The 11 best smartphones you can buy in 2015

By: FAIZAN HASSAN

Manufacturers are continuously evolving to develop new smartphones. It is difficult to determine which smartphone is most comfortable for you. If you’re looking for the best smartphone on the planet then you’ve come to the right place, Read in this article about the best smartphones of the moment:

LG G3:

LG G3

The LG G3 is an Android smartphone with excellent specifications, which can compete with the other top smartphones from Sony, Apple, HTC and Samsung. The device has a Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor that clocks a speed of 2.5 GHz and 2 GB of RAM. That’s about the same as the Galaxy S5, HTC One and Xperia Z2.

The device is made of plastic, but at first glance the frame of polished metal by the finish. The plastic casing allows the unit seem slightly cheaper than its competitors with metal housing. The build quality is fine and further advantage is that the back can be removed to replace the battery and insert the memory and SIM card.

LG G3

The camera application is very minimal, with a tap on the screen to create a picture.

HUAWEI ASCEND P8:

The Ascend P8 is more than just the successor to the stylish P7 from 2014. The new flagship of Huawei should namely to compete with top models like the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Apple’s iPhone 6.

Huawei Ascend P8

The Ascend P8 is without doubt the most attractive smartphone from Huawei to date. The phone combines very decent performance with a stunning 5.2-inch Full HD display, 13-megapixel camera, with 3GB RAM/32GB ROM.

HTC ONE M9:

The HTC One (M9) is a strikingly beautiful handset. The polished metal casing is made from a single piece of aluminum and the screen display looks sharp.

HTC One M9

SAMSUNG GALAXY S5:

At first glance, the Galaxy S5 looks quite like its predecessor from 2013. But with the Samsung Galaxy S5 put plenty on biometrics. But is this enough to cope with the fierce competition from HTC, Apple and Sony?

Samsung Galaxy S5

If you have the Galaxy S5 and puts Galaxy S4 side by side, you will see little difference initially. The format is pretty much the same, although the Galaxy S5 slightly bigger, thicker and heavier.

If you owned the unit have, you notice that the stiff plastic back makes the smartphone perfectly in the hand. Crazy difference from the Galaxy S4 is that the built-in thermometer just missing again on the Galaxy S5. Yet you do not feel you have a unit of about 700 euro in hands. This is mainly because the plastic finish that particularly in the silver edge kitschy happens. Quite a difference with the HTC One M8, which is made ​​entirely of metal and therefore comes across much more durable.

NOKIA LUMIA 1520:

Smartphones are getting bigger and bigger. The market for so-called ‘phablets’ picking up, and more and more manufacturers move to a screen larger than 5 inches. Similarly, Nokia. Namely they bring one of the largest smartphones currently on the market: the Lumia 1520.

The device has a screen of up to 6 inches. Fortunately, the Nokia Lumia 1520 modest, given thin edges. The rounded side edges are approximately six millimeters wide, the device still has a very slim appearance. The screen seems a little to lie on the device, making it protrudes slightly. Fortunately, the display features Gorilla Glass and you do not have to worry too much about scratches.

The new Lumia is nice slim: only 8.7 millimeters thick. This makes it easier to carry the device in your pocket. The weight can be somewhat limiting Nokia. It weighs 200 grams and a spacious leaving behind other phablets as the HTC One Max and Sony Xperia Z Ultra behind.

Nokia Lumia 1520

SONY XPERIA Z3:

If you have the Sony Xperia Z3 first gets into your hands, do you look twice the difference between this and the previous Z2 to discover. Sony has chosen to adapt little to the design. There is nothing wrong with that, the device is namely beautifully designed.

Sony Xperia Z3

Sony Xperia Z3 features like its predecessor, has a 5.2-inch full HD IPS display. The display is as good as identical to that of the Z2, Sony but nevertheless has a small difference to bring in to know. This is in the brightness. The Z3 contains according to Sony their brightest screen so far.

As you would expect from a device at the top end , he really runs like a charm. Each application opens quickly and run smoothly. Multi-tasking is obviously not a problem. The processor is the same as that in the Z2, but the clock rate is slightly stepped up from 2.3 to 2.5 GHz. Here you will otherwise continue not notice, because it is both very fast.

