The last two quarters of 2013 are going to be amazing. Just like every year, we are expecting the smartphone manufacturing giants to release the successors of their famous flagship devices or release something different and unique altogether. It has become a trend now, every year newer and improved models of mobile phones are released before the holiday season starts, so as to gain more profit before the year comes to an end.

Here are some of the most anticipated and upcoming smartphones this year.

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1- Moto X

Moto X is going to be the next Google’s flag bearer; Google bought Motorola Mobility a while ago and ever since we haven’t seen anything worthy of notice from both Google and Motorola Team.

At a press conference hosted by AllThingsD, Motorola Mobility CEO spoke about the upcoming Moto X. He confirmed some of the astonishing features like the device would be contextually aware, meaning that using its sensors; the smartphone would be able to tell when you’re driving a car, or tell when you are pulling up your phone to take a photo. This is a splendid feature, we haven’t seen anything like this yet, and if it’s properly baked into the phone. It could trigger revolution in the mobile industry.

Specifications – It will surely have the latest Android 4.3 (stock as Google intends it to be) with its new features. The specs are not confirmed but the display will be about a 4.7 inch screen with capacitive touch buttons (nav bar) with 2 GB of RAM, A 1.7 GHz of Snarpdragon Processor with GPU of 320 MHz.

A front facing camera of 2 mega-pixels and a rear camera of 10 mega-pixels, Moto X is a Google flagship phone so it will definitely have NFC (near field communication) with 2,200 mAh non-removable battery and 16GB/32GB of internal memory.

The specifications are good, but there are other gadgets in the market with better specifications. We are sure that Google will put some exclusive software features in this phone that would make this phone a bit more special and high-class.

Camera Interface – The Moto X packages a new camera, which makes taking photos much easier with its intuitive and minimalistic interface.

We were thoroughly impressed with the Jellybean 4.2’s camera app because it made accessing settings easier and it also introduced photosphere, which is a full 360-degree photo and Android 4.3 we believe, will take it to next level.

Accessibility- One thing amazing about the leaked demo of the Moto X is that it is completely designed for user accessibility. You can absolutely control the phone by speaking to it. It also introduces gestures. One gesture they showed in the video is that you can quickly open the camera app by twisting your wrist twice; of course the phone will have many more gestures with many more options.

Moto X also includes a better notification system. Recently Android 4.2 introduced a new feature Day Dream, which is basically a screen saver for your device and now Moto X shows your notifications on it. As I said before that you can control the phone completely by speaking to it. It also works even when the screen is turned off so you don’t have to turn on anything. Just speak to your phone. Google said that there would be a special event for the Moto X in August (next week actually) and it will be available for you to buy in October.

2- Nexus 7

New Nexus 7 was released a couple of days ago at Google’s Special Breakfast event hosted by Sundar Pichai. The Nexus 7 successor is called Nexus 7-2 (2^nd Generation) but it’s just to differentiate between the older one for now and it will later change to just Nexus 7. Yes it has been manufactured by ASUS just like the old one. This is an amazing tablet that money can buy.

Specs and Comparison – Let’s talk about the specs. The New Nexus has some great improvements over the older one it features a rear camera and a lot better display. It’s the same screen size of 7 inches and it has a resolution of 1920×1200 with 323 pixel-per-inch density that’s almost double resolution compared to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3.

It has 2 GB of RAM and it features the same processor as the Nexus 4, it’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 quad-core processor clocked at 1.5 GHz. The front facing camera is of 1.2 mega-pixels and the rear camera is of 5 mega-pixels. It has a 3,950-mAh battery and now it has 4G LTE options too. We thought that the new Nexus might have Android 5 but sadly it has Android 4.3 with NFC.

Here’s a comparison with the older Nexus 7.

It’s definitely a great improvement. When the older one was compared to the iPad, the iPad showed better reading experience the text was more clear and sharp on it. But the new Nexus 7 has twice the display and better pixel density that means the text will be much clearer and crisp. Plus, they included the 4G LTE this means better web experience and the stereo speakers will deliver better sounds.

