Sweet jam in the smartphone sarmie

THE smartphone year is like a sandwich: the market is defined by two major events near either end of each year, namely the launch of the latest flagship devices from Samsung and Apple. This year is no different. Early this year, the Samsung Galaxy S5 set the standard against which all other top-ofthe-range devices will be measured this year. In about September, Apple will release the iPhone 6, which will establish the new benchmark.

That provides a six-month gap that most other major manufacturers will attempt to fill by spreading their launches between those two thick slices of consumer attention.

It’s no coincidence, then, that at the halfway mark between the S5 and iPhone 6 launches, no fewer than six big brands have almost simultaneously unleashed their flagships, all jostling to be the jam spread of choice.

Can they compete? They don’t have a choice. They’re all forced to compete, whether on specifications, price or that one feature that will set them apart.

For Huawei, that feature was defined a year ago when it released the Ascend P6, the thinnest globally available smartphone. Two weeks ago, it released the new Ascend P7, which maintained its predecessor’s 6.5mm thickness.

Astonishingly, in the year between the two devices, almost no other manufacturer has beaten Huawei in slim appeal.

Apart from a R6 999 price tag, 5-inch high-definition display and competitive 13 megapixel camera, the P7 shoots the lights out with an 8MP front camera.

That’s the most powerful front camera on any smartphone and acknowledges the growing demand for betterquality selfies: people want photos of themselves to look as good — or at least as clear — as the photos they take of others.

So far, the only other manufacturer to take up Huawei’s selfie challenge is HTC, which released its new HTC One (M8) in South Africa this week. It falls short of the P7 with a 5MP front camera, but that still puts it well ahead of the rest of the major phones.

The front camera remains more important, however, and here HTC chose to avoid the megapixel fray by introducing a Duo Camera with depth sensor and intricate technology that makes the 4MP resolution almost irrelevant.

That’s just as well for it, because two weeks ago Nokia announced the imminent arrival in South Africa of the new top-of-the-line 5-inch display Lumia phone, the 930, with a 20MP camera. The only other conventional smartphone that can compete in this

No fewer than six big brands have unleashed their flagships

department is the Sony Xperia Z2 with its 20.7MP camera. Tellingly, this device falls outside of the sandwich filling because it was launched at the same time as the Samsung Galaxy S5, as if to declare Sony was not scared of being compared with the best.

A brand that could easily say the same is the maker of last year’s smartphone surprise, the LG G2, regarded by some as the best phone of 2013.

Next week, it will introduce South Africans to the G3, which has every chance of contending for that title again with a 5.5inch high-density display, 13MP rear camera and 2.2MP on the front.

Last week, BlackBerry and Alcatel both renewed their onoff love affairs with South Africa. The 5-inch BlackBerry Z3 at R2 999 and the astonishingly stylish Alcatel OneTouch Idol Alpha at R5 999 are both phones that redefine the pricing of high-end smartphones. Sweet jam indeed.

Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter @art2gee