Nokia Lumia 925 review: first look

Tuesday, May 14th, 2013

Nokia has a new flagship Windows phone 8 handset in the shape of the Nokia Lumia 925, and it looks like a big step forward. The Lumia 925, which was launched in London, hot on the heels of the US launch of the 928 earlier this week, is far slimmer at 8.5mm and lighter than its predecessor, the Lumia 920, and eschews that phone’s bulbous rear in favour of a sharper, sleeker, more modern look.

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Acer Iconia A1 review: first look

Tuesday, May 7th, 2013

The Acer Iconia A1 is the latest of a flurry of compact budget tablets to have hit the market recently. It was launched alongside the exotic Aspire R7 and Aspire P3 at the company’s annual Global Press Conference in New York.

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Acer Aspire P3 review: first look

Friday, May 3rd, 2013

The Acer Aspire P3, launched at a glitzy New York press event in New York, wants desperately to be a rival to the Microsoft Surface. At first glance it looks like it could be: it has a keyboard cover, just like the Surface, and that cover can be folded over so you can use it  as a tablet or prop it up at an angle for use in laptop mode.

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Acer Aspire R7 review: first look

Friday, May 3rd, 2013

We’ve seen some wacky hybrids in recent months, but the recently launched Acer Aspire R7 has gone further out on a limb than most. Its hinge, dubbed the “Ezel”, resembles the central support strut of an all-in-one PC more than a laptop hinge, and it delivers a surprising amount of flexibility.

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Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra review: first look

Thursday, February 28th, 2013

The Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra might be a bit of a mouthful, but it’s one of the most surprising phones we’ve seen this week at MWC.

It’s set to arrive across Europe in April or May at a price of €359, and there’s one thing about it that stands out above all else: at 6.45mm from front to back, it’s comfortably the slimmest smartphone in the world – thinner than both the iPhone 5 and the Sony Xperia Z.

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HP Slate 7 review: first look

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

The HP Slate 7 and the recently released HP Envy x2 hybrid are HP’s attempts to put the TouchPad disaster behind it.

In contrast to the £800 Windows 8-based Envy x2, this is a 7in tablet aimed squarely at the low-end of the Android tablet market. When it’s released in the US later this year, it will cost $169, and a UK release will follow shortly after. We were told by an HP representative to expect a price of around £129, which is similar to the basic Amazon Kindle Fire.

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ZTE Grand Memo review: first look

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

This year at MWC in Barcelona, big phones and “phablets” have stolen all the headlines, and Chinese manufacturer ZTE is hoping to grab some of the limelight, too. Its Grand Memo is a rival to the Samsung Galaxy Note II and the Huawei Ascend Mate (announced at CES earlier this year), and in terms of size it sits right between the two, with a 5.7in screen diagonal.

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Nokia Lumia 520 review: first look

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

The Nokia Lumia 520 is one of two low-cost Windows Phone 8 smartphones Nokia unveiled at its MWC press conference, and it really is cheap.

It’s set to cost around £120, and yet when we took our turn with it on the Nokia stand after the news conference, we found little evidence of cost-cutting.

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Huawei Ascend W1 review: first look

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

We expected to see our fair share of high-end mobile hardware at MWC, but this year’s show has been notable for the rise of another type of smartphone: the low-cost Windows Phone 8 handset. First came Nokia with the Lumia 520 and Lumia 720, and it’s now Huawei’s turn with the Ascend W1.

First unveiled at CES earlier in the year, Huawei announced this morning that the Ascend W1  is set to arrive in the UK at same price as the Lumia 520. It will cost only £120 on pay-as-you-go and will be free on a £13.50 per month contract. Both deals are exclusive to O2, and the phone will be available from 7 March.

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Sony Xperia Tablet Z review: first look

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

After unveiling its flagship smartphone at CES earlier in the year, Sony is using MWC as the platform to promote a new Android tablet — the Sony Xperia Tablet Z — and it’s not only a name that this new product shares with its smartphone sibling.

We’ve just been down to the Sony stand here in Barcelona, and were struck by how similar the styling is between the two devices. Just like the phone, the Xperia Tablet Z is completely flat on the front and back, and just like the phone it’s very, very slim. At a mere 6.9mm, the Tablet Z makes the iPad 4 look positively porky. It’s even slimmer than an iPhone 5.

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