Sony Xperia C3 Review

An Oxford Dictionary blog post states that the word 'selfie' (derived from 'self-portrait') was selected as the Word of the Year 2013. Apparently, there was little to no argument about this decision. It shouldn't be surprising, considering there is even a chartbusting pop song with that title. At the time of writing this review there are reports of a new $20iPhone case that has a hairbrush extension on the side. Truly, vanity knows no bounds.

Naturally, smartphone companies are trying to cash in on this trend by creating devices with powerful front cameras. The Sony Xperia C3 Dual is the latest smartphone to feature a 5-megapixel front camera. This camera has a 25mm wide-angle lens to accommodate more faces than even Ellen managed with her Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (review | pictures) at the 2014 Oscars. What's more is that the front camera also has a soft LED flash. As usual, we put the device through our battery of tests.

Look and feel

The moment we opened the box, the mint-coloured Sony Xperia C3 Dual grabbed our attention. This is probably the snazziest colour we've ever seen on a smartphone, and we expect fashionistas will approve. The phone is available in plain old black and white as well for those who aren't feeling too adventurous. The C3 Dual is designed with Sony's tried-and-tested (and overused) 'omnibalance' design style. While the entire body is made of plastic, a chrome trim runs along each side. Overall, the phone feels sturdy.

After playing with the ergonomically fantastic LG G3 (review | pictures), which manages to cram a 5.5-inch display in a compact design, the Sony Xperia C3 Dual feels ginormous with the same 5.5-inch screen size in comparison. It has dimensions of 156.2x78.7x7.6mm. It is pretty thin, and for a device of this size it is also lightweight at just 150g. Unless you have huge hands, operating the phone with one hand is going to be problematic.

The flap covering the memory card slot sits on the left edge along with the Micro-USB port. The right edge is crowded with the, dual SIM card tray, power button in the center, volume rocker below it, and dedicated shutter button for the camera. On the back of the device is the primary camera (or is it really?) and the loudspeaker grill.

Specifications and Software

Like quite a few mid-range devices, the Sony Xperia C3 Dual has a quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor clocked at 1.2GHz under the hood with its staple Adreno 305 integrated GPU. The phone has 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, of which only around 5.09GB is available for use. Fortunately, one can add up to 32GB more space using a microSD card.

The phone accepts two SIM cards, both of which can connect to 3G networks. They work in dual standby mode. The rest of the connectivity is in the form of Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC. Providing the juice to run the device is a 2,500mAh battery. The 5.5-inch Triluminos display is supported by Sony's proprietary Bravia Engine 2 and has a resolution of 720x1280. The colours are slightly oversaturated but the screen does look good. Viewing angles and sunlight legibility are pretty good.

Sony ships the Xperia C3 Dual with the latest Android 4.4 (KitKat) and slaps its own skin on top of it. One thing we noticed is the addition of a One-handed Operations option in the settings menu. Unfortunately, this feature is not as useful or dense as the implementations by LG or Samsung on their phablets. Switching on the feature allows users to do only two things: use a pattern to unlock the screen using one hand, and double tap the Home button to access notifications and settings at the bottom instead of the top. 

There is no split-screen mode or a windowed mode to speak of. Swiping from the left on the app drawer brings up a set of options which helps users search for apps, uninstall them and change the order they appear in. There are quite a few extra apps, most of which are not useful and cannot be deleted. Except for the Walkman and Album apps, the rest of the Sony-branded bloat is not worth your time.

Camera

After testing the front camera extensively we can safely say that selfie lovers can blindly pick up the Xperia C3 Dual. The camera captures a good amount of detail and trumps the HTC Desire 816's 5-megapixel front camera thanks to the addition of the soft LED flash. The captured colours are natural and the software automatically works to reduce noise. The soft flash is also great since it doesn't throw harsh light at a subject, and instead highlights the features of faces nicely.The 8-megapixel rear camera, on the other hand, is a disappointment. By default, the software sets it to shoot images at 5-megapixel resolution. The camera has problems in focussing on subjects and is slow as well. Most times, we ended up with blurry shots because the camera couldn't focus. Even if it did manage to focus, the captured images were of average quality to say the least. Details were smudged and we noticed some chromatic aberration as well. The quality of the captured 1080p video is strictly okay.

