LG G Flex Phone Review

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Key Features: 6-inch flexible plastic OLED display; Self-healing rear; 13-megapixel camera

Manufacturer: LG

The LG G Flex is a new 6-inch smartphone and the first to benefit from a curved plastic OLED display that is capable of bending under pressure. Built around the foundations of the flagship LG G2, this phablet-sized phone has a powerful quad-core processor and 13-megapixel camera, but it's the flexible body that's the real eye-catching feature.

It's the first flexible phone to enter mass production and although the LG G Flex is currently only available in Korea, it will be in the UK in early 2014. It's a damn exciting and genuinley interesting phone, so we were keen to see how this curved phone compared to more standard phones.

Editor's note: This isn't a full review but our first impressions based on initial time with the product. We will publish a full review when it's available on sale in the UK.

First things first, the LG G Flex has a very noticeable and pronounced curve to its design. With both the phone’s body and screen featuring a vertically concave bend, the G Flex’s curve is relatively deep with a 700mm radius. While this curve is hard to quantify, it means the phone now hugs the curve of your face while making a call, putting the microphone closer to your mouth.

This isn't the only benefit, however. The idea, on paper, is it makes the phone less liable to damage if sat on or squashed within a bag. During our hands-on with the LG G Flex we found that the G Flex is capable of withstanding considerable amounts of pressure; you can, for example, bend the phone into the shape of a standard, non-curved smartphone without any trouble.

The phone’s curved nature isn’t its only standout feature, however. Like the LG G2 before it, the LG G Flex’s physical buttons are all on the rear. They feel more natural than on the G2, too, which makes us wonder whether the G2's design had half an eye on the G Flex all along.

Despite the LG G Flex weighing in at a considerable 177g, it doesn't feel particularly cumbersome. The curved body gives it an ergonomic fit and the weight is evenly distributed. Although almost 50g heavier than the rival Samsung Galaxy Note 3, the G Flex is much lighter than the identical size Nokia Lumia 1520.

While having its undoubted benefits – the phone fits very comfortably in your pocket – the G Flex’s curved nature isn’t without its niggles. During early use we found that performing everyday smartphone tasks such as typing a message felt awkward and unnatural, though given we only used it for a short time we could put this down to unfamiliarity.

For all the talk of the curved screen, the G Flex has another potentially more practical feature: a self-headling body. LG has given the G Flex a 'self-healing rear' thanks to a specially modified resin coating over the standard plastic body. While we have seen video evidence of this self-healing back in action, during our limited hands-on time with the G Flex we were unable to test it first-hand. We will take keys and coins to the phone’s rear during our full LG G Flex review when it goes on sale in the UK.

At this stage, then, we're tentatively optimistic about the curved design. That said, it does come with one important compromise. While the LG G Flex's screen is pleasantly bright and vivid, it only has a 1,280 x 720 resolution where 1,920 x 1,080 has become the norm.

Although video content still appeared sufficiently detailed on first viewing, getting closer to the screen does reveal a slight amount of pixelisation. We can’t see this being an issue for many, but it's a shame LG can't match its closest rivals just yet.

On first impressions the LG G Flex camera looks like a solid but far from standout performer. With a 13-megapixel camera lining up on the phone’s rear, early test shots in less than ideal indoor lighting proved sharp and detailed with just a smidge of noise creeping in.

The camera app has the same plentiful number of options and modes as the G2, which is great for some but may prove overwhelming for novices. We'll need to spend more time with the G Flex to find out whether it performs the same as the G2 here, but it seems more than likely it will.

The front camera is 2.1-megapixels, but we didn't have time to try it out.

Like most phones these days, the LG G Flex feels more than capable of tackling basic tasks with complete ease. That's little surprise given it retains the 2.26GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and 2GB of RAM seen in the G2, a combination that should ensure it matches the fastest phones out there.

It's not running the latest version of Android, however. Instead it runs on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean OS with LG's UI overlay. It's not the worst Android skin by any means, but the LG UI can at times feel slightly convoluted and over engineered. We would hope to see some minor refinements moving forward.

Given the phone’s, large, curved shape, LG has produced something special for the battery: the world’s first curved battery. A 3,500mAh Lithium-Polymer offering, the LG G Flex battery should easily see users through a full day’s moderate usage. Further testing is needed to verify this, but that's one of the highest capacity batteries we've seen in any phone.

The curved screen of the LG G Flex is certainly more than just a gimmick, but it's bound to come at a premium (LG has yet to announce UK pricing). As with all new technologies, it might still be a bit raw to tempt many to jump in early, but LG should be applauded for the engineering and design innovation at work here. It's the kind of phone makes us excited about phones again.

Next, read 7 Reasons Why Curved Phones Will Be Awesome

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Nokia Android phone leaked yet Normandy

Controversial Android phone on Nokia appeared again in the form of a leaked print rendering.

December saw several pieces of information regarding the so-called emerging Nokia project Normandy-very unexpected effort to run an operating system Android based on a Nokia device.

Project Normandy, first appeared in a leaked image from a reliable informant ever @evleaks, which has been confirmed by several sources. Apparently, this was a Nokia Asha equivalent, or an entry-level smartphone aimed mainly to developing countries.

Normandy apparently uses a forked version of Android that, like the Amazon Kindle Fire range, would be unrecognizable from the OS. Still, with his heart Android project Normandy would be able to perform a much wider range of current range of apps 8 Windows Phone from Nokia.

Given the special relationship of Nokia with Microsoft and the fact that the latter is ready to buy the Finnish company in the new year, still wouldn't quite bring ourselves to accept the existence of such a device.

Sure enough, last week reports suggested that Nokia had scrapped the project in Northern France to develop wearable intelligent devices. This was apparently without the intervention of Microsoft, but you have to suspect that looming shadow of society had a role in the decision.

Balance was restored, he thought. But this latest image by @evleaks (again) offers the slightest hope that we'll see an Android device Nokia-built sometime in 2014.

Well, probably not if we're honest. But grant us one last wistful look (probably) what could have been if Nokia had taken a different path several years ago.

Read more: tricks and Windows Phone 8

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Nokia Android phone codenamed Normandy, 2014 expiration

New information emerged surrounding heavily said that Android smartphone on Nokia, suggesting manufacturing is steaming ahead.

According to multiple sources "familiar with the company's plans," Android phone on Nokia is codenamed Normandy, but is known internally under several different monikers.

The Android phone will be the next step in the line of low-end smartphone by Nokia with access to a wider range of applications.

Similar to Amazon Kindle Fire OS, Nokia apparently develop own special "forked" version of Android not directly aligned with the Google operating system.

An image of the Nokia phone Android has been released from the notorious tech @evleaks informant in December, showing a device style Lumia without capacitive navigation buttons.

RIM's sources say that Nokia Normandy is a Android Asha equivalent with access to more traditional applications that are not available on Windows Phone. This is something that the company has struggled with Asha's line and already supports applications such as Skype.

Nokia employees are been said Normandy will be released next year, with one insider said that the production is "full steam ahead".

The sale of Nokia to Microsoft is currently underway and it would seem odd for Microsoft enable Nokia to use Android for low-end phones on your Windows Phone OS.

Nokia can only get away with a release of Android if it can exit the device prior to the completion of the acquisition by Microsoft.

Microsoft may well stress of Normandy junkheaps If Nokia is too late to release it.

Currently we have no information about any specific to the phone of Normandy, but don't expect to be rivaling any flagship phones.

Read more: tricks and Windows Phone 8

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Review of 5S phone iPhone

Touch ID perfectlyExcellent performanceGreat cameraVery works in the round light and comfortable in a life of handBattery better4 inch screen may be too small for the cost of storing someExtra

This is an update to the original review based on observations made from using the phones day in day out for several months. To read the full iPhone 5S review click here.

Cut straight to the point the 5S of the iPhone is one of the best phones to be launched last year. Smooth and fast, the 5S iPhone has a smart aluminium frame that surrounds a great 4-inch screen. Is a premium and solid, yet amazingly light, design.

