Network World - In the past, we used to separate out categories for cell phones, tablets and computers. In theory, we still could create separate guides just for those products - there are so many options to choose from and not a week goes by where another phone, tablet or computer hits the market.
[HAPPY HOLIDAYS: See a listing of all the products of Network World's holiday gift guide]
But uniqueness and variety are starting to go away - we're getting kind of sick of seeing the same features over and over again on these devices, other than processor changes, memory upgrades and other tweaks. For the following gift ideas, we focused on products that we thought went a little bit extra, providing some interesting new concept to the product that could make it stand out. For anyone asking for a mobile device this year, start with these suggestions:
Product: Xperia Z smartphoneCompany: Sony (via T-Mobile)Price: $50 (upfront price, or $530 full retail/unlocked), plus $20 per month for two years, plus voice and data plans.Buy this for: A Sony fan who wants an Android phone with a very large screen and excellent camera, who also happens to have good coverage from T-Mobile.
Smartphones are becoming less and less about the phone, and more about the different features/functions/apps you can run on them. They really are just mobile computers to the extreme, dominating our lives with distractions like watching movies, playing games, taking photos or videos or doing hundreds of other things. The problem for smartphone vendors, then, becomes trying to focus on what features/functions their new device has that will appeal to the consumer.
For Sony, this means discussing things like photos, videos and display with its Xperia Z. The smartphone features its Exmor RS for mobile, 'the world's first image sensor with HDR video for smartphones', and a 13-megapixel digital camera/camcorder (1080p recording).
In addition, the phone boasts impressive water-resistant features - as long as the port covers are all closed and snapped shut, you should be able to drop the phone in some water (or, more likely, a toilet, as sad and gross as that sounds) without suffering a total loss of your device. Sony claims you can submerge the device for up to 30 minutes in water, so you have some time to retrieve it during one of those incidents. In our dunk tests, we were even able to watch a movie while the unit was submerged in our water - the movie kept playing (and you could hear the sound from the speaker) while it was in water. I'm not sure that's a real selling point, but it was interesting that the Xperia Z could do that (instead of just shutting down during the water submerging).
The phone features a Snapdragon S4 Pro Quad-core processor, runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), has 2GB of RAM, 16GB of ROM (we saw about 11GB free for storing media), and 32GB of expandable memory via memory card slot. The phone is 4G capable, but that all depends on whether you're in the good T-Mobile zone (sadly, we weren't). However, Sony makes other Xperia models for other carriers, so check with your carrier to see if they support the phone.
www.best-budget-tablet.com For tablet reviews of the best budget tablets
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