Verdict

As far as Sony is concerned, the company's marketing strategy for the Xperia C3 Dual is spot on. For those who want a competent smartphone which can capture great selfies, the Xperia C3 Dual is the best bet at the moment. With its official price of Rs. 23,990, the phone competes directly with the HTC Desire 816 (review | pictures). HTC's phablet has a bigger screen and an infinitely better rear camera, whereas the battery life on the Sony Xperia C3 Dual is better. Both phones are great in their own rights, so in the end it boils down to the brand affinity of the buyer.

Sony Xperia M2 Review

The Good The Sony Xperia M2 has a sleek, attractive design, enough power for your day to day tasks and doesn't cost the earth.

The Bad It's got a disappointingly low resolution display and arrives with the old and outdated Android Jelly Bean on board.

The Bottom Line Although the Sony Xperia M2 looks pretty slick, it's let down by its low resolution display and its old version of Android, which makes even its affordable price way too high. For much less money, you could snap up the Moto G or spend a little more and pick up the older Xperia Z with its full HD display and waterproof design.

The Sony Xperia Z2 is one of my favourite flagship phones this year, thanks to its slick, metal and glass design, superb screen, tonnes of power and brilliant camera. The downside is that all that great technology costs quite a lot of money. If your budget is more limited but you still want the Sony name and an attractive phone, take a look at the Xperia M2.

Its slim body with its glass front and back makes it reminiscent of Sony's pricier phones, while its vibrant purple colour helps it stand out from the crowd. It's got a 4.8-inch display, runs on a 1.2GHz quad-core processor and has an 8-megapixel camera around the back.

The Xperia M2 is available now in the UK direct from Sony for £230, or free on contracts starting at £13.50 at Phones 4u. There's no word yet on availability in the US, Asia or Australia, but we'll update this article when hear more from Sony. The price directly converts to $390 and AU$415.

Design

It's easy to see the Xperia M2 has been cut from the same cloth as the rest of the recent Xperia range. It has the same glass front and back design, with the speaker sat on the bottom edge, subtle Xperia branding on the back and it's available in the same black, white or vivid purple colours.

It doesn't have the metal edging of the flagship Xperia Z2 (or its predecessor, the Z1) so actually looks almost identical to the much earlier Xperia Z. I think it's quite an attractive bit of kit -- the glass panels both look and feel pretty luxurious and that purple colour really stands out from the masses of grey and black smartphones out there -- although you can get it in black and white if you're not keen on purple.

Although it looks a lot like the Xperia Z, it doesn't have the same waterproof skills -- pop the M2 in water and all you'll be left with is an attractive, but useless slab of glass. It's disappointing that it's not waterproof, as it's not a feature currently available at the more affordable end of the phone world -- it would be a good reason to opt for the M2 over its rivals.

Unusually, the SIM card and microSD card slots are covered by a flap much like the ports are on the Xperia Z in order to keep the water out. I suspect that the phone was originally going to be a waterproof model, but perhaps Sony found it too costly to implement for a budget phone.

It measures 140mm long and 71mm wide, housing a 4.8-inch display, which makes it a little easier to hold in one hand than the 5.2-inch Xperia Z2. Its 8.6mm thickness makes it easy to slide into your jeans and you probably won't be too bothered by its 148g weight either.

Around the sides you'll find the micro-USB port for charging and data transfer, a 3.5mm headphone jack, the SIM card and microSD card slots under that flap of course, a volume rocker, dedicated camera shutter button and the same silver, sticking-out power button you'll find on most of the recent Xperias.

