LG G4 review: refined, but not game-changing
When LG cooked up last year’s G3, we (and many of our contemporaries) fell in love with it. At last, a well-designed phone with a killer Quad HD screen and a custom interface that didn’t make us want to wrap a USB cord around our necks! Building a beloved smartphone is no small feat, but it’s still not as hard as crafting a sequel that will be just as well-received. When it came time for LG to design the new G4, the company latched onto a handful of areas it thought people really cared about. It rebuilt its 16-megapixel camera from the ground up. That Quad HD screen? LG tried to make it more “accurate.” Now the question is: How’d LG do? Did it figure out how to excite people for another year? The answer — in case you’ve got somewhere else to be — is “almost.”
Hardware
Note: I’m working with an unlocked, Korean version of the G4. I’ll update this review with new impressions once US units become available.
Honestly, did anyone expect LG to rewrite its design rules this year? With a mostly flat front and the subtlest of curves to help it settle into your palm, LG’s latest sits somewhere between the G Flex2 and last year’s more pedestrian G3. It’s thoughtful moderation in action, though I’d argue the dramatic slope of the G Flex2’s arched back is more comfortable to grip. The look is about as far from revolutionary as things get, but you could argue the physical shape doesn’t really need fixing. Still, I can’t but feel the broad strokes of LG’s industrial design are getting a little tiresome.
Thankfully, LG has tried to shake things up this year with its fashion-forward line of vegetable-tanned leather backs. They’re a step in a more organic, more luxurious direction — which I’m very, very fond of — but they’re just one of several options. The version I tested came with the standard “Metallic Craft” rear finish that looks like a hammered piece of steel… but is actually just a curved sheet of metal-looking plastic like what we saw on last year’s G3. The rest of the G4’s posterior is an exercise in repetition. Just like the last two powerhouse phones the company churned out, the rear camera (now boasting 16 megapixels) sits high on the back, flanked by a two-tone LED flash on the right and the infrared autofocus module on the left. Just below all of that is LG’s signature volume rocker/power button combo, except this time, the power button is actually a hair smaller, making it a little tougher to find by feel.
The G4’s face looks downright spartan compared to its rump, and LG plans to keep it that way — Dr. Ramchan Woo, LG’s head of smartphone planning, stressed the importance of crafting a distinct identity for LG phones, and that means these dark, monolithic faces aren’t going anywhere yet. The 5.5-inch IPS Quantum display deserves a lot more verbosity than I should muster in this section, but know this: It’s easily among the best smartphone screens I’ve ever seen, despite what I may have said in the past. When it’s off, though, it’s scarcely distinguishable from the dark gray bezels that surround it, making the teensy speaker grille, 8-megapixel camera and LG logo the only things that break up the dusky monotony.
So yeah, our particular G4 doesn’t exactly thrill in the looks department, but what’s chugging along inside that plastic body is a little more interesting. You’d think a company’s annual flagship phone would insist on using the most powerful chipset it could get its hands on, right? Not this time.
LG already included a top-tier Snapdragon 810 chip in the G Flex2 earlier this year and decided to go in a different direction with the mass-market G4; it has a cheaper 1.8GHz hexa-core Snapdragon 808 instead. Do yourself a favor: Don’t be fooled by the model number dip. The Snapdragon 808 might lack a pair of Cortex-A57 processor cores and sport a slightly lower-end Adreno 418 GPU, but it’s still a very capable piece of silicon. (More on that later.) Tear off that plasticky back plate and you’ll find a handful of other near-extinct goodies too, like a removable 3,000mAh battery and a duo of slots for microSIM and microSD cards. LG’s lasting fondness for these little touches won’t go unnoticed by the nerds burned by the stinginess of other phone makers, but man, what I wouldn’t give for a more adventurous sense of design.
