Author: Clinton

Today at Mobile World Congress, Sony announced the much anticipated Sony Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact.  The two new devices mark a significant departure in Sony’s previous phone designs with far smaller bezels and 18:9 ratio displays.

Internally, the two devices are virtually identical.  They are powered by the Snapdragon 845 SoC, have 4GB of RAM and have 64GB of storage built-in.  That storage can be expanded up to 400GB thanks to the MicroSD card slot.  Both have a 19MP f/2.0 rear camera that can shoot an incredible 960 fps slow motion video, and a 5MP f/2.2 selfie camera on the front.

At Mobile World Congress today, Lenovo has announced an expansion of their education ready Chromebooks.  The company introduced the 100e, 300e and 500e devices with the entry level 100e starting at just $219.  All three devices are ruggedized and two of the models have touchscreens.

The 100e is the entry level model and is the only non-touchscreen device.  It is powered by a dual-core Celeron N3350 CPU with 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and an 11.6″ display.   It has two USB 3.0 ports as well as two USB-C ports for charging.

While Chrome OS is Linux based at heart, it is currently not able to run Linux apps or development tools natively.  There are workarounds out there but they generally require you to put your Chromebook in Developer mode which bypasses many of the security features of the platform – not ideal for the everyday users.

That is what makes a new commit found in the Chrome OS Gerrit so exciting.  The commit suggests that support for Linux VMs (Virtual Machines) could be coming to the platform.  This would allow users to run popular Linux-based apps on their Chromebooks without having to change out of the Stable channel or bypass security features of the platform.

There is no debate that the Google Pixelbook is a premium device.  Not only does the $999 starting price tag give that away, but the overall design of the machine itself screams premium.  It could well be the most attractive – dare I say sexy? – laptop on the market today, regardless of platform.

Google launched the Pixelbook, and the accompanying Pixelbook Pen in October 2017 with the launch of the Pixel 2 phone lineup.  At the time, and still today, many scoffed at the idea of a $1000 Chromebook, citing previous web-only experiences with Chrome OS.  But the world, and Chrome OS, has changed.  No longer does the platform require a constant connection to be functional and add to that the native Android app support of the Pixelbook, you have a device that can serve many purposes in your day-to-day life at work and at home.

The question for the Pixelbook, and really any Chromebook, is can it meet your needs?  I suspect that for the vast majority of readers, it will hit the 90-95% of what you need.  The question is can you live without the other 5-10% or compromise to make it work on this device?  That’s something I can’t answer for you as everyone’s 5-10% is different.

Recently I received a Google Pixelbook to review.  After spending a couple of weeks with it as my primary laptop device (as well as my Android tablet), I’m nothing short of impressed.  No the Pixelbook is not perfect but it is close.  Really close.

Actually, I should clarify that statement.  The Pixelbook, from a hardware perspective, is second-to-none.  The only limitations are with Chrome OS itself.  And with the additional features that are coming in future Chrome OS builds, that will change.

As expect, Samsung has announced the all new Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ at Mobile World Congress today.  The two flagship devices are solid upgrades to last year’s S8 series with the S9+ having some unique features over the standard S9.

The S9 and the S9+ are both powered by the Snapdragon 845 here in the US, with the S9 having 4GB of RAM and starting with 64GB of storage.  You can go up to 256GB on that built-in storage on both devices but, the S9+ will have 6GB of RAM on board.

The Galaxy S9 has a 12MP rear facing camera while the S9+ has a dual camera configuration with an adjustable aperture.  The S9 is powered by a 3000mAh battery behind the 5.8″ QHD Super AMOLED display while the 6.2″ S9+ will have a slight bigger 3500mAh battery.

Today has been a busy day for Nokia at Mobile World Congress.  Not only did they announce their first entry into the Android Go program, the Nokia 1, but they also announced three other devices that are a part of the Android One program.  Along with the Nokia 6 (2018) and Nokia 7 Plus, the company announced the new Nokia 8 Sirocco and it is clearly aiming for flagship status.

Sporting a 5.5″ QHD pOLED display with rounded edges, the Nokia 8 Sirocco provides a premium experience and performance.  It is powered by the Snapdragon 835 SoC and is coupled with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.  It will come with Android Oreo out of the box and, because it is part of the Android One program, it will come with a pure Android experience.