The phone comes with 8GB of storage, of which a little under 5GB is available for your own apps, music and videos as the Android software and Sony additions take up quite a lot of room. That's not a whole lot of space, so you should probably factor a microSD card into the price, particularly if you like keeping a lot of music stored on your phone.

Display

The 4.8-inch display has a 960x540-pixel resolution, giving a pixel density of 229 pixels per inch. That's very disappointing, particularly when you bear in mind that the considerably cheaper Motorola Moto G has a 4.5-inch display with a much higher 720p resolution. I would expect a minimum resolution of 720p on a display this size so it's not good at all to see less.

Unsurprisingly then, it's not particularly sharp, with icons, text and images lacking the same clarity you'd find on higher resolution panels -- it's certainly nowhere near as crisp as the full HD Xperia Z2. If you only stick to basic tasks like texting, tweeting and calling, you won't find the display lacking, but if you're keen on browsing new images on Flickr, watching TV shows on Netflix or reading a lot of text on Web pages, a higher resolution phone will come in handy.

It's reasonably bright at least -- although the harsh overhead office lights in the CNET building did throw up some reflections -- and it has a good handle on colours. I've certainly seen worse displays, but it's seriously hobbled by its resolution.

Android Jelly Bean software

The poor resolution isn't the only major disappointment on this phone -- it arrives with the now rather outdated Android Jelly Bean software on board. Android KitKathas been the most common version of the software on flagship and budget phones for some time now, so to see a new phone launching with such old software is unforgivable, particularly when ultra budget phones like the Motorola Moto E even have the latest KitKat software.

Windows Phone 8.1 Review

For the growing number of Windows Phone users, Windows Phone 8 was a frustrating release. The major difference between Windows Phone 7.5 and Windows Phone 8 was invisible to end users: merely a kernel swap, going from Windows CE to Windows NT.

Strategically, this was tremendously important for Microsoft. The company is on a trajectory to have acommon operating system core across phones, tablets, desktops, and TVs (with the Xbox One console), enabling developers to have substantially the same code running across all these different systems.

But being strategically important doesn't really matter a whole lot to end users. As we noted at the time, Windows Phone 8 was a solid and usable smartphone platform, but it lacked any big headline features. It made lots of things a bit better, but didn't do anything to really convince people to give the platform a second look.

Moreover, Windows Phone 8 was but a stepping stone toward this future vision. Although it offered a few APIs in common with Windows 8—and there were techniques for sharing code between the two—for the most part, developers had to write two substantially different applications if they wanted to run on both platforms. Back then, Microsoft wasn't really talking much about the future, but even so it was clear that Windows Phone 8 wasn't ready to be a part of it.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 4G Review

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 SMN910VZKE Cell Phone for Verizon Wireless: The 5.7" touch screen on the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is large enough to accommodate videos and small enough to take with you on the go. Snap crisp, detailed photos of important moments with the 16.0MP rear-facing camera, then share those memories with loved ones via MMS and social media. You can easily connect to the Web, since the Note 4 features 4G LTE speed.

Product Features

Qualcomm Snapdragon processor

Delivers basic performance.

Android 4.4 KitKat OS

This operating system optimizes memory and improves touchscreen response, so you can do more faster. Just say "Ok Google" to launch voice search, send a text, get directions or even play a song.

4G LTE speed

Provides fast Web connection for downloading apps, streaming content and staying connected with social media.

5.7" touch screen with 1440 x 2560 resolution

For clear viewing and easy navigation of text messages, photos and Web pages.

16.0MP rear-facing camera

Capture images while you're out and about. Also includes a 3.7MP front-facing camera for quick self-portraits.

Card slot

Expand storage up to 128GB by adding a compatible card (sold separately).

Phone activation required before use. Carrier activation fees may apply.

Requires a voice plan and data package.

Early termination fee of $350.

