Which smartphone manufacturer has Google tapped to produce the next Nexus smartphone? For a while there we were talking about LG, and wondering if a Nexus 6 might arrive based on the company's recent G3, but public comments from execs have cast doubt on that possibility. So who, then? A new rumor landed over the weekend that suggests Motorola could step up to the role of Nexus-maker, and the phone it brings us could be the largest Nexus handset to date, a 5.9-inch phablet. The hardware is reportedly under development as codename Shamu, and that part, at least, has some evidence behind it: ...

Galaxy S5 Prime. Galaxy S5 LTE-A. Galaxy S5 SUPREME. Whatever you call it, we've spent the week getting to know Samsung's most polarizing Quad-HD flagship, and we know you've got questions. So we've got our review unit all charged up and ready for an on-air "live Galaxy S5 Prime review" of sorts, along with some compelling Samsung topics a few eager readers have already sent in, on today's Pocketnow Weekly podcast! But there's more to life than Samsung, so we're mixing in a whole lot more mobile tech talk for your expectant eardrums. We'll cover HTC's newest financials, Lenovo's obscene ...

We've already had the pleasure of reporting on the Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro, from the company that purchased Motorola Mobility. It's a phablet-class device with a six-inch 2K screen and some very tiny bezels. Apparently, at the ongoing Mobile Asia Expo, Lenovo has reportedly displayed the Vibe Z2 Pro, but it has changed its name (or maybe just this specific China Mobile version). Regardless, the Lenovo K920 packs a quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB of RAM, six-inch QHD display, and a camera combo consisting of a 16MP main shooter, and a 5MP webcam. Powering everything is Android 4.4 ...

There were a lot of reasons to be excited about the Moto X when Motorola introduced the phone last summer, and one of its more unusual claims to fame was that the handset would be assembled right here in the US. By contrast, we're used to smartphones being fully manufactured before they're imported into the country. We had our concerns that employing a US workforce might drive the phone's cost up, but not only did the Moto X end up being one of the most affordable, best values around, but the plant's US location allowed customized phones to arrive on users' doorsteps just days after their ...

They're not just summoned from whole cloth, and not everyone can afford the Vienna Boys Choir, so where do ringtones come from? A great many artists and musicians, actually, and we talk to a particularly talented one on today's podcast. Ali Spagnola joins us in the feature segment to share tales of music making, drinking games, and just how one gets banned from Michigan – and on the way we learn exactly how a pair of ringtones called "Radiation" and "Robots for Everyone" found themselves on millions of smartphones the world over. Before that, Adam Z. Lein stops by to tell us all about ...

Motorola's made a quick stop on the road to crafting the so-called "$50 smartphone," releasing a $129 miniature handset called the Moto E in the process. We went hands-on with the Moto E in New York City earlier this week before showing you what it's camera is made of. Our full review is coming later in the month, but in the interim, we thought we'd put the Moto E up against Motorola's reigning low-cost smartphone, the Moto G. After all, the Moto G isn't just some down-specced Moto X that the company launched and then forgot about. In terms of sales, it's the most successful smartphone in ...

The Moto G LTE, and the brand new Moto E, were not the only two phones announced yesterday by Motorola. In case you missed those, you can catch up on everything, including hands-ons and camera samples. In Mexico, the two new devices were accompanied by a third one. Not a new device per se, but one that addresses a particular chunk of the market: those who want a Moto G Ferrari Edition. Expect the same internals as your regular Moto G: 720p screen, Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7, Adreno 305 GPU, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, 5MP camera, and the rest. However, the changes are on the ...

Making a smartphone with the intent of having it sell for a budget-conscious price is a tricky balancing act. Sure, you can build a stupid cheap handset just by giving it ancient hardware, but there's a law of diminishing returns there – at some point, you're not saving any more money by going with lower-end tech. At the same time, even if you go with conservative but still decent hardware, if you're not pricing the phone low enough, it's still not going to sell. Some manufacturers have been very successful at finding this balance; companies like Motorola and Nokia certainly come to ...

No, we're not seeing a new phone from Motorola, and it's not some sort of ruggedized version of the Moto G we all know. However, there's a bit of a difference in both the naming (with the addition of the "Forte" moniker), and what you get in the package, if you live in Mexico, and you're on Nextel. Expect nothing different from the Moto G Forte than the regular Moto G, but with a back cover; it's actually the Grip Shell, and it comes out of the box, otherwise setting you back around $15. In addition, they're also throwing in 50GB of Google Drive space. While there's no word on the ...

With March now upon us, the early year expo season has drawn to a close, as first CES and then MWC delivered their one-two punch of new hardware, services, accessories, and as much mobile news as we could handle. With Anton D. Nagy and Jaime Rivera on the floor in Barcelona, we had dozens of great opportunities to check out all the new Mobile World Congress gear for ourselves, while our team back in the States brought you word of the latest product announcements as they broke, while also swinging by New York City to check out the US side of Samsung's Unpacked event. While the whole week is ...

Smartphone fans should be quick to recognize Ashton Kutcher as the actor portraying Steve Jobs in last year's much anticipated (though critically panned) biopic, but in real life Kutcher's been helping out on the Android side of the fence. Last fall, Lenovo recruited him to help promote its Yoga Tablet (the second-gen version of which we just caught at MWC), and now we get word that Lenovo is increasing its involvement with Mr. Kutcher, who will be helping Lenovo define the user interface it creates for a forthcoming line of smartphones. We're certainly well used to seeing celebrities ...

For the longest time, Lenovo stayed back on the outskirts of our regular smartphone coverage. Sure, we'd learn about a new device or two every now and then, but with no carriers in the US selling Lenovo handsets, it was difficult to follow the company with much passion; post-launch, we rarely heard another word about most of these devices. But now all of a sudden with this Motorola purchase, we're looking at Lenovo in a very different light, and no matter what the company might have been up to in years past, it's about to become a much more serious player on the global smartphone stage. As ...

Lenovo is a company rarely in the spotlight in the mobile space. It's tried its hand at mobile devices several times, to a mostly uninterested audience. But Lenovo found itself all over headlines at the end of last month, after Google announced it agreed to sell Motorola Mobility to Lenovo. Fresh off the heels of that announcement, Lenovo just announced three new Android-powered smartphones: the S660, S850, and S860. Priced at $229 sans contract, the S660 (pictured above) is the cheapest model of the three. It will ship with a 4.7-inch qHD display, 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6582m chip, ...