Display and sound
When I first started putting the G4 through the wringer last week, I said its vaunted 5.5-inch IPS Quantum screen didn’t necessarily look better than any of the competition; just different. Well, I still don’t think people will go crazier for a super-accurate screen than they did over a super-saturated one, but there’s no denying this panel is worth your attention. LG’s done a lot of crowing about the display already, most of it hinging on how its tech makes for amped-up brightness and more natural color reproduction. We could dig into the very complex nitty-gritty here — the screen uses a different kind of liquid crystal that aligns vertically to let more light through, and a revamped backlight setup that makes for very clean, organic colors — but I’ll spare you the rest of the breathless jargon. Long story short, the screen here is lovely, if still a few steps from perfection.
With the backlight cranked up all the way, the G4’s display is a touch less bright than both the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge (it’s most notable when you’re looking at a stretch of plain white). Blacks lacked the depth and sumptuousness that are a hallmark of AMOLED screens, and the rest of the color spectrum isn’t nearly as punchy as I’ve come to appreciate on my smartphone screens. Then something funny happened. After looking at the overly saturated colors on the Galaxy S6’s screen (especially the reds, my goodness), I found myself appreciating LG’s subtler take. Reds in particular are more nuanced, rather than the nearly eye-searing rendition you’ll spot on Samsung’s wares. There’s something to be said for seeing photos on your phone in a way that more faithfully recreates what you’d see in the real world. That’s not to say that visuals on the G4 lack oomph, though — colors popped dramatically compared to the G3 we keep around, which looked pretty washed-out in comparison. Alas, things can get dicier once you look at content from an angle; you’ll notice that the screen loses some of its vibrance. It’s a relatively minor niggle, and overall I’m still very fond of this display, but I still wish it were as attractive from off-center as it is head-on.
LG devoted less attention to the G4’s speaker, which shouldn’t come as a shock. The single driver wedged into the bottom of the phone’s back played back test tunes ranging from Sambomaster’s screechy Japanese rock to boisterous picks from the Whiplash soundtrack at a respectable volume, though you’ll only get so much clarity and channel separation from a setup like this. Still, the G4 manages to out-blast the Galaxy S6’s speaker without too much muddiness at high volumes, so it’ll do just fine in private (or when you don’t have a pair of headphones handy).
As it turns out, one of the G4’s neatest little audio tricks is one LG doesn’t talk much about in public. If you’ve got some music playing through a connected pair of Bluetooth headphones and plug a pair of wired ones into the headphone jack, the audio will be routed to both with hardly any latency. Yeah, it basically makes the old, romantic “two people sharing a single pair of earbuds” trope irrelevant, but don’t expect it to disappear from the movies anytime soon. The only bummer: You can’t route two different audio tracks to each set of headphones.
Software
If anything should be clear by now, it’s that LG isn’t one for seismic shifts; it’s more about steady, measured progress. As such, you’d have a tough time telling the difference between LG’s UX 4.0 and the interfaces we’ve seen running on the G Flex2 and even the G3 before it. Thankfully, LG’s Android skin has been getting lighter and less kludgy with every new version, even if the overall look hasn’t changed much. The quickest way to tell the difference is to swipe right from the home screen; there’s a new Smart Bulletin page that aggregates data from your calendar and apps like QRemote and LG Health (which still tracks your steps and weight information with aplomb). All that is coupled with tips for using the phone. While the experience isn’t as great for killing time as BlinkFeed or Samsung’s Flipboard integration, it does a fine job of spelling out your day for you.
Other than that, the software changes here are minimal. There’s a new calendar app here that’s swathed in bright Material Design heraldry, and a feature called Event Pocket lets you drag images, locations and even pre-existing Facebook events coming up straight into the mix. I’m a die-hard Sunrise user so I didn’t spend much more time with LG’s calendar than I had to, but Event Pocket’s a surprisingly smart way to flesh out your work and social schedules without the up-front tedium of typing up a new event yourself. The rest of the company’s spin on Android 5.1 Lollipop is familiar fare, like the Knock Codes that offer quick screen unlocks. Glance View (which lets you “pull” down from the top of the screen to check the time) is here too, except it powers up the entire screen to do so. That wasn’t the case with the G Flex2, and with that change, half of the feature’s appeal has basically disappeared. Chances are regular users won’t care — if they notice the feature at all — but it’s one of the few downsides of using a non-OLED screen.