HTC Desire 820 Review

HTC's new Desire 820 packs 64-bit processing power and an 8MP selfie-snapper – does this mid-range phone have the clout to stand alongside the flagship HTC One (M8)?

We've gone hands on with the plastic fantastic phone – but is it an object of desire? Here's what we thought of it in the flesh:

PLASTIC ALL OVER

There's no solid aluminium build here; the 820 is plastic through and through. That doesn't mean it feels cheap, though; HTC stresses that its two-tone manufacturing technique offers a solid build that won't creak or fall apart over time.

The device does have a pleasing heft in the hand, and we particularly like the colour contrast design and the funky protruding rear camera ring (stealing a march on theiPhone 6's rumoured camera design).

It's extremely slippery however, and given its larger size, could result in quite a few accidental drops.

HTC's dual front-facing BoomSound speakers are also present, as is a microSD slot and dual SIM slots (presumably intended for Asian markets).

LARGE SCREEN, LESS PIXELS

The Desire 820 packs in a large 720p 5.5in screen; at this size, that low resolution is a little bit disappointing. It's not an absolute disaster and text is perfectly readable, but our eyes have been spoiled by both full HD and even 2K screens over the past year; on a screen this large, that 720p resolution is a little too stretched for our liking.

It should help battery life however, and given that the 820 has a fairly small (for its size) non-removable 2600mAh battery, it'll need all the help it can get.

A CAMERA MADE FOR SELFIES

We'll need to wait for our full review of the Desire 820 before we can properly test out its rear 13MP snapper; but we can report that it focuses quickly, and shots appear to be detailed when viewed back on its screen.

The real story here, however, is the Desire 820's 8MP front-facing camera – which is clearly aimed at the booming selfie generation. While taking pouty self-shots isn't our cup of tea, there's no denying that for the market HTC is aiming at, a souped-up selfie camera will sound very appealing.

With no front-facing flash, though, shots will still suffer in low light. Our pictures looked reasonable in a relatively well-lit room, and the face morphing feature - which lets you blend two people's faces into one - works very well. It's a great way to see what two people's future children could look like, and the results are impressively creepy.

There's also an automatic photo booth feature which combines four separate shots into a collage, and a beautification mode which smooths out your skin and makes you look like you're wearing far too much foundation.

HTC's decision to cram a 64-bit octa-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon 615 processor into this mid-range device is a little perplexing.

While it future proofs the Desire 820 for Android L, its 2GB of RAM won't take advantage of the 4GB+ RAM that a 64-bit processor is able to support.

64-bit Android apps will take a while to arrive; by the time they do, will the 820, as a mid-range device, still be relevant?

Those questions aside, lag and stutters aren't a problem – when swiping through the menus at least. Again, a full review will reveal how its processor holds up, though we don't expect to see any major issues.

SENSIBLE SOFTWARE

HTC's excellent Sense 6.0 UI makes another appearance, which means plenty of BlinkFeed magic for news and social network updates at a glance.

The tap-to-awaken screen function that's present on the One (M8) appears to be absent, which is a shame, but at least the funky Dot View case will be wrapping itself around the 820 when it lands on shelves.

INITIAL VERDICT

The Desire 820 is an attractive, well made (albeit slippery) handset, cherry-picking useful features from the One (M8) including its front-facing speakers, Sense 6.0 software, and Dot View case.

The 8MP front-facing camera and fun face morphing feature should make it appealing to selfie-snappers; and while we're certainly not complaining about its 64-bit innards, we're a little confused as to why HTC has chosen to make one of its first 64-bit phones a mid-range handset.

A larger battery and a full HD screen are sorely missing from the spec sheet, but we'll reserve our full judgement for when the the Desire 820 lands from the end of September for around €330 (£265).

UK pricing has yet to be confirmed, but stay tuned for our full review where all will be revealed.

