 Welcome to The Verge Live. My name is David Pierce. You're Chris Ziegler. I am Chris Ziegler. Is it Ziegler or Ziegler? Ziegler. Can you say it's Ziegler? No E. Pretend the E isn't there. Okay. Done. And we are here. This is The Verge Live. It's Mobile World Congress. It's the first day. And what just happened is Samsung just announced, kind of in typical Samsung fashion, all of the things. All of the things. So before, we're a little late getting started here because we wanted to get Dan Seifert, who's actually in Barcelona, watching Samsung unveil all of the things. And we are going to have Dan tell us things right now. So Dan, all of the things. What was your favorite thing that Samsung just announced? Not like the most interesting, but your favorite. My favorite thing is actually the Gear Fit. That thing is really, really cool. Yeah, so I mean, was it clear that this was going to be cool and exciting and interesting? Because that seems to be the overwhelming reaction from everybody. I don't... You know, Samsung had announced the Gear 2 and the Gear 2 Neo a couple days ago with a press release, but it just kind of dropped this Gear Fit during this announcement. And it's got this curved AMOLED touchscreen display. And it's seriously the first time that I've seen a device with a curved display and actually been excited about it. It's like if Samsung finally figured out a place to put this curved display technology. This is Dan Seifert with The Verge. We're here in Barcelona, Spain. It looks huge. Is it huge? Like I saw it on the guy's wrist as he was standing there. And like, it's smaller than the Gear, granted, but is it huge? Not really. It's not really much bigger than the Fit 4. It's, you know, three quarters of an inch wide, two inches long or whatever for the actual unit itself. It's actually really light and really comfortable. I was surprised. What's the deal with the screen orientation? Because I feel like, you know... It's backwards, right? Yeah. Are you going to have to hold it like this to do anything? Yeah, it's aimed away from you, right? Yeah, it's like confusing at first. When I first put it on, when I actually used the device, I think I put it on upside down and backwards. And I took it off and flipped it over. So the way that I found that I was most comfortable to wear it was to have the display so that if I held my arm out in front of me, I could read it. So I guess that's... I don't know how to really describe that, but, you know, I could read it if I'm just holding my arm out in front of me. The first glance or the first inclination was to do it the other way. So I think the band kind of like directs you to do it the other way. But... Okay. I mean, it was comfortable either way. It's just a matter of how you want to read it. Yeah, fair enough. So the... I guess we should talk about the GS5 because that's like the thing, right? This is probably the most significant important phone that will be announced this year. It's like this and the iPhone are the two that ultimately matter the most. I guess it's important, right? Well, I mean, so that's the thing, right? Is this seems to me to be really not that new or different or exciting, but you've held the thing. So tell me what you think. Right. So in terms of importance, Samsung made a big point to like say that they've sold 200 million Galaxy S phones over the years. So it's like, yeah, it's very important. It is, you know, the world's largest smartphone maker's flagship smartphone for the year. But you're right. It doesn't really look that much different than the Galaxy S4, especially if you're looking at it from the front. When I first saw it, I was like, oh, they're showing us another Galaxy S4 because it uses the same exact design language, very similar size. You know, it's very similar. But the big difference is on the back. They finally gotten rid of that glossy, nasty, slimy plastic and they've replaced it with this soft touch dimpled finish, which is exactly like the finish on the original Nexus 7, which actually feels pretty good. It doesn't look great in photos. I know a lot of people have been telling me that, like, you know, they're seeing it in photos and it's not, they think it's pretty unattractive. In person, it's a little bit better looking. And I think the black and the white definitely look better than the other two. You know what really doesn't look good in photos is the gold one because the gold one looks horrible and just like deeply upsetting as a phone. Is it, have you seen it? Is it as bad as it seems? Yeah, you know, the gold one isn't my favorite. I'd say of the four, the gold one is definitely the ugliest. It looks like a bandaid. Like, I don't know. It looks like a bandaid. I guess that's cool. In person, it kind of shimmers more, I guess. So it's kind of like an in between gold and bronze. So it's not like champagne, but it's not like pure gold and it's not like a full bronze. It's like that in between. Fair enough. So from the, it seemed to me just watching the stream that Samsung really doesn't want to talk about things like software or interface because they're, you know, they're famous for screwing that stuff up and they don't want to, they just don't even want to talk about it. But was that, what's new here? It seems like they've scaled some stuff back, but I don't know what's new. So, you know, they did scale some things back. They mentioned, you know, they've got a revamped settings menu that has like cleaner, flatter icons and it's a little easier to navigate. And the lock screen is a little bit cleaner and not as cluttered as it used to be. But, you know, really this is a Samsung Galaxy phone. It looks like a