This year’s annual Consumer Electronics Show saw the launch of just a few new smartphones as wearable technology and tablets stole the show. However one of the smartphones unveiled in Las Vegas in particular got our attention – Sony’s Xperia Z1 Compact
We may already have reviewed this handset, but it deserves a 2nd mention. Basically it’s a smaller and yet very powerful version of Sony’s original Xperia Z1 – all packaged into a pocket-friendly handset. The Z1 Compact features a 4.3-inch touchscreen with 341 pixels per inch and is powered by a decent 2.2GHz quadcore Snapdragon processor. Running on Android Jelly Bean 4.3, the Z1 Compact packs in 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage – which is expandable up to 64GB – and a very impressive 20.7-megapixel rear-facing camera.
The Xperia Z1 Compact will no doubt appeal to the upper end of the market and it’s robust design – which provides a degree of water and dust resistance – as well as a shatterproof screen makes it a very good bet. It should be available in the UK within the next few weeks and comes in a choice of 4 colours.
Huawei also chose CES to unveil their super-sized Ascend Mate 2 phablet. With a 6.1-inch screen and a 4050mAh battery which is powerful enough to keep it going throughout 2 full days of heavy use, it could certainly appeal to those who are undecided between a new mobile phone or a tablet! The Ascend Mate 2 also comes with a respectable 13-megapixel rear camera, 16GB of built-in memory (again expandable up to max of 64GB) and 2GB of RAM. It will also run on Android Jelly Bean 4.3 and features a 1.6GHz quad-core processor with an A7 chip.
CES also saw the launch of one of the world’s largest smartphones from the Chinese technology company Hisense. With a screen measuring 6.8-inches, the Hisense X1 handset is almost the size of a smaller tablet. The X1 boasts a full HD LCD touchscreen, dual SIMS and is powered by a Snapdragon 800 CPU land 2GB of RAM. The X1 will initially be rolled out in China, it’s not known at this stage if it will be released in the UK.
