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At IFA in Berlin this morning, Sony pulled back the covers on the all new Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact.  This 4.6″ phone, running on Android Oreo, is the follow up device for last year’s Xperia X Compact.  That phone was one of the best I reviewed for last year and it is great to see Sony continuing the compact phone in this day of phablets.

The new Xperia XZ1 Compact has a 4.6″ full HD display (1920 x 1080) and is powered by the Snapdragon 835 SoC and coupled with the Adreno 540 GPU.  It has 4GB of RAM and has 64GB of storage.  That storage can be expanded up to an additional 256GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.

One of the more anticipated phones of the second half of 2017 is finally here.  The LG V30 was announced at IFA 2017 in Berlin this morning and it has all the specifications you would expect for a flagship device.

The LG V30 is 151.7 x 75.4 x 7.39mm &  weighs 158g.  That’s 5.97 x 2.96 x .29 inches & 5.57 ounces in old money.  The 6″ display is a QHD P-OLED display that renders 2880 x 1440 in a 18:9 ratio.  That gives you a very eye comforting 538ppi.    LG refers to the display as FullVision which is their term for a near bezel-less experience.  The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 835 SoC with 4GB of RAM.  This is coupled with either 64GB or 128GB of storage depending on the variant you pick up.  That storage can be expanded up to an additional 2TB thanks to the MicroSD slot.

Microsoft’s personal assistant, Microsoft Cortana, has a new update rolling out in the beta channel this morning.  The new beta build is version 2.9.3 and while it doesn’t bring new features, it does bring a lot of performance improvements and stability to the app.

The update outlines three key areas of focus in the release notes:

• Improved app performance
• Stabilized the app
• Fixed several crash bugs

While that isn’t overly exciting, the fact is that Microsoft has been working pretty hard on getting Cortana solid for Android.  Having tested out this new beta build this morning, I can say it is much faster than the current stable channel build and seems to be far more reliable.

Acer has announced today that a new Acer Chromebook 15 is coming in October.  The newest addition to their Chromebook lineup will come in two variants, a non-touchscreen and touchscreen, will have up to 12 hours of battery life, a Full HD display and now sports an all aluminum chassis.  It is a big step up from the current generation of Acer 15″ Chromebook.

The new Chromebook 15 will have 1920 x 1080 resolution 15.6″ IPS display and has MacBook Pro style upward facing speakers next to the keyboard.  It has USB-C connectivity for charging, a SD card slot that supports up to a 128GB card.