While some rivals (I’m looking at you, Samsung) have been putting distance between themselves and Google, LG has tried to cozy up even closer to the folks who make Android. Remember the days when trying to open a link from somewhere involved a choice between LG’s browser and Chrome? Well, those days are over: Chrome is all you get now. When you fire up Google Drive for the first time, the G4 gleefully proclaims you get 100GB of free storage for two years. Basic Lollipop features like multi-user mode have been made more prominent, rather than languishing in far-flung menus. The list goes on, but the message is clear: LG is glad to be Google’s friend, and it wants you to know it.
Camera
Of all the things the G4 has going for it, the 16-megapixel camera lodged in its back is easily one of the best. We’re getting to the point where smartphone makers are basically itching to squeeze full-blown DSLRs into our jeans pockets, and LG’s been more candid about those ambitions than most. Why else would it rope in a professional photographer to take the G4 on a super-early tour through some of America’s most photogenic locales? Thankfully, all of that early crowing isn’t for nothing. The photos I (and my colleague James) shot over the course of the week were often brighter and crisper than the comparison shots snapped with an iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6, and the wide aperture of the f/1.8 lens meant our close-up shots had some pleasing bokeh to go with all those details.
That larger 16-megapixel sensor (think 1/2.6 inch, versus the S6’s 1/3 inch) isn’t the only thing contributing to the experience. There’s a color spectrum sensor here too, right under the LED flash bulb, and it scans what the camera’s pointed at before each shot. The idea is that by scanning a scene from both the visible and infrared portions of the spectrum, the camera can figure out that, say, a white piece of paper under a yellow light isn’t a yellow piece of paper. From there, it tries to figure out how best to tweak the white balance and exposure for a natural-looking shot. The kicker: This all just happens, without any extra input from you. I almost always kept the G4’s camera in “Simple” (no controls, just immediate shooting) or “Basic” (minimal onscreen controls) and most of the photos I rattled off looked great. Since LG’s keen on turning the G4 into something a professional photog could use on the regular, there’s a full manual mode here and the ability to shoot and export RAW photos. I mostly stayed out of the weeds, but there’s plenty of fun to be had fiddling around with ISO values and shutter speeds in search of the ultimate late-night light-painting photo.
If you want to see the G4 in its element, though, whip it out when the sun goes down. Thanks to that f/1.8 lens, the phone’s an absolute pro at sucking up photons even in the dimmest situations. There’s often a tendency for smartphones to smear the hell out of low-light photos in an effort to smooth out the visual noise, but the G4 thankfully doesn’t go overboard. Brighter, more nuanced photos like these are de rigueur for the G4, but they’re not free of flaws. Remember that color sensor? The one that’s supposed to improve the accuracy of your photos by figuring out what your subject is supposed to look like? The thing is, it sometimes works a little too hard and produces photos that are more yellow than they need to be. More often than not, this becomes an issue in low-light conditions, so you’ll have to be a little more careful when you hit that dive.
Oh, and since I’m sure the vain among you are dying to know, the 8-megapixel front-facing camera takes a mean selfie. The f/2.0 lens might not be quite as impressive as the one around the back of the phone, but it’s more than enough to capture your mug with solid fidelity. It draws light in from a wide angle, too, just in case you want to turn your selfie into a groufie, and clenching your fist twice will kick off a series of four photos, just to ensure at least one of them is usable. Throw in support for recording some crisp, clean, bright 4K video and you’ve got one of the most capable mobile shooters you can find out there. But here’s the big question: Is it better than the competition? In many ways, yes — not once did my daily driver iPhone 6 produce a photo I preferred over the G4’s attempt. I’d be more willing to give the G4 camera the nod over the Galaxy S6 if it wasn’t a little overzealous with the color correction at times, but other than that it’s a dead heat.
Performance and battery life
If you were a company looking to piece together a truly killer phone for 2015, it stands to reason you’d use the most powerful parts you could get your hands on, right? Well, that’s not exactly the conclusion that LG came to. The decision to use a Snapdragon 808 the company says is “optimized” for the G4 instead of a high-end 810 was purely about practicality. LG figured the 808 delivered performance that was similar to its cousin, but without the power/heat headaches (and for less money, to boot). That might sound like a classic case of putting profit ahead of performance, but you won’t lose out on much as a result.
