the extra SIM slot the only notable hardware difference. However, that same SIM slot is probably what prevented Sony from shipping the Xperia E dual with Jelly Bean, like its single-SIM twin. Ice Cream Sandwich is still an extremely competent platform full of nice features, but it already has two successors, so it does come as a slight disappointment for us.

Sony Xperia E dual photos

Key features

Dual-SIM (dual stand-by)

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and dual-band UMTS support

7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA

3.5" 256K-color capacitive TFT touchscreen of HVGA resolution (320 x 480)

Android OS v4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich

1 GHz Cortex-A5 CPU, Adreno 200 GPU, Qualcomm MSM7227A chipset

512 MB of RAM

2GB of user-accessible built-in storage (4GB total)

microSD slot (32GB supported)

3.15 MP fixed-focus camera, geo-tagging

VGA video @ 30fps

Wi-Fi b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot

GPS with A-GPS

Accelerometer and proximity sensor

Standard 3.5 mm audio jack

Stereo FM radio with RDS

microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1

User-accessible battery, Li-Ion 1530 mAh

Oppo Find 5

Introduction

The Oppo Find 5 is one of a series of Android phones I'll see this year to pack a 5" screen of 1080p resolution. Just like them, it has a powerful quad-core processor and a robust GPU - and neither is this a whim but a necessity (every frame on the screen has more than double the number of pixels of a 720p screen).
Oppo has taken a page from the Sony playbook and equipped the Find 5 with a 13MP camera capable of HDR video. The camera also jumps on the HFR bandwagon with a 120fps mode (though only at VGA resolution).
The Find 5 is certainly an ambitious project and on paper it's pretty well executed - there's skill and character aplenty, though not without a few issues.

Oppo Find 5 photos

Key features

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support

3G with HSPA

5" 16M-color 1080p IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with 441ppi pixel density

Android OS v4.1.1 Jelly Bean with custom UI

Quad-core 1.5 GHz Krait CPU, 2 GB RAM, Adreno 320 GPU; Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset

13 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and geo-tagging, HDR

1080p video recording @ 30fps with HDR mode, continuous autofocus and stereo sound; 120fps HFR mode

1.9 MP front-facing camera, 720p video recording

Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA; Wireless TV out

GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS

16/32GB of built-in storage

MHL-enabled microUSB port

Bluetooth v4.0

NFC; two NFC stickers in the box

Standard 3.5 mm audio jack; Dolby Mobile sound enhancement

Voice dialing

Accelerometer and proximity sensor

Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic

2,500mAh battery

Samsung I9082 Galaxy Grand

Introduction

Apart from the big display, the Grand does not have much which sets it apart from other midrange Samsung smartphones running the new SoC provided by Broadcom. Like the just-released Galaxy S II Plus, it features 8GB onboard storage and a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor of the Cortex-A9 variety. RAM is also the same at 1 GB and the 8MP camera capable of fullHD recording probably uses the very same module. Even the screen resolution is on par with those two, so you can simply think of the Galaxy Grand as an enlarged Galaxy S II Plus.

Samsung I9082 Galaxy Grand photos

Key features

General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 MHz (SIM 1 only), HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps

Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone

Dimensions: 143.5 x 76.9 x 9.6 mm, 162 g

Display: 5" 16M-color WVGA (480 x 800 pixels) capacitive touchscreen

CPU: Dual-core ARM Cortex A9 1.2 GHz processor

GPU: Broadcomm VideoCore IV

RAM: 1GB

OS: Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean)

Memory: 8GB storage, microSD card slot

Camera: 8 megapixel auto-focus camera with face detection, touch focus and image stabilization; Full HD (1080p) video recording at 30fps, LED flash, front facing camera, video-calls

Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0+HS, MHL-enabled standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS and GLONASS, 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio, USB-on-the-go

Misc: TouchWiz 5.0 Nature UX, DivX/XviD codec support, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor, gyroscope sensor

Samsung Galaxy S II Plus

Introduction

Samsung has been steadily setting the bar ever higher with each flagship released, and the massive success of the Samsung Galaxy S III and its predecessor, the S II, have catapulted it to the top of the smartphone food chain. And, as is expected in the aftermath of such success, the Koreans are looking to capitalize on the name put up by their top models. Enter the Samsung Galaxy S II Plus.