Blackberry Passport Review

Key Features: 4.5-inch 1400 x 1400 screen (453 ppi); QWERTY touchpad; Adreno 330 GPU; 3GB RAM; BlackBerry 10.3; Android app support; 13-mgapixel main camera; 3.7-megapixel front-facing camera

Manufacturer: BlackBerry

What is the BlackBerry Passport?

The BlackBerry Passport is a square smartphone aimed at what the Canadian company is calling ‘serious business professionals’. That’s the type of person who spends the majority of the time on their phone churning out emails, jumping into conference calls and loudly arranging power lunches. At least that’s our take on it.

 

Aside from its most obvious design quirk, the Passport has a physical keyboard to appeal to loyal BlackBerry phone fans, a huge battery to keep you working longer and it runs on the new BlackBerry 10.3, which now includes support for Android apps via the Amazon Appstore. But, sadly, the Passport is a phone of almosts. It almost makes working on the move great, but there are serious flaws you'll find it

BlackBerry Passport: Design

That quirk we mentioned is that this is an (almost) square phone. Rightfully, it sounds ridiculous but BlackBerry believes there’s method to the madness. The Passport has the same profile as an actual passport, although at 9.3mm thick it’s noticeably chunkier.

 

The extra width is aimed to give you more room to work on spreadsheets or documents without having to zoom in and out of the page. We can’t say we’ve had great difficulty reading emails and doing some work on the Galaxy S5 or a iPhone 6 (even less on the huge iPhone 6 Plus), but there’s some value in BlackBerry adopting this approach. It doesn’t, however, make up for the fact that a wide phone makes for a supremely cumbersome and awkward phone to use, especially in one hand.

Microsoft Lumia 535 Review

Microsoft's first smartphone won't likely impress you if you're looking for your next high-end device. While the Lumia 535 waves goodbye to the Nokia brand, it doesn't replace it with any flair.

Sporting a quad-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor and a 5-inch 960x540-pixel display, the phone is decidedly aimed at the lower end of the market, although it is running the latest Windows Phone 8.1. The price of just €110 makes it pretty affordable even for developing countries -- that translates to roughly $135, £85 or AU$155, although expect final local prices to vary with taxes and subsidies.

The Microsoft Lumia 535 is set to debut in November in Russia, Ukraine, China, Indonesia and the Philippines, while those living in Australia, Vietnam, Thailand and unspecified countries in Africa will see this phone in December. January will see the Lumia 535 sold in Latin America as well, while Microsoft has promised it will come to the UK in the first quarter of 2015. There are no plans for a US launch.

Design

If you were worried that a Microsoft rebrand would lead to a new design for Lumia phones, fear not -- at least not yet. The Lumia 535, the sequel to the Lumia 530, sticks to the same proven formula as the current range of handsets. That's to say, it has a plastic back and clean lines with rounded corners. It resembles the older Lumia 530, though bigger and slimmer.

Moto X Review

The Motorola Moto X is the more expensive, more powerful brother of the Moto G, our favourite budget phone of 2013. It's a totally different proposition, though. It costs £380 SIM-free, similar to the current best deal for the Samsung Galaxy S4. If you want a relatively small phone with good specs the Moto X is solid, but tumbling SIM-free prices of phones from the big names make it a slightly tough sell.

Motorola Moto X – Design

The Motorola Moto X looks very similar to the Moto G. It’s a curvy phone with a plastic shell that has a clear seam where the rear battery plate connects with its frame. 

In the US, people buying a Moto X get to choose from thousands of different style variations, including a wood finish. However, this has been dropped for the UK. You can pick between ‘woven’ white and black finishes, designed to look like they are made out of something fancier than plastic. The smooth, soft finish feels better than a basic plastic shell, but it’s still a polycarbonate case. And unlike the Moto G, the back is non-removable.

Where the Motorola Moto X design excels is in fitting quite a large screen into what feels like a small body. The screen bezel is very slim, particularly towards the bottom of the phone. You get the same 4.7 inches of display as the HTC One, but this is a significantly smaller mobile.