The G4 did as well as you’d imagine tackling all those little day-to-day tasks that are easy to take for granted. There was virtually no delay when firing up apps and switching through them (even when I jumped around at a frenzied pace trying to throw the phone for a loop). When it comes to normal, everyday use, there’s functionally no difference between the G4 and its more powerful rivals. This last week of testing also saw plenty of poking around in the worlds of Dead Trigger 2 and Asphalt 8, which both ran at a slightly choppier frame rate than they did on the Galaxy S6 and its edgier cousin. Make no mistake: This doesn’t mean the G4 is a slug; not one bit. It just sits one rung lower than its rivals on the graphical performance ladder, which you can get a better sense for below.
| LG G4 | Samsung Galaxy S6 | HTC One M9 | LG G Flex2 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AndEBench Pro | 8,352 | 10,552 | 7,404 | N/A |
| Vellamo 3.0 | 4,065 | 3,677 | 2,874 | N/A |
| 3DMark IS Unlimited | 18,572 | 21,632 | 21,409 | 17,902 |
| SunSpider 1.0.2 (ms) | 725 | 674 | 706 | 388 |
| GFXBench 3.0 1080p Manhattan Offscreen (fps) | 15 | 25 | 22 | 18.2 |
| CF-Bench | 71,260 | 62,257 | 53,579 | N/A |
| SunSpider 1.0.2: Android devices tested in Chrome; lower scores are better. | ||||
As you might expect, Samsung’s homebrew, high-octane chipset sits pretty comfortably at the top of the charts, but the G4 easily trades blows with Snapdragon 810-powered phones when it comes to overall system performance. That more modest chipset also means the G4 is notably less prone to getting warm when pushed. The claims of Snapdragon 810s running hot enough to cook eggs were thoroughly debunked by both the warm-but-not-scalding G Flex2 and HTC One M9, but the G4 still runs noticeably cooler than both devices when you start pushing things to their limits. Of course, the other upside to having a less beefy (albeit better-tuned) processor setup is that you should see better battery performance as a result.
The party line about the Snapdragon 808’s power consumption suggests that it doesn’t need nearly as much juice as the 810 because it’s running with two fewer extra processor cores. Even that IPS Quantum screen is pegged as being a straight-up power sipper compared to the screens LG used to use. So what’s the deal here? During this last week of testing, the G4 stood up to my usual workload — chatting up storms on Slack or Hangouts, listening to lengthy tomes in Audible, playing games in the bathroom and so on — for entire workdays before it gave up the ghost. There were even a few times where, after having fallen asleep through episodes of Daredevil, I’d wake up the next day to see my phone had only just fired up its battery saver mode. On average, that worked out to between 13 and 14 hours of pretty consistent use a day before needing a trip to a power outlet — the Galaxy S6 twins, on the other hand, usually stuck around for closer to 12. When I put the G4 through the standard Engadget video-rundown test (looping a 720p video with screen brightness set to 50 percent), it lasted for 11 hours and two minutes, clearly beating the S6’s nearly nine-hour runtime.
The competition
Let’s just reiterate something quickly: I’m reviewing the Korean version, as American units aren’t ready yet. When they are, though, you can expect to shell out the typical $200-$250 with a multi-year carrier agreement, or about $650 off-contract. Naturally, there’s plenty of other hardware you could pick up for the same price. I’ve made the comparison no less than a thousand times so far, but the G4’s biggest Android-powered rival continues to be Samsung’s pair of Galaxy S6s. It’s not hard to see why. Their attractive, sturdy metal-and-glass designs are paired with high-powered Samsung-made chipsets, not to mention they both pack great cameras of their own. Collectively, they’re the first Samsung phones that have ever given the iPhone some decent competition, and that fact hasn’t been lost on consumers. The thing is, Samsung’s approach to software is a little more overwrought, where LG (fortunately) opted for a cleaner, pared-back approach.
