Google unveiled the new Nexus 7 today, complete with faster internals, as well as an impressive 1920×1200 7-inch display. Another addition to the tablet is 4G LTE, and it’ll be coming to AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile when the tablet releases the US. The best part is, all three carriers will use the same SKU.
The 4G LTE version will only come in a 32GB flavor, while the WiFi-only models will be available in 16GB and 32GB versions. The LTE-ified variant will cost $349 on any of the carriers. This is compared to the $269 32GB version for WiFi only. That’s $80 more, on top of a data plan you’ll be paying for every month.
However, while the tablet has a launch date of July 30, the LTE version will be arriving “in the coming weeks.” We’re guessing that Google is putting the release date into the hands of the carriers, so we should be hearing from AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile at some point in the near future about availability.
We’re also not sure if AT&T or Verizon will subsidize the new tablet. They probably won’t, seeing as how the Nexus 7 is already at a really low price point to begin with, but at least that means users won’t be binded to a contract when they get service for their new Nexus 7. Be sure to keep an out on SlashGear for carrier announcements regarding the new slate.
Coming as no surprise at all, Google’s just unveiled its newest Nexus 7 tablet at a breakfast meeting in San Francisco this morning. What has caught us off guard, however, is news that the Android 4.3 tablet will bow on three of the US’ top wireless carriers — that’s AT&T, Verizon* and T-Mobile — as a single SKU and with support for LTE. No release date or pricing has yet been announced for the 7-incher, but when it does launch, it’ll be the premier device to ship with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.
Update: Google’s just released pricing and availability for the new Nexus 7, pegging the WiFi version for a July 30th bow in-store and online. There’ll be two configurations — a 16GB and 32GB — that’ll retail for $229 and $269, respectively. Users that prefer to wait for the LTE-enabled version will have to fork over $349 for a 32GB model, although this variant still doesn’t have a solid street date; Google’s saying it’ll hit retail in the “coming weeks.”
*the Nexus 7 LTE will not support CDMA (read: 3G service) on Verizon
When the Galaxy S4 Mini reached the FCC last month, we thought that might be the last we’d see of it in the US; the Galaxy S III Mini never officially reached the country, after all. The GS4 Mini is back for another round, however, and it’s now toting AT&T-native support for both LTE (on the 700MHz and AWS bands) and HSPA (850MHz and 1,900MHz). Few other surprises are in store, although we’ve noticed that there’s no AWS-based HSPA for T-Mobile fans. The filing also doesn’t say anything about an AT&T launch for the GS4 Mini, but it comes a month after the FCC approved a compatible Galaxy Mega 6.3 — we wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more to the story.
The rumors were true. Nokia’s revealed its biggest phone to date, with a screen measuring in at 4.7 inches. It’s the Lumia 625, and it joins a series that has grown a fair bit since the Lumia 620 launched earlier this year. Compared to that earlier phone, the 625 keeps the same resolution (a slightly pixelated 800 x 480), but bumps the processing power up to a dual-core Snapdragon S4. Despite that hulking LCD screen, however, it’s still thinner than the Lumia 920 at 9.15mm (0.36 inches). It’s a Nokia smartphone, so there are plenty of HSPA radio gadgetry to keep the global fanbase happy. What’s more — and this is rare for an entry-level Lumia — it also has LTE. Specifically, we’re looking at the British EE-friendly Band 3 option here, alongside Bands 7 and 10.
If there’s anything to remind us that this is no flagship device, it’s the camera. Don’t expect any 41-megapixel sensors. In fact, get ready to be a little underwhelmed by a 5-megapixel camera module, although you’ll still get the likes of the animated gif-making Cinemagraph and the same Smart Camera app seen on the Lumia 925. You’ll have 8GB of internal memory to fill with your best photo moments, and there’s also a microSD slot behind the removable back. Meanwhile, customization options include orange, green, yellow, white and black cases, although there’s no turquoise shade like we saw on the Lumia 620. It’s headed to EE, Vodafone, O2, Phones4U and Carphone Warehouse in early September, priced at £200 or 220 euros for continental Europeans. Find our hands-on impressions (and a video!) right after the break.
