Nokia Lumia 730 vs HTC Desire 816G

There are some interesting smartphones available for the middle sector of the market, and two of these are the Nokia Lumia 730 Dual SIM and HTC Desire 816G Dual SIM. These have both released in the last few months and are similarly priced handsets, so you may have both on your shortlist. Today we have a Nokia Lumia 730 vs. HTC Desire 816G specs shootout so you can easily compare what they offer.

One of the major differences of these devices is their operating platforms, as the Nokia is a Windows Phone handset while the HTC phone runs Android. Therefore it will be a much easier choice is you have a decided preference for one or the other. If you’re open minded to either then your selection will be more difficult. Let’s take a look at the specs and more for the Lumia 730 and Desire 816G.

Processors
The Nokia Lumia 730 Dual SIM has a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor and Adreno 305 graphics. The HTC Desire 816G Dual SIM has a 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6582 quad-core processor and Mali-400MP2 GPU.

Display
The Lumia 730 has a 4.7-inch OLED display with resolution of 1280 x 720 and 316 ppi. The Desire 816G has a 5.5-inch display with resolution of 1280 x 720 resulting in 267 ppi.

RAM and Storage
The Nokia phone has 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD to 128GB. The Desire 816G also has 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, but this time only expandable to 32GB.

Camera set-up
The Lumia 730 packs a 6.7-megapixel rear camera with Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, LED flash, and 1080p video capture, as well as a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The Desire 816G has a 13-megapixel rear camera with autofocus, LED flash, and 1080p video recording capability, and also a 5-megapixel front-facing unit.

Battery
The Lumia 730 has a removable 2200 mAh battery while the Desire 816G has a non-removable 2600 mAh battery.

Connectivity
Both phones support 3G, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n with WiFi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, GPRS, EDGE, GPS, and microUSB 2.0. However, the Lumia 730 also has DLNA and NFC.

Operating System
The Lumia 730 runs Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim. The Desire 816G runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat skinned with HTC’s Sense 6.0 UI.

Dimensions and Weight
The Lumia 730 measures 134.7mm x 68.5mm x 8.7mm and weighs 130g. The Desire 816G measures 156.6mm x 78.7mm x 8mm and weighs 158g.

Price

Pricing obviously varies by region as well as retailer, so it’s difficult to be too specific. Dual SIM handsets are extremely popular in many Asian countries, so as an example we’ll give you approximate pricing for India. The Nokia Lumia 730 Dual SIM launched there at Rs. 15,299 but can be found on sale from around Rs. 14,500. The Desire 816G launched at Rs. 18,890 but can now be found from around Rs. 15,500 bringing the prices much closer together.

Potential buyers should also consider their preference of design, and as we mentioned before, the different software experiences are a big factor in this decision. Looking at specs alone throws up some swings and roundabouts. For instance both phones have the same display resolution. Some may prefer the larger display of the Desire 816G but the bigger size leads to less ppi.

The Lumia 730 has a higher level of expandable storage, but the Desire 816G has a higher-megapixel rear camera. The Desire 816G also has a higher-capacity battery, but on the other hand the Lumia 730’s battery has the benefit of being removable. As well as this the Desire 816G is the slimmer handset while the Lumia 730 is the lighter of the two.

OnePlus One will receive Android L 'within three months' of final build release

Ever since Android L was introduced at Google I/O last month, the question that’s been on the mind of most Android users is “When will I get a piece of that?” HTC already confirmed that its flagships will get the L update, and today we can add another device to the list of hardware that’ll make the jump.

OnePlus has announced in its official forums that the OnePlus One will indeed be updated to Android L. As for when the update will be released, well, that’s on Google. OnePlus says that it promises to push the update out “within three months” of Google’s release of the final Android L build.

The OnePlus One is a flagship phone that was released fairly recently, so it’s not terribly surprising to learn that it’ll be bumped up to Android L. It’s good to get confirmation of the update plans from OnePlus itself, though, and it’s also nice that the company has given a timeframe in which users can expect the update to be pushed by.

While we wait for Android L and the OnePlus One’s update to arrive, you can check out our video overview of the top five Android L features below. Does the news that the OnePlus One will receive Android L make you want a unit?

Has any phone in 2013 made you switch platforms?

We're in that final stretch of months
before 2013 officially comes to an end,
and it's been a pretty wild year for
mobile all year long.

