Fight to be Android king
PUBLISHED ONMarch 05, 2015 4:00 AMBySherwin Loh in Barcelona
The next battle in the smartphone wars looks to be between Taiwanese and South Korean smartphone giants. Both HTC and Samsung unveiled their latest flagship devices on Sunday, a day before the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC), with two different tactics in place.
The HTC One M9 features a new dual metal unibody finish and has some new hardware, such as a 20.7-megapixel camera. But its overall design language will resemble earlier well-regarded versions of its One series of Android smartphones.
The new phone is expected to go on sale this month in four colours, some with a secondary colour tone on its metal frame. The silver One M9, for example, will be edged in gold-coloured metal.
An updated Sense interface will let users set menu preferences more easily. New location-based software will offer more streamlined recommendations, including dining suggestions at nearby restaurants. The 4MP UltraPixel camera remains but it now becomes the front camera on the One M9.
In other respects, Samsung is tossing out its old playbook by launching two Galaxy S6 phones, with the new S6 Edge sporting two curved screens, instead of the single curved screen displayed in last year's Galaxy Note Edge.
It has also junked the plastic polycarbonate rear shell used in earlier S series devices. Both S6 devices that will debut here next month will have metal frames and Gorilla Glass 4 panels on the front and back.
Samsung will also dial back on its much-criticised TouchWiz user interface and keep bloatware off its new phones.
It has streamlined its interface to be more user friendly and dropped several less popular functions.
In previous years, Samsung would announce devices such as the Gear VR and Gear smartwatches alongside its smartphones.
However, during this year's Samsung Unpacked 2015 event on the eve of the annual congress in Barcelona, it unveiled only the two phones and a virtual headset for use with them.
Two new categories
HTC drew back the curtains on two new categories:
HTC Grip, its first fitness tracker, comes with built-in GPS so users can track activities such as running and cycling, without their smartphones. Made in partnership with United States sports apparel maker Under Armour, it will be compatible with an updated version of Under Armour's Record mobile fitness app.
HTC Vive virtual reality (VR) wearable headgear is its version of the more well known Oculus Rift VR. Here, its partner is Valve, the game developer and software distribution company.
The headgear will work with Valve's upcoming Steam VR gaming platform, and handle content from Steam's upcoming TV and movie distribution channels as well.
HTC said the Vive will be the first VR unit to offer full room-scale immersion, allowing a user to walk around a 3-D VR object. Existing VR devices require users to shift their heads to look around a 3-D object.
A Valve spokesman said the Vive is HTC's move into the PC/Mac gaming space rather than a move into the mobile market.
The current Vive developer's kit, which resembles the Oculus Rift VR unit, will be available later this year. The consumer version should be available by the year end.
Sony, LG and Microsoft were present at the Mobile World Congress but chose not to make big announcements at the trade show.
LG, which announced its curved G Flex2 Android smartphone at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, held off announcing an update for the LG G3 flagship smartphone. It chose instead to showcase two new smartwatches.
The LG Urbane is an Android Wear device, while the LG Urbane LTE can take calls and send out SMS messages. The Urbane LTE is powered by LG's webOS operating system, which the South Korean company uses for its smart TV line-up.
China handset maker Huawei showed off its premium Android Wear metallic smartwatch, while Microsoft announced new mid-range Lumia devices.
A first look at the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge
After producing five generations of high-end smartphones in plastic shells, Samsung has finally done away with the cheap finishings that have attracted much criticism.
Apart from the streamlined design and metallic edges and curves on the new flagship phones, the first thing that strikes you is the rear glass panel that reveals a base colour on the device.
Both versions of the Galaxy S6 will be available in four colours: the Galaxy S6 in white, black, gold and blue; and the S6 Edge in white, black, gold and green.
Under the Gorilla Glass 4 panel, the colours pop more, especially in reflected light indoors. While the gold version will always be popular, being a huge fan of the deep-blue version, I am disappointed that it will not be offered on the S6 Edge.
Two issues that may bother Galaxy S users: The glass panel is fixed, so there is no way to remove and replace the battery. Samsung left out a microSD card slot for expandable memory, so users are locked in to 32GB, 64GB or 128GB of internal storage.
But with each S6 comes 100GB of cloud storage in Microsoft's OneDrive service.
Built like those of Sony's Xperia Z series devices, the rear panel is cool to the touch. The buttons on the side feel solid and the overall presentation has a premium look.
One notable change is on the inside. In creating its own 64-bit architecture, which the latest Android Lollipop operating system is capable of supporting, Samsung has decided to rely on its own Exynos octacore processors, instead of using the latest 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset.
During the hands-on session, the company was quick to highlight the absence of several Samsung pre-installed apps on the Galaxy S6, as well as new and streamlined menu keys, to speed up usability and user experience.
Samsung has also updated the 16MP camera here and while the quality of photos look good at first glance, what matters is the speed at which the camera can be activated.
A double tap of the home button brings up the camera, no matter what is showing on the screen. You can be in the middle of playing a game, reading your e-mail or checking Facebook, and the double tap will instantly bring up the camera. While this can be compared to a dedicated camera button, the speed with which the camera app can be activated - less than a second - is impressive.
