Acer isn't just launching the Liquid E3 at MWC 2014. It's got another, smaller sibling that reckons it can fit in just about any pocket you own.

The Acer Liquid Z4 is all about being compact, affordable and as friendly to as many user demographics as possible. It wants to offer total one-handed control at a decent price, and for the most part it succeeds.

At 9.7mm thick, the Z4 sits nice and cosy in the hand and actually feels quite solid despite its budget look - though it certainly doesn't feel "premium".

But for €99 (about £82, $136) - and with a dual-core 1.3GHz processor and 512MB of RAM - you know you're in budget territory, so this isn't a huge criticism.

In a time of growing screens, this is a phone still made very much with your pockets in mind. This makes for a bit of a cramped typing experience at the expense of a more compact device, however. So its worth bearing in mind the trade-off here.

The 4-inch screen is much less agreeable in picture quality, with the 800 x 480 resolution making for a blotchy, pixellated experience. Colours look washed out, particularly when you're using it in a well-lit room.

The 5MP rear camera camera with flash isn't bad for a low-budget phone like this. We had a go at taking some pictures with Acer's camera app and the quality seemed reasonable, although it was hard to appreciate it on that screen.

That said, we'd need to spend more time with it to get a better picture...

Also on the rear is the same Acer Rapid button found on the Liquid E3. This can be assigned to open any app with a short press, while a longer press will start the camera app. Both of these, however, can be turned off if you so wish.

It follows in the footsteps of the LG G2, and its usefulness will most likely depend on how you hold your phone. Having a shortcut button on the front probably still makes more sense, but that's just my opinion.

The phone comes running Android 4.2.2 (which had enough zip when we used it) along with Acer's Liquid UI on top, the biggest change being Quick Modes. As with the E3, this allows you to tailor the Android experience to who's using the phone.

If it's granddad, you can make icons bigger and the more useful feature most easily accessible. Or for young children, you can restrict the phone's functions to basic calling and texting, if you so wish.

Early verdict

It's not going to win any spec battles, but the Z4 could prove to be pretty popular with its low price point. And with screen sizes getting bigger and bigger, it's interesting to see Acer putting out something that goes against the tide.

Source : techradar[dot]com

If you're stuck looking for a new phone, you will likely have stumbled across many-a-Samsung handset, including both the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini and Galaxy S4 Mini. Both handsets are still proving incredibly popular, so which one should you choose?

Samsung began the rewriting of the mid-range handset market in 2012 with the launch of the Galaxy S3 Mini, a cut down version of its immensely popular Galaxy S3 flagship. This was to be followed a year later with the launch of Galaxy S4 Mini to accompany the upgraded Galaxy S4.

The Galaxy S3 Mini and S4 Mini are handsets born of the same idea, with stripped down specs from their bigger brothers, but equally both come with a much smaller and more palatable price tag.

If you're going to tie yourself into a contract for the next two years, or fork over your hard-earned money for a new device, you're going to want to make sure you've got the right device. Thankfully, we've created this handy guide to give you a run through of the key features of Samsung's baby flagships.

Design

It should be of no surprise that both the Galaxy S3 Mini and S4 Mini follow in the same design natures that were begun with the full fat Galaxy S3 and S4 flagships.

Samsung completely overhauled its mobile design with the Galaxy S3 removing the hard industrial edges of the ageing S2 and replacing them with a curvier nature-inspired pebble design.

This was a design continued and shrunk down with the Galaxy S3 Mini resulting in a more diminutive handset that sits nicely in one hand whilst leaving no hard edges that can make holding a phone a little more unpleasant.

Samsung's curvier design nature was also carried forward the to the Galaxy S4 flagship and consequently the Galaxy S4 Mini.

Measuring 121.6 x 63 x 9.9m, the Galaxy S3 Mini tips the scales at 111.5 g allowing it to sit in the pocket relatively unnoticed. More elongated than the Galaxy S3 Mini, the Galaxy S4 Mini measures at 124.6 x 6.3 x 8.9mm and also weighs only 107g.