In the beginning, we saw BlackBerry's
plans and release of BlackBerry 10. In
the following months we saw the
release of two of the most anticipated
Android flagships of the year, the HTC
One and the Samsung Galaxy S4. We
finally found out the dark and
mysterious details of Google's "X"
phone, which turned out to be none
other than the Moto X, which featured
just about none of the things leaks,
rumors and hopes predicted that it
would. Nokia pushed the envelope even
further with their Nokia Lumia line,
famous for its notably good cameras
for a smartphone, by releasing the
Nokia Lumia 1020 with its 41-megapixel
camera. We also have phones like the
iPhone 5s, the Nexus 5, the Galaxy
Note 3 and the LG G2 . Yep, it's been a
pretty good year for mobile.

New phones are released all the time.
But regardless of how many phones
can be produced, each smartphone is
more than likely using one of four of
the most popular mobile platforms that
we have available to us today: iOS,
Android, Windows Phone or BlackBerry.

These platforms are constantly
changing and tweaking in order to
become the best, and I have to say
that this year has had one of the
most interesting combinations of new
hardware and new software I have
seen in a while. If you guys have had
any thoughts like I have, you've
probably considered jumping from
whatever phone it is that you have to
something new - perhaps you even
made the switch.

Did any new phones tickle your fancy
enough to make you switch this year?
One did for me (get it? One ? Ha!)
Actually, I should say two . Initially, I
was more intrigued by the Galaxy S4.
However, just as I had suspected in
previous thoughts mentioned across my
articles, there is such a thing as a
phone that's too big for some people.

It seems that a 5" screen is just too
much for me to be able to hold without
dropping onto the floor, my face, or
whatever else I happen to be holding
my phone over. Aside from that and
some apparent issue with overheating
(as in the phone felt hot - really hot
- but didn't show much adverse
effects from it) the phone would have
been dandy. I really did like the
camera and all of the features. But
the fact that I couldn't even hold the
phone comfortably bothered me more
than anything, and I ended up
switching out for the HTC One.
Switching from iOS back to Android
was a lot easier than I thought it
would be, mostly because I still
remembered Android as being the slow,
buggy OS that it was back in 2010. But
once I decided to make the jump back
to Android from iOS after being mostly
happy with iOS for the better part of
two years, I was honestly surprised at
how well Android had adapted.
Whether
it was the advances that Android made
over the past couple of years, or
perhaps just the fact that I had
lowered my expectations when I
switched to the One and my
expectations were surpassed, I am still
to this day pretty darn happy with my
One. Although I will once again stress
that the purple tint on my camera is
still an issue that wasn't fixed since
updating to the official Android 4.3
build. Aside from that, the phone is
fantastic. Great build, great feel,
great battery life, and runs smooth
like butter.

I even entertained the thought of
switching to BlackBerry or Windows
Phone as well, considering the only
hands-on experience I've had with the
devices are limited to retail store
displays. BlackBerry was intriguing; I
was interested in seeing how
BlackBerry 10 worked on the
traditional BlackBerry form factor of
having a small screen and a full
physical QWERTY keyboard. I was also
intrigued by the Z10, BlackBerry's
first attempt at what might be
considered a more "normal" look for a
modern smartphone. However, the lack
of applications made specifically for
BlackBerry wasn't exactly inviting. I
will admit, it is nice that several what
I would consider "important"
applications that were initially made
for Android can be "sideloaded" onto
BlackBerry 10, but in the end I wasn't
exactly thrilled with the idea. The same
"lack of application" problem stopped
me from Windows Phone, but definitely
to a lesser degree.
I was mostly
interested in the fact that the Lumia,
at the time, had some of the best
cameras that a smartphone could have.
I also dig the minimalistic interface of
Windows Phone.
Overall, I'm happy I switched to the
One. It's not the first time I've
switched, nor will it be the last, but I
am happy that I was able to switch to
a phone that I thought I would like,
and ended up actually liking it, because
I'm not always that lucky.
Readers, did you find a phone this
year that made you switch platforms?
Which platform did you come from, and
which one did you go to? Are you
happy with the decision? Let us know
your thoughts in the comments below!

Hangouts 1.3 Will Reportedly Add SMS, Giving Android Its Own iMessage Equivalent

Google is said to be prepping an update
to its Hangouts instant messaging/video
chat Android app that would allow it to
integrate with SMS, making it possible
to get all text and MMS messages right
in the same inbox. That would fulfill a
promise made a long time ago, near
when Hangouts was first announced, by
Hangouts and Chat community manager
Dori Storbeck.

The new info comes from Android Police,
which says it had heard that Google
would be building SMS integration into
Hangouts in a version releasing soon, a
report which was then corroborated by
screenshots from an anonymous tipster.
In the screenshots, Hangouts is depicted
as showing messages clearly sent “via
SMS,” as well as being able to “Send an
SMS message” in the existing compose
screen. There’s also a screenshot of the
settings where SMS can be toggled on
and off.

