HTC One A9 Revealed

Brooklyn, NY – Prior to today’s Tidal X: 2010 concert, which is sponsored by HTC, the Taiwanese company unveiled its latest smartphone in the HTC One A9.

The new HTC phone, which will be fitted with a 5-inch, edge to edge, 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 4 Full HD AMOLED screen, will be the first non-Nexus Android powered phone to come out of the box with Android Marshmallow and of course with the company’s own software suite, HTC Sense, which will again come with HTC Themes to allow customization of your HTC Phone. HTC mentioned during the reveal that there are currently 23 000 Themes available and if you can’t find one you like, you can always use their simple Theme Maker web tool to create your own.  With Android Marshmallow, right away users of the A9 can use Android Pay ad Google’s Now on Tap, which will give you contextual information on what’s on your screen in that very moment. What's more is that HTC is promising that whenever a new Android update gets released, it will make it's way to your phone within 15 days!

HTC is promising a strong battery life with its 2150 mAh battery that comes equipped with Quick Charge 2.0 support and will be compatible with Quick Charge 3.0 with a future software upgrade. HTC’s website is touting the battery life at 12 hours for HD video playback, 60 hours on Audio playback, Internet Usage on Wi-Fi at 9 hours, Talk time on 3G network at 16 hours and Standby time on 3G network at up to 18 days. Another impressive spec that should make lots of people happy, since it’s a feature quite a few flagships are opting to remove, is that the HTC One A9 will allow it’s standard 16GB/32GB storage to expand to up to 2TB on a micro SD Card. You read that correctly, 2TB.

Now while the BoomSound stereo speakers familiar to HTC fans have been removed in favor of a fingerprint scanner, HTC is still promising high quality sound. To do this, HTC has packed their phone with HTC BoomSound integrated into the headset combined with Dolby Audio surround sound technology, delivering immersive and vibrant sound that matches a live experience. The A9 will also have a built in Digital to Analog Converter, which upgrade the audio to 24bit, 192 KHz quality and a powerful high-output headphone amplifier, which provides more power and dynamic range to your music.

Last but not least, the Camera. The HTC One A9 has a 13MP rear camera that features Optical Image Stabilization, which automatically minimizes shakes and corrects vibrations to give you crystal clear pictures every time. Its front Camera will be the usual HTC Ultrapixel camera. The phone will also offer RAW capture, allowing users the freedom an unmatched level of detail to edit their images after they’ve taken them. They also have the one-button enhancement feature for those quick pics. Also showcased in the reveal, HTC now has a hyperlapse editing tool, allowing users to speed up their videos to 12 times faster for a dramatic time-lapse effect. There is also HTC Zoe which allows users to easily edit their best shots videos into one professional-looking highlight reel, for those who love making montages.

The HTC One A9 is slated to be released in Canada sometime in November and will be priced at $549.99 CAD and will be available in Carbon Gray, Opal Silver, Deep Garnet and Topaz Gold. 