I really enjoy keeping it for long periods of time and I'm back to reading books on my phone, something I haven't done since using my iPhone diddy-4 screening two years ago. Have a decent case helps matters and while I was initially dubious about the Apple's skin one I have grown accustomed to it. Tends rapidly to patina-something I like as I have a bit of a vintage leather fetish, but it won't be to all tastes.

Watch the video review of the iPhone 5S

What surprised me most about the 5S of the iPhone is that I lost not one iota from 5-inch phones. It was actually a bit relieved resignation in screen size how to switch a fair treatment and often use telephones with a single hand. If I want a larger screen and have the space to use it, popping out a tablet.

There's not much point talking about none other than 5S iPhone performance here to say that it is very, very fast and extremely reliable. I have not experienced problems with apps, the app pages, which has since been corrected misbehaving. Apple's IOS definitely has its limitations, but the fact that just continues to work well is a godsend for those who are too busy to learn every little mania of their mobile phone. I have experienced the effects of slowdown that tend to occur on androids after lots of applications and updates is installed-the iPhone 5S is rock solid.

iOS 7 is a wonderfully simple operating system and as a nice complained to the new design I was delighted with it, as well as the added touch. While the notification ' today ' is not something that I got, the multitasking and the control center are great and the lack of them was one of the reasons I chose Android over iOS in the past. The control center is still missing a quick access button in settings which is especially annoying when you want to switch to Wi-Fi networks. Is the app available on the app store which has close to me, though. As a mobile gamer the depth and breadth of titles is fantastic – Limbo, for example is a great little game that you can't get anywhere else.

Cameras have become so important on mobile phones that now there are some, such as Nokia and Samsung Galaxy 1020 Lumia Zoom, which are more camera phone. I discovered that the iPhone camera to 5S being very solid, but not as great as some others. It is perfectly suitable for break and reacts quickly, which is what I want from a camera phone, but there are more detailed can muster my 13 megapixel camera S4 Galaxy.  The reverse of the 5S camera works well in low-light conditions. Multi tonal flash provides some much softer and more realistically lit shots in pubs and restaurants than the white light lasting longer LED or xenon flash. The slo-mo video of 120 FPS is also great. Wasn't that fussed when I used it before, but it makes the video seem more polished and special. Fantastic shots lenses of my nephews and nieces by jumping on a trampoline made me appear in a new light. The front camera also works well for video-chat as long as there is decent ambient light.

The 5S iPhone lacks a microSD card slot for memory expansion, but you can get versions of 16/32/64 GB. The catch is the extra storage is expensive – too expensive – any increase in costs and extra £ 80 on £549 base price. It all depends on your storage needs, but not to carry a load of movies or music with you 16 GB (13.6 GB usable) should be enough, but for many the 32 GB model will be great and I haven't managed to fill even 32 GB.

One of the most talked about features the 5S iPhone, and my favorite, is Touch ID. This is one fingerprint scanner located in the home key of the phone that allows you to unlock it without requiring a PIN or password. Works brilliantly and I find it irritating to use any phone with a PIN or gesture lock now. Can be a luxury, but I doubt that this feature, or one very similar, it will be in every phone will have in a few years. It just makes using the phone on the move much easier.

After a few weeks of use I had a bit of an issue with the call quality – essentially my voice appeared far to the person at the other end. The problem solved itself after a short period but it was irritating while it lasted. It wasn't even isolated, a fast hunt on the internet showed that some users had the same problem. As it is no longer a problem we can assume that you have applied a software fix.

In terms of resistance the 5S iPhone is good but not exceptional. If I use it sparingly I can get two days of use without a charge, but when I play games for a couple of hours I need to recharge it at night. The drums, the good thing is that it loads very fast and predictable – the 5S ever suddenly drops a massive percentage of life while it sat in my pocket, something in the past I have had a problem with other phones.

On a day to day basis that the 5S iPhone is all I want to do and things I do more, better than any other phone I've used. It is deceptive and except the lack of widgets and customizations there are a lot of jumps by using larger phones. If, as expected, Apple to the iPhone screen size 6 I'll be curious to see if I'll enjoy the experience quite as much.

If you want to find more detailed information on every aspect of 5S iPhone then continue to the next page to read the full review.

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Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 Phone Review

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Supports 4GMicroSD card supportClean user interfaceSlightly sluggish performanceAverage cameraDated designThe Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 is a 4-inch mid-range Android smartphone that all of a sudden feels very insignificant next to the Motorola Moto G. Priced at £200 SIM-free, the Ace 3 is more expensive than the Moto G and has a less impressive specs list with exception of its 4G support, one of the few missing features on the Moto G. If you want a 4G phone but don't want to spend big, the Ace 3 is an affordable option. That aside, there's very few reasons to spend more to get a lot less.

Watch our Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 video review:

SEE ALSO: 10 best Android phones you can buy

The Ace 3 apes the design of the Samsung Galaxy S4, S4 Mini and so many other handsets in the Galaxy family with a familiar white glossy plastic body, silver metal band and thin bezel down the sides of the display is in place once again.

The home button is flanked by capacitive buttons below the screen with the chrome speaker up top alongside the microphone and sensors. You can whip the plastic back off by squeezing a fingernail in the groove alongside the headphone jack, where you’ll find room for the removable battery, Micro SIM and Micro SD card slot. Around the back you’ll find the small speaker, main camera and LED flash.

The Ace 3 weighs 120g so it’s lighter than the Moto G (143g), but heavier than the Galaxy S4 Mini (107g). At 9mm thick, it’s slimmer than the Moto handset and matches the S4 Mini in the slenderness department. Despite the slippery feel of the removable plastic back cover, the Ace 3 is comfortable to hold in one hand and slips easily into a jeans pocket. 

The cheap, plastic body feels a little more acceptable for a phone at this price but there’s definitely a feeling that the Samsung Galaxy phone look is in desperate need of a refresh and even handsets like the HTC Desire 500 prove you can make a good-looking cheap phone.

SEE ALSO: 10 best mobile phones of 2013

The Ace 3 has a 480 x 800 resolution screen squeezing in 233 pixels per inch (ppi), which is the same as the similarly priced HTC Desire 500. But both are eclipsed by Moto G hand its 1,280 x 720 pixel resolution, and it definitely falls short of the impressive image sharpness and clarity levels the Moto G offers.

Icons and text look particularly fuzzy around the edges, but it is a vibrant screen and viewing angles are good. Typically, this is another Samsung Galaxy phone that offers great colours and contrast making it a good place to watch movies. Maximum screen brightness would make it easier to use outdoors if the display wasn't so reflective. 

We expected better from the screen in terms of responsiveness. It’s fine when you are swiping through homescreens and trying to launch apps, but a simple copy and paste is often a frustrating task. Ultimately, this is a screen that's not going to blow you away.

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Motorola Moto G Phone Review

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The Motorola Moto G is an important phone, for Motorola at least. It’s the first new Motorola phone to be released in the UK in ages, and the first we’ve seen since Google bought Motorola back in 2012. It’s also superb. Thanks to its 720p screen and solid Snapdragon 400 processor, it offers far better specs than any other big-name a phone selling for under £150. If you want a sub-£150 phone, get this one. It's that simple.

ROUNDUP: 10 best cheap phones you can buy

The Moto G is a plastic phone, with a curved back that cares more about feeling good in the hand than being terribly thin or light. At 143g and 11.6mm thick, it’s significantly thicker and heavier than most phones with similar specs. However, for the average buyer this won’t be much of a sacrifice.

The back is smooth and comfy, and as the 4.5-inch screen is smaller than many high-spec Androids (if quite large at the pice), the Motorola Moto G is easy to use one-handed. It might lack the recognisable design of the Razr-series phones, but it offers a level of customisation thanks to an array of available body shells.

Thought removable phone fascias were dead? The Motorola Moto G is trying to bring them back. 19 different backs are available for the phone, coming in all sorts of different colours, and three main types.