Both handsets provide a nice alternative to their larger brothers, sitting more comfortably in one hand than their larger-screened equivalents.

Screen

One of the reasons for the larger footprint of the Galaxy S4 Mini is that it packs a slightly larger screen. Where the Galaxy S3 Mini comes with a 4-inch screen, the Galaxy S4 Mini comes with a 4.2-inch display and also packs an increased resolution; 540 x 960 compared to 480 x 800.

Despite the extra screen space, this gives the Galaxy S4 Mini a slightly increased pixel density of 256ppi to the 233ppi of the S3 Mini and gives it the edge for watching YouTube videos and browsing the web.

On the whole, both the Galaxy S3 Mini and Galaxy S4 Mini come with relatively similar screens as they both pack in the Super AMOLED technology that has made Samsung handsets so popular.

Neither handset is ideal for those that plan on watching a wide range of films, the lower screen resolutions certainly don't lend themselves to HD movies, but both are more than sufficient for texting and web browsing.

Camera

One of the more noticeable differences between the Galaxy S3 Mini and Galaxy S4 Mini is the size of the camera sensors that adorn the rears of the mini devices, as well as the forward facing sensors that capture those all important selfies.

Samsung fitted the Galaxy S3 Mini with a smaller 5MP offering, cut down from the 8MP Galaxy S3 although still allowing it to capture decent images.

Where the Galaxy S4 took an upgrade from 8MP to 13MP, the Galaxy S4 Mini also took an upgrade in size, shipping with an 8MP sensor.

On the front of the Galaxy S3 Mini comes a VGA snapper, again smaller than the 1.9MP offering of the Galaxy S4 Mini. If you're really into Snapchat or sharing self portraits via other social media, the added pixels on Galaxy S4 Mini will eventually prove to be invaluable.

The Galaxy S4 Mini also benefits from a whole new camera app that brings a whole raft of features that take a lot of the complications out of snapping a candid image. Samsung has given the S4 Mini the Auto, Best Photo, Continuous Shot, Best Face, Sound & Shot, Rich Tone (HDR), Panorama, Sports and Night modes found in the Galaxy S4.

That's not to say that the Galaxy S3 Mini misses out, coming with its own tricks. Equipped with Smile Shot and Buddy Photo Share, these allow you to capture an image as soon as the subject smiles, as well as instantaneous capture and tagging of friends photos to make social sharing that bit easier.

For video recording, both the Galaxy S3 Mini and Galaxy S4 Mini are able to record HD images, although this is 720p on the S3 Mini as opposed 1080p on the S4 Mini.

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Inside, colours are warmer and increased levels of detail are noticeable, especially on the label.

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Colour reproduction is much more impressive on the Galaxy S4 Mini, with much higher contrast levels and more detail in the leaves.

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Again, colours appear richer on the shot taken by the S4 Mini. There is noticeably more detail in the background too, rather than disappearing into a bright patch.

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Colours appear richer with greater contrast, with the Galaxy S4 Mini capturing more detail in the brick work.

Source : techradar[dot]com

Its 2014 and the world that we all know, the one is connected by miles and miles of cabling, is all changing. The world of Wi-Fi has taken over to spread internet love without wires and is proving immensely popular - but that doesn't make it the best way to connect devices.

Wouldn't it be great if you could effortlessly connect your Wi-Fi-enabled devices without messing around with access points and lengthy passphrases? That's what Wi-Fi Direct promises.

Here we explain just what Wi-Fi Direct is and why you should be paying attention to it; it does an awful lot today that maybe you just didn't realise.

Wi-Fi Direct doesn't need a wireless access point

Wi-Fi Direct devices can connect to each other without having to go through an access point, that is to say you don't need to use your router.

This is because Wi-Fi Direct devices establish their own ad-hoc networks as and when required, letting you see which devices are available and choose which one you want to connect to.

If you think that sounds very like Bluetooth, that's because it is... only a lot faster.