If you’re itching for a taste of the Snapdragon 810 life, there’s always HTC’s One M9. It too will only set you back $200 with a contract, and the company’s attention to design detail means you’ll wind up with a well-built, attractive (if familiar-looking) phone. Audio quality through that pair of front-facing BoomSound speakers is no joke either, as they provide one of the best aural experiences you’ll ever find in a phone. Throw in some generous “Uh-Oh” protection that will cover the M9 in case something goes horribly wrong and you’ve got a strong contender for your dollars. Just remember: It can run a little warm at times, and the camera doesn’t really impress. Maybe that’ll be enough to tip you in favor of the G4. Oh, and speaking of LG, there’s always the G Flex2 ($300 from AT&T, $200 from Sprint). It’s got an 810 thrumming away in that bent frame too, but really, you’re mostly paying extra for the design.
Wrap-up
It might not be as technically powerful as some of LG’s other recent releases, but the G4 as a package is the most compelling the company has put out yet. From the pared-down user interface to the tight integration with Google to the strong camera performance, the G4 is a great phone… not to mention a very logical step forward from last year’s G3. That said, I’m concerned that LG hasn’t quite figured out how to get regular people excited about its hardware. The G4 is a highly respectable technical achievement, but even after using it for a week, I still don’t think it’s any more thrilling than it was when we first met. If you’re upgrading from an old clunker of an Android phone, the G4 will do everything you need and so much more. If, on the other hand, you’re coming from a G3, the mostly modest changes here might not make you feel like you’ve really gotten something new.
James Trew contributed to this review.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, LG
At £199, Google’s Nexus 9 finally makes sense
Ever since Google launched the Nexus 10, I’ve craved a decent full-size Android tablet. Sony’s Xperia slates are nice enough, but I’ve always missed the purified software experience that comes with Nexus devices. When the Nexus 9 was announced, I thought a worthy upgrade had arrived, but it quickly became clear that the hardware wasn’t up to HTC’s usual standards. The plastic back creaked and the display suffered from light leaks, while the price, which originally started at $399/£319, felt a little on the high side.
It’s been roughly six months, and now we’re starting to see some price movement for the Nexus 9 in the UK. John Lewis and Currys/PC World, for instance, currently have the 16GB model listed for £199.99. Both deals are only temporary, but they’re still significant given how long the Nexus 9 has been on the market. There’s no word on whether the price drop will ever be made permanent, but I feel like it definitely should.
You see, I like many of the ideas underpinning the Nexus 9. The brand has never been a huge seller for Google (arguably by design) but there’s a substantial group of people that want a large, premium Android tablet at an affordable price point. With its One smartphone line-up, HTC has shown that it can design beautiful hardware, and the Nexus 9 was an opportunity to marry that expertise with the release of Android 5.0 Lollipop. (The device still hasn’t been updated to Android 5.1, incidentally.) The 9-inch display’s 4:3 aspect ratio, while not to everyone’s tastes, is great for reading digital comics, magazines and browsing the web, and the front-facing speakers are well-positioned for blasting out music.
However, the Nexus 9 does have its flaws. As we’ve said before, the device can be a little awkward to hold, and the display is good enough, but not spectacular. It’s a similar story with the speakers and performance. Both are solid, but nothing exceptional. All of this is a problem when you’re being asked to shell out £319. But £199? Personally, that makes the tablet’s drawbacks less of an issue — although of course, you could argue that a flawed product will always be flawed, whether it’s being sold for £319 or £199. Google should make this price drop official, only then does the Nexus 9 start to make sense.
Source: John Lewis, PC World
Is Android losing ground to iOS in Europe?
2015 is well under way, with major Android players all announcing their flagship devices for the year. While we wait for the first sales figures to roll in, we can take a look to see how last year’s major releases shaped the current smartphone market. Kantar has just published its figures for smartphone market shares during the first quarter of 2015.