There’s the normal one, bundled as standard, flip-style cases like those you can get for the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and a back that gives a bit more protection, with chunkier sides and a slight protrusion of around a millimetre in front of the screen. This ensures the glass front of the screen doesn't take the brunt of any drop impact. 

The idea is that the Moto G is not a phone you need a separate case for. We used the phone with the standard black plastic back, and there’s thankfully no hint that the back is meant to be switched.

There’s an inoffensive ordinariness to the Moto G that we think is the right move to make at this price. It’s what rivals like the Samsung Galaxy Ace phones go for, too. There's just one issue: the black case is a magnet for greasy finger marks.

One of the most notable things about the design is something that has no function at all. The Motorola logo sits on the back of the phone sits in a concave indent that just wills you to stroke the thing’s back as if it’s a miaow’ing pet. Completely pointless as it may be, but like the Moto G’s alternative to a comfort blanket it’s an oddly reassuring presence.

ROUNDUP: 10 best Android phones you can buy

Although the Moto G doesn’t quite have the aesthetic purity of the Nexus 5, with both matt and gloss finishes on show and non-colour-matched buttons, it still looks more expensive than it is. This looks like a £250 phone, not a £130 one.

Motorola has employed a water-resistant ‘nano’ layer inside the phone, designed to protect it from light splashes. The design also keeps any power connections away from water, by sealing in the battery. It’s non-removable, which some of you may not like, but finishing touches like mild water resistance are the last things we expect at this price.

There are features missing you’ll often find in more expensive phones, though.  There’s no microSD memory card slot (Motorola says this is not a price issue, though), no NFC, no 4G and no integrated support for wireless screen mirroring.

These are the sacrifices the Moto G has had to make in order to offer such a high-spec screen at such a low price. But they're the right ones. They're features that are relatively little-used by the vast majority of people.

With the entry-level £135 model you get 8GB of internal memory, around 5GB of which is accessible, and there’s a 16GB version that costs £160. While some may complain about not having expandable memory, we’re nevertheless impressed by what Motorola has managed to cram in. Some phones at the price only offer 4GB of internal memory.

The Motorola Moto G is a phone that proves how cheaply a high-quality phone can be made with a bit of aggressiveness and the right decisions. It stands out among its peers as the new 'phone to beat'.

ROUNDUP: 10 best phones you can buy

The Motorola Moto G’s most impressive feature is its screen. This is the first time we’ve seen a 720p screen on a phone that costs less than £140.

This gives the phone the sort of ultra-sharp text and images that we’ve only seen in much more expensive phones to date. 720p resolution stretched across a 4.5-inch display gives a pixel density rating of 329 pixels per inch (ppi). Higher-end Androids may offer 1080p screens these days, but that’s still higher than the ppi rating of the iPhone 5S (326ppi).

Such a sharp screen makes small text easily readable in the browser. It makes 3D games look a lot less ‘jaggy’ than they would on most rivals, too, which tend to have 800 x 480 pixel screens at this price.

Resolution is not everything, but general image quality is good too. The Motorola Moto G uses an IPS display, the same type used in both the HTC One and iPhone 5S, and it's a good one.

Performance is stellar for the price. Colours are well-saturated and vivid, contrast is strong and the evenness of the backlight is on-par with phones costing several times the price. It doesn’t look quite as natural as a top £500 phone’s screen, especially at top brightness, but this is undoubtedly the best phone screen we’ve seen at the price from a major manufacturer.

What’s also seriously impressive is that Motorola has used Gorilla Glass 3 as the screen covering. This toughened glass layer means the phone is less prone to flexing under pressure and scratching than most low-cost phones. Gorilla Glass is not unheard of in the sub-£200 market, though – the LG L7 II and Huawei Ascend G510 have it, although others tend to use ‘unbranded’ toughened glass.

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HTC Desire 500 Phone Review

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Nice, classy designBright and clear screenDecent general performanceCamera slightly inconsistentBattery life a little weakMediocre built-in speaker The HTC Desire 500 is HTC's new mid-range phone, available for around £200 SIM-free, £180 on pre-pay and from £17 or so a month on contract. It has a 4-inch screen, a decent overall spec and a design that far exceeds what we're used to at this price.

On paper it's a very promising phone, though like most mid-range phones it now has the formidable Nexus 5 to contend with, which - although £100 more - is a tempting alternative given it's only £3 a month more on contract. Can the HTC compete?

Watch our HTC Desire 500 video review:

SEE ALSO: 10 best cheap phones you can buy

We like the look of the HTC Desire 500. It comes in three flavours: all black, white with red trim and white with blue trim. Ours is the white and red variant, but each has its charm and the build quality and feel of the phone in the hand are very reassuring. It's plastic, but it feels sturdier and pricier than the Samsung Galaxy S4, though we're not sure if this reflects well on the HTC or badly on the Samsung. Probably the latter.

In any case, it's a classy, svelte and light phone (just 123g) with no annoying protrusions or sharp corners. The only physical buttons are the power/hold button at the top and volume controls on the right. If we have a criticism of the Desire 500's design it's that the volume buttons are hard to locate by feel alone, but it's not a serious problem and we rather like the way they're integrated into the coloured trim, visually.

The only visible connection is the standard miniUSB charging port, but prise off the back and you'll find a microSD card slot. It's a necessity given there's only 4GB onboard, of which just over 3GB is already accounted for before you install any apps.

Wireless connectivity is well catered for thanks to Wi-Fi (802.11n), GPS/AGPS, Bluetooth 4.0, the latter being an impressive addition at this price. There's no space for NFC, but that's hardly a dire omission. That it runs Android 4.1.2 means the Desire 500 is a little behind the times, though this shouldn't put off the average buyer.

SEE ALSO: 10 best Android phones you can buy

Neither should the screen, which is a decent effort. Its 800 x 480 resolution falls short of the pixel squeezing feats of the Samsung Galaxy S4 (440 ppi) or Nexus 5 (445 ppi), but the smaller 4.3-inch frame ensures a reasonable 217 pixels per inch (ppi). You'll see a little fuzziness around text when viewed close-up, but held at a reasonable distance the HTC Desire 500's screen looks good enough.

This is helped by the exceptional brightness and contrast for a phone at this price. The brightness is a particular highlight, no doubt due to the use of an LCD screen as opposed to the AMOLED type seen on some high-end phones. This peak brightness really helps when outdoors, where the Desire 500's screen is easier to use than many cheap phones.

Colour and contrast, meanwhile, don't reach the heights of an AMOLED screen, but are very good for a phone at this price. You'll have no complaints when viewing photos or watching videos.

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LG L1 II Phone Review

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The LG L1 II is an entry-level smartphone and the smaller sibling to the LG L3. It’s a true budget phone that costs £50 SIM-free or £11 a month on contract, has a small 3-inch screen and a basic 1GHz processor. It’s most direct rival is Vodafone Smart Mini. Is the L1 II a bargain or simply just basic? Read on to find out.

SEE ALSO: 5 best cheap smartphones you can buy

The LG L1 II isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing of smartphones, but in the entry-level scene it is one of the most robust. The phone's plastic build, although squat and boxy in design, feels surprisingly solid and sturdy in the hand. The L1 II suffers from no undue bend or creaking when placed under excessive amounts of pressure. In fact it feels considerably more convincing in its design than the high-end flagship likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4 or LG G2. What's more, the dimpled, textured design of the plastic body gives the phone a bit of added grip.

This solid build comes at a cost, however, as at 12.2mm thick and 105g in weight, the LG L1 II feels chunky for such a small phone. Actually, the LG L1 II’s design is best described as dense. This additional bulk isn’t all bad, though. Given the phone’s compact size, the increased weight makes it feel reassuring.

Our only serious gripe is that the L1 II’s volume controls fall in the way of your fingers whether holding the phone in your left or right hand. While this is something that is hard to avoid given the phone’s compact nature, it can make the L1 feel a little clumsy. Fortunately, there is enough resistance in the buttons to avoid most accidental presses.

