Tag: Android Phone

Over at Amazon you can still pick up the Nextbit Robin for $149.   I reviewed the Robin a few months ago and at the time I said it was a pretty good deal at $299.  At $149, it is one of the best deals on a phone with these specs out there right now.  Over the holidays the phone was $169 on Amazon so this price drop makes it the lowest price the phone has ever been available.

For those that don’t recall, the Nextbit Robin has some great features and offers a unique device-meets-cloud storage solution.  It has 32GB of onboard storage merged with 100 GB online storage, so you always have the space you need. Robin seamlessly backs up your apps and photos, intelligently archives the stuff you’re not using, and easily restores items when you need them.  The idea is that you never run out of space.  Those less used apps are backed up into the cloud but then are instantly available when you want them.  You’ll know an app has been backed up into the cloud as it will be grey on your Robin.  You can read my review of the Robin to see all my thoughts on this great little phone.  I also think it is perhaps one of the most underrated phones of 2016.

As expected, T-Mobile has opened up the pre-order window on their site for the new LG G6.  The phone’s dedicate page on the carrier’s site went live this morning and those interested can order one with zero-down and $26 per month on approved credit.  It buying it outright is your thing, it will be $650.  Earlier this week I posted that if you order your new G6 before April 30th, LG will provide you a Google Home to go along with your phone.  That will ship separately but you will have Google Assistant on your phone and in your home.

The LG G6 was announced last month at Mobile World Congress and has already caught a lot of people’s attention with its 5.7″ display that has an 18:9 aspect ratio. Having held a near-final version of the phone, it feels long in your hand but is comfortable.

Today’s Deal is on the all new BLU Life One X2 Mini.  This new 5″ phone was announced on Friday and for a phone priced at $180, it is reasonably well appointed.  BLU has made a name for themselves for offering good spec’d phones at a reasonable price and the X2 Mini is another example of this go-to-market strategy.  The 5″ X2 Mini has a curved Full HD display that renders at 1080 x 1920.  That gives you roughly 435 ppi for excellent color and detail while being easy on the eyes.  The display is protected by Gorilla glass 3 while the chassis of the phone itself is made of solid aluminium construction.

Internally, the phone is powered by the Octa-Core Snapdragon 430 processor running at 1.4GHz.  It is coupled with 4GB of RAM and has 64GB of internal storage.  That storage can be expanded a further 64GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.  The phone is sold unlocked at a Dual-SIM configuration that supports a wide range of GSM and LTE bands here in the United States.  You should be able to run this phone on the likes of AT&T, T-Mobile and Cricket to name a few.  Unfortunately for Verizon and Sprint customers, this phone is not compatible with your service.  Here are the frequencies

BLU Life One X2 Mini

and bands that the X2 Mini supports:

• 4G LTE, (2/4/7/12/17)
• 4G HSPA+ (850/1700/1900/2100)

Powering all of this is a 2,300mAh battery that recharges via a MicroUSB cable.  The phone supports Quick Charge 3.0 technology for rapid charging.  For security, the X2 Mini has a fingerprint scanner

Rounding out the specs of the BLU Life One X2 Mini is a solid camera configuration.  The main camera is a 13MP shooter with PDAF (Phase-Detection Auto Focus) while the front facing selfie camera is an 8MP shooter with a wide-angel and a flash.  Front flashes are a bit rare still so it’s nice to see it pop up on a budget friendly device like this one.

If there is one knock on the X2 Mini it likely will be that it ships with Android Marshmallow and not Nougat.  Even for a budget phone this is a bit of a head scratcher.

Currently the X2 Mini is available for $179.99 in Gold, Rose Gold and Grey.  If you are an Amazon Prime customer, shipping is free and all three colors at the time of this post were in stock.  To get more details & to order, head over to Amazon.

The new LG G6 is coming to T-Mobile on April 7th.  The carrier announced that the latest LG flagship would be coming to them at a price of $26 per month for 24 months & a $26 down payment.  That roughly works out to $650 for the phone which is about what expected to the street price.  The G6 has already caught a lot of people’s attention with its 5.7″ display that has an 18:9 aspect ratio. Having held a near-final version of the phone, it feels long in your hand but is comfortable.

The specs of the LG G6 are solid.  It is powered by the Snapdragon 821 processor and is coupled with 4GB of RAM.  Storage wise, it has 32GB onboard which can be expanded up to an additional 256GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.  It is powered by a 33oomAh battery and supports Quick Charge 3.0 technology for rapid charging.  The G6 has a fingerprint scanner in the back which is also the

LG G6

physical power button for the device.   Finally, do remember that the G6 is the first phone to ship with Google Assistant out-of-the-box and runs Android Nougat 7.0.

For those of you who are wanting to pick up the G6, if you place your order at T-Mobile before April 30th, you will also get a Google Home at no additional cost.  That’s a $129 value so not a bad deal at all.  Head over to T-Mobile to get all the details.

Today’s Deal is on a great phone that I reviewed a few months ago.  The Sony Xperia X Compact has a lot of punch in a little package and right now, it is on sale for $364 at Amazon.  Normally this 4.6″ phone is $499, so this is a healthy amount of savings.  It is powered by the Snapdragon 650 hexa-core processor.  It has four 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53 cores &  two 1.8 GHz Cortex-A72 cores.  The processor is coupled with the Adreno 510 GPU which provides good graphics performance.  The X Compact has 3GB of RAM onboard and has 32GB of built-in storage.  That storage can be expanded up to an additional 256GB thanks to the Micro SD slot that is built into the SIM tray of the phone.

Display wise, the Xperia X Compact has a 4.6″ IPS LCD display that renders at 720 x 1280.  That gives you 319 ppi which is low compared to other devices out there.  I caution readers to consider that this device has a much smaller display so 319 ppi is actually very comfortable on this screen size.  Indeed for comparison, the iPhone 6 had 329 ppi so we aren’t talking about a massive difference from even larger devices.  The display is protected by Gorilla Glass 3.

Huawei’s junior brand, Honor, has pretty much always had a solid lineup of mid-market phones at a good price.  Then comes along the Honor V9 and it is nothing short of a powerhouse.  The 5.7″ QHD is powered by the Kirin 960 SoC quad-core process running at 2.4GHz, has up to 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage and will start roughly $435.  The V9 is perhaps the most complete, high-end spec phone that Honor has released and hopefully, hopefully we will see it here in the United States at some point.

There are three configurations of the Honor V9 but regardless of which one you get, they both come with the Kirin 960 processor and Mali G71 GPU.  You can get a 4GB model with 64GB of Storage , a 6GB model with 64GB of Storage, or you can pick up the 6GB and 128GB model.  Both come with a MicroSD slot so you can expand the storage up to an additional 128GB.  So if you picked up the top-of-the-line model and added a 128GB card for roughly $40, you would have a 256GB phone for around $550.  That is a steal.