The update would also offer up video
sharing via Hangouts, the report claims,
but the biggest news for both Google
and for other third-party messaging
platforms would be the SMS integration.
It would consolidate one more service/
app offering into Hangouts for Google,
which has already subsumed Google Talk
and Google+ Messenger. It would be
easy to see it taking the next logical
step from there and offering VoIP
services, too, providing a complete over-
the-top service.
It would also be potentially bad news
for competitors like WhatsApp and
Facebook Messenger. FB’s messaging app
already offers SMS integration, but
Google’s Hangouts version would ship on
devices pre-installed, and could
conceivably replace the Messaging app
altogether, making it the default option
for Android users. It could also eat
away at more carrier business, as
combining the two and favoring Google
+ based messaging first would have a
similar effect to iMessage, where
carriers eventually derive less revenue
from shuttling SMS content back and
forth.
SMS has long been in the cards for
Hangouts, and hopefully it’s arriving
soon. There’s no timeline attached to
the report, apart from some speculation
it could arrive with Android KitKat, but
in all likelihood this functionality will be
generally available to Hangouts users
regardless of their OS version.

Why It Doesn't Make Sense ForMicrosoft To Make Its Own Phone

Since last October, Microsoft has been reorganizing itself around the idea that it's a "devices and services" company . The company has plenty of services, but not so many devices. If it's really going to become a devices company, then it stands to reason that it needs a few more devices. 

The most important missing device from Microsoft's line up is a smartphone. So, naturally, it would make sense for Microsoft to build its own smartphone, right? Well, never say never, but we don't think Microsoft is going to enter the smartphone business despite the fact that it's focusing itself on devices and services. 

There are three reasons for Microsoft to steer clear of the smartphone business: 1. Carrier distribution is complicated. 2. Nokia and HTC are making good Windows Phones. 3. Microsoft's Windows Phone failures don't have anything to do with bad hardware. After Microsoft released its own tablet, the Surface, chatter of a Surface smartphone started kicking up . 

There are, however, many important differences between the tablet market and the smartphone market. In the tablet market, Microsoft just has to ship the Surface and let users fire it up with WiFi. To enter the phone market, Microsoft would have to build a global distribution network, as well as secure contracts with carriers around the world. Each carrier is going to have its own specifications, and its own demands. That's a headache Microsoft doesn't want, or need. Look at Apple. Despite selling the most influential phone, it's only on 240 carriers. Samsung, by contrast, is on 800 carriers. 

This is part of the reason Apple's iPhone isn't winning on market share, while at the same time the iPad remains relatively strong in tablet market share. There's another key difference between the Surface tablet and the current smartphone market. Microsoft's PC partners weren't making great computers with strong brands. Quick quiz: What's the best Android smartphone on the market? If you're paying attention at all, you would probably guess the Samsung S4, or maybe just, Samsung. (The correct answer is actually the HTC One, but that's another story. The important thing here is that there is at least one well-known Android brand for hardware.) Next question! What's the best Windows-based computer on the market? You're probably stumped. 

This is a problem for Microsoft. If a consumer walks into Best Buy, he or she has no problem asking for a MacBook, or an iPad. Which Windows- based PC would he or she ask for? An Acer Aspire S7? An Asus Zenbook Prime? The Sony Vaio Pro 13? They don't exactly roll off the tongue, or come to mind very easily. 

The hope for Microsoft is that the Surface can become a strong brand that rivals iPad, or MacBooks. Consumers can walk into a store and say, "I want a Surface." Microsoft wanted to have at least one premier Windows 8 device when it launched Windows 8 last year. Because Windows 8 was such a radical departure from what Microsoft had been doing, it had to have at least one device it could confidently say did exactly what it wanted. Its PC partners were dragging their feet in the tablet market, and Microsoft wasn't sure it could rely on them to produce something that competes with the iPad. In the smartphone market, these problems don't exist to the same degree. HTC and Nokia both make high-quality hardware. 

There's almost nothing Microsoft can do that will be better on the hardware side than either of them. As for branding, Nokia's Lumia brand isn't exactly killing it, but Nokia is a brand on its own, and Windows Phone is slowly developing into a brand. If a consumer walks into a Best Buy looking for a Windows Phone, it won't take much to get the best Windows Phone in his or her hands. It's important to note that Nokia and HTC are both sickly companies. If they were to face serious financial problems, then we would expect Microsoft to either step in with a big check to bail them out, or it would be forced to go on its own and make a phone. 

Until then, we think it stays out of the phone manufacturing business. Just because Microsoft is developing into a devices and services company, it doesn't mean it has to make all the devices. It just means it has to work well on devices. The reason Windows Phone hasn't caught on has less to do with hardware, and more to do with software and apps. A Microsoft-built smartphone wouldn't change that.