Samsung Galaxy phone on the software. It feels like a Samsung Galaxy phone on the software. It doesn't feel that much different than say the Galaxy S4 software. And so, you know, there's been a lot of rumors saying that, you know, Google's influenced Samsung to change its software designs, but I don't think we're really seeing it here on the Galaxy S5. Okay. So what's the vibe like in that room? Like the Samsung has this weird history of doing really horrible massage. Strange events. Yeah. And this one was kind of simple and straightforward. And what was it? Were people excited? I mean, they played it as straight as could be. It was, you know, they talked about the devices, they talked about their strategy with them and there was no theatrics and no other stuff going on. It was kind of like, you know, the last year's Galaxy S4 event was kind of the peak of their absurdity with events, I guess. They had the Broadway actors come out and do skits and vignettes and everything. It was really belabored. But, you know, this year they kept it straight to the products. They let the products speak for themselves. I think, you know, it's a more effective way to present your products rather than distract with all this other stuff going on. You know, they had probably five or six thousand people in this room wrapped attention to this event. So, you know, it seemed like the people were there to see the products more than the Samsung show. Okay. I mean, first of all, I think you're giving Samsung way too much credit when you say that that was the peak of it last year. I had this odd feeling things are going to get better and weirder and I really hope so. But this felt to me like an Apple event. They just got up and they were like, let's talk about features. Let's talk about features. With the possible exception of the 15 minutes of orchestra at the very beginning, which I couldn't tell if that was intentional or not. It seemed as though maybe they were delayed a bit. So they just told the orchestra to keep on rolling. Maybe it was intentional. I'm not sure. Fair enough. So, Dan, the gears. That's the other thing that they… This seems to be something Samsung is really interested in burying too. It's like, they just, I don't know, I get the sense from Samsung that they're kind of trying to hide a lot of this and they figured out that the gear fit is really cool. So they want to talk about that. And then the rest of it, they're just kind of glossing over because they're like, we're going to sell a ton of them. Here it is. The end. You know, I think they didn't sell a ton of the first gear. And it was like, you know, it received a lot of criticism. We really disliked it for a number of reasons and so did a lot of other reviewers. And it seems like Samsung actually listened to a lot of the complaints that were with the original gear and applied them in the gear too. You can now change the bands, which you couldn't do on the first one. It's thinner, it's lighter, it's way more comfortable on your wrist. It doesn't look as obnoxious. You know, they've done some things with the interface where it's easier to navigate. It's more responsive. They have a home button now, which makes a lot more sense than the gesture based stuff they were doing before. So hold on, hold on. So this is, I'm just looking at this video now and it still looks really, really humongous. Like is it, like this is the old gear and it's the largest thing that has ever existed. Is the old one, is the new one actually like nicer? Is it, cause like the Pebble Steel, right, is the one that we look to as sort of the closest thing to a nice right-sized watch. Is this anywhere near that? So it's still definitely bigger than the, than the Pebble Steel. It's, it's, it's like thinner and lighter than the first year, which isn't, you know, hard to do, I guess. But it does give you, you know, this, this bigger full color display that the Pebble Steel doesn't have. The other thing they did is they say that they now get two to three days of battery life, which is like, you know, two to three times longer than they did with the first year, which was one of the biggest complaints. You know, we'll have to test that when we get to the new device. But if they're able to fulfill these claims, have this performance, have this, you know, battery life that they say they have and things like that, you know, the gear just became a whole lot more attractive than it was before. I mean, you think, you think like this is actually something people are going to be interested in now? I mean, because it was like a funny joke the last time it seemed like was everybody just kind of looked at it and was like, well, this is a thing that Samsung made. Right. It was, it was like, it was like Samsung saw the wearable market and was like, we need to dive into it and we're just going to do a thing and throw it out there. I think this one shows, reflects a lot of them listening to consumer feedback on to what they actually want in a, in a, in a, in a smartwatch. And, and, you know, maybe they'll be able to fulfill that. We still don't know how much it's going to cost. So there's two versions. There's a gear two and the gear two Neo and the Neo is kind of stripped down. They, they took the camera off. It doesn't quite look as high end and it's supposed to come out at a lower price point, but you know, we don't really know how much this is going to cost. If it comes out at $300, like the first year, then it's, it's probably still dead in the water. Yeah. Well, at least in the U S I suspect what will end up happening is we'll see a number of carriers either bundle them with devices or do promotions where they say, well, if