The best phones of CES 2013 – The Verge

Oppo’s 1080p Find 5 is its best-built phone yet

2013-01-10T18:50:46-05:00

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Oppo is one of a few companies with a 5-inch 1080p Android smartphone at CES this year. Announced back in December, the Find 5 is the Chinese manufacturer's shot at competing with the just-announced Sony Xperia Z, Huawei's Ascend D2, and ZTE's Grand S, as well as the already-available HTC Droid DNA. It's a very sleek device; measuring 8.8mm thick and finished in sturdy matte white plastic, it bears more than a passing resemblance to Sony's Xperia Ion, although its huge display means it has a slightly larger footprint. Build quality, especially when compared to older Oppo models, seems impeccable, but its 5-inch 1080p display wasn't the best. …

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Samsung shows off flexible OLED phone prototype (hands-on)

2013-01-09T14:09:37-05:00

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Samsung gave us a brief glimpse during its keynote today of its first phone using a flexible display, and now we've just had the opportunity to handle the device for ourselves. The phone, which is a nameless prototype, has a screen that falls off towards the rear edge of the device on the right side. Samsung hasn't quite figured out yet what to do with this extra screen real estate, but for now the phone displays landscape-oriented notifications along the edge. The idea is that you'll be able to read text messages, stock tickers, and other notifications from the side of the device even if you have a case covering the screen.

As you would ex …

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Russia’s dual-screened YotaPhone needs work, but shows promise

2013-01-08T22:09:24-05:00

YotaPhone dual-screened smartphone

Earlier this year, Russian company Yota revealed the YotaPhone, a dual-screened smartphone that features a unique E Ink display in addition to a standard LCD screen. We were able to spend some more time with a prototype YotaPhone today, and though it is still very rough around the edges, its unique concept is promising enough to keep us interested.

The YotaPhone runs Android, but instead of relying on the standard on-screen buttons found in Android 4.0 and later, the YotaPhone utilizes a gesture panel below the display. A full swipe right-to-left across the gesture area will bring you back to the home screen, while a half swipe replicates t …

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Lenovo’s 5.5-inch IdeaPhone K900 is powered by a dual-core Intel Atom processor

2013-01-08T21:07:38-05:00

Gallery Photo: Lenovo 5.5-inch IdeaPhone K900 hands-on photos

Lenovo has just announced the IdeaPhone K900, a 5.5-inch smartphone for the Chinese market with a dual-core Intel processor. The K900 is one of the first phones on the market with Intel's new 2GHz dual-core Atom processor, the Clover Trail+, and its display features 1080p resolution and a pixel density of over 400ppi. The phone is remarkably thin at only 6.9mm, which Lenovo claims is the thinnest for its class. Using both stainless steel and polycarbonate, the K900 is sharp and square where its competitors are soft and rounded.

Lenovo claims that it has "maximized the opportunity to be the first to market w …

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ZTE joins the 5-inch, 1080p smartphone party with the ultra-thin Grand S (hands-on)

2013-01-08T13:31:27-05:00

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It seems like every cellphone manufacturer agreed on the same set of specs for their flagship devices in the early part of 2013. ZTE's new Grand S is highlighted by a 5-inch, 1080p display, which sounds a lot like a Droid DNA or a Vizio 5-inch smartphone. Its spec sheet mirrors some other high-end phones, too: a 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor, a 13-megapixel camera, LTE, and 2GB of RAM. All that comes in a ludicrously thin 6.9mm package that's even slimmer than the Droid RAZR.

The phone has a unibody polycarbonate design that feels a little lighter than you would expect given its spec sheet, but lightness isn't necessarily a bad t …

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Sony Xperia Z / ZL: hands-on with Sony’s flagship smartphone for 2013

2013-01-07T20:09:17-05:00

Sony Xperia Z

Sony has made it a habit to introduce new smartphones at CES each year, and this year's announcement of the new Xperia Z continues that trend. The Xperia Z - and the very similar Xperia ZL - is Sony's flagship mobile device for the year, bringing high-end specs and a refined design. The Z features a 5-inch, 1080p HD display - a feature that increasingly becoming the norm among high-end Android smartphones - and powerful quad-core processor in addition to a sharp looking exterior.

Upon first glance, the Xperia Z looks like a standard slab-style touchscreen smartphone, but once you get it in your hands, you notice how square and rectangular t …

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Sony launches the 5-inch, quad-core Xperia Z into the battle for best 1080p Android phone

2013-01-07T20:01:44-05:00

Sony Xperia Z_embargo

Sony's flagship phone for 2013 has just been revealed as the Xperia Z. This 5-inch Android 4.1 device comes with a 1080p display resolution, a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor, LTE connectivity, and a brand new 13-megapixel Exmor RS camera sensor. In other words, it's specced to succeed.

The Xperia Z is unique among cutting-edge handsets in being water resistant to a depth of one meter, while also matching the Nexus 4 with glass on both its front and back. Protecting against water ingress does mean that there are plastic flaps over the Z's ports (including, annoyingly, the headphone jack), but you do at least get a microSD card slot, a …

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Huawei blurs phone and tablet lines even further with colossal 6.1-inch Ascend Mate

2013-01-07T15:50:53-05:00

ascend mate huawei

Huawei won the latest battle in the smartphone screen size arms race today, after the Chinese company finally announced its long-rumored Ascend Mate phone/tablet hybrid. The Ascend Mate is dominated by its gigantic 6.1-inch 720p display, and also features a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 2GB RAM and an 8-megapixel camera. It has "Magic Touch" technology, too which means that like Nokia's Lumia 920 you can use the phone while wearing gloves.

The phone runs Huawei's Emotion UI on top of Android Jelly Bean, and the 4050mAh battery should go some way to counteracting the presumably massive power draw from the screen. You'll also find a one-handed …

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Pantech Discover: hands-on with what may be AT&T’s best $49.99 Android phone

2013-01-07T14:13:51-05:00

discover hands on

As we noted when Pantech first announced the Discover for AT&T, it's a surprisingly high-powered phone for $49.99 on-contract. We compared it to the Galaxy S III and, well, Pantech is doing the exact same thing. In a small brochure here at AT&T's developer day, the company included a faux $150 bill to represent the money you'd save over picking Samsung's flagship. Cheeky marketing aside, it's a 4.8-inch 720p LTE smartphone running Android 4.0 with a 12.6 megapixel camera. It has two speakers for stereo that also do their level best to simulate 3D surround sound - we didn't exactly feel immersed in a sea of audio, but they were louder and les …

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Did Pantech just announce a $50 Galaxy S III? Meet AT&T’s Discover

2013-01-07T11:01:01-05:00

Pantech Discover for AT&T

AT&T has just announced the Pantech Discover, a new budget-priced Android smartphone that has more than one similarity to Samsung Galaxy S III. Matching the Galaxy S III's display with a 4.8-inch, 720p screen, the Discover also has a 12.6-megapixel camera with 1080p video support, built-in NFC, and the obligatory support for AT&T's 4G LTE network. It is also powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and has a 2,100mAh battery.

The Discover features Pantech's custom user interface on top of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and it has the company's Easy Experience settings for first-time smartphone buyers and AT&T's DriveMode app, which is said …

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