10 Best New Smartphones
Some amazing phones were unveiled at Mobile World Congress last month. Let's reveals the stars of the show.
Android
Sony Xperia P
What's so good about it?
Its stunningly bright screen uses Sony's WhiteMagic display technology, which employs four sub-pixels instead of three, adding a white pixel to the normal trio of red, green and blue. The phone has a light sensor that can work out how much color is needed to display a readable screen, which saves power in Indoor Mode. It runs Android 2.3, and there will be a 4.0 upgrade coming later this year.
Release date and price?
April. Reported price is £379.95.
Should I buy one?
Yes, if you want a screen that you can use properly in bright sunlight.
HTC One X
What's so good about it?
HTC boast that the One X can go from sleep mode to taking photos in 0.7 seconds, which is ideal if you need to take great photos in an instant. It's also one of the best-looking phones unveiled at Mobile World Congress (MWC), with people saying it "feels lovely and smooth in the hand". It's the first HTC handset to be powered by a quad core processor.
Release date and price?
April. Price should be around £470.
Should I buy one?
Yes, if you want an Android 4.0 phone that offers 25GB free Dropbox storage for two years.
LG Optimus 4X HD
What's so good about it?
Despite being powered by the mighty 1.5GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, it won't eat up your battery too rapidly because it uses 'Companion Core' technology that cuts power usage for smaller tasks. It’s very fast, has 1GB memory, 16GB internal storage and a 4.7-inch screen. It runs Android 4.0.
Release date and price?
June. Price yet to be announced; though it will be expensive (probably around £450)
Should I buy one?
Yes, if you want an advanced smartphone and can't wait for the Samsung Galaxy S3.
Huawei Ascend D Quad
What's so good about it?
Huawei says it's the world's fastest smartphone because it uses the company's K3V2 quad-core processor, claimed to be many times faster than Tegra 3 (which powers most of the advanced phones announced at MWC). It has 64-bit memory (no other phone has this yet), runs Android 4.0, and boasts an 8-megapixel camera and 1GB memory.
Release date and price?
Should be out before the summer. Price yet to be announced, but it won't be cheap.
Should I buy one?
Yes, if the most important thing for you in a phone is speed.
Samsung Galaxy Beam
This phone doubles up as a projector, 'beaming' videos, pictures and photos up to 50 inches in size to a wall at a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels. It doesn't quite turn your home into an Odeon cinema, but when PC Pro tested it at MWC, it gave it the thumbs up saying: "we were impressed by the clarity of the image projected on the screen, with little distortion in the corners and surprisingly decent colors". It runs Android 2.3.
Release date and price?
Reported to be in the summer, though Samsung wouldn't confirm. Price should be around £385.
Should I buy one?
Yes, if you love the Galaxy range of phones and want something a bit special.
ZTE Era
It has a very long battery life, thanks to its extra 'fifth battery saving core'. This means that there's an extra core in the phone sitting in the background handling less demanding tasks, which leaves the Tegra 3 quad-core processor battery to look after multimedia functions, such as streaming videos. It's a very slim phone (just 7.8mm), has 8GB storage and runs Android 4.0.
Release date and price?
You'll have to wait until the second half of 2012. No reports about the price yet, but probably around £350
Should I buy one?
Yes, if you want a powerful phone with a long battery life.
Orange Santa Clara
The first phone to be powered by Intel's Atom processor, it has a dedicated image processor that gives the 8-megapixel camera the power to take 10 images in under a second. Orange says that it'll be targeted at people buying their first smartphone, so it shouldn't be too expensive.
Release date and price?
Not sure yet. Very little information available. The name will probably change, too.
Should I buy one?
Yes, if you want your first smartphone to be speedy and reliable.
Asus Padfone
An ingenious concept with lots of benefits, this comes with a docking station and a keyboard dock that makes it work as a smartphone, laptop and tablet rolled into one. Plug the phone into the docking stat ion and the battery life is extended nine fold. It runs Android 4.0.
Release date and price?
It should arrive during the summer. Asus promises an "aggressive pricing policy", so that might mean around £350.
Should I buy one?
Yes, if you want to transform your phone into a tablet and a small laptop, creating an all-in-one, highly versatile device with a massive battery life.
Symbian
Nokia 808 Pureview
It has a jaw-droppingly powerful 41-megapixel camera, with a sensor five times bigger than that used by most phones - three times bigger even than those found on compact digital cameras. The drawback is that it runs Symbian, but the PureView technology that powers the camera is due to come to Windows Phones in the future, so you could just wait for those to arrive.
Release date and price?
Late April. It'll cost a whopping £464.98, according to reports.
Should I buy one?
Yes, if you want to take extremely detailed photos with your phone.
Windows Phones
Nokia Lumia 610
What's so good about it? It's very cheap and ideal for someone who wants a phone on a pay-as-you-go deal. It also runs the latest Windows Phone OS, version 7.5, but only has 256MB memory, so it's not a serious alternative to quad-core powered phones.
Release date and price?
It'll arrive during the summer, and cost about €189 (roughly £160).
Should I buy one?
Yes, if you want a good budget (but not powerful) alternative to Android.
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