you buy a note three or a GS five, we'll throw in a, you know, a gear two Neo for free. Yeah. They did that briefly with the Neo or excuse me, the, the note three and the original gear. And I think that's why I ended up seeing so many gears on the street is because people caught onto this one weekend promotion where everyone bought a note three and then they had this thing on their wrist. Yeah. They didn't know what to do with it. Fair enough. All right. So Dan, I think we were, we're going to have to let you go. But before we do, you got to actually spend some time with this thing. So we're going to run this video that you shot yesterday or today or sometime, whenever you shot it years ago with the galaxy S five. So thank you, Dan. And you know, stay safe in Barcelona, I guess. Eat some ham for us. Eat some ham for us. Oh, I will jam on. All right. All right. Check out this hands on with the galaxy S five. This is Dan Sievert with the verge and we are here in Barcelona, Spain checking out the Samsung galaxy S five. This is the company's latest flagship smartphone. It really looks very similar to the S four. It's got a very similar design language with rounded corners, a metal trim alongside. The only major difference with the hardware here is actually on the back. The back features a new soft touch finish with a dimpled pattern. It really feels a lot nicer than Samsung's older glossy finishes. It feels very similar to the note three without the leather look. But otherwise it feels pretty much just like the galaxy S four in your hand. Hardware wise, it's a little bit different. It's got a five point one inch display. They got a capacitive button for multitasking here and a new fingerprint scanning home button on the front there. On the back, it's got a 16 megapixel camera, an LED flash and a new heart rate sensor that uses your fingertip to measure your heart rate. You can still take the back cover off to access the battery. The SIM card slot, it's got a micro SD card slot as well. 2800 milliamp hour battery that Samsung says gives 20% better battery life than the galaxy S four. Inside the galaxy S five is a quad core processor. It's 2.5 gigahertz, two gigabytes of RAM. It's really fast and responsive. From our brief tests, there's really no lag that we can particularly see. The interface here is definitely very familiar to Samsung users. There are some slight differences. If you swipe over from the home screen, you can access the My Magazine feature which was available with a swipe up in the Note 3. Otherwise, it's a pretty standard home screen. The settings menu looks a little different. The tabs are gone for a more icon based approach. It is running Android 4.4.2. Otherwise, it's definitely a Samsung phone. It's got all of Samsung's apps and helpers and things like that. The new thing here is S Health has been greatly improved. In addition to the heart rate sensor on the back, it's got a new exercise coach and pedometer and things like that. It has the ability to be expanded with third party apps that can tap into an SDK that Samsung will be releasing soon. The heart rate sensor uses the sensor on the back here and you just place your fingertip on it and then it will give you a reading for your heart rate in about 5 to 10 seconds. You can see my heart rate there. Samsung is going to be releasing the Galaxy S5 in a variety of different colored backs. There's blue, black, gold and white. Depending on which market they're going to release, depends on which color will be available. Initially in the United States, we're going to see the black and white models. Samsung doesn't have a pricing announced for the Galaxy S5 but it says that we should expect it to see it on shelves in April. So the Galaxy S5, 5.1 inch 1080p screen. It has a 2.5 GHz processor. It has the newest version of Android. It has a heart rate thing, a fingerprint sensor. It has all of the things. It seems like Samsung this time instead of doing lots of crazy software went for lots of crazy hardware. Is that a good move? Well I think what they really needed to attack most of all was the, I think they needed to present a fresh industrial design which they failed to do because we've seen... Yeah, I'm sort of surprised. I would have thought after like the HTC One, Samsung's really good at going back to the drawing board and saying, okay, somebody beat us, how are we going to do that? There's the famous story about the iPad. Right, right. They went back to the drawing board after they saw that the iPad 2 was like 1 millimeter thinner than their tablet, canceled it, and re-released it like two months later. So we saw basically the same ID on the GS3 and GS4. Now here we are with the GS5 which frankly unless you knew what you were looking for, looking at the front, so I'm not sure you'd be able to tell the difference. It really does look like exactly the same. And then like Dan said, the software is basically the same. So I think this is going to be a particularly tough sell for existing GS3 and GS4 owners. I will say the fingerprint sensor is kind of cool. Like if I have a GS4, I'm with you, I'm not upgrading here. But the fingerprint sensor and especially because they're doing all the things that it seems like Apple sort of wanted to do but hasn't really pulled off which is like pay everywhere and lock folders and all this stuff where it's like that makes a lot of sense. There's the private mode which is for porn. But it's also, it makes sense. That's actually a really great thing to have on a phone, especially for people who, I would think it would make more sense on a tablet for people who like share it with friends and stuff because most people don't