LG NEXUS 5:

LG Nexus 5

With the introduction of the new Android version Lollipop, was also released a new Nexus smartphone, the Nexus 5 comes with 5-inch display with a latest version of Android (5.1) and a price tag of 350 euros.. An affordable showcase from both Google and manufacturer LG, and a better deal than the new Nexus 6.

Of course the Nexus 5 comes with the latest version of Android (5.1). Big advantage of Nexus devices is that they get the updates directly from Google and therefore always run the latest version of Android.

The price tag of 400 euros makes the device a middle class, but the specifications can compete with the high-end devices of today. LG has used many components that are also in their G2 flagship smartphone which is more expensive 150 euros. The quad-core processor (2.2 Ghz), GPU (graphics chip) and memory are the same instance.

SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 4:

Samsung Galaxy Note 4

The Galaxy Note 4 has all the ingredients that we know from the series. A huge screen of 5.7 inch diameter (14.48 cm), bestial specifications remarkably good battery life, excellent camera (literally and figuratively) and unfortunately also a hefty price.

The Galaxy Note 4 is one of the most powerful smartphones we’ve seen so far. In terms of hardware, there is no weak spot in Galaxy Note 4, with a fast processor, sufficient RAM, nice camera, 32GB of storage that also is expandable and an acceptable battery life.

APPLE IPHONE 6:

iPhone 6

During my first hours of testing with the Apple iPhone 6, it soon became clear that Touch ID is more than nifty a gimmick. The scanner takes the entire iPhone user experience to a higher level. By placing your finger on the home button, the device will be unlocked (in approximately one second). Also set Touch ID you are able to purchase in the App Store to confirm, so you do not always enter your password. Delicious!

Apple introduces the iPhone 6, as expected, its best smartphone to date. The iphone 6 is also 50x faster then the previous iphone 5s, The design is also stunningly beautiful, and new features like Touch ID, full 4G coverage and rapid A8 chip mean a big step forward. In addition, there are nice features added to the camera.

In addition, the Retina HD display belongs to the most beautiful displays of the time, the battery life is more than fine.

ONEPLUS ONE:

Ever since the first rumors about the OnePlus One I’m skeptical. This new brand is not known, and it looks like a phone that is meant for lovers of Android . OnePlus promises that it is a true “flagship killer”, but the unit can make this promise true?

OnePlus One

It is a phone without limitations of telephone companies, and it contains the latest hardware; it offers a lot of customization and is also extremely affordable, starting at 269 euros for the 16GB model, while most phones with similar hardware cost double!

If you’re looking for a powerful phone without restrictions of providers, and with a beautiful screen, much customization and software supported by a dedicated team of developers, it is certainly worth considering in relation to any other Android device , It is simply a wonderful device.

HTC DESIRE EYE:

HTC Desire Eye

Maybe it’s the name, but I expected that HTC’s Desire Eye would be less expensive. “Desire” is finally the name HTC normally used for its mid-range phones, and adjust the Desire Eye seems there with its plastic body.

Credit: http://newstactics.com/mobile/the-11-best-smartphones-you-can-buy-in-2015/2719/2015/04/07/

Apple Pay: Who Won and Who Lost?

By: Sam Frizell 

Not all Apple Pay winners are created equal

Mobile payments are happening to the retail industry like bankruptcy happens to Mike Campbell in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises: gradually, and then suddenly all at once. Google has offered mobile payments for three years, and Walmart and Best Buy have been talking about mobile pay since 2012. But Apple is one of the few companies that many observers say can quickly lead a critical mass of people to wave their phones in the air for everything from bed sheets to burgers.

Retailers, credit card companies and banks all have made big bets on Apple’s new mobile payment system, which makes it more likely to succeed. “We will put our shoulders into a big step change like this,” says Matt Dill, a senior vice president at Visa, an Apple Pay partner, in an interview with TIME. “Apple Pay is a tipping point for major institutions going all in.”

If Apple Pay becomes as ubiquitous as most observers expect, it won’t just change the way consumers pay for things, it’ll reshape the financial institutions that facilitate our purchases. That’s not good news for everyone — many companies felt pushed to join up with Apple so they weren’t left behind. For some, it was either the Apple Pay-way or the highway.