HTC ONE A9 Full Specs
As Provided By http://www.htc.com/ca

Size	145.75 x 70.8. x 7.26 mm
Sensors	Ambient light sensor, Proximity sensor, Motion G sensor, Compass sensor, Gyro sensor, Magnetic sensor, Sensor Hub, Fingerprint sensor
Sound	Dolby Audio™* with Hi-Res Audio
Platform	Android™ 6.0 with HTC Sense™
Connectivity	NFC, Bluetooth® 4.1, Wi-Fi®: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 & 5 GHz), 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, micro-USB 2.0 (5-pin) por
Weight	143g
CPU Speed	Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 617, Octa-core 64-bit, 4 x 1.5GHz + 4 x 1.2GHz Memory
Camera	Main camera: 13MP with sapphire cover lens, auto-focus, BSI sensor, OIS ƒ/2.0, 1080p video recording Front camera: HTC UltraPixel™, fixed focus, ƒ/2.0, 1080p video recording
SIM Card Type	nano SIM
Multimedia	Playback: .aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav, .wma, .flac, ac3, ec3, eac3 Recording: .aac Video supported formats: Playback: .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .wmv, .avi, .mkv   Recording: .mp4
Memory	32GB ROM / 3GB RAM; Extended memory: microSD™ up to 2TB   Extended memory limited to available microSD card size.
Network	2G/2.5G - GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz; 3G UMTS: 850/AWS(1700)/1900/2100 MHz; 4G LTE: FDD 2,3,4,5,7,12,13,17,29
Battery	Capacity: 2150 mAh with Quick Charge 2.0 support (forward compatible with Quick Charge 3.0 with future software upgrade); HD video playback: up to 12 hours; Audio playback: up to 60 hours; Internet use on WiFi: up to 9 hours; Talk time on 3G network: up to 16 hours; Standby time on 3G network: up to 18 days

Nexus 2015 lineup revealed

Early Last week Google announced its two new flagship phones. The Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P.

The Nexus 5X will come with a 5.2’’ LCD Display, 12.3MP rear camera and 5MP back camera. It will be running the Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor at 2GB of RAM and with internal storage at either 16GB or 32GB. The prices without contracts will go from $499CAD and $559CAD respectively.

Here are the full specs for the Nexus 5X:

Dimensions	147.0 x 72.6 x 7.9 mm
Display	5.2’’ FHD (1920 x 1080) LCD at 423 ppi Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Fingerprint Smudge-resistant oleophobic coating
Battery	2700 mAh Battery
Front Camera	5MP 1.4 μm pixels f/2.0 aperture
Rear Camera	12.3 MP 1.55 μm pixels f/2.0 aperture IR laser-assisted autofocus 4K (30 fps) video capture Broad-spectrum CRI-90 dual flash Slow motion at 120 FPS
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor, 1.8 GHz hexa-core 64-bit Adreno 418 GPU
Memory & Storage	RAM: 2 GB LPDDR3 Internal storage: 16 GB or 32 GB
Weight	136 g
Operation System	Android 6.0 Marshmellow
Wireless & Location	LTE cat. 6 WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2x2 MIMO, dual-band (2.4 GHz, 5.0 GHz) Bluetooth 4.2 NFC GPS / GLONASS Digital compass
Network	North America: GSM/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900MHz UMTS/WCDMA: B1/2/4/5/8 CDMA: BC0/1/10 LTE (FDD): B1/2/3/4/5/7/12/13/17/20/25/26/29 LTE (TDD): B41 LTE CA DL: B2-B2, B2-B4, B2-B5, B2-B12, B2-B13, B2-B17, B2-B29, B4-B4, B4-B5, B4-B7, B4-B12, B4-B13, B4-B17, B4-B29, B41-B41 Hong Kong: GSM/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900MHz UMTS/WCDMA: B1/2/5/8 LTE (FDD): B1/3/7/8/26 LTE (TDD): B38/40/41 LTE CA DL: B1-B3, B3-B3, B3-B7, B3-B8, B41-B41 Rest of world: GSM/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900MHz UMTS/WCDMA: B1/2/4/5/6/8/9/19 CDMA: not supported LTE (FDD): B1/2 /3/ 4/5/7/8/9/17/18/19/20/26/28 LTE (TDD): B38/40/41 LTE CA DL: B1-B3, B1-B5, B1-B7, B1-B8, B1-B18, B1-B19, B1-B26, B3-B3, B3-B5, B3-B7, B3-B8, B3-B19, B3-B20, B3-B28, B5-B7, B7-B7, B7-B20, B7-B28, B40-B40, B41-B41
Ports	Single USB Type-C 3.5 mm audio jack Single Nano SIM slot
Sensors	Fingerprint sensor Android Sensor Hub Accelerometer Gyroscope Barometer Proximity sensor Ambient light sensor Hall sensor
Media	Single front-facing speaker 3 Microphones (1 front, top and bottom) with noise cancellation
Colors	Carbon, Quartz and Ice.

