back to article BlackBerry, Sony, Honor and LG flash their new phones for all to see

Sony Mobile showed off its first product under its new boss Mitsuya Kishida today. Compared to the other jaw-dropping electronics Sony produces, though, the Xperia XZ3 could be its least impressive product. Because it's a phone – an Android phone – and we all know what they look like. Compare that to Sony's 4K ORBEYE optical …

  1. Pen-y-gors

    Honor?

    Bum! Just got an Honor V10 - for £400!

    So far it's looking pretty impressive, and something at £279 could be great fun.

    This was a replacement for my trusty three-year-old(?) One+ One, which is a bit unwell after several droppings!

    Spec is fairly impressive, 6GB/128GB, 6in screen, 2 SIM or SIM+SDCARD, twin camera, fingerprint sensor, usb-C very fast charge (bit of a pain - I have a lot of micro-USB cables and chargers around the house and car - now need to buy adapters!) - and pretty well stock Android 8.0

    Honor are definitely one to watch.

    1. Aladdin Sane
    2. K

      Re: Honor?

      Agreed.. I'm a big fan of Honor and Xiaomi, given the price and what they pack in, I simply don't bother looking at "Flagship" phones anymore. Though I'm also gutted, as I just brought my wife a Redmi Note 5 Pro, cost £220, I should have held off a couple of weeks for the Play!

      The only thing that puts me off Honor (and soon Xiaomi) is the fact they've stopped providing methods for unlocking the bootloader - Since I like to root my personal phones, I'll stick with my OnePlus!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My next move...

    ...is to buy another iPhone in September. Did Sony's AI predict that?

    1. John 110
      Trollface

      Re: My next move...

      Probably, it's a predictable move for ACs

    2. Simon Harris

      Re: My next move...

      ... is to keep using my old phone until it dies.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Simon Harris...

        Live a little!

        1. MrMerrymaker

          Re: Simon Harris...

          Die more!

  3. BinkyTheMagicPaperclip Silver badge

    Key2 LE : No gesture support, no sale

    One of the best things about the other Android Blackberry phones is that they combine the best features of a physical keyboard (tactile feedback, known location of keys, etc) with the best of a virtual keyboard (prediction, ability to navigate with cursors, deletion of words (usually because the prediction has inserted a word when you don't want it to)).

    It's still a step up from an entirely virtual keyboard, but I can't say I'm impressed, especially given the other disadvantages of Blackberry.

    I'm waiting on the Moto Mod keyboard coming out. Motos aren't perfect but they can be rooted, and it's a landscape keyboard - so much better than portrait.If that doesn't pan out, I'll reluctantly go for a KeyTWO, but I'm not keen on a phone with a defined lifespan, as it can't be rooted and I'm beholden to the manufacturer for updates. Given that Blackberry dropped the Priv after two years like a hot potato, I'm not inclined to give them more money.

    1. DropBear

      Re: Key2 LE : No gesture support, no sale

      Unfortunately I'm beginning to suspect that at this rate of shits not being given by the industry, my entire remaining lifespan might not be long enough to actually see another proper (landscape) qwerty phone no matter how much I crave one...

      1. BinkyTheMagicPaperclip Silver badge

        Re: Key2 LE : No gesture support, no sale

        Yeah.. I know that I may have to accept that at some stage, if all the keyboard phone options are exhausted, I'll be forced to use a touchscreen.

        I want to use various Android apps, so I have little choice in the matter, even though I'm not a fan of the infrastructure.

        Recently I played some of Inkle's Sorcery! (fantastic game, go play it), side loaded on to a mobile. That worked fine until I finished it, 'can't save to cloud'. Apparently the server has changed, so the earlier version can't save. Update the earlier version? You can't - as it hasn't been installed via Play Store despite the fact I have a license. Install the later version? You can't as it conflicts with the side loaded version. So, unload the side loaded game, install the game again from Play Store, play through it all again, and save it.

        FFS. This is the cloudy future, and that's from a half decent developer that generally cares about its customers.I'm getting really sick of the increasing tendency of platforms to enforce only one true way of doing things, flexibility is the reason I did not go iOS.

    2. TheRealRoland

      Re: Key2 LE : No gesture support, no sale

      @Binky

      What are the "other disadvantages of Blackberry." ? It's an android.

      1. BinkyTheMagicPaperclip Silver badge

        Re: Key2 LE : No gesture support, no sale

        It's mostly a matter of perspective. Some Blackberry purchasers will see an authenticated trust chain and the inability to root the device as an advantage, I'm not so fussed.

        The Priv is a lovely device, but dropping patch support after a couple of years does not engender good will. True, this is in part due to driver support from third party OEMs, but they need to do better.

        DTEK is basically useless.

        However the hub is pretty decent.

        1. TheRealRoland

          Re: Key2 LE : No gesture support, no sale

          Yeah, i like the Hub. Not as integrated as on the BB10 (i sure miss the various little things BB10 did for me - like proivde one-click-connecting to phone meetings, how integrated everything was for traveling, stuff like that.

          Worried about the patch support for the -03 Keyone model (the Verizon one) - but nothing i can do about that.

  4. really_adf

    "deep depth-of-field cameras"

    So cameras that make it harder to pick out the action because the background is in focus?

    And lower the effective resolution of the action because the encoder is spending too many bits encoding irrelevant detail?

    These cameras are a good thing?

    Maybe for 3D, I guess.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "deep depth-of-field cameras"

      Bit of a contrived complaint, that.

  5. Timmy B

    No Honor For Me

    Not ever again. the other half tried an honor 6x and had no firmware updates in nearly 2 years. We've had a Huawei media pad for over 2 years and not a single one for that too. We both use oneplus now and get pretty much monthly updates with security and features. Even my Samsung tablet gets occasional updates!

    1. Humpty McNumpty

      They all suck to some extent

      ...LG, one can feel as bad for them as you like about the ThinQ but updates for previous GX flagships have been sporadic at best, and that's before the various hardware issues that seem to blight each one.

      I've got my hopes pinned on Android One, so while the Play looks alright, its the Nokia 7 Plus for me, which should give the Play a run for its money anyway Adreno vs Mali is rarely a fair fight.

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