It’s the height of the phone that's most notable. The Moto X is 129mm tall – petite compared to the 137mm HTC One, 138mm Nexus 5 and 136mm Galaxy S4. This is the least obtrusive, least showy ‘high-end’ phone you can get. 

Your pocket will thank you for buying a Moto X, but it means this is likely to be confused for a lesser phone by many people. 

Squashing down the footprint of the phone has also ensured that it’s not all that thin. At 10.4mm it’s quite chunky for a £400 phone – at least 1mm thicker than the phones it competes with. However, the curvy back is most similar to the top-notch HTC One’s, giving a smooth and easy grip. 

Another comparison you can’t help but make here is with the Moto G, a phone that looks the same but costs a third of the price. While they look similar, the Moto X is finished more gracefully in a number of places. The most obvious is the screen surround. Where the plastic juts out beyond the screen a fraction in the Moto G, it curves around to form a much tighter join in the Moto X, avoiding the rough feel of its cheaper brother. 

Its backplate is also glued on, for a zero-creak body, and it’s significantly slimmer. The Moto X also uses a pop-out SIM tray on its side, rather than a slot hidden under its battery cover. It’s the unusual nano SIM type, used in the iPhone 5S. 

A final little hardware improvement, the Moto X also has superior, tighter vibration feedback motors. That the Moto X and Moto G are brothers is unmistakable, but those claiming the Moto X is merely a Moto G with some upgraded insides are wrong. It’s at least five per cent classier. And it has the 4G and NFC connections missing from that budget phone.

Motorola Moto X – Connectivity

The Moto X comes with either 16GB or 32GB of internal memory and, like many top-end Androids, there’s no memory card slot to let you add storage. Its USB port is MHL-compatible, though, enabling you to plug the phone directly into a TV if you have the right adapter. One isn't included, but they are available for as little as £10 online.

HTC Desire Eye Review

The Good The HTC Desire Eye is the first smartphone to feature a front-facing flash to illuminate your selfies. Its screen is bright and bold, it has plenty of power and its colourful body is waterproof.

The Bad Although the front camera has 13 megapixels, images still suffer from noise and blur, particularly in low light. Focus is far from perfect too, even with the flash assistance.

The Bottom Line Although its flash-equipped front camera is eye-catching, its image results aren't as impressive as I'd hoped. Still, the flash will illuminate your face where other phones can't, and the Desire Eye comes with fun software, is well-specced and waterproof too.

Taking pictures of your own gurning face and plastering it over the Internet is unquestionably the best thing you can do with a device that has the entire wealth of human knowledge only a tap away. The front-facing cameras that enable such a noble pursuit on most phones, however, tend to be low-resolution and lack the flash you find on the back.

Not so with the HTC Desire Eye.

This 5.2-inch Android phone separates itself from the rest of the Android world by virtue of its 13-megapixel front-facing camera, which also has a dual LED flash to illuminate your dazzling smile in even the darkest of places. It's the first phone to have such a potent front camera. It is, in fact, the same camera that you'll find on the back of the phone as well.

Other features include a colourful, waterproof body, a full-HD display and the latest version of Android KitKat.

It's due to go on sale in the US later this month, although specific times, or indeed prices, are yet to be announced, as are any details on an Australian debut.

The Eye will be on sale in the UK on 7 November, exclusively on network Three, on a range of price plans. The cheapest is £29 per month, with a £29 upfront charge for the handset, which will net you 1GB of data and 600 minutes. That's marginally cheaper than the One M8, which is £28 per month with a £49 upfront charge on the same plan.

Design

As part of HTC's more affordable Desire range, the Eye eschews the all-metal design of the flagship One M8. The body is made from a single piece of plastic that's been given a two-tone design, which I think looks great -- it's much more fun to look at than plain grey and black slabs.