Wi-Fi Direct is an official standard

It comes via the Wi-Fi Alliance, the global industry association in charge of certifying Wi-Fi kit. This means that you can be sure that any Wi-Fi Direct enabled technology has been set to work with all the others without the need for special hardware.

Wi-Fi Direct is Wi-Fi without the internet bit

The idea behind Wi-Fi Direct is that simple tasks need simple connections. Lets sat you want to print from your laptop or smartphone to a wireless printer, share images with someone sat across the room, or even send your holiday video from your phone to your TV.

None of these things require an active internet connection, or an internet connection at all, but they do need to connect - to the printer, or to the other person's hardware, or to the TV. With Wi-Fi Direct, that bit's easy.

Wi-Fi Direct uses Wi-Fi Protected Setup

Much like you have password protection on your home network, you don't want any Thomas, Richard or Henry to be able to connect to your stuff. You won't want to see what the neighbours are beaming to their TV on your TV nor do you want them being able to use your printer.

In order to prevent this, Wi-Fi Direct uses Wi-Fi Protected Setup [PDF] and WPA2 to prevent unauthorised connections thus keeping your communications private.

Pairing devices can be done in multiple ways; physical buttons - "press the button on gadget X and then the same one on gadget Y", with PIN codes, QR Codes or even NFC.

Wi-Fi Direct knows what's nearby

Wi-Fi Direct includes two potentially useful things: Wi-Fi Direct Device Discovery and Service Discovery. Devices won't just know there are devices available; if developers have enabled it, your device will know what kind of devices are nearby and what's on offer.

This means that if you're trying to display an image, you'll only see devices that you can beam images to; if you want to print, you'll only see devices that are or that are connected to printers.

Crucially this can happen before you connect, so you don't waste any time trying to connect so something that doesn't do what you want it to do.

Wi-Fi Direct uses the same silicon

Manufacturers don't need to add extra radios to their kit: the idea is to have Wi-Fi Direct as part of the standard Wi-Fi radio. It's backwards compatible too, so you don't need to throw out your old Wi-Fi-enabled kit.

The Wi-Fi alliance currently claims that more than 1,100 devices have been certified since October 2010, including televisions, smartphones, printers, PCs and tablets.

Wi-Fi Direct is in DLNA, iOS, Android and BB OS and even your new Xbox

In November 2011, the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) announced that it was including Wi-Fi Direct in its interoperability guidelines. Since then Google has added Wi-Fi Direct support to all versions of Android since Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Samsung has included Wi-Fi Direct since Android 2.3 on the Galaxy S2, although required to only connect to other Samsung devices. DLNA streaming is now common in every modern flagship including the HTC One, LG G2 and Sony Xperia Z1.

Wi-Fi Direct is even found inside the iPhone 5S having been baked into iOS7 in the form of Air Drop. Not keen on missing out, BlackBerry has updated its OS BB10.2.1 to include Wi-Fi Direct and even screen mirroring through Miracast has Wi-Fi Direct running underneath.

Even the new Xbox One comes equipped with the Wi-Fi Direct allowing it to connect to your smartphone or tablet allowing apps like SmartGlass to work a little quicker and a lot easier.

Source : techradar[dot]com

As well as the Yoga HD+, Lenovo has announced three new phones here at MWC 2014 including this - a new flagship handset in its S Series available in both titanium and white finishes.

Slotting in above the S850 and S660 (which I've also checked out - be patient!) is this beauty of a handset which, like many high-end smartphones before it, promises all day batter life.

However, with a whopping 4,000MHa battery, the handset can actually live up to its claim.

Because the battery is larger than most, the S860 supports on-the-go charging of other devices using the microUSB cable that comes included with the handset.

As you can see the device has a brushed aluminum back surrounding the camera, flash and logo.

Sorry about the sticky tape that was attached to the device I photographed - the handset had been attached to the stand and I had to rip it off to take a decent look at it. And, as with everything at Mobile World Congress, the device was tethered to the booth.

