MWC 2012: Sony, HTC and LG announce flagship mobile smartphones

Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the manufacturers increasingly opted for newer, quad-core processors, with only Sony continuing to use older, dual-core models.

The announcements were made on the same day as Chinese giant Huawei announced what it called the world’s fastest smartphone, the Ascend D Quad, which it claimed was able to perform better than either Apple’s iPhone 4S or the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

LG’s new flagship, the Optimus 4X HD, offers a four-core processor and a high definition screen, as well as a 4G receiver for territories such as America where the technology is available. The firm emphasised that the phone could be used for intensive gaming, and some officials claimed that in normal use the device could last for two days without needing to be recharged.

LG makes the display, battery and camera for the Apple’s iPhone, and hopes that it can produce a similarly successful phone itself. The firm is also producing a small tablet, called the Vu, for the American market. The Optimus 4X HD will run Google’s latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, and will feature a 4.7” screen with a 1.5GHz processor. LG will also make a series of less expensive devices, targeted at different demographics.

Sony also announced an expansion to its Xperia line of phones, the first the company has made since the end of the Sony Ericsson joint venture. The P and U Xperia models mark an attempt to sell the brand at more mid-range prices. Sony’s incoming Chief Executive emphasised that his task was as much to continue to try to integrate Sony’s music, video games and movies into phones as it was to improve devices. Improved displays would form a key part of the new strategy, the firm said, and the P model features a new technology called ‘White Magic’ for better outdoor viewing. Analysts at CCS Insight said they believed Sony “must quickly exploit its content assets” if its phones were to succeed.

HTC, however, focussed primarily on devices rather than on content. Although the Taiwanese manufacturer announced an improvement to its Dropbox tie-up, allowing enhanced back-up and synchronisation of files, the new 'One' range focused on improving photography and design.

The X, S and V models emphasised their new software, enhanced camera performance and the care taken over the design. Although analysts generally liked the individual products, CCS Insight added that “betting on attractive hardware to lure buyers may be risky in a cutthroat market”.

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Nokia Lumia 920 claims to be "Flagship" Windows Phone 8 device

Nokia today announced its new flagship Windows Phone 8, the Lumia 920, with a powerful PureView camera as the centerpiece.

The Nokia Lumia 920 has a 4.5-inch curved glass display with a resolution of 1280 x 768, a 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage. Nokia also announced a mid-range Lumia 820 model that has a 4.3-inch display and supports exchangeable shell designs with shorter battery life and 8 GB storage.

Lumia 920 & 820 compared: Source Nokia

Specs are only part of the story for Nokia's new flagship. At a press conference in New York, Nokia focused on features, design, and technology that goes beyond raw performance.

Foremost is that PureView camera which, despite the name, doesn't have the same whopping 41-megapixel sensor found on Nokia's 808 PureView Symbian phone. The sensor in the Lumia 920 is a more typical 8.7 megapixels, but Nokia claims that the 920's camera captures five-to-ten times more light than other phone cameras, which makes it better at shooting photos indoors or in low lighting. (This was a major issue with Nokia's Lumia 800 and 900 phones, which struggled in those situations.) A 1.2-megapixel HD camera is up front.

The Lumia 920's camera also has so-called “floating-lens” technology for image stabilization. The floating lens is particularly beneficial for video, Nokia said, because it minimizes the erratic shaking found in some other smartphone cameras.

To take advantage of new screen-resolution possibilities in Windows Phone 8, the Lumia 920 has a “Pure Motion HD+” display. Nokia says the screen offers blur-free scrolling and enhancements to sunlight readability, so the phone can react to minimize sunlight glare. The screen also works through gloved fingers, so there's no need to buy special smartphone gloves.

Additionally, the Lumia 920 supports built-in wireless charging and near-field communications. Nokia will offer its own charging plate, but design company Fatboy will sell a wireless charging pillow as well. Virgin Atlantic plans to install wireless charging pads in its Heathrow Airport lounge, and Coffee Bean will install wireless charging pads in its shops. JBL will sell a speaker dock called PowerUp, which charges the phone wirelessly and pairs through NFC.

The design of the Lumia 920 is similar to that of Nokia's previous high-end Windows Phones, with a scratch-resistant polycarbonate shell around the curved display. Nokia is expanding the available color schemes on the casing to include yellow, red, and gray, in addition to the existing cyan, white, black. and pink found in Nokia's Lumia 900 line.

Of course, Nokia's Lumia 920 will run Windows Phone 8, but Nokia will add some of its own software features to stand out from competitors Samsung, HTC. and Huawei.

Nokia Maps will be integratedon this phone, as it will be on all Windows Phone 8 devices, but the Lumia 920's Maps app will also included an augmented reality feature called City Lens. Similar to Yelp's AR mode, CityLens lets users hold up the phone's camera to their surroundings and see information on nearby businesses. And on the Lumia 920, Nokia's Drive app will provide turn-by-turn directions with fully-offline maps.

Smart Shoot Before and After

The camera also has some software features to improve photos. Smart Shoot scans for unwanted people passing through photos, and can remove them from the image. Cinemagraph can add a touch of motion to parts of an image, such as a flag waving in the background.

In addition to the Lumia 920, Nokia also announced the Lumia 820, which seemed like a bit of an afterthought at the company's press conference. The Lumia 820 has a 4.3-inch, 800-pixel-by-480-pixel resolution display (without curved glass), a 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics (not PureView), a VGA front-facing camera, 8GB of storage. and a microSD card slot.

Nokia hasn't announced pricing or availability for its new Lumia phones, but says both will be available in pentaband LTE and HSPA+ variants in select markets later this year.

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