It's a big phone, due to cramming in that 5.2-inch display, but it's slim and easy to fit into a pocket. You'll certainly need two hands to type on it properly though, unless you have thumbs as long as pool cues.

It feels sturdy to hold and I'm sure it can take a few knocks and bumps without showing up too much damage. There's no question, however, that it feels like a much less luxurious device than the all-metal One M8. If you want a phone that feels so good to hold you'll happily just sit and stroke it, the M8 is the phone for you.

The Eye, however, is the first waterproof HTC phone -- something the M8 cannot claim. It can survive in up to 1 metre of water for up to 30 minutes. That means it's safe when you accidentally spill a glass of wine over it or drop it in the bath.

You can also take photos underwater, thanks to the physical camera shutter button on the side (the touchscreen won't work when wet).

It doesn't have the huge speaker grilles at the top and bottom of the face of the phone like the One M8, but it does still carry the "BoomSound" brand. The speakers are there, but they're only tiny slits between the screen's glass and white surround. I'm not convinced by this -- it's such a slight gap that it looks like a manufacturing fault up close, almost as though the screen simply hasn't been made big enough to fit in the chassis.

The speakers themselves are reasonably good though. They don't have the same volume as the M8's speakers -- which shouldn't come as a surprise, given they're much smaller -- but their forward-facing position means the sound is directed towards you, so you can hear the audio more clearly. I was able to cook in my kitchen and comfortably hear a podcast over the sound of my shopping.

Around the sides you'll find the 3.5mm headphone jack and micro-USB charging port -- both of which have been made waterproof so don't require rubber flaps covering them -- and the SIM and microSD card slots are tucked in little pull-out trays. I recommend getting a microSD card too, as the 16GB of built-in storage will fill up pretty quickly if you're really into your games or keep loads of music stored locally.

Display

The display has a full-HD (1,920x1,080-pixel) resolution, which is the highest we've so far seen on the mid-range Desire series. It's the same resolution as the flagship One M8, in fact. The M8's display is 5, rather than 5.2 inches though, so it has a marginally higher pixel density. Side-by-side however, it's difficult to tell any difference.

The Eye's display is very bright and it has good colours -- I found that glossy Netflix shows like "Breaking Bad" looked great.

Viewing angles are excellent too, although I did find the screen to be quite reflective, which sometimes caused me to stare back at my own reflection (the horror!), even when set to maximum brightness. I've seen worse, sure, but it's worth bearing in mind if you plan on spending most of your time with the phone under the midday sun.

Two cameras

On the back of the phone is a 13-megapixel camera with a dual LED flash, but it's the front-facing camera on the Eye that's most exciting. It too is a 13-megapixel affair, which is the highest resolution front-facing camera we've so far seen on a phone. It has a dual LED flash which, again, we haven't seen before on a front camera.

Typically, most phones use a much lower quality camera on the front than the back, but with a near-identical camera unit on both sides, you can take selfies with the front camera with the same quality as you can with the back. I say "near-identical" as the front camera has an f/2.2 aperture and 22mm focal length, a wider angle than the f/2.0 28mm on the rear, allowing it to capture more of a scene at once.

LG G3 S Review

The Good The LG G3 S has the same attractive styling as its big brother, its camera can take good shots and the laser-assisted autofocus is quick to lock on to your subject.

The Bad Its processor puts in a very poor performance, its screen resolution doesn't impress, it comes with a pitiful amount of storage and it's running on an old version of Android KitKat.

The Bottom Line The LG G3 S may come with the same name and physical design as its flagship brother, but the similarities are only skin deep. The G3 S's specs have been watered down in every way, making this little more than a low-end phone in a high-end body with a mid-range price.

If you like the look of the LG G3 (and who wouldn't? The camera uses lasers!) but your wallet is less keen, then meet the LG G3 S, also known as the LG G3 Beat, or the LG G3 Mini.