Samsung I9105 Galaxy S II  photos

Key features

Quad-band GSM and quad-band 3G support
21.1 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support
4.3" 16M-color Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen of WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) resolution
Android OS 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with Nature UX
1.2 GHz dual-core Broadcom BC28155 CPU, VideoCore IV GPU, 1GB of RAM
8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash, face and smile detection, image stabilization
2MP secondary camera
1080p HD video recording at 30fps
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n support; DLNA and Wi-Fi hotspot
GPS with A-GPS connectivity and GLONASS; digital compass
8GB of inbuilt storage, microSD slot
Accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
microUSB v2.0 port with MHL
Stereo Bluetooth v3.0
FM radio with RDS
Great video codec support
Solid 1080p video recording

Sony Xperia V

Introduction

I don't see why a phone with dual-core Krait and an LTE connectivity shouldn't enjoy life in the midrange. OK, the upper midrange - but the Xperia V isn't easily caught off guard. Of course, people are not as easily impressed today as, say, a year ago. Yet, a select few phones are willing to offer 1080p videos and 13MP stills, while putting an HD touchscreen at your fingertips.

Sony Xperia V photos

Key features

Quad-band GSM /GPRS/EDGE support
3G with 42.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
LTE Cat3 DL 100 Mbps UL 50 Mbps
4.3" 16M-color capacitive LED-backlit Reality LCD touchscreen of 720p resolution (720 x 1280 pixels) with Sony Mobile BRAVIA engine 2; Scratch-resistant glass
Android OS v4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean coming up
IP57 certified for dust and water resistance, up to 1 meter immersion for 30 minutes
Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait CPU, 1 GB RAM, Adreno 225 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 chipset
13 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and geotagging, Superior Auto mode
1080p video recording @ 30fps with continuous autofocus and stereo sound
VGA front-facing camera
Wi-Fi a/b/g/n with DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct and hotspot
GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
8GB of built-in storage, microSD card slot
microUSB port with MHL and USB-host support
Stereo Bluetooth v4.0
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
Stereo FM radio with RDS
Voice dialing
Deep Facebook integration
PlayStation Certified, access to the PS Store
Accelerometer and proximity sensor
NFC connectivity

HTC One S

Introduction

As the LTE networks rapidly increase their reach globally, support for them is no longer exclusively reserved for high-end devices. The HTC One SV is a clear example of this trend. The Android smartphone is far from the Taiwanese company's top shelf offerings. Instead, the handset aims to offer affordable LTE goodness, packed in a well put together, fairly affordable package.

HTC One SV official photos

Key features

LTE network support

Quad-band GSM/tri-band HSDPA support

4.3" 16M-color Super LCD2 capacitive touchscreen of WVGA resolution (800 x 480 pixels); Corning Gorilla Glass 2

Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich with HTC Sense 4.1

1.2 GHz dual-core Krait CPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 chipset; Adreno 305 GPU

1 GB of RAM and 8GB of built-in storage

microSD card slot

5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash; face detection and geotagging

1080p and 720p video recording @ 30fps with stereo sound

1.6 MP 720p front-facing camera for video-chat

Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA

GPS with A-GPS

NFC connectivity

Accelerometer, proximity sensor, built-in compass

Standard 3.5 mm audio jack

microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth

MHL TV-out (requires MHL-to-HDMI adapter)

Smart dialing, voice dialing

DivX/XviD video support

FM radio

HTC Portable Hotspot

Beats Audio sound enhancement

Superb build quality and ergonomics

Nokia Lumia 510

Introduction

The Nokia Lumia 510 is old hardware running new old software, aiming to rally new users to the Windows Phone cause.This is the cheapest Microsoft-powered smartphone by Nokia but also the first to release straight on Windows Phone 7.8 on most markets.

Nokia Lumia 510 official pictures

Key features

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support

Quad-band 3G with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support

4.0" 65K-color TFT capacitive touchscreen of WVGA resolution

5 megapixel autofocus camera, VGA video recording

Windows Phone 7.8 OS

Resizable tiles and some other WP8 features made available to the older OS version

800 MHz ARM Cortex-A5 CPU, Adreno 200 GPU, Qualcomm MSM7227A chipset, 256MB of RAM

Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n

GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigation

Digital compass

4GB of on-board storage, 7GB on SkyDrive

Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor

Standard 3.5 mm audio jack

FM Radio with RDS

microUSB port

Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and EDR (with Bluetooth file transfers)

Deep and coherent SNS integration throughout the interface