Here’s a list of the major players, roughly in order of who won the most to who won the least.

Apple. Every time a customer make a purchase with Apple Pay, Apple earns a 0.15% charge. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but researchers say it’ll add up in the long run. Equity analysts at Nomura estimated that charge will account for $1.6 billion in projected revenue by 2017. On the lower end of estimates, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says that Apple Pay will generate revenue of $118 million in 2015 and $310 million in 2016.

Perhaps more importantly, Apple Pay, if successful, will increase demand for Apple devices. And once customers are using Apple Pay and all their purchases are wrapped up to their phones, it’ll be that much harder to leave Apple for Android or another smartphone platform.

“Just getting part of the transaction itself will be big” for Apple, says Rajesh Kandaswamy, researcher at Gartner. But “the largest issue is it’s harder to switch away if you’re an iPhone user.”

Banks. Consumers won’t have to pay for Apple’s 0.15% fee on Apple Pay transactions; banks will. The six big banks who have signed up for Apple Pay aren’t enthusiastic about that. But in the long run, banks expect Apple Pay will push people away from using cash and toward transactions that run over their networks. Online shopping will be faster, too, as customers won’t have to input their billing information every time they make a purchase.

Finally, because Apple Pay uses a difficult-to-hack system that encrypts all financial transactions, banks will experience less cybercrime breaches for which they’re held financially liable. “Banks are going to make less money on the transaction than if it were made on a regular card swipe” because of Apple’s fee, says Michelle Evans, an analyst at Euromonitor, “but they can make more money in the end if they can drive volume over the card network and reduce fraud.”

Credit Card Companies. Visa, MasterCard and American Express have loudly trumpeted Apple Pay’s rollout. They stand to make money off Apple Pay for the same reason the banks will: the program pushes customers to their global credit business. Dill, the Visa SVP, calls Apple Pay an “on-ramp” to Visa’s network and a growth-fueler. “If we didn’t encourage innovation” like Apple Pay, “then we would be the worst enemy to our own growth,” Dill says.

But there’s another reason credit card companies are enthusiastic about Apple Pay: the alternative, CurrentC, could be pretty scary.CurrentC is a payment system mega retailers like Walmart and Best Buy are working on that could cut out credit card companies altogether. While Apple Pay leaves the traditional credit card system intact by simply moving it to your phone, analysts speculate that the CurrentC program will link payments through a network connected directly to your savings account. Voila: no middleman.

“If a technology comes along that’s focused on getting you to not use Visa, then that’s a competitor to us,” says Dill. The threat of CurrentC makes Apple Pay look more like a rickety lifeboat for the credit card companies than the super-fast motorboat Apple has promised.

Retailers and Merchants. Walgreens, Macy’s, McDonald’s and other merchants that began using Apple Pay on Monday get the same bonus that they have always gotten from debit cards and credit cards: new customers who can spend money faster. If customers spend money more easily, retailers make money more easily.

Apple Pay is also a good way to move customers through lines more quickly. It could eventually lead to retailers adopting more self-checkout lines; for merchants, that means paying fewer cashiers and lower overhead.

But Apple Pay also reinforces a system that retailers never really liked: they have to continue to pay a fee for every credit and debit card transaction. “Retailers don’t like the fees they pay,” says Kandaswamy. “Apple Pay is going to consolidate power among the same players even more.” CurrentC, on the other hand, could allow retailers to collect customer-specific data. That would let businesses like Walmart target customers with products in the same way that Google or Facebook target their ads.

Two days into Apple Pay, there aren’t yet any data on the program’s success. It’s too early to know how many people have used it or how much money Apple has made from it. But financial institutions believe the way we pay for things is changing quickly, eve

n if we don’t quite notice it yet. “The U.S. is in midst of an innovation in payments,” Carolyn Balfany, senior vice president at MasterCard, tells TIME. “Payment security is going to change more in the next five years than it has in the past 50.” If Apple Pay does take off, then it is happening gradually before it’s here all of a sudden.

Credit: http://time.com/3532199/apple-pay-winners-losers/