Category: Android Oreo

When the new lineup of Nokia phones were announced this week at Mobile World Congress, one of the key questions was which one of the devices would make it to the United States.  Initially, the answer was none of them.  HMD Global, the parent company of Nokia, indicated that while the US market was on their roadmap, it wasn’t in the plans for this year.

That now has seemed to change slightly.  CNet, who originally published an article stating no phones were coming to the US, has updated their post after clarifying it with Nokia.  Now it appears that at least the revamped Nokia 6 will be coming to the country in May.

Another flagship phone was announced today at Mobile World Congress and stop me if you have seen it before – because if you’ve seen an iPhone X, you’ve essentially seen the Asus ZenFone 5Z.

The latest flagship in a trio of phones announced today by Asus is as blatant a copy of the Apple flagship as you will find but that may not be all that bad.  THe ZenFone 5Z isn’t a cheap knock-off.  It is a flagship with flagship specs.  The 6.2″ FullHD IPS display renders at 1080 x 2246 pixels and is a 18.5:9 ratio.  That gives you a very comfortable ~402 ppi density.  It is powered by the Snapdragon 845 SoC which is coupled with the Adreno 630 GPU.  It has 4GB of RAM and comes standard with 64GB of storage which can be expanded thanks to the MicroSD slot.  Battery wise, you have a 3300mAh battery.

Today at Mobile World Congress, Sony announced the much anticipated Sony Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact.  The two new devices mark a significant departure in Sony’s previous phone designs with far smaller bezels and 18:9 ratio displays.

Internally, the two devices are virtually identical.  They are powered by the Snapdragon 845 SoC, have 4GB of RAM and have 64GB of storage built-in.  That storage can be expanded up to 400GB thanks to the MicroSD card slot.  Both have a 19MP f/2.0 rear camera that can shoot an incredible 960 fps slow motion video, and a 5MP f/2.2 selfie camera on the front.

While the attention on Nokia this weekend and this week will be their activities at Mobile World Congress, it doesn’t mean that things are standing still back home.  HMD Global’s Chief Product Officer Juho Sarvikas took to Twitter in the wee hours of the morning here in the US to let people know that the Android Oreo beta program for the Nokia 3 has now kicked off.

You can now get #AndroidOreo for #Nokia3 in #Nokiamobile #Betalabs. Please help us test and perfect for commercial release! Thank you 🙏

— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) February 26, 2018

It is great news and follows up on Nokia’s promise last year to bring Oreo to all of their current devices, including the budget friendly Nokia 3.

The Alcatel 1X has been announced at Mobile World Congress and represents the first phone in the new budget focused Android Go program.  The Go program phones are designed to be low cost with basic specs but with the benefit of using the Go lineup of apps and being updated regularly.  The 1X falls squarely in line with the goals.

Powered by the Mediatek MT6739, the Alcatel 1X has 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage which can be expanded up to an additional 32GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.  It has a 5.3″ 18:9 ratio display that renders at 480×960.  It has an 8MP main camera and a 5MP selfie cam.  All of this will be around $120 when it is released.

If there was ever a proof point that LG’s mobile division is in trouble or at the very least in disarray, look no further than the LG V30S ThinQ.  The company announced this enhanced version of the LG V30 at Mobile World Congress and I use enhanced very liberally.  Basically it is a V30 with 6GB of RAM (instead of 4GB) and has a base storage of 128GB (up from 64GB).  Throw in a little Artificial Intelligence for improved photos and Android Oreo and badabing!  You have a LG V30S.

Spec wise, the V30S is identical to the V30 so you aren’t going to get any improvements as far as the SoC is concerned.  It is still running the Snapdragon 835.  It has the same display, same chassis design… same everything.  You get the idea.