In terms of design, the mirrored curve on both sides of the S6 Edge gives a symmetry that was missing from last year's Galaxy Note Edge. Both devices handle well, but the addition of the curves allows smoother execution of inward swiping gestures.
The information tray, which lets you call up the time and show any missed messages or calls, is still around, but the curved screen no longer has a dedicated menu as on the Note Edge.
You cannot park an app on the edge display for easy access; you have to return to the main screen.
One interesting use of the curved display concerns incoming calls. Users can assign five callers to a corresponding colour and access these contacts simply by swiping inwards from the edge of the phone.
Placing the phone face down will keep the screen from lighting up during a meeting or while you are dining. But the screen will light up when there is an incoming call, and the light will peek out from the edge screen. Now, if one of the five callers dials in, the edge screen will flash the corresponding colour to alert you, so you can tell who is calling, without even glancing at the screen.
To reject a call, put your finger on the heart rate monitor to send a pre-set "Busy" SMS message to the caller.
The S6 devices come with built-in wireless charging, but having to buy charging pads makes this a rather expensive feature to adopt.
The new wired quick-charge feature can provide four hours of use with a 10-minute charge, according to Samsung, and if that is the case, the convenience of wireless charging has been negated by the sheer efficiency of charging via a cable.
I hope Samsung lowers the prices of wireless charging accessories so that more people will use them.
A first look at the HTC One M9
When the HTC One X was released back in 2012, I picked one up as my personal phone as I was impressed by it when it was announced at Mobile World Congress 2012.
Three years later, HTC's flagship range of One devices continues to impress, though I wish they had done some things differently with the latest HTC One M9 smartphone.
Design-wise, the M9 is not a huge departure from last year's M8. Starting with the M7 in 2013, HTC has been using aluminium for the phone frame, and each version has seen more metal bits take over the plastic ones.
The M7 had a plastic border and the M8 had a one-piece metal unibody that wrapped both the rear and sides. On the M9, there really is not much plastic left to replace with metal, so the Taiwanese company has tweaked the unibody, to allow for a two-toned metal frame.
The phone comes in four colours. In the grey and gold version, the two colour tones are not immediately obvious. On the silver and pink version though, the edge of the device has been wrapped in a soft gold tone that further accentuates the frame. Upon closer inspection though, you will realise that the gold tone is not a gold frame superimposed onto the pink or silver rear frame, but that the frame is one piece with two colours on it.
If you are a huge fan of metal phones and loved the design of the M8, you will find the M9 even more impressive. HTC has relocated the power and volume controls to the right edge.
The top of the phone, where the power button used to sit on the M8, is now an uninterrupted shell for the phone's IR Blaster.
The M9 retains the two front-facing speakers and given them more punch. HTC has tweaked the Sense user interface so you can customise the app screen to show a dedicated menu of work-related apps such as e-mail and Calendar, and a separate menu with Instagram and Facebook for personal or leisure use.
This may be a small thing but it beats having to swipe across home screens constantly in order to reach the ones you have manually configured for work and play.
HTC says it is making more contextual recommendations for users, so as not to flood them with an endless stream of irrelevant notifications.
One example is its tie-up with food rating service, Yelp. If the M9's geo-location is switched on, the software will make recommendations for lunch or dinner at appropriate times, based on the eateries nearby. This may sound simple enough, but Yelp is not yet popular here and I want to further test this feature here to see what recommendations will turn up. Some users may not want this feature, because of privacy concerns.
If you have not been impressed by the more power-hungry QHD displays on other flagship phones, you will be happy with the continued use of the full high-definition (HD) one here. Frankly, I have not been able to see much difference. Given that the M9 still uses a small 5-inch screen, a full HD display is good enough.
Personally, I would have preferred a slightly bigger screen. With multitasking available on many newer smartphone models, extra real estate makes reading easier and also makes managing open windows more convenient.
I gather that using a metal frame inevitably makes a device bulkier, so why not space everything out behind a larger display?
The most drastic change in the One series is in the M9's cameras.
HTC had been praised and criticised in equal measure for using the 4MP UltraPixel sensor in both the M7 and M8, and staying out of the megapixel wars of competing manufacturers.
The result, however, was that its photos were not as sharp. This time around, HTC has moved the UltraPixel to the front camera and placed a 20MP camera at the back. It has also shielded the camera lens with a piece of sapphire crystal, though I wish it had added optical image stabilisation instead.
The great thing about the UltraPixel is that it takes very good low-light photos. In a test shot done with several individuals in a dimly lit room, their faces and the colours of their shirts showed clearly. The same shot under the same conditions, but with a different smartphone camera, showed only silhouettes.
The performance of the rear camera will have to be assessed at a later date, as HTC said the M9 I used did not run the final firmware.
Finally, HTC has opted to remove the second camera lens in the rear. In the M8, that second lens was used for measuring depth, to allow for post-capture edits. HTC said that physical limitations, due to the inclusion of the larger 20MP sensor, kept it from retaining the second camera here. That sounds plausible, but I suspect we will not see the second camera returning anytime soon, even in a larger device.
sherwinl@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on March 4, 2015.
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