LG G6 gains pundit's praise as best smartphone of MWC 2017

As expected, the unchallenged LG G6 flagship made like a bandit in Barcelona, earning all the major best of show accolades from various technology publications. The new 5.7-inch flagship, which I had a chance to briefly check out last week, brings a new screen ratio, a sleek glass and aluminium design as well as one-handed ease of use.

LG G6 also has a lot of photography tricks up its sleeve thanks to dual cameras. Hit jump for the list of awards this smartphone, which is expected to come to Canada in April, hit jump to see the hardware LG earned at MWC 2017.

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You won’t see any Pixel-branded laptops anytime soon

Looks like we’ve seen the last of the premium Pixel-branded laptops. Let’s clarify, though, that this doesn’t mean the end of Chrome OS or Google’s laptop initiatives. According to Rick Osterloh, senior vice president for Hardware at Google, the company will not use the Pixel brand for laptops in the future. Pixel has been associated recently with Google’s new and well-received line of smartphones, which have, unfortunately, been having some issues with supply and demand recently.

Osterloh says during an interview at Mobile World Congress that there might be new product categories that will carry the Pixel name, though. As TechCrunch points out, if you head to the Google Store, there are no Pixel laptops for sale at the moment. But as Osterloh qualifies, there might be Google-branded laptops in the future still but they “don’t have any plans to discuss at this time.”

Netflix adds support for HDR video streaming on mobile phones

With Netflix getting aggressive in the mobile space and smartphones getting bigger, better screens, it seems the latest announcement from the company is an inevitability. According to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, their streaming video service will soon support HDR video streaming on smartphones. He made the announcement during his keynote at Mobile World Congress saying it’ll start with the LG G6. Having an 18:9 display ratio, the LG flagship allows for full screen viewing of Netflix originals like House of Cards and Stranger Things. Now, you can add being able to see these shows in HDR, too. The price that comes with it, though, is a bump in price at US$11.99 a month instead of US$9.99 and, of course, higher data use.

Aside from HDR, Hastings also announced that there will be new video encodes for mobile devices to help those with poor internet connection to stream up to 30 hours of Netflix videos per month even with a small 2GB data cap.

Source: Android Authority

Porsche Design outs Surface Book competitor

Looking for a stylish, premium Surface Book competitor? Porsche Design outs a new 2-in-1 at Mobile World Congress that bears a lot of similarities to Microsoft’s own 2-in-1. It comes with its own digital stylus that you can stick to the right side of the device magnetically. It’s detachable like the Surface Book. But unlike it, the screen on the Porsche Design Book One can rotate 360 degrees.

This device has a 13.3-inch touch QHD display and runs on an Intel Core i7 processor, Windows 10 Pro, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD storage. It comes with a 5-megapixel camera with an infrared sensor to support Windows Hello login. It has two USB-C ports, two USB 3.0 ports, and a USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3 support. The Book One also comes with a precision touchpad and backlit keyboard. It’ll set you back a hefty US$2,495 (around CA$3,300) and is expected  come to the US in April.

Source: The Verge