use my phone all that often. You can see how that would also tie into like Knox which Samsung is pushing really hard for business customers, right? So yeah, I mean that is just one of the bog standard features. This time a year from now, virtually every smartphone that you see on the market and the end of the market that the Galaxy S5 plays in is going to have a fingerprint sensor. It's just where things are going. Yeah, it's really true. I mean, and I guess the one big thing that everybody said last year was that the GS4 felt terrible and I guess they didn't go like above and beyond in solving that but it sounds like they may have solved that and so if nothing else, I'm going to be less angry at it which will help. As a member of the public who actually didn't mind the plastic on the GS4, I get that a lot, let me just say that I'm not stoked at the GS5. I don't want like a pleather back on my phone. Fair enough. I don't see why not. But fair enough. So if they had just carried over, if they're going to preserve basically all the ID, I would have actually preferred that they carried over the quote unquote slimy back too but they didn't. But either way, I think we can both agree the gold version is not, it doesn't look like a winner, right? Am I right? Yeah, I mean, you're not wrong. You're not wrong. I mean, the idea of a soft touch gold back does not appeal to me. You don't remind me of... A soft touch gold anything is just not quite what I'm going for. Yeah, yeah. Who was it? It was, was it Carl Lewis or Michael John, someone, some really famous Olympian, his last race wore gold Nikes. Yeah. They were awesome. Yes. And that's what the back of this phone reminds me of. And not in a good way. Not in a good way. Okay. All right. Fair enough. Well, so in other news, in weirder news, I guess, and probably less relevant to most people, I guess, Nokia did some stuff today. Nokia did some stuff. So it's like deeply, I guess everything Samsung did, as unsurprising as it was, Nokia was incredibly surprising. Nokia trolled the crap out of its new owner. Yeah. Very strange, right? I mean, we kind of saw this coming for the past couple of weeks, but still weird. Yeah. So, and I think we have Tom Warren on the line who has been covering all of this for us for decades at this point, I think. Tom, hello. Hey, you hear me? Hey, yes. So, so what was the, what was the reaction like in the room when they started talking about all this stuff today? Well, I guess they started off with the Asha stuff, first of all. So it was kind of like going through the motions and stuff. And then they obviously, they didn't like, it was weird. Elop was on stage, but he didn't actually say, oh, this is the Nokia X. He was like, we've got this family, the phones, and we've got the Lumion. And they just like showed it up on screen. And then they started like, like going through the features and stuff. So it was, it was kind of like people trying to figure out what they were actually doing, was it Android and stuff. So it took them a little while to say Android. Yeah. Okay. So, so run us through real quick what it is they announced. So it's three phones, right? Essentially, there's the Asha phones, which are cheap phones for the developing world. And then there are these three new Nokia X phones. Take us through those a little bit. Yeah. So there's the X, the X Plus, and the XL. So the X is basically a four-inch phone, WVGO resolution. It's essentially, it's the same sort of hardware as the Lumia 520. It's got low storage. I think it's got the same amount of RAM and stuff, but it's, and a different camera, but essentially it's pretty much the same sort of thing inside. And then the X Plus like puts the memory up and the storage up slightly. Then the XL is like basically the five-inch version of the X. And they're basically, they're all Android devices, but they're Android devices in the sense that Nokia has created their own forked version. They will run Android apps, but they will come from a Nokia store, maybe from Google Play. And the message that they were kind of saying throughout the day, even when they mention Android on stage, every time they mention Android, it came like seconds later. It was like Microsoft services, like literally every time. It was like someone apologizing to their dad. It was like, dad, I'm doing something bad. I'm sorry. But so Tom, Tom, the official story, correct me if I'm wrong, is that the X line slots vaguely, nebulously in between Ash and Lumia. Is that right? Yeah. And yet the X starts at 89 euro, tops out at 109. Which is crazy cheap. It is crazy cheap, but what is the Lumia 520 unsubsidized? Tom, do you know offhand? I don't know what it goes for in euros now, but I think when it first debuted, it was actually like 110 or 120, around that mark. So it was definitely released back then at a higher price point. But it's the same specs, so I'd be interested to know if they built the Lumia 520 today, how much that would cost. Right. But yeah, I mean, it retails for a lot less than that. They're really splitting hairs now with the price point. I mean, I think the official message is that the X is designed to kind of like carve this little niche between the very low end and the Lumia line. Is this to do with the Verge? I don't know. Yeah. I mean, I think the way that they kind of explained it today is that, like they said this on several occasions, it was like, we want people to get on Microsoft services and I think it's kind of like designed to be a feeder device into the Lumia. But I think at the moment, it feels like a weird stopgap. And I think personally that it's almost a reaction to the fact that Windows 10 hasn't