More and more smartphone owners are using their devices as entertainment systems and cameras, and at Mobile World Congress it is clear that smartphone makers get the picture. HTC Corp. is unveiling three new Android 4.0 phones, all of which feature its proprietary ImageChip for photos and Beats Audio as a universal feature. Sony’s newest offerings, the Xperia P and Xperia U, both allow users to access the camera directly from sleep mode with one touch, and offer direct access to Sony’s vast library of music and movies. And Samsung says its newest phone, the Galaxy Beam, can display an image onto a screen up to 50 inches wide with its built-in projector.
HTC’s flagship offering is the One X. In the U.S. the phone will be offered on AT&T’s 4G LTE network and will be powered by a Qualcomm dual-core S4 processor, while versions offered in other countries will use Nvidia’s Tegra 3 quad-core processor running at 1.5GHz. The One X can take video and still pictures at the same time, and will be sold with an optional dongle that will allow users to wirelessly project the content on the phone’s 4.7 inch screen onto an HDMI TV screen. The HTC One line is also integrated with Dropbox, giving users a convenient way to store and share photos and videos.
The HTC One S, which will be offered by T-Mobile on its HSPA network, is HTC’s thinnest phone yet. Under the hood, it is a lot like the higher-end One X. Both are powered by Qualcomm’s 1.5 GHz S4 dual-core processor and HTC’s proprietary ImageChip for photos. Both feature Beats Dr. Dre audio as a universal setting. The One S is smaller than the One X, but with its 4.3 inch screen it still offers more screen than many competitors. PC Magazine’s Sascha Segan liked it better than the One X.
The lower-end One V has a 3.7-inch screen, and will be available through several U.S. carriers including T-Mobile. It runs a single-core Qualcomm S2 processor, and the ImageChip for photos. Sure to be the most affordable of the three, the One V won a very positive review from TechCrunch this morning.
HTC says its three new phones will begin shipping globally in April.
Sony’s Xperia P and Xperia U are also going on sale in the second quarter. Both new phones run the ST-Ericsson NovaThor U8500 processor, an ARM dual-core processor that features dual multimedia DSP for low-power, flexible media processing. Both phones will launch on Android 2.3 with an upgrade to Android 4.0 available in the second quarter. The Xperia P has a 4.0 inch screen and the Xperia U has a 3.5 inch screen. The Xperia P has a 8 megapixel camera and HD video capture, and the Xperia U has a 5 megapixel camera with HD video capture.
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