The thing I like about Google is that it closely observes the root community and takes inspiration from them. The Android operating system gives freedom and Google makes it much better with every update. For example the older versions of Android couldn’t take screen shots but developers included the screen shot ability by rooting and then Google saw it and it included screen shots taking ability in the later versions of Android. Similarly Google has observed the Cyanogen community and it has included Cyanogen Mod profiles in the Android 4.3. The profiles are for different situations like when you’re in class, office or in a meeting. Google has also included OpenGL ES 3.0 that means better graphics and better performance in games and apps.

This device is definitely a must have.

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3- Nexus 4

After the launch of Nexus S, which was two years ago, Google has been launching Nexus phones annually. Galaxy Nexus and the Nexus 4 were both remarkable phones. The Nexus 4 is still my favorite because it looks beautiful, elegant and it has stock android plus you don’t have to wait for updates.

Google is being very secretive about the new Nexus phone; from the previous two models we can speculate some things about the upcoming Nexus. It will have on screen buttons (nav bar). The Nexus 4 looks lovely because it has glass on front and on back I hope they don’t change the design much and the notification light on the bottom of the screen looks absolutely fantastic.

So in the new Nexus device we’re expecting better display and a greater processor. Actually Qualcomm announced that they are working on new processing chips in June so the new Nexus may have the latest Snapdragon 600 or 800 Processor.

It may have Android 5; we doubt that because Google is focusing more on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.

4- Budget iPhone 5c

What started as a rumor has now been confirmed that Apple is working on a less expensive iPhone, which will have relatively less good specs than the iPhone 5. Photos have been leaked and it looks quite good. It doesn’t have a classy finish like iPhone 5, the back of the phone is made of plastic, it’s glossy and it is the same size as the iPhone 5.

The phone overall is just a bit thicker and the display is of 4 inches and I hope that it is retina display. Nothing can be said about specs yet but the specs will be good enough to run iOS7 smoothly maybe an Apple A5 processor with 1 GB of RAM a 1.2 megapixel front facing camera and a 5 megapixel rear camera

This phone can turn out to be great for Apple, because everybody can’t buy expensive iPhone.

We have seen many leaked photos showing that the back would have different colors so it might be removable. And there has been no news about what it might be called maybe Budget iPhone, iPhone mini or iPhone lite.

5- iPhone 5S

Following the tradition, Apple is expected to release the flagship iPhone 5S in October or November. Our expectations are not quite high, as this phone would be an upgraded version of iPhone 5, so any physical changes that can lead to design over-haul are absolutely out of the list.

iPhone 5S will come with the newly released iOS7, so it will become the first phone that will be shipped with the latest iOS version.

For the technical specifications, It might have a new processor possibly Apple’s A7 Quad-core clocked at 1.5 GHz with 2 GB of RAM and 12 megapixel rear camera and 2 megapixel front facing camera. The actual specs might be different because these are just speculated. It’s quite possible that Apple may launch two iPhones this year of course the budget iPhone and the iPhone 5S in September event. That’s the iPhone 5S, now lets discuss what we want from apple.

6- Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is also expected to be released this year, although we see comparatively less hype for this phablet owing to its huge size. A few days ago Samsung announced a new addition to their octa-core processor line up. They have made the Exynos 5420 octa-core processor. Samsung says that they have included a new graphic chip, which makes gaming experience much better. We’ve heard rumors that two android devices might have 3GB of RAM the LG G2 and Galaxy Note 3. The Galaxy Note 3 can be the first android device to have 3GB of RAM that would be spectacular; this means that the phone will be able to give a better multi-tasking experience.

The photo attached is just a concept. But we would love to see Samsung come up with something that is solid and has not plastic feeling. We are expecting HD display with at least 320 pixel per inch density. Note 2 already had a big battery of 3100 mAh but with the better processor and more RAM it would be logical to add a better battery. Note 3 will come with 5.99inch as per a lot of rumors and leaks.

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