New Smartphones news and reviews

AS the dust settles from last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, all eyes turn to the one hi-tech category that was conspicuous by its absence of major product launches: smartphones.

But it hardly means there is little action in that market sector. The show was in effect the calm before the smartstorm.

Even as Samsung dominated the show with its giant stand featuring ground-breaking new tablets and TVs, a company executive was setting the scene for the company's next big flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S5. Lee Young Hee, executive vice-president of Samsung Mobile, confirmed that it was targeted for a March/April launch.

Vague details were revealed, such as the unsurprising fact that the S5 will have a slightly different shape to its predecessors, the S3 and S4, which are easily confused.

Confirmation of the timing and naming of the device is expected to build to fever pitch in the weeks leading to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the end of next month. However, the device will not be launched there.

Although Samsung does not traditionally launch new phones at the congress, it will be fighting for attention. Sony Mobile, in particular, is expected to invade the show with new devices.

Sony has already drawn its first line in the sand, announcing a major new smartphone. The new, large-screen XPeria T2 Ultra, launched this week, is fascinating for a number of reasons, not least the timing of its launch and its target market. It is a 15cm "phablet" that is aimed at emerging markets, hence its absence in Las Vegas.

Its pricing will be "mid-range", meaning about R5,000-R6,000 in South Africa. Sony says it was designed taking into account needs of customers in emerging markets in China, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific Rim.

"Xperia T2 Ultra will lead the category through its combination of advanced display and camera technologies," said Calum MacDougall, director of Xperia Marketing at Sony Mobile Communications. "It will bring large-screen entertainment in an amazingly portable form, and it will do it all while providing incredible value for money."

At 7.6mm thick, the T2 poses a direct challenge to Samsung's hugely successful Galaxy Note 3.0, a 5.7in phablet that measures 8.3mm.

Assuming Sony will also launch the next generation of its flagship smartphone - currently the Xperia Z1 - at the congress, this suggests the smartphone wars are no longer centred on the North American market. As Samsung's worldwide sales have shown, dominance outside the US is a great start towards global domination.

Ironically, the main smartphone action in Last Vegas came from Chinese manufacturers Huawei and Lenovo.

Lenovo continued its foray into phablets with a 5.5in device called the Vibe Z, most notable for its heavyweight 3,000mAh battery, in a 7.9mm phone. That translates into long life, yet a superbly thin phone.

Huawei went one larger, unveiling the Ascend Mate 2, a phablet with a 6.1in screen and 9.5mm thick. Its 4,050 mAh battery is the killer feature, even allowing the phone to be used to charge lesser devices.

CEO of the Huawei Consumer division Richard Yu announced that the company was targeting 80-million sales in 2014, or close to 10% of the global market.

To achieve this, it will need to make a major splash in Barcelona, or at least announce a device as ground-breaking as last year's Ascend P6, which remains the thinnest smartphone in the world.

Two embattled smartphone manufacturers, Nokia and BlackBerry, are also expected to have a strong presence in Barcelona. Both were in attendance in Las Vegas, but using the event largely for executives to hold forth on strategy.

Even as the show was ending, however, outside the US Nokia rolled out a major software update to its Lumia range of smartphones that uses the Windows Phone operating system.

The new Lumia Black, as the update is known, was released primarily in emerging markets such as China, India and South Africa. It gives users more control of the appearance of their phones and includes enhancements such as better multitasking.

Nokia is also expected to announce new devices in South Africa early next month, and will have a significant presence in Barcelona. It is not expected to compete device-for-device directly with Samsung, but the coming weeks are expected to mark the next phase in the rebirth of the brand.

* This article was first published in Sunday Times: Business Times