The Mobile World Congress, the annual get-together of mobile companies, service providers and developers, is on at Barcelona. Already leading handset manufacturers — Nokia, HTC and Sony — have previewed upcoming mobile phones, some of which are absolutely gorgeous and a few others outright outworldly.
HTC has announced a new ‘HTC One series' of premium smartphones featuring Android's Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 operating system alongside enhanced optics codenamed ‘HTC ImageSense' and sound from Dr.Dre's Beat. The range of phones also features the HTC Sense interface version 4.
The buzz about the new range of phones — codenamed HTC One X, HTC One S and HTC One V — has been pretty good on technology blogs. A press release from the company glorifies the HTC ImageSense as being set to alter the industry standards of mobile handset cameras. But, most importantly, there's the catchphrase — “the HTC One series will begin shipping in April with broad global availability.” Will it come to India, easily one of the booming markets now for smartphones, early?
OMG, 41-Megapixels on a camera?
Nokia has been concentrating so much on the Windows Mobile smartphones with its Lumia series that it had given rise to some chatter on gadget blogs whether the Symbian platform will die a slow death. But Nokia has made one of the biggest jaw-dropping mobile announcements in recent times at the MWC. The Nokia 808 Pure View features a 41 Megapixel camera. (Yes, you read that right. Forty-One. No spello there!)
The phone running on the Symbian OS has taken the geek circles by storm ever since it was announced at the MWC. It can take photos in three settings — 38 MP, 5 MP and 8 MP — and if the video previews are anything to go by, it also features a processor that's strong enough to make taking and browsing photos a joy.
Lumia on a budget
The third big announcement, not necessarily in any order from MWC, has been Nokia's new Lumia 610, the Microsoft Windows mobile OS, targeting entry-level budget buyers. The price point for this handset is expected to be around $250, and falls in the segment below Lumia 710 that currently retails in India at around Rs. 15,500.
Microsoft Windows Mobile has lowered its specification to allow budget phones with lower processor speeds and lesser memory to run the OS. The Lumia 610 could just be the first of a few entry-level Windows phones that will hit retail later this year.
