REVIEWS Sony Xperia M2 Aqua review: Cliff diver

Introduction

The Sony Xperia M2 Aqua will give you all the water resistance you need. That's more than enough for marketing to work with, but they'll need to work hard nonetheless. You see, it's otherwise a well familiar package. So, Sony will take you to the water but will they make you drink?
Although we can safely do without expectation management, the Aqua shouldn't be construed as an upgrade. It's more of a special waterproofed edition of the regular M2, which took care of the upgrades just fine, a few months back. The Aqua will serve a small niche but, luckily, not one that's packed with competitors. The Xperia M2 Aqua has the highest water-resistance rating for a mass-market smartphone. That's something very few, besides Sonim, can match. Yes, it's that serious.

Moto X (2014): Have it your way

Introduction

The new Moto X arrived exactly a year after its predecessor brought us customizable looks, wrapped in a sleek body, proudly wearing the "Made in USA" label. The new flagship of the company is likely one of the last Motorola products developed during Google's reign of the company - the storied American brand is bound to soon become part of Lenovo.

New Moto X official photos

Like the first generation Moto X, the successor boasts a customizable body. This year, the manufacturer has brought even more personalization possibilities to the table, headed by high quality, genuine Horween leather back options.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC found inside the Moto X is the default option in this year's class of high-end Android smartphones. The device's 5.2" 1080p AMOLED display and the 13MP camera with UHD video recording are also ready to take on the competition.

As always, here goes the full list of features the new Moto X has to offer, followed by some of its shortcomings.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM; HSDPA/LTE connectivity
• 5.2" AMOLED display, 1920 x 1080 pixels, 424ppi; Corning Gorilla Glass 3
• Android 4.4.4 KitKat with stock UI (upgradable to Android L)
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 MSM8974AC chipset with quad-core 2.5GHz Krait 400 processor, Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB of RAM
• 13MP camera, dual-LED ring flash, 2160p video recording
• 2MP front-facing camera with 1080p video recording
• 16/32GB of built-in storage
• Active noise cancellation with four microphones
• 2,300mAh non-removable battery
• Gesture controls via built-in IR sensors
• Available voice control and active notifications
• Sleek, customizable body with superb build, tactility, and handling; optional genuine leather or eco-friendly wood back covers
• Attractive pricing both on and off contract

Main disadvantages

• No stereo speakers (the cheaper Moto G has them)
• Lack of memory expansion slot
• No version with 64GB of memory at launch
• Rather low battery capacity

At a quick glance, the Moto X (2014) specs are up speed with most of its peers. Unlike its predecessor, which banked heavily on attractive looks and superior handling to cover up its hardware shortcomings, the new Moto X offers chipset, display, and camera worthy of a 2014 Android flagship.

Still, with trademark features such as QHD screen or Snapdragon 805 chipset not making the list, the Moto X will once agin be defined by its appearance and build quality. The new model elevates both to proportions unseen before in this price range. The all-new metal frame combined with the optional leather or wood back covers makes the device a highly desirable object from the get go.

Memory expansion slot would have surely been a welcome sight, but, once again, the feature didn't make it and unfortunately, neither did the 64GB built-in memory version. Another major question mark is the battery life of the new Moto X - the non-removable 2,300mAh unit is simply not on par with what's featured in today' Android flagships.

Hit the next page for a closer look at the latest Motorola flagship. As always, we'll kick our review off with an unboxing of the Moto X, followed by design and hardware inspection.

Editorial: You may notice that this review is shorter than usual and doesn't include some of our proprietary tests. The reason is it has been prepared and written away from our test labs. Still, we think we've captured the essence of the device in the same precise, informative and detailed way that's become our trademark. Enjoy the good read!

Xiaomi Redmi 1S review: Stormtrooper

Introduction

Xiaomi has been a regular around here lately and one of the last times we heard of them was how they sold a boatload of phones in no time. And it wasn't their finest either. A heavily discounted midranger made a splash at the box office, in India no less.