As you would expect on a sub-£50 smartphone, the LG L1 II’s screen quality leaves a lot to be desired. It’s not just poor when compared with more expensive phones, however; the L1 II’s screen is below average compared to many cheap phones, too.

The 3-inch panel features a meagre 240 x 320 pixel resolution and a lowly 133 pixels per inch image. At the same sub-£50 price point, the 3.5-inch Vodafone Mini offers a 320 x 480 pixel resolution display. This might sound like a small difference, but the reality is more noticeable

The LG L1 II's screen quality is frankly dire. Colours are diluted and text is so fuzzy that it’s a considerable strain on the eyes.  Viewing angles are terrible, too – anything off a direct line of sight leaves things appearing even darker and more blurred than before, as if peering through through an muddy puddle.

In its favour, the LG L1 II’s screen is highly responsive. It responds well to all single or multi finger commands in a prompt and seamless fashion. This is good, but it’s small comfort compared to the woeful visual quality.

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Android 4.4 KitKat Phone Review

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Android 4.4 is the latest version of Google's mobile operating system. The first phone it features in is the Google Nexus 5, and we've been using that mobile to find out what's new in Android 4.4, known as KitKat.

SEE ALSO: Google Nexus 5 review

New features win most of the spotlight in any Android update, but one of the most important changes in Android 4.4 KitKat is its new approach to interface design.

The software doesn't look radically different, but there are some quite fundamental, important alterations. The line that used to separate the shortcut icon dock from the rest of the home screen has disappeared, and so have the apps/widgets tabs in the apps menu.

It may sound trivial, but makes Android 4.4 much simpler, visually, than Android 4.3. And this change has clearly been made following some careful thought about how people actually use the system.

SEE ALSO: iOS 7 review

The blunt truth – people don't change widgets much. You generally find a clock you like, and perhaps one or two more utility widgets if you're a bit of a techy fan, and you're done. By filing the widgets menu away, out of plain sight, Google has made the system look a lot more rudimentary, in a good way.

Adding widgets is still easy, though. Hold a finger down on an empty part of a home screen and a wallpaper/widgets menu pops up. We're not yet sure if the widgets tab will remain in the Android 4.4 tablets, though.

You'll also notice that app icons have been given a refresh. They're now a bit curvier, a little bit more cartoony.

SEE ALSO: Nexus 5 vs Nexus 4: what's the difference?

 

Android 4.4 KitKat's friendlier look should make it easier for technophobes to get on with. And its pared-back style is marginally better to use all-round. However, anyone who's used Android recently will feel at home. Basic navigation hasn't changed – it has just been given a bit of an intelligent spring clean.

The notifications bar is very simple compared with that of most custom Android user interfaces, though. There are no feature toggles and no brightness slider on the top level – features we find pretty useful. Instead, getting to these things takes a couple of taps.

Like iOS, Android is also continually merging with its desktop relatives a bit.

There's deep integration with Drive – Google's cloud storage service – and SMS text messaging has been folded into Google Hangouts, the online chat side of the Google Plus social network.

It's a pretty aggressive move that wants to nudge things like Whatsapp out of the picture, but it is terribly easy to use and dead handy if you already have a pretty Google-centric digital life (i.e. you use Gmail).

However, Google has hedged its bets on this one. In the Settings menu there's a separate entry that lets you specify the SMS app you want to use.

As standard, there's only Hangouts in this menu, but you can download others from Google Play. Handcent SMS is a popular one.    

It's not just chat clients that Android 4.4 is trying to squish, either. The pre-installed Google Keep app also wants to take down Evernote.

It lets you make coloured virtual post-its, complete with pictures and audio clips.

It's easy to use, and also lets you create reminders for future events or tasks as well as basic notes. Keep was introduced in March 2013, but it only got more advanced features in August 2013.

For example, you can now set location-based reminders – it'll give you a buzz with the reminder once your phone's GPS realises you're in the right spot.

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Sony Xperia M Phone Review

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Stylish designGood battery lifeDecent speaker qualityJust 2GB of onboard storageAverage camerasDisappointing screen qualityWorking its way through the alphabet, the Sony Xperia M is a 4-inch screen Android smartphone that’s certainly no Xperia Z1 or Japan-bound Xperia Z1f. You don't get the 20.7-megapixel camera or HD screen of those phones, but for £180 what you do get are some pretty decent specs.

The Xperia M also manages to adopt some of the sleek design traits from its more expensive Xperia compatriots to make it a great cheap Android phone.

It's no real surprise that the glass front and back panels on the high end Xperia phones have been swapped for a matte plastic body in the Xperia M. It's closer in look and size to the Xperia L. But the arched back is more subtle on the M it doesn't have the bottom edge jutting out like the Xperia L, used in that phone to accommodate the notification light bar.

If you are planning to take this for a swim or in the bath, you will be sadly disappointed to find out that it's not waterproof like the Z and Z1.

Available in black, white, purple and yellow, the Sony Xperia M incorporates Sony's OmniBalance design giving it an evenly weighted feel in the hand whether you are holding it in portrait or landscape. The bezel is thicker above and below the display and slimmer at the edges to give it a movie-friendly 16:9 screen ratio. 

With its 4-inch display and 124mm height, it feels very similar to the iPhone 5S in the hand. At 9.3mm thick it’s not as slender as Apple's smartphone, but at 115g weighs just 3g more.

On the Xperia X's edge is an aluminium on/off button and standard volume rocker,  next to a dedicated camera button. The microUSB charging port is over on the opposite side of the handset and the good news is the back is removable (from the bottom of the handset) hiding away the battery, micro SIM and microSD card slot.The customisable notification light bar at the bottom of the phone is still present but it's been merged closer into the body to keep things nice and trim.

It’s got a nicer more comfortable feel in the hand compared to the Xperia L and while it lacks some of the more premium design qualities of the Xperia Z and Z1 it’s still a well-built, good looking smartphone. 

With a 4-inch TFT 854x480 screen resolution the Xperia M sits around the two year-old Samsung Galaxy S2 in terms of quality. There's no Trilluminos or X-Reality Bravia engine to give you TV-quality picture and it struggles to deliver the same, vibrant colours as Samsung’s AMOLED display. The 245 ppi pixel density means it's never going to give you Retina-like clarity, but for reading web pages, text is nice and clear. For brightness and colour range, it performs pretty well for a low-end Android phone even if it lacks the sharpness to make it a really great screen.

As can be the case with TFT displays, the Xperia M struggles for visibility when you are outdoors and in bright sunlight. The viewing angles also really suffer resulting in colours looking extremely washed out. 

Similarly priced phones like the Nokia Lumia 520 and the bigger Nokia Lumia 625 are also let down in the screen department. The screen is one of the Xperia M's weakest attributes but for general browsing, watching the odd movie and gaming, it will do the job just fine.

While the Xperia M largely can disappoint on the viewing front, we can have no real complaints about the screen responsiveness. The 4-point multi-touch display reacts well to swiping through homescreens, opening apps and scrolling through settings.

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Nokia Lumia 1320 Phone Review

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Key Features: 6-inch 720p HD display; 5-megapixel camera; 1.7GHz dual-core processor

Manufacturer: Nokia

The 6-inch Nokia Lumia 1320 is the mid-range sibling of the Nokia Lumia 1520, and a rival to the HTC One Max. It forgoes headline-grabbing specs in favour of a more affordable price. The Lumia 1320 will cost less than half its big brother, but has a more moderate dual-core CPU and a 720p display, rather than a 1080p one.

We went hands-on with the device to see if the Nokia Lumia 1320 is more bargain or disappointment. Read on to find out which it is.

The Nokia Lumia 1320’s design fits in with the phone’s lower price and reduced specs. That’s not to say it looks bad, though. On the contrary, the phone remains pretty streamlined and sleek, with the two piece body available in a range of colours.

At just 9.8mm thick and 220g in weight, the Nokia Lumia 1320 is not hugely chunky or heavy considering its size. The phone’s rounded edges and plastic body sit comfortably in the hand, although the cheaper materials do feel a little less grippy.

