Phablet

Apple challenger. Buyers looking for an alternative that has roughly the same size as the iPhone 6 and (only) want to spend about 500 Euros (~$635) should certainly look closer at the new, elegant, and swift Huawei phablet. Are its screen, casing, performance, and the stylish UI 3.0 a challenge for Apple's much pricier newcomer?

Design for a small price. This was Asus' goal for the Zenfone 6, a 6-inch phablet with HD resolution, bright IPS touchscreen, a powerful Intel Atom dual-core SoC, as well as 16 GB flash storage for a fair price of 279 Euros (~$353, RRP). The combination looks promising.

Catching Fire. Amazon are taking ques from Google's successful Nexus lineup by expanding their Kindle Fire series into more sizes. The Kindle Fire HD 6 may be small, but its $99 starting price is a big deal. Is this 6-inch Kindle a sign of more inexpensive phablets to come?

Stylish device with rough edges. Sony's Xperia T3 was launched in Germany under the name Sony Xperia T3 Style. It fuses a 5.3-inch screen with the known, appealing design and a swift chipset in a mid-range model. Some minor shortcomings prevent it from standing out decisively from the competition.

Powerful contender. The HTC Desire 816 is a large smartphone with a lot of performance. Its 5.5-inch format allows it to poach buyers from the high-end class, despite entering the race as a middle-class device.