Not long after South Korea’s SK Telecom launched the world’s first LTE-Advanced network, its homegrown rival, LG U+, will be rolling out LTE-Advanced to its customers as well, according to Yonhap News. There’s no word on what phones the new network will support, though we won’t be surprised if LG’s own Optimus G successor will be one of them. Now pardon us as we figure out a way to move to South Korea, as that’s the only place to get a taste of the zippy speeds right now.
Well, what do we have here? According to China’s official certification website (TENAA), this above is the unannounced Nokia Lumia 625. The handset apparently features a 4.7-inch WVGA screen with super-sensitive touch, 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, 512MB of RAM and 2,000mAh battery — basically a lower-end model. While the listing only mentions GSM / GPRS and WCDMA / HSPA support, the phone supposedly includes LTE, and wraps everything in a unibody design that follows the attractive looks of its smaller cousin, the Lumia 620. In fact, the shape appears to match the RM-941 that passed through the FCC back in June. The device is expected to land in China at the end of July for 1,999 yuan ($325) — just hit the source link below for more info.
Microsoft’s Surface team has taken on development of the company’s upcoming smartwatch, it’s reported, with the wrist-worn gadget supposedly running a modified version of Windows 8. The Surface smartwatch is being built on an original design by the Xbox team, The Verge‘s sources claim, which had been tinkering with a “Joule” heart-rate monitor prototype for the Xbox 360.
Speculation as to the capabilities of the watch have varied, though Microsoft is believed to be making its wearable more functional than some of the existing designs we’ve seen. A modified version of Windows 8 is an ambitious strategy, where existing alternatives like Pebble are more accurately remote displays for the user’s phone.
According to the leaks, the Surface smartwatch is intended to be integrated with other Windows-powered devices, which presumably means both Windows 8 on desktops, notebooks, and tablets, and Windows Phone on handsets. Already suggested is a 1.5-inch display, making the watch bigger than Pebble and other options.
Meanwhile, there’s also talk of customization support with different colored watchbands. AmongTech claimed last week that Microsoft would offer red, blue, yellow, black, white, and grey straps, something The Verge says it has independently confirmed.
Still in the air are other suggestions from the site’s sources, which include a casing made of Oxynitride Aluminum that, as well as being tougher than glass, is also transparent, and both 6GB of storage and integrated LTE. The latter seems a tall order, given the power consumption of 4G radios and the minimal space for batteries in smartwatches, though it’s said to be part of Microsoft’s attempt to integrate the Surface watch with its various cloud services.
One workaround to the power issue is Microsoft making the smartwatch particularly easy to recharge, something implied by rumors back in April that it would use the magnetic Surface connector already used on the detachable keyboards.
Most frequently rumored, however, is the Apple iWatch, which is believed to be the Cupertino firm’s attempt to bring iOS to the wrist. That, however, isn’t expected to launch until sometime in 2014.
Sony’s Xperia Z has been a sleeper agent of sorts: launched to great fanfare at CES in January, overshadowed by the Galaxy S 4 and HTC One at launch, and yet grabbing upgrade sales from under Samsung’s nose in Europe. Not bad for a company once written off in smartphones, and now Sony is hoping to repeat that success in the US, with a launch on T-Mobile USA. Does the waterproof Xperia Z do enough to distract from the heated US mobile market? Read on for the full SlashGear review.
Hardware
We’ve already reviewed the original European version of the Xperia Z, and so we’d recommend reading that beforehand. The phone borrows plenty from Sony’s Japanese handsets, with a beautiful 5-inch, LCD TFT 1920 x 1080 display powered by the company’s Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2, a slimline waterproof case with inset toughened glass panels, and a 13-megapixel camera with an Exmor RS Mobile sensor.
It’s a discrete design compared to the HTC One and iPhone 5′s metal chassis, but the plastics (actually glass-fiber polyamide) and glass feel far less like a compromise than Samsung’s plastics on the Galaxy S 4. On the Xperia Z, there’s the feeling that Sony actively selected them, rather than just going for what would be easiest to push off the manufacturing lines. The black version is a fingerprint and lint magnet, while the purple does a better job of hiding them, albeit while also being more distinctive overall.