However, the Nokia Lumia 1320 design has a distinctly budget air to it. The phone looks like an oversized Nokia Lumia 620, with round corners giving it a softer, more casual appearance than most high-end Lumias. The phone comes in bright orange, yellow, white and black colours.

Although missing out on the 1080p Full HD display of its big brother the Lumia 1520, the Nokia Lumia 1320’s screen is still reasonably impressive. Yes, in a phone of this size a Full HD panel is preferable, but the 6-inch 720p HD display is still fairly sharp.

Video looks worse than it does on the Lumia 1520, but when scrolling through the Windows Phone menus, the 1320’s screen appears sharp and detailed enough. With a Gorilla Glass 3 top coating, the screen is tough as well as visually appealing.  The relatively low 245 pixels-per-inch image density is noticeable elsewhere, though.

A 1,280 x 720 pixel resolution is nothing to be sniffed at, but it does leave the Lumia 1320 at a major disadvantage when compared with the likes of the similarly-sized HTC One Max or Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Nokia’s ClearBlack display technology has helped enhance the colours of the IPS panel, with bright, vibrant, rich hues sitting alongside deep blacks.

In a similar vein to the phone’s screen, the Nokia Lumia 1320’s performance is reduced, but not completely diminished by, the move back to a dual-core CPU. The Windows Phone platform has to date managed comfortably without quad-core processors, but the quad-core Lumia 1520 changed that.

The Lumia 1320 has a 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor and 1GB of RAM. As we have come to expect from many Lumia phones, this combination is perfectly satisfying without ever setting the world alight.

Launching and running applications left us with no concerns about power shortage, with the dual-core CPU skipping through all tasks with easy. During our brief time with the phone, though, the Nokia Lumia 1320’s performance was marred by one major glitch that crashed the phone.

However, due to the pre-production nature of the test model we do not want to tar the phone’s reputation just yet - further testing will be required. Our full Nokia Lumia 1320 review will be available soon.

Despite the less power hungry components, the Nokia Lumia 1320’s battery is the same size as the 1520’s. The huge 3400mAh Lithium-Ion brick is said to offer 21 hour talk time, so should more than ample see you through a day or two’s use.

Another area where Nokia has cut corners is the phone’s internal storage. There’s just 8GB on board, but this can be expanded via microSD up to 64GB.

A noticeable step back from the 1520, the Nokia Lumia 1320’s camera is a bit of a disappointment. It’s one of the phone’s main drawbacks. Dropping from a 20-megapixel PureView offering to a standard 5-megapixel snapper, the difference is extremely noticeable.

During our hands-on in both an artificially lit demo room and areas of bright, direct sunlight, the small sensor struggled, often producing slightly grainy, noisy shots. What’s more, the shutter felt a little on the slow side and the integrated LED flash was unremarkable. The front camera has a bargain bin VGA sensor.

Having been offered so much by other Lumia branded phone cameras, the Lumia 1320’s camera now feels restrictive and a bit of a let-down. It takes the otherwise pleasing phone back one very considerable step and could be a major stumbling point for some wannabe owners. But then not everyone cares about a phone’s camera.

Nokia’s double-pronged attack on the 6-inch smartphone market is a bold, and slightly confused move. While the Nokia Lumia 1520 dazzles, the cheaper Lumia 1320 is solid without setting the world alight. The cheaper price point will appease too many, but the lower resolution screen and considerably worse camera will always grate with owners.

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Google Nexus 5 Phone Review

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Excellent valueGreat performanceDecent low-light camera performanceExcellent screenNon-expandable memoryCamera tends to overexposeMediocre battery lifeThe Google Nexus 5 is the one new Google-branded phone for 2013. It takes over from the Google Nexus 4. And like that phone, it guns for its big-name Android rivals with a super-aggressive price. Offerring excellent performance, a smart design and great value, the Nexus 5 is undoubtedly one of the best phones of the year. Read on to find out why.

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Best Mobile Phones

The Google Nexus 5 is made by LG. You probably wouldn't know it unless you spot the little LG logo on the back, though. It has none of the quirky design elements of the LG G2.

This is a deeply pragmatic phone in many respects, in that Google was clearly out to make a mobile that looks and feels great, without any of the flashy, budget-busting bits of a £600 phone like the iPhone 5S. The Google Nexus 5 is arguably much more conservative, design-wise, than the Nexus 4 it replaces.

The Nexus 5 is made of soft touch matt black plastic. It doesn't sound as impressive as the aluminium of the HTC One, but the response from the TrustedReviews team was unanimous – it feels great.

Its back is lightly curved, adding to the hand-friendliness of the silky smooth finish. The Nexus 5 looks good, too. Every part of the phone bar the LED flash is black (a white version is also available), and the lack of any recognisable flashy extras beyond the oversized camera lens housing make it quite a 'pure' design.

It comes across as a much more confident phone than the Nexus 4, with its 'jazz hands' spangly finish and glass rear.

SEE ALSO: 10 Best Android Phones

The one issue of such a simple-looking phone is that front-on, it's not that easy to casually tell which way around it is. All navigation keys are part of the screen, so the only indicators are the deeply low-key earpiece speaker and front camera. It's a bit of a phone ninja.

The lack of any flashiness is clear in its construction, too. Although the Nexus 5 does not have a removable back – there's no battery access and no hidden memory card slot – this is not a unibody phone. The back plate and the plastic sides of the phone are two different bits, and there's a clear seam between them.

We imagine this makes the phone easier to construct, and easier to fix. But to pedantic eyes, it's something that shows this phone hasn't been constructed on a limitless budget.

SEE ALSO: 10 Best Cheap Mobile Phones

However, handling-wise it's one the nicest phones in its class – beaten only by the slightly smaller HTC One. LG has put a lot of effort into making the Nexus 5 as narrow as possible, making it less of a handful, and it's slim too.

The Nexus 5 is 69mm wide and 8.6mm thick. That's 0.5mm narrower, and 0.7mm thicker than, the Samsung Galaxy S4. Being a budget-conscious phone hasn't resulted in a remotely chunky body, and in-use it leaves the impression of being almost 'all screen' thanks to its super-slim screen bezel. LG has done a fantastic job as manufacturing partner here.

SEE ALSO: iPhone 6 release date, news, rumours, specs and price round-up

Like any 5-inch phone, though, reaching from one end of the screen to the other with a thumb is a bit of a stretch. If you have small hands, we recommend getting your hands on a phone this large before buying any mobile this size.

In common with many phones with non-removable rear panels, the Google Nexus 5 uses a pop-out SIM tray. It takes microSIM cards – now the most commonly used type in high-end phones.

One other hardware feature worth a nod is the well-executed notification LED. It's a multi-colour LED whose light is diffracted slightly to give it a 'glow' effect, and it sits dead centre below the screen. Its low-key style fits in perfectly with the phone's self-assured low-key design. Like so many elements of this phone, it's simple, and it's good.

This isn't a phone that panders to all the demands of the hardcore tech geek brigade, though. There's no dedicated video output (extremely rare these days) and no way to expand upon the 16GB or 32GB of internal memory. We don't think these are significant downsides unless you're looking for a video jukebox phone, though.

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HTC One Max Phone Review

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Great screen for video and gamingSolid cameraDecent speakersAwkward to useFingerprint scanner not reliable enoughNot as good-looking as HTC OneThe HTC One Max is the bigger brother of the HTC One. It has a 5.9-inch screen – way larger than the 4.7-inch display of the that phone. However, it’s also one of the smaller ‘giant’ phones, making it a bit easier to use. Still, the HTC One Max has diluted the design purity of the HTC One a bit too much for it to be considered a smartphone classic.

SEE ALSO: Top 10 best smartphones

The HTC One Max is a large phone designed to look and feel as much like the HTC One and HTC One Mini as possible. However, it has added a few bits and bobs to ‘enrich’ the design.

