What are the best smartphones of 2013 so far

Published on Mar 4, 2013

We’re only three months in, but 2013 is shaping up to be quite a year for smartphones. We’ve already seen plenty of new devices launched in and around CES 2013 and Mobile World Congress 2013. And there’s still a lot more to come – most notably Samsung’s Galaxy S4 and a new iPhone.

So far we’ve seen launches from some of the industry’s most significant players: Samsung, Sony, Nokia, BlackBerry, HTC, LG, Huawei, and ZTE. All of which represent a significant leap forwards in terms of processing power, display technology, and features.

Most of 2013’s new high-rolling handsets feature Full HD displays and high-end processors, CPUs that make last year’s Snapdragon S4 look practically remedial. And some handsets, notably the Xperia Z and Huawei Ascend D2, are also water and dust resistant – that means you can use them in the bath.

Here’s our pick of the five best handsets of 2013 so far:

Sony Xperia Z

Sony Xperia Z review: Zero hour

introduction

Whether they had a point to prove to the ex or simply kept themselves busy to get over it, Sony were hard at work in the last year or so. They can look back at a prolific period, though somewhat lacking in brilliance. Keen to quickly build a lineup from scratch, the company was consciously avoiding fights that were impossible to win. Steering clear of the premium end, Sony positioned its flagship devices just below the Samsung Galaxies and the iPhones.

   
Sony Xperia Z official photos

Now with solid backup in the midrange, returning to the fiercest battle in the mobile market is Sony's top priority. The Xperia Z, which leads the charge, got us properly impressed in a recent hands-on and if it walks unscathed from a complete review, we'll know the Japanese have hit the form of their life. Sony is the first of the major manufacturers to bring 5 inches of 1080p goodness to the market, which not only is a morale booster, but will get cash registers chiming too.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support; 3G with HSPA; LTE
• 5" 16M-color 1080p capacitive touchscreen with 441ppi pixel density; Bravia Mobile Engine 2
• Android OS v4.1.1 Jelly Bean with custom UI
• Quad-core 1.5 GHz Krait CPU, 2 GB RAM, Adreno 320 GPU; Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset
• 13 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and geo-tagging, HDR
• 1080p video recording @ 30fps with HDR mode, continuous autofocus and stereo sound
• 2.2 MP front-facing camera, 1080p video recording
• IP 57 certification - dust resistant and water resistant
• Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA; Wireless TV out
• GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
• 16GB of built-in storage; microSD card slot
• MHL-enabled microUSB port
• Bluetooth v4.0

Sony Xperia Z Kernel Source Released Prior to Worldwide Device Launch

One of the most highly-anticipated devices debuted at CES 2013 is the Sony Xperia Z. With a 5″ 1080p screen with a ~441 ppi, sitting atop a quad-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm S4 Pro with 2 gigs RAM and a 13.1 MP camera, there’s no doubt that anticipation is warranted. With the device recently released in Japan, and a worldwide release date is speculated to be in the next few weeks, what is this? Kernel source already?

This year, Sony Mobile has already demonstrated with their commitment to supporting the open source developer community. The most recent previous example is their kernel source code release for their alpha Jelly Bean build for the Xperia T (massive GPL-compliance anyone?). Now, they’ve released the kernel source code for the Xperia Z, which hasn’t even gone on sale around the world yet. Sure Sony isn’t the first OEM to do this, but they have a track record of releasing complete, compilable, and working kernel source (cough, cough Samsung). They also have shown consistency at releasing source immediately (sneeze, HTC). And to top it off, they just plain release the source (ahem, Rockchip, Huawei, and countless others) like the GPLv2 requires you to.

So if you are in the mood for compiling a kernel for a new, top-of-the-line device even though you don’t have it in front of you, head on over to Sony Developer’s Open Source Downloads site. Obviously, you won’t be able to test out the source, but it can provide a good indication of what they have planned for a device that is slated to be the big one for Sony Mobile in 2013.

 Source: http://www.xda-developers.com

Nokia Lumia 920 reviewed against the Sony Xperia Z

Knowyourmobile have posted the above review of the Nokia Lumia 920 vs the Sony Xperia Z, the recently announced Full HD 5 inch waterproof Android handset announced by Sony at CES.

The Sony handset clearly has some pretty attractive hardware which I would love to see running Windows Phone, but does anyone find the Android OS still pretty messy? Let us know below.

Source : Knowyourmobile