NEC unveils bizarre dual-screen Medias W N-05E

BARCELONA, Spain--Announced in Japan last month for NTT Docomo, NEC's latest Android smartphone, the Medias W N-05E isn't quite your usual device. Like the YotaPhone, this dual-core handset sports two screens, and supposedly offers twice the fun. Unlike the YotaPhone though, it comes packed with twin 4.3-inch qHD displays that are fully colored.

Design As is always the case with a phone with two screens, NEC needed to find somewhere to tuck the second panel away when it's not in use. The solution is simple -- the W N-05E folds in half, keeping its form compact. … Read more

Paper nano-SIM cards will help telcos go green

BARCELONA, Spain--Nestled away in Hall 7 of Mobile World Congress is Beijing Big Ben Technology, a China-based company that makes SIM cards mostly out of paper. While the actual cards themselves are made of recyclable ABS plastic and metal (the contact points), the card's holder is actually made from 100 percent fiber paper. This material is far easier to recycle than the plastic that most cards are currently made from.

The company has been in the business of making paper SIMs for five years now, and claims that its products cost the same as the plastic cards. China Mobile … Read more

Charge your Nexus 4 without hassle

BARCELONA, Spain--Hot new handsets weren't the only products LG had up its sleeve at MWC. The phone maker also unveiled a new wireless charger, the LG WCP-300.

About the size and shape of your average bar coaster, the WCP-300 is designed to be simple and straight forward. Once connected to a power outlet (or Micro-USB port), just drop your compatible phone onto the WCP-300's disc-shaped charging pad. A small LED on the charger's edge lights up in green when juice is flowing.

Since the LG WCP-300 relies on the Qi wireless charging standard, it supports numerous smartphones … Read more

Emporia Connect keeps loved ones connected in more ways than one

BARCELONA, Spain--The Emporia Connect, a new flip phone designed for seniors, takes a novel approach to keeping loved ones connected. The handset works in conjunction with an app, EmporiaMe, that can be downloaded on a relative's smartphone so they can manage the Connect's calendar and add contacts. Its maker, the Austrian company Emporia, will launch the phone in Europe this spring, with plans to launch in the U.S. afterward. It showed off the Connect at Mobile World Congress this week.

Design Compared with Emporia's Click and Solid handsets, which made an appearance at last year's … Read more

Boost, Virgin Mobile get first LTE smartphones

Sprint subsidiaries Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile finally joined the LTE wave today by acquiring their first devices compatible with Sprint's growing network. Though both carriers carry WiMax handsets, Sprint began phasing out that network in favor of LTE last year.

Virgin's Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE is another member of the company's ever-expanding Galaxy family. Its feature set shows that Virgin continues to up the ante on its smartphone lineup.

Running on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, it has a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, a 5-megapixel camera with HD video capture, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, … Read more

Supersize me: Meet the 5.7-inch ZTE Grand Memo

BARCELONA, Spain--Tossing its name into the supersize phone ring, ZTE demoed its Grand Memo at this year's MWC. Strutting a massive 5.7-inch screen, the handset belongs to the company's family of 4G LTE-enabled devices, which includes the hyped-up flagship, the Grand S, launched at CES in January. The Grand Memo will be available in China starting in March, with a later European launch in Q2.

Design If you're like me and you think LG's "phablet," the Optimus G Pro, looks a lot like the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, wait until you get a … Read more

Japan's NTT Docomo plans to offer 112.5Mbps LTE speeds

BARCELONA, Spain--Think Verizon Wireless or AT&T's 4G LTE network is fast? Check out Japan.

NTT Docomo's CEO, Kaoru Kato, said he plans to offer download speeds of 112.5Mbps to his company's customers. The higher speeds should come shortly, he said. NTT Docomo is Japan's largest wireless carrier by customer base.

By comparison, Verizon and AT&T boasts speeds of 20Mbps on a good day and an uncluttered network. In practice, the speeds are more in the high single or low double digits.

LTE, Kato said during a keynote address at Mobile World … Read more

What mattered as MWC begins

Mobile World Congress 2013 officially kicks off today in sunny Spain, but a whole bunch of goodies were unveiled yesterday by the likes of Samsung, Huawei, HP, and Mozilla.

Samsung got the fiesta off to a flying start by lifting the lid on the Galaxy Note 8, an Android tablet to rival Apple's iPad Mini. It'll launch with Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean onboard and proudly packs a 1.6GHz quad-core chip with 2GB of RAM.

With an SD card slot, a home button, and S-Pen stylus support, the Note 8 offers a level of functionality the … Read more

LG overhauls Android phones from top-end to low-budget

BARCELONA, Spain--LG Electronics overhauled its Android product line today, with the flagship Optimus G Pro leading the way.

The company divides its Optimus line into four categories: its G series for deep-pocketed early adopters, the F series with the mission of "4G LTE for everyone," the lower-end L series, and the Vu tablets.

The company announced the Optimus G Pro specifications last week, and now it's showing off the "phablet"-size device with its mammoth 5.5-inch screen. Soon it and its smaller Optimus G sibling will be joined by more in the line. … Read more