Fitness trackers

Top 10 fitness trackers in 2016

An activity tracker or fitness tracker) is a device or application for monitoring and tracking fitness-related metrics such as distance walked or run, calorie consumption, and in some cases heartbeat and quality of sleep. The term is now primarily used for smartwatches that are synced, in many cases wirelessly, to a computer or smartphone for long-term data tracking. There are also independent mobile and Facebook apps. Some evidence has found that the use of these type of devices results in less weight loss rather than more.

A fitness tracker is the perfect way to monitor your activity easily and with unmatched accuracy. Think of it as an electronic finger on the pulse, constantly measuring your vitals, quality of sleep and step count.

Today's fitness band market is stuffed with compelling devices, most of which can do a pretty good job at the basics of tracking. But frankly, we're only concerned with the best, and you should be too.

Let’s take a look at Top 10 fitness trackers in 2016:

1. Fitbit Charge HR

Display: 0.7-inch OLED | Weight: 22g | Compatibility: Android, iOS, Windows Phone | Battery: 5 days | Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0

Excellent app Discreet and comfortable Weird cycle and run tracking Pulse monitoring not reliable

Now able to auto-detect exercise such as cycling and running - although you're still better off telling it what you're doing if you want total accuracy - and with improved pulse tracking and the ability to set more demanding weekly fitness goals, the Charge HR is now better than ever. With a screen, an altimeter to tell you how many steps you've climbed, a pulse counter for more accurate calorie counting during exercise, plus Fitbit's excellent app and social ecosystem, this remains the best fitness band you can get.

The proper watch-style strap means it stays on and is comfortable, while the design is deliberately neutral and discreet. Some of the stats it pulls out are a bit odd at time, with a definite whiff of inaccuracy about them. However, it is consistent in the ways it is inaccurate, so you can still clearly see if you're getting better or worse at hitting fitness goals.

Now the Fitbit Charge 2 is out, this model should begin dropping in price pretty rapidly - expect it to be something of a budget by for the holidays this year.

2. Samsung Gear Fit 2

Display: 0.7-inch OLED | Weight: 22g | Compatibility: Android, iOS, Windows Phone | Battery: 5 days | Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0

After a two year break, we now have the Samsung Gear Fit 2. And while it might look like not whole lot has changed, Samsung has clearly learned from the last go-around. There are improvements at nearly every turn, and it all comes together as even better value in the process.

To rattle off a few examples, it works on any Android phone, as long as you have KitKat (4.4) or above. The previous version only tethered to Samsung-branded phones.

Next, it includes built-in GPS-a must for folks who want to leave their phones at home for a jog. The original Gear Fit offered little to no functionality when your phone wasn't nearby.

All-in-all, the latest fitness tracker from Samsung is a positive step above the Gear Fit, even if the streamlined design won't appeal to everyone.

3. Microsoft Band 2

Display: 320 x 128 AMOLED | Weight: 55g | Compatibility: Windows, Android, iOS | Battery: 2 days | Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0

Powerful, versatile fitness tracking looks much better than the v1 Band It's not cheap Short battery life

With a better screen, greater comfort and a better look than the first Microsoft Band, this packs 11 sensors (one new one: a barometer to measure altitude and track stairs and hills climbed, plus an accurate optical heart rate sensor, 3-axis accelerometer, gyroscope, GPS, ambient light sensor, skin temperature sensor, UV sensor, capacitive sensor, microphone and a galvanic skin response sensor). There's full Cortana integration on Windows Phone, while Android and iOS devices get calendar and message notifications.

It's as good for the gym, running, cycling, golf and other sports as it is for counting steps and tracking sleep. The two-day battery life (less if you hit the GPS hard) is not amazing, but it does charge fast, hitting 80% in 30 minutes and 100% in 90. Apart from the Fitbit Surge, it's more powerful than everything else here put together.

4. Jawbone UP3

Display: N/A | Weight: 29g | Compatibility: Android, iOS | Battery: 7 days | Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0

The Jawbone UP3 is an activity tracker with a turbulent past. It was scheduled to launch in 2014 until the company decided to delay its release until 2015 for undisclosed reasons. Now it's here and claiming to be Jawbone's most advanced tracker yet. On paper there's plenty to backup this claim, with the device featuring a radically new look and the addition of heart rate monitor to track even more aspects of your day.

The UP3 more expensive than the Jawbone UP2, which comes without the heart rate support but is virtually identical in every other way. We weren't exactly enamoured with the changes that Jawbone made with the UP2 in comparison to the great UP24, and disappointingly it's more of the same with the UP3.

From a distance the UP3 is everything you could want from a tracker. It's slim, weighs just 29g and looks far more elegant than Fitbit's trackers. Nowadays, only the Misfit Ray can give it competition for subtlety. If you like you’re monitoring to be discreet, then the UP3 fits the bill. Especially if you opt for the black model. It's a radical overhaul of the design we saw with the UP24, where the more rigid rubber frame is replaced with a skinnier, more flexible medical-grade rubber band that wraps around the wrist in a natural, more accommodating way.