There’s a square fingerprint scanner on the back below the camera lens, there are little metal contacts on the rear to connect a charging dock to and a switch on the side that releases the back panel.
Unlike the HTC One and One Mini, the back of the One Max pops off to give you access to the SIM slot and – the surprise new addition – a microSD memory card slot. Functionally, the HTC One Max is a more versatile device than the original One. But is this an improvement to, or a dilution of, the original blueprint?

The case for the One Max being an unfortunate dilution is pretty strong. First of all, where the HTC One is a metal phone with some plastic trim, the Max is a plastic phone with metal panels. It has a look similar to that of its brother, but construction-wise they’re quite different.

Does it matter? Not a great deal. The HTC One Max still feels like an aluminium phone thanks to its mostly metal finish, and that the rear metal panel is strong enough to avoid any flexing.

What’s more of an issue is how HTC has traded away some of the HTC One’s good looks. We can forgive the stick-out white plastic rim – which also features in the One Mini, but the obvious and clumsy-looking fingerprint scanner feels as though it has been grafted on by a particularly skilled bunch of phone hackers, not one of the largest phone-makers.

Some of the striking nature of the HTC One-series design is lost here.

However, it’s far from all bad. The HTC One Max feels high-end, and is nowhere near as visually imposing size-wise as some phones in this class.

This phone belongs to the relatively young band of super-large phones that aren’t much smaller than tablets and that won’t fit into every pocket. The good news is that, unlike the gargantuan Xperia Z Ultra, it still feels like a phone.

In adopting a slightly smaller-than-average (again, for its class) 5.9-inch screen, the HTC One Max feels much closer to something like the 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 3 than the 92.2mm-wide Sony Xperia Z Ultra. It’s still tricky to use in one hand - not helped by the chunky 10.3mm thickness - but it’ll earn you less ridicule from friends and fewer alarmed looks from strangers.

HTC has also made sure the most commonly used physical buttons are relatively easy to access. The soft keys are all (just about) within thumb’s reach, and the power button sits right under your right thumb.

The HTC One Max has the same BoomSound speakers as the HTC One, making it instantly identifiable as an HTC phone. These are stereo front-facing speakers designed to give a much better gaming and movie experience than most mobiles. They come up with the good too, but more on that later (see p4).

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Archos 50 Platinum Phone Review

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Relatively zippyPleasing audio outputDecent build qualityDisappointing screen qualityLimited internal storagePoor battery lifeThe Archos 50 Platinum is a 5-inch Android smartphone that features dual-SIM functionality for those looking to better segregate their work-life balance. A mid-range handset with a price more akin to an entry-level device, the Archos 50 Platinum is available for just £210 on a SIM-free basis. It runs a stock version of Google’s Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS, has a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM and an 8-megapixel primary camera, but is this enough to compete with the big boys? The Archos 50 Platinum’s design is markedly similar to that of the Samsung Galaxy S3. The gloss plastic device features softly curved edges and is just 8.9mm thick, a mere 0.3mm thicker than Samsung’s past flagship phone. It is what you would expect from a wallet-friendly handset manufacturer by a bit-part player on the smartphone scene - it looks relatively cheap, basic and functional without ever really standing out from the crowd.

Like the S3 before it, the design of the Archos 50 Platinum is cheapened by the gloss plastic finish. It quickly becomes smeared with fingerprints, grease and grime. The Archos 50’s body looks grubby almost as soon as it is taken from the box. Short of handling the phone in gloves there is no way to counteract this, though it’s hardly a problem unique to it.

Despite weighing in at a considerable 160g, 30g more than the similarly sized Samsung Galaxy S4, the Archos 50 Platinum does not feel particularly heavy. Its weight is spread evenly across the phone’s full 5-inch form leaving it feeling well-balanced and sturdy in the hand. It feels well made, too, with only a small amount of creak in the body when put under pressure and none of the serious issues we often see in cheap phones.

The physical buttons on the Archos 50 Platinum are not ideal and highlight the phone’s cheap nature. Both the volume rocker (left side) and power/sleep button (right side) are positioned in the way of your fingers when holding the phone in either a left or right-handed manner. What’s more they sit loosely in their housings and as such wobble and slide when held.

There are few, if any, 5-inch phones in the Archos 50 Platinum’s £200 price bracket. Size doesn’t always mean quality, though, and the Archos 50 is testament to this. It features a 960 x 540 pixel resolution which, when stretched over the 5-inch panel results in a disappointingly low 220 DPI image quality. The end product of having a 5-inch screen that falls short of modern HD expectations is slightly grainy visuals with pixelisation effecting both video content and text equally.

Watching the Dark Knight Rises on the Archos 50 Platinum is a reasonably enjoyable experience. The expansive on-screen real estate undoubtedly helps make the Archos 50 a suitably entertaining platform for multimedia content, but it doesn’t possess that wow factor and pop we would have hoped for.

The explosion on the football field looks flat and hollow with colours and contrast throughout feeling washed out, bleak and lacking that little something extra found on high-end handsets. The phone’s blacks range is shallow, with expected subtleties in the colour spectrum not quite picked up.

Browsing the web sees text heavy pages suffer from slightly soft edges. The lack of a HD display becomes increasingly apparent the more you use the phone. For those after improved visuals at a similar price, the 4.7-inch Google Nexus 4 will be a better option, assuming you can do without dual-SIM capabilities that is.

The Archos 50 Platinum’s screen quality is not all doom and gloom, however. Viewing angles are strong and the screen is highly responsive with the IPS panel reacting promptly to all touch-based controls.

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Nokia Lumia 1520 Phone Review

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Key Features: 6-inch 1080p Full HD display; 2.2GHz quad-core processor; Windows Phone 8 operating system

Manufacturer: Nokia

The Nokia Lumia 1520 is the first Windows Phone 8 phablet and a handset that will go head-to-head with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Sony Xperia Z1. With a 6-inch display, the Nokia Lumia 1520 is a full 0.1-inches larger than the HTC One Max, and packs a quad-core processor in to boot.

We go hands-on with the Nokia Lumia 1520 to see if it can truly rival the existing players on the phablet scene.

On a design front, the Nokia Lumia 1520 is pretty much what we have come to expect from the Finnish phone maker. Building on the current Lumia branded range, the 1520 looks like an oversized Nokia Lumia 1020, with a polycarbonate body set to be made available in a raft of vibrant colours.

With the now familiar bright yellow Lumia colouring set for another outing, the Nokia Lumia 1520 will also be made available in matt black and white colour schemes, as well as a gloss red finish.

Lining up at just 8.7mm thick and 209g in weight, the Lumia 1520 feels comfortable in the hand despite its six-inch form. Yes, it feels large but it is not overpowering. At almost 10g lighter than the HTC One Max, the 1520’s softly curved edges mean it doesn't dig in to your palms and its reasonably light, too.

Button placement is not an issue, despite the phone’s right side being loaded with a power/sleep button, volume rocker and camera shutter. All physical controls feel sturdy, with a satisfying, and reassuringly firm action greeting every press.

The speaker grill on the phone’s lower rear edge could fall foul of being blocked by a hand if holding the device in a landscape stance in order to watch a video. This, however, is our only gripe on an otherwise highly impressive Nokia Lumia 1520's design.

The Nokia Lumia 1520’s screen isn’t just large, it’s impressive too. The first Windows Phone 8 handset to pack a 1080p Full HD display, the Nokia Lumia 1520 is taking the bit-part operating system to the mainstream, competing with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and LG G2 on a visual front.

If a 6-inch 1920 x 1080 pixel display wasn’t good enough for multimedia consumption, the 16:9 aspect ratio and 368 pixels-per-inch image density drive the video playback options home. Watching a quick HD video on the phone, the IPS panel produced fluid images with strong colours and no motion blur. We will test this further in the full review, though.

Thanks to Nokia’s ClearBlack display technology, blacks look satisfyingly black and colours, on first impressions at least, are vibrant, detailed and sharp.

The Lumia 1520’s screen is also highly responsive, tackling all the single and multi-finger gestures we could throw at it with no signs of stumbling or second-guessing. Used in both a dingy test room and in direct sunlight, the Nokia Lumia 1520’s screen was clear and easy to read, with little glare. The phone clearly benefits from a well-functioning brightness control.