Kantar’s research finds that Apple’s iOS had continued to show growth in Europe’s five largest markets, with its share reaching 20.3 percent in March 2015, up 1.8 percent from last year. Android, on the other hand, has seen its market share slide by 3.1 percent to 68.4. This still puts Android some way out ahead of iOS in Europe, however, the implication is that iOS is gaining ground in Europe. But the trends are a little different when we break them down by country.
http://embed.chartblocks.com/1.0/?c=5549ea8fc9a61d8a10f43e0f&t=6f2cc7536cd4e16
The biggest shift towards iOS has come from Great Britain, a traditionally strong market for Apple. iOS saw its share increase by 6.9 percent over the past 12 months while Android declined 4.8 percent, showing just how important the high-end market is in Great Britain. Germany shows a similar 5.7 decline for Android and a small up-tick of 3 percent for iOS, and Italy shares a similar trend. However, France saw a decline in iOS share from 23.4 to 19.4 percent, while Android stayed mostly stable. Spain remains tightly locked in a love affair with Android.
iOS grew again in the UK, but Spain remains tightly locked in a love affair with Android.
Kantar points out that a lot of users switching to iOS are coming from Android, but this is hardly surprising given that other operating systems make up such a small percentage of the European market. Speaking of smaller players, Microsoft has seen its Windows platform grow slightly in France and Germany, while remaining stable in most of Europe’s other top 5 countries. Globally, Windows has also seen slight growth in Brazil and Australia, but Europe remains the largest market for the operating system. We’ll have to see what Windows 10 can bring to the table.
“In the first quarter of 2015, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus continued to attract consumers across Europe, including users who previously owned an Android smartphone,” – Carolina Milanesi, chief of research at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech
Turning to the global trends, we can see a more significant swing between Android and iOS in some regions. China and Japan show the largest changes, with Android’s market share dropping by 8 percent in the former. In Japan, Android has now overtaken iOS as the largest mobile operating system, growing from 41.1 to 52.3 percent over the past year, while iOS has shrunk from 57.6 percent to 45.1. Australia has seen a smaller 5 percent market shift in favour of iOS, while the USA remains virtually unchanged.
Brazil and South America are still increasingly strong markets for Android, with the OS retaining a share just shy of 90 percent. Here Windows is actually more commonly used than iOS, which has been sitting around the 3 percent mark for a while.
http://embed.chartblocks.com/1.0/?c=5549e829c9a61dfd0ff43e0f&t=95a1ed587520293
There are a couple of key global trends worth identifying here. Although we don’t have the exact sales figures, we can conclude that the launch of the iPhone 6, most likely the Plus version, has done well to give iOS a boost in some key markets.
As you may expect, typically strong iOS markets have responded well to Apple’s new handsets, and Android has suffered a little as a result. We must not forget that customers had been hoping for a larger iOS device, which was previously a product segment held exclusively by Android. Screen size was cited as the main reason for buying a particular phone by both iOS and Android buyers, at 43% and 47% respectively. However, the latest iPhones have done little to help Apple reach into more price sensitive markets, including EU markets such as France and Spain.
While some Android brands suffered from design fatigue, a larger display gave Apple customers a reason to buy
iOS growth in China is particularly interesting, given the strength of home-grown talent that has appeared in the Android space. However, as China’s economy continues to grow, demand for high-end Western brands, such as Apple, is expected to increase. Importantly, China is now driving more volume for Apple than the US.
“Thirty-five percent of consumers who bought an Android smartphone in 1Q15 said their decision was driven by receiving a good price on the phone. Another 29% said that getting a good deal on the tariff/contract was a factor in their purchase.” – Dominic Sunnebo, business unit director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Europe
For Android, emerging markets are still a particularly strong area for the OS, as the diverse range of handset manufacturers have moved to cater for budget and mid-range devices, which iOS is still not interested in. China and South America remain strong bases for Android, but we’ll have to see if this changes as the economic demographic shifts with time.
Apple continues to do what Apple does best, but it’s the Huaweis and Xiaomis that are chasing the fastest growing markets.
Sadly, Kantar doesn’t appear to have any data available for India, one of the world’s fastest growing smartphone markets, which we known is becoming increasingly saturated with low cost Android manufacturers. It would also be interesting to look at the broader European market, as this is an area where competitive Android brands, such as Huawei, were beginning to make traction last year.
