Smartphones that starred last year

By DAVID HERBLING

IN SUMMARY
Battle for market share for Nokia, LG, BlackBerry, Huawei set to continue

 
Mobile phone makers upped the ante in the year 2013 by unveiling top of the range smartphones.

The giant device manufacturers such as Samsung, LG, Nokia, Blackberry and Huawei all launched their latest smartphones in Kenya, targeting the growing tech savvy middle class.

The companies battled on innovation, pricing and user interface to gain market share. Let’s look at some of the smartphones launched.

LG G2

South Korean electronics company LG brought to the Kenyan market in November last year, the LG G2 device, its top range handset billed as the pioneer smartphone without side buttons; introducing the concept of keys at the back of the phone.

LG said the no side buttons on the device came from a study which revealed that the larger smartphones became, the harder it was for users to access side keys. It introduced the rear key concept where the main buttons are at the back of the phone.

“This gives users more control since this place was where individuals’ index fingers are naturally located,” LG said adding that rear keys would help result in fewer dropped phones when adjusting the volume while talking.

Huawei Ascend P6

Chinese phone maker Huawei made its strongest statement in the high-end smartphone market with the launch of the Ascend P6. The Android powered device is slimmer and lighter in weight compared to its peers, yet runs on 1.5GHz Quad-core processor and has an 8.0-megapixel camera.

The P6 beats other smartphones on pricing.

Samsung Galaxy S4

Samsung launched the Galaxy S4 in Kenya in May, building on the success of its predecessor, SIII.

It offers enhanced features such as previewing e-mails and controlling videos without touching the phone and can be seamlessly linked with home entertainment systems.

Key features of the phone include ‘smart pause’ which pauses any activity (movies, slide show) once the user faces away and resumes where you left off when you look back at the screen again.

The air gesture function allows a user to simply motion his/her hand at the S4 to accept calls, change music, or browse the web and view photos.