While the dual-core CPUs in recent models have given the latest Lumia phones ample amounts of grunt, for the Nokia Lumia 1520, Nokia has taken things to the next level. The Nokia Lumia 1520 features a 2.2GHz quad-core snapdragon 800 processor, becoming the first Windows Phone handset to use a quad-core CPU.

Taking the Microsoft themed platform to Android rivalling levels, the Nokia Lumia 1520 performance is marked out by its impressive CPU and 2GB of RAM partnership. This specs collection is, on paper at least, on par with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

In practise, the Nokia Lumia 1520 felt extremely fast and responsive, allowing us to jump in and out of apps with consummate easy and not the slightest flicker of a fuss. Playing games the phone was smooth and showed no hesitation.

Although we were unable to fully test the Nokia Lumia 2520 battery life during our hands-on with the device, the phone's giant 3400mAh Lithium-Ion offering looks like a winner, giving it the edge over the HTC One Max and other leading smartphones.

As always, the Windows Phone platform is a pleasing joy to use, but one which is still undoubtedly a step or two behind Android and iOS. While the arrival of Instagram and Vine to the WP platform is a major addition, the Windows Phone marketplace is still lacking in a number of areas, an issue that will undoubtedly hold the Lumia 1520 back.

Although the Nokia Lumia 1520 camera falls someway short of the 41-megapixel offering bestowed on its Nokia Lumia 1020 sibling, the phone's 20-megapixel PureView sensor is nothing to be sniffed at. With auto focus and a Carl Zeiss lens thrown in for good measure, the Lumia 1520’s camera is a strong performer based on first use.

During our initial hands-on tests in a poorly lit demo room, the Nokia Lumia 1520's camera was responsive and yielded impressive results in challenging conditions. Although we were unable to playback images on an external screen, colours looked strong and details sharp and well-focussed.

There's a dual-LED flash, too, while a 2-megapixel front-facing camera rounds out the camera features.

The Nokia Lumia 1520 possesses a specs sheet to rival the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Sony Xperia Z1, and what’s more, the overall package feels bang on the mark from first use. In a market of super-sized, super-speced smartphones, the Nokia Lumia 1520 has brought the Finnish manufacturer back into the race. While we require more time with the device before we can pass final judgement, on first impressions we are highly impressed with this 6-inch beast and look forward to spending more time with the device shortly.

Stay tuned for our full Nokia Lumia 1520 review coming soon.

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ZTE Open Phone Review

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Web-based Firefox OS platform easy to create apps forVery cheap for a full smartphoneNon-premium app cultureInaccurate touch keyboardLow-resolution screenMediocre camera with no flashThe ZTE Open is the first Firefox OS phone to be readily available in the UK. As we reported a few months ago, ZTE has taken the unusual step of selling it via eBay, and at the princely sum of £59.99 contract free. It's a tempting proposition if you're limited on funds, or just fancy trying out the first mobile operating system from open Internet evangelists Mozilla.

SEE ALSO: 10 best cheap mobile phones
The ZTE Open is very much an entry-level handset. Its appearance is reminiscent of the HTC Wildfire, although our sample is considerably more orange. There is a blue version available too, but ZTE is currently only selling the orange one in the UK. The power button and 3.5-inch jack are on the top, the volume rocker is on the side, and the MicroUSB port is on the bottom, so pretty standard smartphone fare.

Apart from these features and the single touch button below the screen, which acts as a home button as it does on an iPhone, every other function works via the touchscreen. Pressing power on the top wakes up the screen, and then a swipe up reveals icons to start the camera or fully unlock the phone.

The main interface sits somewhere between Android and the iPhone, with screens you can swipe between. You can also swipe down to see any notifications, with a selection of common settings along the bottom, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, airplane mode and access to the full settings page.

The main screen simply houses a clock, and the right-hand screens contain icon grids of the apps you have installed, in a similar fashion to the iPhone. The left-hand screen, however, contains an innovative smart search facility called Everything.

This is essentially a searchable compendium of mobile-optimised websites. It's almost a portal, with for example the Social section giving you access to Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram, Myspace, LinkedIn and so on. You feel like you are using dedicated apps, but these are all the mobile sites for these services.

The screen is not a particular strong point for the ZTE Open. Our comparison with the HTC Wildfire wasn't just about looks; this phone also only sports a 320 x 480-resolution 3.5-inch screen.

Viewing angles are on the poor side, and it's not the brightest or most colourful screen either, but it's adequate for watching the occasional kitten-related online video, with the speaker loud enough for this as well.

There's a built-in FM radio, too, although this only works when the supplied headset is attached. Another area where the ZTE Open isn't exactly state of the art is the camera. This is rear-facing only and has a resolution of 3.15Mpixels. Images aren't exactly sharp, particularly in low light, and there is no flash. So the photography experience is about four years out of date, and Skype video calling won't be particularly pleasant.

The single-core Qualcomm Snapdragon Cortex-A5 runs at 1GHz, which is rather mediocre by today's standards, as is the paltry 256MB of RAM. But the ZTE Open doesn't feel particularly sluggish. In fact, it's adequately smooth in operation. One area where this phone does not feel smooth, however, is when entering text. The touch keyboard is inaccurate and the lack of predictive text entry makes it particularly painful to use.

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Acer Liquid Z3 Phone Review

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Sub-£100 price tagUser friendly Quick ModeDual SIM capabilitiesPoor 3.5-inch screenLifeless 3-megapixel cameraCheap feeling designThe Acer Liquid Z3 is a sub £100 handset and a direct follow-on to the Acer Liquid Z2. Running Google’s Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS, the Z3 isn’t the most cutting edge smartphone doing the rounds, but dual-SIM capabilities and a dual-core CPU make it a more appealing option to those looking for a defined work-life balance. With a 3.5-inch display, the Z3 is a direct rival to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Fame. Available in both black and white, retailers are offering the Acer Liquid Z3 between £79.99 and £99.99 on a SIM-free basis.

SEE ALSO: 10 Best Cheap Mobile Phones

The Acer Liquid Z3’s design does little to shake off the phone’s budget billing. It is a cheap looking handset with a gloss plastic body finished with a matt removable rear plate. Although the softtouch rear gives the phone a confused, two-tone look, the textured nature of the back panel provides the Z3 with added grip.

This added purchase proves a welcome addition against the phone’s boxy design too. Although relatively small in stature, the Z3 feels a little bulky and awkward when held. The phone's 10.4mm thickness is pretty standard for the entry-level market, as is its 120g weight, but blocky corners mean the Z3 never really fits comfortably in the hand.

A sizeable bezel further detracts from the Z3’s design. Although the phone is small when compared with the flagship likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and LG G2, its 3.5-inch display feels a little lost within the expansive plastic framing. This is not particularly unusual on the budget smartphone scene, though, with the bezel-heavy design similar to that on the Samsung Galaxy Fame and the LG Optimus L3.

The Z3's button placement is reasonably strong, causing no major concerns during use. All physical controls are in no danger of accidental presses, and the few physical buttons included – power/sleep and a volume rocker – feature a pleasing level of resistance. Overall, the Acer Liquid Z3’s design is basic, sadly doing nothing to set the phone apart from the mass of basic Android offerings on the market.

Screen quality is one of the Acer Liquid Z3’s most disappointing features. Although sub-£100 handsets are not renowned for their premium screens, the Z3's display is more like those found in phones half the price, such as the Vodafone Smart Mini. The Acer Liquid Z3’s screen is small, bleak and offers grainy, unappealing visuals that do nothing to encourage its use as a multimedia provider.

The phone features a 480 x 320 LCD panel that yields just a 165 pixels-per-inch. The result of this low grade panel is images that feel diluted and substandard, even for a budget phone.

The Z3's screen quality is depleted by washy colours and a lack of detail and clear, sharp edges to images. Using the Z3 to browse web pages, text looks undefined and slightly blurred while images are blocky and of a disappointingly low quality. When viewing back video content, this low quality display provides a stilted experience which fails to flow or promote continued use.