The Nexus 6P will come with a 5.7’’ LCD Display, 12.3MP rear camera and 8MP back camera. It will be running the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor at 3GB of RAM and with internal storage at 32GB, 64GB or 128GB. The prices without contracts will go from $699CAD, $749CAD and $849CAD respectively.

Here are the full specs for the Nexus 6P:

Dimensions	159.3 X 77.8 X 7.3 mm
Display	5.7 inches WQHD (2560 x 1440) AMOLED display at 518 ppi 16:9 aspect ratio Corning® Gorilla® Glass 4 Fingerprint and smudge-resistant oleophobic coating
Battery	3450 mAh Battery
Front Camera	8 MP 1.4 μm pixels f/2.4 aperture HD video capture (30 fps)
Rear Camera	12.3 MP 1.55 μm pixels f/2.0 aperture IR laser-assisted autofocus 4K (30 fps) video capture Broad-spectrum CRI-90 dual flash Slow motion at 240 FPS
Processor	Latest version of Qualcomm® Snapdragon 810 v2.1, 2.0 GHz octa-core 64-bit Adreno 430 GPU
Memory & Storage	RAM: 3 GB LPDDR4 Internal storage: 32 GB, 64 GB, or 128 GB
Weight	178 g
Operation System	Android 6.0 Marshmellow
Wireless & Location	LTE cat. 6 WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2x2 MIMO, dual-band (2.4 GHz, 5.0 GHz) Bluetooth 4.2 NFC GPS / GLONASS Digital compass
Network	North America: GSM/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900MHz UMTS/WCDMA: B1/2/4/5/8 CDMA: BC0/1/10 LTE (FDD): B2/3/4/5/7/12/13/17/25/26/29/30 LTE (TDD): B41 CA DL: B2-B2, B2-B4, B2-B5, B2-B12, B2-B13, B2-B17, B2-B29, B4-B4, B4-B5, B4-B13, B4-B17, B4-B29, B41-B41 Rest of world: GSM/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900MHz UMTS/WCDMA: B1/2/4/5/6/8/9/19 TDSCDMA: 34/39 CDMA: BC0/1 LTE (FDD): B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/9/17/19/20/28 LTE (TDD): B38/B39/40/41 CA DL: B1-B5, B1-B8, B1-B19, B3-B3, B3-B5, B3-B7, B3-B8, B3-B19, B3-B20, B3-B28, B5-B7, B7-B7, B7-B20, B7-B28, B39-B39, B40-B40, B41-B41
Ports	Single USB Type-C™ Single Nano SIM slot 3.5 mm audio jack
Sensors	Fingerprint sensor Accelerometer Barometer Proximity sensor Ambient light sensor Hall sensor Android Sensor Hub Gyroscope
Media	Dual front-facing stereo speaker 3 microphones (2 front, 1 rear) with noise cancellation
Colors	Aluminium, Graphie & Frost

Both the Nexus 5x and 6P will be available in Canada “at the end of October”, however you can always keep an eye on the Google Play page for 5X and 6P for pre-orders

A look at 2015 upcoming Smartphones

As the holidays are soon approaching, many companies are starting to announce their latest smartphones, such as Google’s Nexus 2015 announcement coming up on September 29^th. Today, we’ll take a look at a few phones that are going to be released in the coming days.

Xperia Z5

Earlier this month, Sony announced its next lineup of Xperia Phones and its Premium version is a doozy. Packed with a 4K display and a 23 Megapixel camera (The camera will be the same across all three phones), this phone is sure to please those who love taking photos and watching movies on their smartphones.

All three variations come in different sizes, from 4.6 to 5.2 and 5.5 inches. You’ll be getting an LCD screen but only full HD for the mid-ranged Xperia while the compact will host a 720x1280 resolution. In terms of Processors, all three variations will come equipped with the Snapdragon 810 and boast 3GB of RAM, besides the Compact version, which will have 2GB.

