Today we take a look at what Sony, LG, Asus and Lenovo are expected to bring to the Mobile World Congress:
Sony
Sony, according to the rumour mills, will have a showcase booth instead of a keynote. The company had a particularly bad time towards the end of last year after hacker group Guardians of Peace carried out a massive Cyber attack on its servers. The group claimed that it had 100TB of data from the company, and began releasing chunks of information. In one such leak, it ended up leaking out confidential emails between Sony employees. One victim of that leak was a mail which was a marketing pitch for the Xperia Z4 in the upcoming James Bond movie, containing photo attachments of the device.
Most of the content of the email talked about budgeting fees for the product placement of Sony Xperia Z4 and future phones in the movie. The Xperia Z4 renders showed a change in the design philosophy, going with a flatter approach, and a mirrored back and front design along with bevelled edges.
But according the buzz in the industry, Sony may not really have a big announcement at the MWC or launch the Xperia Z4 for that matter. It is most likely slated for a summer launch.
That hasn’t stopped people from discussing the specifications of the device though.
For starters, it is most likely expected to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC. As regards the display, there are two rumours going around – that it will sport either a 5.5-inch Quad HD display or a 5.2 inch full HD display. There are also rumours that the Xperia Z4 will support Qi wireless charging and will come with improved waterproofing. On the camera front, the most likely candidate appears to be Sony’s own 21MP EXMOR RS IMX230 stacked CMOS sensor.
According to the press release, this sensor will start shipping in April 2015, so that may be another indicator that the Xperia Z4 may indeed not be announced at MWC. Apart from the Xperia Z4, Sony is expected to release the Xperia Z4 Tablet, Xperia Z4 Compact and Xperia Z4 Ultra.
LG
Just like Sony, there are speculations that LG too will stay away from launching its next flagship smartphone – the LG G4 – at MWC. LG launched the G Flex 2 at CES just last month, so it sort of makes sense to keep some gap between that and the G4 launch.
However, some leaks suggest that the LG G4 will come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset, and the heating issues with the Snapdragon 810 might be one reason why the launch of the G4 will likely be delayed. It will come with a 16MP rear camera, will keep the Quad HD resolution on the display whose size is expected to be over 5-inches. Just like the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, the LG G4 is also expected to come with a stylus.
LG will also unveil a new range of budget smartphones at the upcoming event which will take place early next month. The devices are better known as LG Magma, LG Spirit, LG Leon and LG Joy and will all run on Android 5.0 Lollipop. You can read about each of those devices here. This wouldn’t technically be a rumour, as LG has already sent out a press release regarding these phones to international sites. So expect to see these at Barcelona.
The company is most likely going to release its next gen smartwatch codenamed LG Watch Urbane. The device closely resembles the company’s LG G Watch R which was launched in October 2014.
The new device will also sport a full circular Plastic OLED (P-OLED) display with a natural leather strap that can be replaced with any other 22mm wide band. It offers a stainless steel body which is available in polished silver and gold finish variants. The LG Watch Urbane will also have a thinner profile to target both men and women.
President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company Juno Cho said that, “LG Watch Urbane is an important part of our strategy to develop wearable devices that are worn and viewed as everyday accessories, not electronic gadgets.”
The LG Watch Urbane features a touch-based user interface that is compatible with smartphones running Android 4.3 and above. The 1.3-inch display will have a resolution of 320 x 320 pixels along with a 245ppi. It will also feature a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor. The smartwatch will have a built in storage of 4GB and will sport 512MB RAM. It measures 45.5 x 52.2 x 10.9mm.
Asus
Just like LG, Asus had also launched quite a lot of its phones including the 4GB RAM and 3x optical zoom sporting Zenfone 2. We haven’t really heard much rumours about the phones themselves. But according to a report in GigaOm, Asus is all set to launch its Vivo Watch smartwatch which will most likely run Microsoft software. According to the report, Asus had applied for a "Asus Vivo Watch" trademark in January, according to which the watch could monitor the wearer’s heart rate and exchange this data with a mobile device which is paired with the watch.
Another report suggests that Bluetooth SIG has certified an Asus VivoWatch for various Bluetooth 4.0 functionalities. It describes the watch as a ‘health watch which can detect heart rate and sleep data.’ The Vivo branding has been used by Asus for its Windows OS based mini PCs as well as for VivoTab line. So it is most likely that the VivoWatch will continue the tradition and be Asus’s first Windows based smartwatch. We will have to wait for MWC to see if this is indeed true.
Lenovo
If rumours are to be trusted, Lenovo is expected to expand its Vibe series line with a plethora of launches. According to a report in GSMArena, Lenovo is supposed to show off a range of phones named Lenovo Vibe S1, Vibe X3, Vibe P1, Vibe P1 Pro and the Vibe Max.
The Lenovo Vibe Max will be powered by a 64-bit Snapdragon 615 SoC along with 3GB of RAM. It is expected to come with 32GB internal storage and has support for microSD cards as well. The Vibe Max is expected to be the successor of the Vibe Z2 Pro and will have a 6-inch Quad HD display as well along with a stylus and a fingerprint sensor.
Image: MXphone.com
The Lenovo Vibe X3 will feature a 5.5-inch full HD display and stereo speakers. It will come with Lenovo Hi-Fi 3.0 software. It comes in a metallic frame and has a fingerprint sensor below the rear camera. The rear camera is expected to have a 20.7MP resolution.
The Vibe S1 will come in multiple colours such as pink, aqua blue, purple and is addressed at the younger generation. It is speculated to have a higher megapixel front-facing camera for selfie enthusiasts. There aren’t much details out on the hardware.
The Lenovo Vibe P1 and P1 Pro will come with LTE and 64-bit octa-core processors. While the Vibe P1 will house a 4,000 mAh battery, the P1 Pro is expected to come with 5,000 mAh battery.
All the phones leaked above will come with the Android 5.0 Lollipop OS according to speculations.
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