Android’s surge in Japan may have come as a surprise, given that other established economic regions seemed to take to Apple’s flagships a little more last year and given the lack of appetite for Korean products in the country. Without the numbers it’s hard to say exactly which company has been responsible for this turn around, but rebranding exercises and nation specific marketing schemes may all have helped.
Looking at traditional high-end markets like the USA and Europe, there’s not been a big overall change in market positions, and we we can probably put the slight slump down to a mixed batch of high-end Android flagships last year. Brand fatigue was probably an issue, as many high-end manufacturers put out devices which were very similar to last year, while the iPhone 6 Plus was a more noticeable change for Apple customers. This year, things could be different, as Samsung and LG are changing their flagship formulas up more noticeably. Although HTC and Sony may suffer as a result of their similar designs.
Impressive early reports for Samsung’s Galaxy S6 may see a few percentage points swing back in Android’s favour
Overall, the past twelve months have been rather steady for the established Western smartphone markets, with Android and iOS exchanging a few percentage points but no major shifts in dominance. Asia is where we’ve seen the largest swings as market tastes continue to adjust, particularly in China and Japan.
Looking further ahead, 2015 could see a further shake-up in Asia, as cut-throat price competition in India and China continues to put pressure on high-end manufacturers. Saturated US and European markets are unlikely to change much, but impressive early reports for Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge may see a few percentage points swing back in Android’s favour.
If you want a closer look at Kantar’s data for worldwide smartphone sales, feel free to play around with their global data tool below.
http://www.kantarworldpanel.com/global/smartphone-os-market-share/
Google I/O 2015 schedule now live and available to view
The schedule for Google I/O 2015 is now up and available to view. As you might be familiar with from past events, Google will be kicking off the two-day event with a two-hour keynote, followed by a day filled with exciting breakout sessions!
On the website, you’ll be able to create your own custom Google I/O 2015 schedule (e.g. such as breakouts you plan on attending), and get notifications on devices you sign-in with. There’s a lot of exciting sessions to cover, so be sure to fit in as much as you can!
If you weren’t one of the lucky ones to get tickets, Google will be live streaming some of the sessions, so you won’t miss out on it entirely. There’s going to be a lot of exciting stuff going on at the event, so be sure to stay tuned to Talk Android, as we’ll be giving you the scoop as news trickles out of the event.
Are you excited for this year’s event? Be sure to let us know what you’re anticipating in the comments!
source: Google I/O
Come comment on this article: Google I/O 2015 schedule now live and available to view
Samsung’s Galaxy S6 uses ‘several’ different camera sensors
When Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S6, you might have noticed that the company stopped touting its in-house ISOCELL camera tech. Was it using relying on someone else’s sensor instead? As it turns out, the answer is yes… sort of. The Korean firm has confirmed owners’ discoveries that the rear sensor is alternately made by Samsung or Sony. There are “several different vendors” making S6 cameras, a spokesperson says, although there’s no mention of how Samsung distributes those components. Not that you’ll need to be worried, apparently. The company insists that they all meet “strict global quality and performance standards,” and SamMobile has conducted tests showing that the practical differences are slight. In short, you’ll likely get quality photos regardless of whose imaging hardware is under the hood.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung, Sony
Source: XDA-Developers
Top European countries seeing dip in Android marketshare as people switch to iOS
The Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain have reportedly seen a dip in Android marketshare given the emergence of newer iOS devices. The launch of the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus may have been a factor in users switching over from Android.
“In the first quarter of 2015, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus continued to attract consumers across Europe, including users who previously owned an Android smartphone,” said Carolina Milanesi, chief of research at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. “On average, across Europe’s big five countries during the first quarter, 32.4% of Apple’s new customers switched to iOS from Android.”
The Android marketshare saw a fall by 3.1% compared to the same period last year with the figure now standing at 68.4%. iOS on the other hand saw an increase in marketshare by 1.8%, which isn’t big, but significant nonetheless. iOS is now said to have 20.3% of the pie in Europe.