For Storage, Sony seems to be going to opposite route of what most companies are doing these days and are packing the phone with 32GB and allowing it’s users to increase the storage for up to 200GB’s using a MicroSD card.

As the phones are slated to come out in October, besides the premium version, due in November, it’s a bit disappointing the phones will not come already preloaded with Android Marshmallow but will instead come pre packed with Lollipop 5.1 with of course Sony’s Xperia UI.

Based off the pre-order prices from the UK, the phones are looking to cost you £429 for the compact, £549 for the mid-ranged and £629 for the premium without a contract.

Ubik Uno

Since the emergence and cult like following of the OnePlus One as a cheap alternative to traditional flagship smartphones, a few companies have started to try their hand at such tactics. One of which is Ubik who started a Kickstarter Campaign earlier in the summer this year and successfully raised 246K of their 200K goal.

The phone’s specs are pretty solid with 3GB of RAM, 5.5 Inch screen with full HD display. It has 16GB of internal Storage along with a SD Card slot to increase it for another 64GB. One of the best specs on this phone is its 20 Megapixel Camera, which comes close to the camera packed on the Z5 premium but at a third of its price, as this phone goes for $330 CAD  including shipping.

The phone has a very sleek design and comes packed with a vanilla version of Lollipop 5.1. Based on the comments from the Kickstarter campaign, Ubik is looking to create a community that will work on ROMs for the device in order to keep it supported and updated. Since the Kickstarter campaign successfully ended earlier this month, you can now pre-order an Ubik Uno right away by going here: http://ubikmobile.com/

Nexus X 2015

At this particular moment in time, a full specs list for the 2015 version of the nexus has yet to be officially released, so the following is all rumors at this point. The full announcement and reveal for this phone will be on September 29^th. However, the hype has been going on and Google’s popular smartphone from 2013 is looking to be getting a great update and makeover.

Coming in two separate models, one nexus will be manufactured by LG with a 5.2-inch display, while the other model is reportedly being made by Huawei and will boast a 6-inch screen. The Camera is rumored to have 13 Megapixels and have dual LED flash and come equipped with LG’s laser autofocus, a popular featured in the LG G3 and G4.

Below the camera you will find the fingerprint scanner, which is something companies are starting to do to get rid of the use of a home button. The new Nexus will be the first smartphone of 2015 to come out of the box equipped with Google’s Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It’s expected that the processor will come 3GB of RAM and will have two versions with a 16GB and 32GB of storage. These versions are looking to cost Canadians $399USD or $449USD respectively.

The Nexus Phones are extremely popular for being solid affordable phones that come equipped with Stock Android with no extra fluff. That means when it’s time to update the device’s software, you don’t need to worry about Bell or Rogers taking extra time to update all of its software before the update gets to you.

LG officially announces the G4

Didn't think LG was going to let the competition have all the fun with their flagship launches did you? Today they unveiled their 2015 flagship phone the LG G4. Visually with this flagship LG is taking its well known and well received G3 design and give it subtle tweaks, including design cues from its experimental G Flex Line, to make its own.

As it is a flagship device, it's sporting some pretty impressive specs including an Octa Core Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 808 Processor, a 5.5-inch Quad HD IPS Quantum Display at 1440p and 538ppi, 32GB of internal storage expandable via microSD slot, 3GB RAM, a 16MP F1.8 Aperture camera with Optical image stabilization + a front facing 8MP camera, a 3000mAh removable battery, LTE connectivity and Android 5.1 Lollipop. Colours offered in Canada include Ceramic Metallic Gray and Genuine Leather Black.

Canadian availability is expected in June from Bell, Rogers, TELUS, Videotron and WIND Mobile.

Check out the official press release after the break.