pushed down as far to the low end and been as flexible as perhaps Nokia wanted it to be. Because they definitely worked with Microsoft and they kind of schooled Microsoft on like, we're making these phones into like mass volume and we need to do these certain tweaks to your OS. And I think there's a little bit of frustration that that didn't happen sooner because they needed devices to replace the ones that, you know, like the Simbin devices that they were phasing out and they just weren't getting like the sort of volume that they were used to. So I think it just feels like a weird stopgap. So do you see this as something like a warning shot from Nokia being like, hey, this is something we could do because the timing is all wrong, right? Because they're about to get bought by Microsoft and presumably then Microsoft will be able to... Like in days they're going to get bought by Microsoft. And presumably, you know, Satya Nadella will be able to exercise his authority and say, nope, you don't make Android phones anymore. So I don't totally see the point of doing this. Like why is Nokia doing it and why now? Yeah, I mean, I guess I think looking at it, it looks like it's just going to be like an Asha replacement, which in that sense it makes sense. But at the moment, because the specs are so aligned with like the sort of devices that you could do with Windows phone, it's kind of in that weird gap and that old area. It makes sense if they can push the X down to lower devices. But like when we played with it today, like opening apps is real slow and like navigating around is not that great. So they've got some performance issues there already. And it seems like they've been working on this for like at least a couple of years. And to Nokia's credit, they did also show today a 45 euro touchscreen only Asha device. So they do have some wiggle room there between the bottom of the X line and the top of the Asha line, right? Yeah. But I think this Nokia X and this sort of strategy is perhaps the reason that Microsoft brought Nokia. Because if you're Microsoft and your main partner that's shipping 90 percent of your Windows phones is experimenting on the low end with Android, then that's going to freak you out a little bit, right? Because this is a test of the low end. But if they hadn't have done it in the way that they're doing it with like tying it to these Microsoft services, which is clearly like obviously they can't work together right now, but it seems like there's something weird going on there like the whole mention of Android and Microsoft services. Like it seems like they're just trying to keep that cool there at the moment. But I think if they'd introduced this without Microsoft buying them, I think it would have been slightly different. I don't know that they would have put the major focus on Microsoft services, put it that way. And then if they're experimenting in the low end, which is all that Windows phone is growing in at the moment, then that's going to alarm Microsoft. And then it could have led to eventually an experiment in the high end, right? So yeah, I think Microsoft probably got wind of this some time ago. And I think it's probably one of the main reasons that they decided they had to go after Nokia. Because I don't think they really wanted to be a phone OEM. I don't think that's how they started off. They wanted to be like Android, right, across several partners and stuff. And they're struggling to get the partners. Although they did announce some new ones at the weekend. But I just feel like this was one of the things that pushed them over the edge. Because they needed to secure Windows phone. So Tom, what's your honest take of these devices? You've used them. Do they suck as bad as I suspect they do? Or are they amazing? Are they somewhere in between? Tell me what you think. Yeah, I mean, they're amazing. I could say they're amazingly bad. But they're not that bad. But they're not the device that you're going to go out on and load whatever stock version of Android you want on there. I mean, the performance on them, that is pretty bad. I tapped on Facebook today, and I probably counted about six or seven seconds until it started loading, like actually loading on the screen. Well, if you were choosing between, say, an X Plus and a Lumia 520, which would be the better choice? Well, I think the 520 at the moment. Stop it. I mean, just because you actually... Re-evaluate your life. But I mean, I think the risk here also is that they're pushing this as a way to get people into the Microsoft ecosystem, which definitely needs to happen because everyone's got Android devices. They're signing into Google accounts, or everyone's got an iPhone, they're signing into iCloud. And no one's really signing into devices on Microsoft accounts and stuff. So to get that ecosystem buying and stuff, they kind of need stuff like this. But the way that I see it, it's not like a lined Windows phone. It's not all integrated in. So what's to say that people are not going to just buy this device and then just not use OneDrive or just use the Android apps that they actually want to use? And people just go the complete opposite way. All right, there's no Google services there. But I mean, who knows what Google... I don't know if Google would ever release them outside of the GMS services and stuff. But I mean, who knows? It's just a really weird device. Cool. All right, Tom, we got to let you go because Dan is eating all of your ham in Barcelona. But thank you so much for joining us. And we will see you soon. See you soon. So the other thing that happened today... Was it the other thing? There were a lot of things. HTC did some