Physical controls are limited to a volume rocker on the side and a strikingly oversized, somewhat over-engineered power/lock button. At first glance the attention Sony paid to the button seems somehow questionable, but it makes more and more sense the more you use the Xperia Z. For a start, it’s perfectly placed: it falls under a finger no matter whether you’re holding the phone in your right or left hand, and it feels tough enough to outlive Android 4.1.2 as comes preloaded (not, sadly, Android 4.2).
Inside the 139 x 71 x 7.9 mm, 146g chassis there’s Qualcomm’s 1.5GHz S4 Pro quadcore, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage (11.73GB of which is user-available). Connectivity includes LTE and HSPA+ for T-Mobile USA’s networks, along with quadband GSM/EDGE; there’s also WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, Miracast support, and MHL-HDMI output from the microUSB port, with the right adapter. A 2-megapixel front-facing camera is above the display.
For the waterproofing to work, you’ll need to make sure all the ports and flaps are closed. The Xperia Z covers its microSD, microUSB, and microSIM slots with flaps, as well as the headphone socket; we wish Sony had done what Samsung did, and use gaskets to leave the headphone jack flap-free. Once they’re all tightly closed, the Xperia Z meets IP55 and IP57 standards for dust and water resistance.
It’s no gimmick, either. On paper, the Sony can handle a dip in up to 1m of water, or alternatively being sprayed with pressurized water jets, or being dumped in dust or sand. That means you can use it in the pool, at the beach, in the shower, or just reach for it without concern when the phone rings while you’re washing dishes, or have your kids in the tub, or are caught out in the rain. The touchscreen gets glitchy under running water, but works properly underwater, unlike the Galaxy S4 Active.
What’s interesting is how quickly you get used to it. In the pool, we were able to keep an eye on children playing while also maintaining an IM conversation on Google Hangouts, for instance. The resilience came into its own when babysitting, leaving us unconcerned if the Xperia Z got knocked off the table or dunked in a cereal bowl. The fact it does it without even the minimal extra bulk that Samsung applied to the Galaxy S4 Active is impressive.
Software and Performance
Android 4.1.2 is a minor disappointment, given how long Android 4.2 has been around, though Sony hides the older OS version under its own skin. It’s a tasteful UI that has much improved in its latter iterations, reminiscent at times of Sense but without some of the bloat that HTC’s interface can suffer from in places.
The on-screen home, back, and task-switcher keys help, fitting in with Google’s own approach on the Nexus 4, and you access Google Now in the same way, with a swipe up from the home icon. Although our preference is usually for pure Android, Sony’s skin does have its advantages, such as in how it can fit a lot of apps onto one screen rather than demanding you scroll around. It’s a good compromise between stock and a carrier skin.
Xperia Z Walkthrough:
A 1.5GHz quadcore seemed excessive when Sony announced the Xperia Z in January, but it’s no longer enough to make the new T-Mobile phone the fastest. Still, it puts in a solid – if not outstanding – showing in the benchmarks.
In Quadrant, the Xperia Z scores 8,008, while in Qualcomm’s own Vellamo, it manages 2,182 in the HTML5 test and 645 in the Metal test. AnTuTu comes in with a score of 20,826, while the Sony completes the SunSpider browser test of JavaScript performance in a laggardly 2,096.3ms.
If the raw numbers prove anything, though, it’s how little benchmarking actually translates to real-world performance. Although on paper the Xperia Z should be a sluggish mess in comparison to its Samsung and HTC rivals, in the hand we had no issues whatsoever with speed. In fact, the phone feels just as spritely – or at times even swifter – than the Galaxy S 4 and HTC One, and we had no complaints about performance.
Camera
Sony is proud of its 13-megapixel camera on the Xperia Z, the first Exmor R Mobile sensor to show up on one of the company’s smartphones. We’ve seen a few different approaches to mobile photography in the past six months – including oversized pixels at lower overall resolutions, balancing more average megapixel counts with physical stabilization, and chasing an ever-increasing top end of resolution – and Sony ostensibly falls into the latter category.
In our general experience with high-resolution phone cameras, they’ve been great with detail when lighting conditions are ideal, but quickly suffer when it gets darker. Happily, the Xperia Z doesn’t fall into the same trap.