[MWC 2015] Samsung unveils the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge

Not unlike its closest competitors, Samsung one of the, if not the, top Android Manufacturers latest flagship has been subject of rumors and leaks. But today Samsung finally pull the wraps of its 2015 flagship(s) the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge.

Both devices are set to be co-flagships for this year and are putting Samsung new commitment to premium materials and design up front and center. This years iteration of the venerable Galaxy S series sports glass fronts and backs, metal that runs around the devices as well as throughout for rigidity, and of course on the Galaxy S6 Edge the screen will wrap ever around the edges.

Specs for both devices include a 5.1-inch 1440p Super AMOLED display, 3GB of DDR4 RAM, a Samsung Octa Core Exynos 7 SoC, 32/64/128GB of internal storage (gone is the microSD expandability), a 16MP camera, a 2550mAh battery for the S6 and a 2600mAh for the S6 Edge.

Our Friends at Samsung have confirmed to us that the both versions of the S6 will come in Black Sapphire and Pearl White colours will be available April 10, 2015.

Confirmed carries include Rogers, Bell, TELUS, WIND, SaskTel and Videotron.

Check out the press release after the break.

[MWC 2015] HTC unveils the HTC One M9

While the torrent leaks of photos, videos and specs kept the M9 as mobile tech's worse secret, HTC still proudly took the stage today at MWC to unveil their 2015 flagship device in the HTC One M9. While many are quick top point out the more than striking resemblance to the HTC One M8, the M9 takes many of the issues brought up with the M8 and addresses them in this year's iteration.

The three most noticeable hardware changes on the M9 include the shift from the 4MP UltraPixel camera (now relegated to the front facing duties) + Depth Sensor to a more conventional 20.7MP rear facing shooter, the placement of the power button on the side of the device rather than top and finally a "sharpening of the edges to improve grip on a pretty slippery phone.

Under the hood there are some significant improvements with HTC opting for the new Snapdragon 810 Octa Core 4 x 2.0 GHz + 4 x 1.5 GHz SoC, Adreno 430 GPU, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage expandable by micro SD, 1080p 5 inch Super LCD 3 display, a 2840 mAh battery and is running Android 5.0 Lollipop with Sense 7 on top.

The M9 will be available from Bell, Rogers, SaskTel, TELUS, and Videotron

We can't wait till we get our hands on the M9 to try out.

Check out the full press release after the break.

Canadian Motorola Moto G (2013), Moto X (2014), LG G3 and HTC One M7 recieving Android 5.0 Lollipop

Looks like it's Lollipop week as not one or two or three but four devices from three different manufacturers nonetheless have started receiving their upgrade to Android 5.0 Lollipop.

This morning we got word from our friends at LG that the G3 would start getting the upgrade starting today.

“Bringing the new Lollipop Android update to LG G3 users has been a top priority for us,” said Eunice Lee, Brand Manager of Mobile Communications, LG Canada. “LG is committed to providing our customers with the best mobile experience, and the Lollipop upgrade is a key part of that innovative experience. The new Android OS brings a refreshed interface to the LG G3 that complements its existing design and enhances the device’s functionality. We believe that our customers will find great value in the Lollipop upgrade.”

On the side of Motorola, the Moto G (first gen) from Virgin, TELUS, Koodo, Videotron, WIND and the unlocked retail version should all have started receiving the update as of yesterday. The LTE version from Rogers, Fido and Videotron however are not part of this initial rollout.

The Moto X second gen from WIND is also getting a second attempt at a Lollipop upgrade after the last attempt cause some devices to be bricked. No word yet on the original Moto X, as Motorola is stated to be needing more time due to the custom X8 Compute platform SoC used in the original Moto X.

Lastly, one of our readers has informed us (later confirmed by MobileSyrup) that the HTC One M7 has also started start getting it's rollout to Lollipop as well. (Thanks Alex!)

If you're one of the owners of these devices let us know how the update process goes!