nothings. They had some phones. But their real phones are coming later in March. But the other actual announcements in terms of good phones today was Sony. And Sony, I think, is sort of a little under the radar compared to Samsung here. But I think may actually have just come out with a better phone. Yeah, well, the same thing happened last year, right? We actually have a Z1 right here. And it... Which is just covered in fingerprints. I don't know if you can see this here. Just covered in fingerprints. Completely covered in fingerprints. But it was definitely one of the sleeper hits of 2013. Universally well-reviewed and well-liked. But just didn't get the traction of a GS4 or even an HTC One. Wasn't on every US carrier. So if they can right those wrongs with the Z2, which is what they announced today in 2014, they're off to a good start. Yeah, so Vlad Zavov spent some time with the phone. And we have a hands-on, so let's check that out. Hey, guys. This is Vlad with The Verge here at Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona. And Sony just concluded its press event here. And it's shown off its new generation of Xperia devices for 2014. This is the Xperia Z2. It's access to the Z1. And there's also an Xperia Z2 tablet. There isn't much new about them in terms of industrial design. The Xperia Z2 very much looks like the original Z1. However, the screen is now 5.2 inches. It keeps the same footprint, but the screen is larger. And the really big upgrade with the display is a new live color LED IPS screen. So the viewing angles are much, much improved. And Sony actually claims that this is the widest color palette of any mobile device. This applies to both the Xperia Tablet Z2 and the Xperia Z2 smartphone. It is very impressive. I've asked Sony. They said that it's an even wider color gamut than Apple's iPad and iPhone. So that's quite cool and impressive. The camera is still the same 20.7 megapixel sensor as we've seen on the Z1. Quite a powerful camera. But Sony has added 4K video recording to it. They're saying it's borrowing technology from its Handycam range. And it's added some more augmented reality tweaks and such things to video now, which you could have had previously with just photos. Also, there's a new 120 frames a second slow motion video recording at 720p resolution. That's a very nice and impressive feature that Sony demonstrated to me. And I'm quite happy to have it. But that's the Xperia Z2. It's a pretty decent upgrade. However, relative to the Z1, it's really all about the display. It's still a quad-core Snapdragon. Now it's 801 processor, but really it isn't that much of a big leap. And it ships with Android 4.4 in March. Now, moving on to the Xperia Z2 Tablet. Again, it's very impressive in terms of the display. It's full HD 1920 by 1200, I believe. But it's those live color LEDs and the IPS display that really mark the difference between this and the original Z tablet from Sony. And also the thinness. This is a 6.4 mm thin tablet, which makes it one of the thinnest. It's certainly the thinnest that is waterproof. The Xperia Z2 smartphone is waterproof as well, naturally. Unlike the Xperia Z2, this is glass on the front, but it doesn't have glass on the back. It's actually quite a grippy, matte surface. You can have it in black or in white. It feels very good to the touch, and it's extremely thin and light. This is thinner than the iPad Air, even though it's pretty much the same size, it's 10.1 inches. And physically, it's a very impressive device. It also has dual front-firing stereo speakers. There's something Sony calls S4 surround sound. And it has new digital noise-canceling technology, which works with a bundled headset, which comes with both the Xperia Z2 and the Xperia Z2 tablet. Other than that, this also ships with Android 4.4. It also has a Snapdragon 801 processor. The only difference really between this and the smartphone is that it has an 8 megapixel camera rather than a 20 megapixel one. And you have a very subtle Sony skin on here. It's almost entirely stock Android. It's just little tweaks, such as the quick settings, brightness, etc., that are customized by Sony. It's still very familiar, but really, it's all about the new industrial design with this new Xperia Z2 tablet and the new displays with the Xperia Z2. And that's our first look at them here at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. So I really think the Xperia Z2, not well-named, but the Z3 is going to be cool. But anyway, I think it might be the best phone we've seen so far. And Vlad made a big deal about the 4K, and that's awesome. But I think the most important or most interesting thing might be the 4K video recording, which I can't decide if it's just a total gimmick or really cool. I think that it's... I mean, remember, Katsuraya just last month at CES himself. He loves 4K. He loves 4K, but he also said that it's, what, six years out from broad consumerization. So I think that in the short term, it's a gimmick feature. I mean, sure, it's nice to have, and we're hearing stories of 4K phones coming next year. But to me... I guess that's true. You're going to want to play your video back from a year ago. Right. I love seeing Sony in this challenger position, because I feel like they feel really forced to make just amazing phones right now. They're not in the Samsung position of, oh, we can just phone it in and do an S4+, which is basically what the S5 is. They came to the table last year with just an amazing phone on the Z1. The Z2, by all appearances, is even better, and I just hope that it's going to be on the carriers that matter. I hope so, too. So we actually have Vlad, Vlad Savov, the one and