The camera app itself feels more like a Sony Cyber-shot than a phone’s app, with no less than 36 modes – including sports, portrait, and HDR – which can be manually selected or left up to Superior Auto to pick between. There’s also panorama support and the choice of up to 12-megapixel 4:3 aspect images or 9-megapixel 16:9 images; you can also fire off 1-megapixel stills while simultaneously recording up to Full HD video.
The results are impressive. Superior Auto actually does a surprisingly good job of picking the same mode for each scene as we’d choose manually, and the result is clear and accurate colors, good contrast, and minimal noise. Even in low-light situations, where phones like the Galaxy S 4 began to stumble, noise is kept down and the quality is admirable.
Video, too, looks great, especially when you mix the Xperia Z with water. Colors and contrast are again accurate, though a little muted than, say, Samsung’s defaults. The HDR mode – which works for both stills and video – leans more toward boosting the visibility of darker areas, rather than playing up the color saturation. Both of the following demo videos were filmed on the Xperia Z:
Phone and Battery
Voice call performance on T-Mobile’s network was solid, and we didn’t experience any dropped calls. The carrier’s gradually spreading LTE network is also worth hunting out: we saw peak downloads of over 53 Mbps and uploads of over 18 Mbps during our testing. Still, you’re more likely to encounter HSPA+ for the moment, while T-Mobile continues to roll out LTE.
Below: our speed test ran especially quick at the NYC special event for this device and T-Mobile’s new collection of 4G LTE announcements.
Battery life has been good, with the Xperia Z lasting for more than 17hrs of mixed use, with push-email turned on, around an hour of voice calls, photography, multimedia use – including streaming music for an hour over Bluetooth – and internet access (though not with the screen turned on for that entire period). Sony also includes its Battery STAMINA mode, which selectively powers off background data use from most apps while the phone is in standby, only allowing those you’ve whitelisted to go online.
For the most part, it works well, though we did have issues with the length of time it estimated it would extend the Xperia Z’s power for on occasion. Of course, you can always turn it off.
Wrap-Up
The Xperia Z is a surprise. From our original review, we knew it was a solid performer, but even with the Galaxy S 4 and the HTC One on the scene, it’s impressive how well it holds up to – and, in some cases, out-performs – its newer rivals. In fact, with all three flagships having shown their best side, we’re leaning toward judging the Xperia Z as the best all-round Android phone of the moment.
At $99.99 down and then $20 per month – on top of service charges – for the duration of a two-year agreement, the Xperia Z is well priced, too. Great battery life, a highly capable camera, usable durability without the normal addition of heft, and sophisticated, discrete styling add up to a smartphone that rightly deserves the attention Samsung and HTC have been getting.
These speeds aren’t indicative of what T-Mo’s LTE network—which just went live in NYC and elsewhere— will look like once it’s full of iPhone bandwidth hogs, but for now, uhhhh, holy crap.
T-Mobile launched its 4G LTE for the first time a couple of months ago with a handful of devices on board that offer the carrier’s faster data speeds. However, during T-Mobile’s NYC event today, the carrier announced even more devices that will support T-Mobile’s LTE network, including the new Sony Xperia Z and Nokia’s Lumia 925.
T-Mobile announced that its 4G LTE network now covers 157 million people in the US, which exceeds their original goal of 100 million people by mid-2013. The carrier’s LTE is now available in 116 markets in the US, with service now live in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas, Seattle, Atlanta, and Miami, just to name a few.
T-Mobile is still keeping their year-end goal at reaching 200 million people in at least 200 metropolitan areas, despite surpassing its mid-year goal. As for T-Mobile’s 4G HSPA+ network, it’s available to 228 million people in the US.
T-Mobile also announced new devices for their 4G LTE lineup, including additions such as the Sony Xperia Z and the Nokia Lumia 925. The Xperia Z will be available for $99.99 down, with 24 equal monthly payments of $20. The Xperia Z will available on July 17 with pre-orders starting the day before. The Lumia 925 will be available on July 17 as well for $49.99 down and 24 monthly payments of $20.
T-Mobile’s current Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 will also be getting an upgrade to 4G LTE via an over-the-air update. The tablet is available for $99.99 down with 24 monthly payments of $15. T-Mobile seems all-in on 4G LTE, so we should be seeing more devices from them in the future, on top of more locations offering 4G LTE.
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