Cell Phones

Last year, HTC had a hit with its HTC One, considered by many to be the best-looking Android smartphone ever released, not to mention a solid performer. Samsung’s Galaxy S4 ended up running away with the Android sales crown in 2013, but HTC is back this year with the One M8, a successor that’s bigger, looks even better and offers solid performance combined with an innovative new dual camera system. I just spent a few days with HTC’s new flagship and this is probably the best Android smartphone I’ve laid my hands on. And it’s coming soon to Best Buy!

For years, the basic smartphone form factor hasn’t changed much: a rectangular slab of plastic, glass and metal. As displays have become larger, some people have found that rectangle becomes a bit cumbersome to use as a phone and all the flat glass leads to a lot of glare. Enter the G Flex from LG. Canada’s first curved smartphone, the G Flex ups the display size to 6 inches and offers the high contrast ratio and deep blacks that only OLED can. Thanks to its innovative curved design, the G Flex feels much more natural to use as a phone than much smaller traditionally shaped smartphones, while the curved display reduces annoying screen glare. The G Flex offers even more technological breakthroughs than its unique form factor and it’s coming soon to Best Buy.  

IFA 2014 was the location for yet more high tech announcements as Sony got in the game. Among the new products from Sony are the Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact (billed as the world’s slimmest and lightest compact tablet), new smartphones led by the new Xperia Z3 flagship, a new Android Wear-powered Smartwatch 3 and the SmartBand Talk fitness tracker.