only. So Vlad, here's my question to you. Is the Z2 the best phone at MWC so far? Hola, amigos. Can you hear me okay? Hello. Yes, we can. Am I awesome Spanish? Yeah, I mean, your Spanish is fantastic. I was always... As is your beard. That's what I meant to say. Your beard is amazing. Thank you. What can I say? That wasn't in the hands-on video already. I just feel that way. Now that you've seen the Z2 and the GS5, I think we have a pretty good sense of what these two companies are doing. So how do you feel about what Sony's up to now that you've seen what Samsung's up to? Ladies and gentlemen, please join us upstairs in the unpacked lounge for refreshments and a wonderful day's pizza. So apart from the overhead announcement, I do actually feel that way. I do feel like the Experience Z2 might just be the best phone of the show, which was quite odd because it was announced at an incredibly early time here in Europe and middle of the night in the United States. Just because... I mean, first of all, it's waterproof. Samsung got a big round of applause at its GS5 event for being water resistant, but the Sony is waterproof. And it actually does have that cringe-worthy statement that Samsung made modern glam look. I do feel like the Z2, as a modern look, while still being waterproof, and that combination is incredibly hard to achieve, in my opinion. And the same is true of the Z2 tablet. These devices, in terms of industrial design, are just amazing. They really are amazing. The Z2 tablet in particular really feels like the closest thing you've ever seen or felt to just an interactive screen. You really feel like it's just a display that you can interact with. There's no sense of technology because it's just that thin. My only reservation, though, I have to say this, with the Z1 cameras, and hopefully the Z2 is an improvement on that front, is the focus. I saw somebody taking some photos of the crowd here at the Samsung event with a Z1 Compact, and the focus was struggling. It was going back and forth, and it just wasn't focusing correctly. And I knew that person's pain because I reviewed that phone. And it's the biggest problem that Sony really has at the moment. It's just a few imperfections away from really delivering an amazing phone. Yeah. So actually, I'm curious about the tablet because it seems to me that Sony's always kind of half-assed its tablet strategy. It's like, well, we figured out how to make this thing at five inches. Let's just do the same thing at 10 inches. Do you get the sense that this is a real thing that Sony cares about, or is it just sort of a weird add-on for them to make a phone? And they're like, well, tablets. Here's one. I think that's unfair. I think from Sony's internal perspective, they're being consistent. And like I say, to make this thing 6.4 millimeters in thickness and still retain a 6,000 milliamp hour battery and stick in this new live color LED display that Sony has, to me, is just in technical and industrial design terms and engineering terms, is hugely impressive. I still don't find a terribly good use for a 10-inch Android tablet. That's consistently the issue with these devices. But if you're going to buy any one of them, this Z2 tablet is absolutely the one. Okay. So why aren't we talking more about Sony at this point? I mean, it seems like Samsung has so completely dominated this market. Is this enough for Sony to get some actual play and discussion here, or are they too far out of it? Like, what's sort of the vibe on Sony versus the world here at Barcelona? I think there's a lot of inertia that goes with this. If you think about Sony a decade ago, it was riding high on its success in the 90s. Whatever the company did, people gave it credit, gave it attention and time because it was Sony. And frankly, that's Samsung's position at the moment. So Samsung is being more iterative than Sony in between generations, but that doesn't impact the attention that the company gets because it's just so huge at the moment. Right. So, give Sony time. I mean, Sony's biggest flaw with its smartphones was its displays. For an enormously long time, it's had really terrible displays, far behind the competition. It's corrected that in a big way right here at MWC. Give Sony time, give it a few months, give it the next generation. I think the hype will start building up around its products again. Yeah. I mean, and they just continue to splash it with water at every possible opportunity. Never mind splash it. That's the point. This is where Sony can make its push. Samsung can take splashes. Sony can take a whole dive. That's true. I mean, you just wrote Sony's marketing campaign, is what you just did. Wait, so I'm going to ask you again about the display because you're getting me all excited and I just need to know, is it really, is it perfect now? Like, is it every bit as good as the Sony display needs to be? Because this, the Z1 is really great except for the display, which is really not great. But you're saying this is... Yes....completely solved this problem. Yes. The Z1 display is garbage. It is mediocrity, a few points below mediocrity. It's just not acceptable to me. The viewing angles are terrible. This new one is right up there with the best ones. I am not ready to get on board with Sony to say this is the best color palette that we've seen on a mobile device. I feel like the LG G2 AGC displays have very strong competitors in the Android ecosystem and Apple obviously has its high devices. But it is right up there. That's what Sony needs to be. It needs to be up there with the latest. Yeah. Okay, so I want to ask you about Samsung before we let you go because you reviewed the Galaxy Gear for