Sadly, it’s not just visually that the Liquid Z3’s screen disappoints. The phone’s touch elements are a little slow and unresponsive at times, meaning the phone can feel laggy, and somewhat irritating in use. Although supporting multi-finger gestures, the Z3 feels clunky and jumpy when carrying out pinch-to-zoom actions, with the touch panel often avoiding commands and acting with a mind of its own. Accentuating an issue felt by many touchscreen phones, the Liquid Z3’s screen feels especially prone to being smeared and depleted by greasy finger marks and all other amounts of grime.

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ZTE Blade V Phone Review

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Great valueNeat-looking metallic rearDecent screenPoor cameraSome lagQuad-core CPU a red herringThe ZTE Blade V is one of the lowest-cost quad-core phones ever made. You can buy one for under £100, making it a quarter the price of high-end quad-core phone like the Samsung Galaxy S4.

Given the low internal memory and the laggy interface, the benefits of such a processor are limited. But this remains a solid budget phone that looks better that most cheapo mobiles.

The ZTE Blade V is a plastic phone – it’s all you ever get at this price – but it’s one with a rather snazzy finish. Taking inspiration from the original ‘pebble blue’ Samsung Galaxy S3, it has a brushed metal effect on the back, designed to make it look upmarket.

It doesn’t do a bad job either. With a small-but-chunky body you would never mistake this for a top-end phone, but the blue metallic rear looks more luxurious and more exotic, than the black plastic used in most budget phones. However, look closer and it suffers from the same sort of aesthetic problems as most cheap phones – the three-tone, seam-heavy sides are not beautiful.

At 10.9mm thick, the ZTE Blade V is quite chunky by current standards, and its screen bezel is fairly wide too. However, that’s not to say it’s much worse than the competition. The pricier LG L5 II and Galaxy Ace 3 are around 1mm thinner, but don’t offer hugely better style or build quality.  

Thanks to its mid-size 4-inch screen, the Blade V is perfectly comfortable to operate in one hand despite its chunkiness. There are no layout surprises here, either – aside from that the microUSB socket is on the left edge rather than the bottom.

The blue back of the ZTE Blade V comes off, revealing the removable (therefore replaceable) battery and the microSD card slot. Expandable memory is a necessary feature here as the phone only has 4GB of internal storage.

Although stripped-back in some respects, the Blade V does have some extras generally missing from bargain basement phones. For example, there’s a multi-colour LED indicator above the screen that flashes green, red and amber depending on the notification in waiting. It’s a neat addition in a phone like this.

The ZTE Blade V also uses light-up soft keys, making it a pretty handy phone in the dark. You can turn the notification light off if you find it a night-time annoyance, though.

Read more: Best Android Phones

With a 4-inch display, the ZTE Blade is nowadays among the smaller-screened phones. It has a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, giving a pixels-per-inch rating of 233.

It’s not sharp enough to produce the immaculate text and images you’d see on a higher-end phone. Display quality is sound but – as we expected at the price – not fantastic.

Colours are solid but a little muted and top brightness is good, but the reflectivity of the screen makes it a bit of a pain to use outdoors when it’s sunny. It has an IPS panel, making angles viewing no problem, but the screen is really a bit too small to share videos longer than a short YouTube clip.

There were always going to be compromises involved in a sub-£100 phone display, but ZTE has made the right ones. Many phones at the price have lower-resolution screens, where ths Blade V's 480 x 800 pixels is the acceptable baseline these days. The screen cover of the phone is glass rather than plastic too, which is less likely to get scratched in day-to-day use.

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BlackBerry Z30 Phone Review

Strong email, chat and social network games and qualityPoor build supportGreat apps cameraThe selectionProblematic Z30 is the largest BlackBerry phone that BlackBerry has ever produced, at least has the bigger screen. Is an alternative to larger screen for BlackBerry Z10, her 5-inch screen that match the most popular Android phones this year. To £ 500 games phones like the Galaxy S4 on the price too. If you are interested in all apps, the phone or an iPhone 5 c is a much better choice. But there is no doubt that this is a quality phone in many ways.

See also: 2013 Best cell phones

It is common these days for phones try to look as thin and light as possible. In a world of increasing size phones, is quite a feat, but the BlackBerry Z30 does not care much about these things.

The BlackBerry Z30 seems pretty strong and reliable. Part of the reasoning behind the back of the phone, which is made of a plastic glass ' tiles ' that looks a lot like carbon fiber and is twice as strong as normal plastic, according to BlackBerry.

These are the words of a cynical, but the look is sharp ' of this fabric rear glass is without doubt the most important aspect. The actual protective benefits do not rise that much scrutiny. A phone is most at risk of serious damage when dropped on his Board, causing ripples of pressure that can break a screen.

The parts of the phone that would have an impact on Z30 BlackBerry in this situation are the edges of metallic effect standard plastic, not pieces of glass fabric. Main article: the issue, we should also consider what kind of force a glass weave structure could provide – there is more than one kind of strength.

BlackBerry card back Z30 likely offers more high tensile strength of standard plastic, meaning the casing back not take or deform easily. Also helps to give the phone a feel strong, tough. The new Cabinet is filled with a layer of soft touch, which determines how you feel on fingers (soft and smooth), but also less flexing of bog-standard plastic.

Adding to the impression of strength, the Z30 BlackBerry isn't particularly subtle or slight. It is 9.4 mm and 170 g is much heavier than most rivals of this size. The Galaxy S4 is 130 g, the HTC One is 143 g. Is a large beast. However, it is small enough to avoid causing serious problems of usability.

It has some extra hardware features that love nerd, too. On its left edge alongside the usual microUSB port is a video output microHDMI and under the plastic cover is a microSD card slot.

You get 16 GB of internal memory, and to be Frank I probably will do the trick if you do not want to store music or video (given there are so few games for BlackBerry phones 10). Final cleaning extra hardware is the multicolored LED indicator which flashes red, green or blue depending on the type of notification that is telling you about. Sits above the screen, hidden in the lining of the screen when flashes.

The Z30 BlackBerry isn't the best phone in the world. She cares too much about practicality to trade away everything for the look. The buttons are clear and the doors are not disguised as remote. But thanks to the back, it comes up as a step by the Z10.

Z30 screen BlackBerry continues the trend. Its display is not sharp, but it is very good. Is a Super AMOLED Panel of 1,280 x 720 that is five inches across. Everyone loses on is resolution – S4 Galaxy has a screen of the same size and type, but is instead Full HD 1,920 x 1,080.

Who cares? Not much. This is a sharp screen, though, if you look close you can tell that it is not as sharp as the best.

Other aspects of the display are very good or excellent. Contrast and black levels are top notch, the viewing angles are fab and color is surprisingly good.

AMOLED screens of type often are oversaturated colors and may appear bluish when tilted at an angle. The colors are pretty faithful here and there is no main color distortion caused by angled.

As you would expect from a Super AMOLED screen, response times are excellent too, in the sense that you don't get any ' trails when flicking rapidly high-contrast menu.

There is little to dislike seriously on this screen.

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Best Samsung Galaxy phone

Trying to find the best Samsung Galaxy phone to buy? We compare and choose the best spin off Samsung Galaxy S4 to find you the Samsung Android phone-perfect product.

Since the launch of the first smartphone Galaxy back in 2009, was the Samsung occupied the building back on the phone-do of swelling the ranks of the Galaxy family-proportions as Jackson.

You can now get an Android and TouchWiz running laptop in many different forms in fact we lost count. If you yearn for compact camera image quality or want to take your underwater smartphone, Samsung has tried to offer a solution for every need.

Inevitably, some do work better than others. Probably wouldn't recommend the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 or the fame more wallet-friendly Samsung Galaxy for example. If you are sold on what Samsung has to offer but struggling to make your way through the ever-expanding universe Galaxy, we have chosen the best smartphone Samsung Galaxy to look out.

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