Disappointingly, the large 5.3-inch screen isn't Full HD, with only a 720p resolution, but the colour reproduction on the IPS display is netherless superb. Core specs aren't staggering, but they are competitive with much of the market, with a quad-core 1.3GHz MediaTek processor joined by 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, 8 megapixel rear snapper and 1.6 megapixel front cam.

I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the snapper, which could capture some really decent shots even under the bright lights of the Lenovo booth.

The side features the familiar volume up/down and on/standby controls while the headphone jack is on top.

There's no microSD slot in the S860, but there is support for two SIM cards instead - ideal for regular travellers who need access to more than one network. You can view the network status of both SIM cards in the notifications area.

That amount of power should provide at least 24 hours of 3G talk time – but of course it's the other net-connected features that use up power on our smartphones.

Android 4.2 Jelly Bean is shipped as standard, but the Lenovo attendant suggested there was no reason why it couldn't get KitKat in future. As you'd expect there are all the familiar Android apps, but everything is presented with the typical Lenovo Android overlay.

The device also includes numerous built-in Lenovo apps for sharing between Lenovo devices, backing up your contacts and keeping your device secure.

Early verdict

The Lenovo S860 is a really lovely handset with a few features that will make it compelling to certain users - notably the dual-SIM support, long battery life and ability to charge other devices are all features to attract regular business travellers. The lack of a Full HD display is surprising compared to other models around, but isn't necessarily a disaster.

Source : techradar[dot]com

After getting our eyes up close to the HTC Desire 816, we couldn't wait to go one step further and actually touch the damn thing. So that's exactly what we did, and there was nothing you could have done to stop us.

In case you missed it, HTC announced its mid-range phablet at MWC, and aside from the naff name, the phone brought made pretty agreeable promises along with its 5.5-inch screen.

But the most notable thing about the Desire 816 probably isn't the size - it's that plastic, glossy finish. HTC told us that this was (as you might expect) a decision to keep the price down, but while "plastic fantastic" might send you running away, let us assure you that it actually feels pretty good.

Size-wise, the Desire 816 site between the HTC One and the HTC One Max, the latter of which will be too unwieldy for some - the 816 is the perfect answer for smaller hands.

Meanwhile, the glossy, plastic coat feels more premium than we initially expected. The comparisons with the iPhone 5C (especially the red) are inescapable, but on a bigger device these curves are much more appreciated by our hands.

We only got to try out the white version, but the handset will also be touching down in black, orange, dark blue, grey and green.

The handset we played with was running Sense 5.5 (no sign of Sense 6 just yet) but we wanted to make sure that the UI was running as fast as expected with the 1.6GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor and 1.5GB of RAM. The good news: it very much was.

The eager-eyed among you will already have noticed the lack of capacitive buttons. HTC has moved these on-screen, just as it's rumoured to be doing with the New HTC One. Hinty hinty.

Of course, we don't know how demanding Sense 6 will be when it appears, but HTC has said that the Desire 816 will arrive with the next UI onboard. What we do know is that 5.5 was performing beautifully during our demo.

We weren't able to test them out, but the front-facing Boomsound speakers make a welcome return on the 816. We certainly don't suspect the quality will be a problem there but you'll have to wait for our full review to find out.

We did, however, have a quick go with the rear 13MP camera, which is an impressive feat for a mid-range handset such as this - as is the 5MP camera on the front.

You're going to want a decent screen to show those high-quality snaps off, and the Desire's 1280 x 720 pixel-resolution display is lovely and rich. Combine that with the 8GB of storage - expandable via microSD - and the Desire 816 makes for a pretty decent multimedia device.

Early verdict

It's hard to know just how good the performance of the Desire 816 will be without trying it with HTC's as-yet-unannounced Sense 6, but we're liking everything so far. The best news is that the build quality doesn't feel cheap despite the plastic back, and we can see this being a solid option for anyone who doesn't want to quite stretch their fingers to the HTC One Max.

Source : techradar[dot]com