us and had not exactly favorable things to say. So as someone who has been forced to spend a lot of time with this thing, are you actually, are you impressed with what they're doing? Is it better? Are you excited to review the next one or are you still staying away? Excited about what we're doing at Mobile World Congress. In terms of the Gear 2s, I can't say that I am. But I'm looking at the Gear Fit right now and all I can say is if the Gear Fit is everything that it promises to be, there is not going to be a Gear 3 because the Gear Fit looks like where we need to go. How so? Well, you look at the Gear 2, they put a home button on it. That is smartphone-sized hardware. You know, they're trying to cram too much. They put in a camera, speaker, microphone in that bezel. I'm sorry, I couldn't hear that. Sorry, keep going. I'm just saying, they're trying to cram way too much with the Gear 2. They're essentially again trying to do this shrunken down smartphone thing. If anything, Android has taught us, you can't take a smartphone and just expand it or blow it up to a tablet size. I don't think you can take Android or a similar experience and then shrink it down. Even if it's Tizen now with the Gear 2, the UI is still pretty much the same. The Fit, on the other hand, to make a pun on the name, it seems like a much better fit for your wrist. And that curved display is pretty gorgeous, I have to say. So that's exciting. Good. Yeah, I agree. I hope that that ends up being just the Gear and they lose the name otherwise. So Vlad, this is the big day, right? Most of the news or most of the big news at this point is over, but there's still several days left of Mobile World Congress. So what are you looking forward to? And Chris, you know as much about this as anybody too, what should we be looking forward and paying attention to over the next several days? Vlad, you first. For example, I think we're going to take a look at the new Yota phone, which is that dual display phone with a color LCD on one side and an e-paper display on the back. They're upgrading it now with two touch screens on both sides. I'm curious to see how that will work. Is one of the screens still e-ink? That's correct, yeah. Oh, cool. I mean, the premise with the Yota phone is really if you want to have an article, you have low battery life, and you don't have Samsung's amazing ultra power saving technology, you take an article on your color display and then you flip it onto the back, onto the e-ink display, and then you switch off the power consuming display and just read on the e-ink. I mean, that sounds amazing. What about you, Chris? What are you looking forward to this week? I think that the remainder of this show is as much about what isn't announced as what is. We have two pretty significant mobile announcements coming up here that weren't at Mobile World Congress and aren't going to be. One being, of course, HTC's new flagship, widely referred to as the M8, and we're expecting that at their March event. It seems like, of course, HTC and Samsung and all these other guys kind of play this chess match that's ongoing to make sure that they're getting sufficient spotlight for their device. I think that HTC probably could have shown the phone here, opted not to knowing that the GS5 was going to be shown here. That's probably a good move. It was probably a good move. Of course, the One was really well-reviewed, so seeing what they're going to do with that next generation device is important for them, especially since they're kind of on the ropes. And then the other being the rumors of this Google smartwatch. Right. Eric Schmidt, who has... Could that be happening this week? I don't think so, because Eric Schmidt keynoted Mobile World Congress for a number of years, didn't this year in favor of Mark Zuckerberg. Who did nothing. Who did nothing. He just stood up there silent for an hour and then left, as far as I'm concerned. That's right. Flash his packs and left. So I think, I suspect that if Google was going to do something with that here, they would have blown it out. They would have at least had someone on stage for that keynote. So we'll see. The rumor is March, but of course they have IOU coming up in June as well. They're just going to drop it at South by Southwest. They're just going to roll up with watches on and be like, hey, guys. South by would actually be a pretty good place for that, when you think about it. All right. Awesome. Well, thank you, Vlad. Really appreciate you joining us. And that, I guess, about does it for us. This is a big day for mobile stuff. We have lots more coming over the next several days. But for now, you can follow us on Twitter. We're at Virg. I'm PierceDavid, for which I am deeply, deeply sorry. Your Z-Power, for reasons I don't totally understand. Zed power, as the Canadians in the British say. Zed power. You're right. I apologize. Thanks to Dan Seifert and Vlad Savov and Tom Warren for being here. They're all on Twitter, but I don't know what they are on Twitter, so you can find them there. We'll be back on Thursday with the Virgcast. We'll have lots more of the news. Is the Virg mobile show? Is that tomorrow? Is that happening? The Virg mobile show is tomorrow. Hopefully. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. Assuming. So there's this joke about Barcelona that their whole internet is held up by two DSL routers that duct tape together somewhere in the middle of the city. I don't think that's a joke. I think that's very real. Fair enough. So assuming the connectivity holds up, we'll have lots more coming from them. And that does it for us. So thank you so much for watching, and we will see you soon. Bye.