And it wasn't like the company was clearing up old stock - it would've sold fivefold judging by the number of registrations. Yep, the Redmi 1S is a tempting offer but the sub-$100 price in that Indian flash sale made it nearly impossible to resist. Similarities to what Motorola did with their bestseller, the Moto G, are by no means accidental.

The Xiaomi Redmi 1S is playing by the book - the midrange chapter to be precise. It has a 4.7" IPS display of 720p resolution, Snapdragon 400 chipset with a quad-core processor, a decent 8MP camera, and 8GB of inbuilt storage. Like we said, Xiaomi's Redmi 1S is trying to beat the Moto G at its own game and is by no means clueless about how to do it.

Key features

• 4.7" IPS 720p capacitive touchscreen with 312pi pixel density; Corning Gorilla Glass 2 
• Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with MIUI v.5 
• 1.6 GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU; 1 GB of RAM; Adreno 305 GPU; Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 
• 8 MP camera with LED flash, 1080p video capture 
• 1.6 MP front-facing camera; 720p video recording 
• 8 GB of built-in memory, expandable via a microSD card slot (up to 32GB) 
• Dual-SIM 
• Active noise cancellation with a dedicated microphone 
• 2,000mAh battery

Main disadvantages

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• No LTE (single-SIM 4G version available in China) 
• No KitKat yet 
• Thick and heavy 

No doubt about that, it's Xiaomi's take on the older-gen Moto G, add or take. The Redmi 1S is currently on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean while the Moto G enjoys KitKat. On the flipside, it's got an 8MP camera with 1080p videos against 5MP stills and a 720p camcorder on the Moto. They both offer 8GB of storage but the Xiaomi Redmi 1S easily tops that with a microSD slot.


The Xiaomi Redmi 1S puts a simple finish to what's a rather plain design to begin with. Nothing wrong with the looks, we find it a sensible if understated styling. It's not impressively compact but then again, the Moto G is clearly thicker and gets away with it.

Apple officially announces the iPhone 6 Plus with a 5.5-inch display

The Apple iPhone 6 Plus
is now official. It's built around a 5.5" IPS LCD display with an Retina HD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels or, in other words 1080p). The pixel density is 400 ppi and iOS 8 has been tweaked to take full advantage of the larger display.
The back of the iPhone 6 Plus is made of anodized aluminum and the stainless steel frame of the phone ensures its rigidity.
The user interface has been optimized to take advantage of the larger screen and offers split-screen mode in several apps like earlierleaks suggested.
The new 64-bit A8 chip that powers the Apple iPhone 6 Plus is built using the 20nm manufacturing process. Thanks to this it's more power efficient, while still offering 25% more CPU power and 50% GPU boost.
The iPhone 6 Plus supports 20 LTE bands, but only 150Mbps cat4 LTE, rather than the latest 300Mbps Cat 6. On the positive side the phablet comes with VoLTE and Wi-Fi 802.11ac, which promises 3x faster Wi-Fi compared to the iPhone 5s. Wi-Fi calling is also a new feature, which will work on T-Mobile in the US and EE in the UK.
Further on, the iPhone 6 Plus packs NFC, another first for the company. Thanks to it, you'll be able to make payments by using Apple Pay - Apple's own NFC payment system.
At the back, the iPhone 6 Plus uses a 8MP iSight camera with a True Tone dual LED flash. The pixel size is slightly larger than the iPhone 5s at 1.5μ and the aperture is f/2.2. Most importantly, the iPhone 6 Plus has an optical image stabilization - a first for the company.
There's phase-detection autofocus that should improve focusing speed twice. It is part of the A8 chip, which also includes powerful image signal processor designed by Apple.
The Apple iPhone 6 Plus camera records 1080p video at 30 and 60fps. There's a slow-mo shooting available, too, at 240fps, but its resolution hasn't been specified.

The iPhone 6 Plus will start at $299 for the 16GB version, while the 64GB and 128GB will retail for $399 and $499, respectively.
iPhone 6 Plus pre-orders commence on September 12 and will ship a week later on September 19.