Source: Kantar World Panel
Come comment on this article: Top European countries seeing dip in Android marketshare as people switch to iOS
‘Grim Fandango Remastered’ comes to Android and iOS
The classic point-and-click adventure Grim Fandango has made its way to iOS and Android. Originally released by LucasArts, Grim Fandango was remastered by creator Tim Schafer’s Double Fine Productions for PlayStation 4, Vita, PC, Mac and Linux earlier this year. Unlike many mobile ports of traditional games, Grim Fandango‘s point-and-click gameplay should lend itself to extended plays on iPad and Android tablets quite nicely, although playing on smaller phones may prove problematic. The mobile version of the critically acclaimed game includes the re-release’s improved graphics and audio along with additional features like an optional director’s commentary.
Grim Fandango is priced at $9.99 in both Google Play and Apple’s App Store for one week only, after which it’ll be sold at $14.99. If you don’t have that kind of equipment but are still keen to play it, Double Fine is applying the same 33% discount to the game on both Steam and the PlayStation Store.
Filed under: Gaming, Mobile, Apple, Google
Source: Double Fine Productions, (Google Play), (App Store)
Kantar: Android users jumping to iOS in Europe, phablets up in a big way in the U.S.
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Some data has been released today by the Kantar Worldpanel which details the growth and decline of smartphones in the past year. Chief among their findings is that in Europe’s largest markets, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, Apple has seen incredible growth thanks to a large number of Android users jumping to iOS – according to Kantar, 32.4% of Apple’s new customers have switched from Android. And it’s not just in Europe where Apple is seeing success, it’s China too where more devices are in demand there than they are in the US. Of course, despite all this movement Android is still maintaining a huge lead in Europe at least, droping 3.1% to 68.4% market share this year. For an interactive way of seeing how each operating system is doing around the world, check out Kantar’s widget below:
http://www.kantarworldpanel.com/global/smartphone-os-market-share/Kantar’s second, probably less surprising, revelation was that phablet sales (devices over 5.5-inches) have skyrocketed in the past year, particularly in the US where it has increased from 6% to 21% of all smartphones sold. Of course, 44% of these phablets were attributed to the iPhone 6 Plus, but still represents a big growth for Android devices in the remainder of the category as well. All in all, there’s not much surprising or to be alarmed about in Kantar’s findings but it will be interesting to look back next year and see if Samsung’s flagships have changed anything after such a great early showing in 2015.
What do you think about Kantar’s findings? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Kantar (1), (2)
The post Kantar: Android users jumping to iOS in Europe, phablets up in a big way in the U.S. appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
‘Portal’ turning into a game of hyperdimensional pinball
Developer Valve legendarily has a hard time counting to “3” but that doesn’t mean getting your hands on some new Portal action is too far out of reach. It just might not be in a place you’d expect. The long-running Zen Pinball series is taking a Newell-blessed trip to the test chambers with the “Aperture Science Heuristic Portal Pinball Device” table. As you might expect, there are plenty of nods to the series, with GLaDOS passive aggressively taunting while Chell jumps through the eponymous ingresses and co-op robots ATLAS and P-Body handling multi-ball duties. It’s $2.99 for consoles, Mac and PC and $1.99 on mobile come May 25th.
If you favor Lego bricks to steel balls there’s a game for you too. As Eurogamer reports, Walmart accidentally listed a Portal expansion set for the upcoming Lego Dimensions over the weekend. None of this adds up to Portal 3 proper, sure, but it’s a triumph in its own right nonetheless.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Zen Studios, Eurogamer
Android developers will get to experiment with app prices
When you make a mobile app, you usually have to find out the hard way what will sell. You can’t fiddle with pricing for just a few people, for instance. All that could change very shortly in the Android world, however. Sources for The Information claim that Google is introducing a feature that lets Android developers try different versions of the same Google Play Store page. You could not only see different previews of the app, but different pricing — the creator could charge you $2 for that hot new game, but ask $3 from others to see if they’ll accept higher pricing.
The move could be slightly frustrating if you realize that you just paid more than someone else for the same title, but it could go a long way toward encouraging Android developers to stay aboard. They’d find out if they’re charging a fair price, and whether or not their marketing is effective in a given country. Google hasn’t confirmed that it’s going this route, but you may discover the truth soon enough given that the search firm is reportedly announcing the feature at its I/O conference later this month.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile, Google
Source: The Information
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