Smartphones and smart watches have one thing in common: For many users they're not only commodities, but also personal companions - and prestige objects too. At this month's IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin, manufacturers were vying to display the mobile devices with the most innovative features and unique design. Here's an overview.
Smartphones:
The trio: Sony presented its flagship Z5 in three variants. All three have a fingerprint sensor and a camera with very fast autofocus and a relatively large image sensor. The Z5 Premium costs 799 euros and has a 5.5-inch display with ultra-HD resolution, the regular Z5 has a 5.2-inch Full-HD display and costs 699 euros while the Z5 Compact retails for 549 euros and has a 4.6-inch HD display.
The touch-sensitive wonder: The big selling point of Huawei's new phablet, the Mate S, is in the ways it can be operated. The fingerprint sensor on the back recognizes touch gestures such as swipes and taps. The so-called Knuckle Sense system means that knocks and drawing gestures on the display with the knuckles are also recognised. There's also a model that recognizes touch intensity (Force Touch) on the display, which opens up even more control options. The Mate S costs 649 euros.
The unlock artist: The Axon, the top model from manufacturer ZTE, is most notable for having three biometric options to unlock the device - fingerprint, iris scan and speech recognition. The aluminium-bodied phone with the 5.5-inch Full-HD display sells for 449 euros.
Smart watches:
The cheap: The Asus Zenwatch 2 has the low entry price of just 149 euros and comes in two sizes, both with an AMOLED display. The stainless casing comes in three colours - silver, grey and gold - and 18 colour and material combinations are offered for the armband. The operating system is Android Wear, which now also works with iPhones and offers numerous different watch faces to choose from.
The versatile: The new Moto 360 from Motorola also uses Android Wear and comes in versions for men and women. If the watch goes outside Bluetooth range, the device can still stay in touch with a smartphone or tablet using WiFi. The watch is equipped with a heart-rate monitor and two internal microphones. The casing comes in silver, black or gold and there are a variety of bracelets available. The entry model will cost 300 euros. There's also a sports variant with GPS in the pipeline.
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