5. UA Band

Compatibility: Android, iOS | Display: 1.36" PMOLED | Battery: 5 days | Charging method: via proprietary USB charger | Connectivity: Bluetooth LE

The Under Armour Band is the HTC Grip reborn. The US sports giant's first wearable was delayed from launch in 2015. But now it's back with a new look.

You can pick up the Band for $180, making it a more expensive purchase than the Fitbit Charge HR and our current fitness tracker fave, the Jawbone UP2. The Band will count steps, measure resting heart rate and deliver notifications from your phone. So far, it doesn't sound all that different from what you can already get your hands on.

What's special, for now, is that it also forms part of a new UA HealthBox platform, which includes a heart rate monitor chest strap, a smart scale and a pair of smart running shoes. The idea is that all the products will play nice with each other and pull all of your data into the UA Record app, delivering more detailed insights into your health.

Straight out of the box the Band has a simple, inoffensive charm about it. It's the Grip evolved but there are some clear changes here. Some good, some not so good. The clasp is now a simpler setup, as Under Armour and HTC decided to ditch the Nike Fuelband-style charging connector and clasp in one.

6. Withings Go

Display: 1-inch e-ink | Weight: 9g | Compatibility: Android, iOS | Battery: Eight months | Connectivity: Bluetooth LE

These days, tech companies appear to be hell bent on creating high-end, Swiss Army Knife devices that can do it all. This has been particularly apparent in the world of fitness trackers. Over the past 12 months, we’ve seen an influx of smartwatch-come-trackers – such as the Fitbit Blaze and Moto 360 Sport – hit the market.

This is great for those with oodles of cash who want the ability to check incoming messages while out on a run. But it's left buyers on a budget, or those after simply a tracking device for exercising, a little in the lurch. So it’s refreshing to see Withings release the Go – an affordable wearable that’s tailor-made for cash-strapped exercise newbies looking for basic fitness and sleep-tracking services.

Unlike Withings’ more expensive trackers, the Go doesn’t sport the look of a regular watch; it's unashamedly a fitness tracker first. The central spherical base fits into either a rubberised strap or clothes clip, and features an E Ink, rather than physical, watch face.

7. Fitbit Charge

Display: 0.7-inch OLED | Weight: 22g | Compatibility: Android, iOS, Windows Phone | Battery: 7-10 days | Connectivity: Bluetooth

The Fitbit Charge is the wrist-worn activity tracker successor to the Fitbit Flex and the Fitbit Force simply under a new name. That means you get the built-in OLED display and smartwatch-like features without the skin irritation issues that forced Fitbit to pull the Force from the shelves in the US.

The Charge is slightly more expensive than its predecessor and while the most of the new features are welcome ones, it’s a tracker that is beginning to lag behind more cutting-edge alternatives.

If you’ve seen or owned the Fitbit Flex, then the Charge will feel very familiar. Available in slate, black and plum shades, the first thing you’ll notice is that the materials on show are largely the same, but the band is wider and now packs a screen of course. It’s not a dramatic jump in size, although it takes away some of the discreetness in comparison to the Flex. Fitbit has scrapped the removable pod sensor, which now lives behind four screws underneath the flexible plastic rubber strap and means you now have to hook the sleeker charging cradle directly to the body.

8. Garmin Vivofit 2

Display: 25.5 mm x 10 mm | Weight: 25.5g | Compatibility: Android, iOS | Battery life: more than a year | Connectivity: Bluetooth

The Vivofit 2 is a wrist-based activity tracker that can measure steps taken throughout the day, distance traveled, calories burned and your sleep at night. This new model features a slight redesign over the original Vivofit, and adds a stopwatch function, audible alerts (the tracker will remind you when you have been inactive for an extended period of time) and a backlight.

The always-on display is a favorite feature of mine. It's easy to see in direct sunlight and removes the need to take out your smartphone to see how many steps you've taken. It's also great for quickly checking the time without needing to press a button or lift your wrist. Having a display does have its downsides, though. The Vivofit is considerably bulkier than the Jawbone Up2, an activity tracker with no display that falls into the sub-$100 category.

Navigating the device can be a bit confusing at first. Tapping on the single button located on the strap will scroll through the time, date and your activity data. You can customize the data that appears on the band through the Garmin Connect mobile app. If you press and hold the button you enable the backlight, while a long hold scrolls through other functions: stopwatch, mobile app syncing, and smartphone-pairing settings.

My biggest complaint is the lack of vibration. Most good trackers like the Jawbone Up2 and Fitbit Charge include a silent alarm feature that will gently wake you up in the morning with a light vibration. I've found this to be much more soothing than the blaring alarm of my smartphone. The first Garmin Vivofit lacked vibration, and so does this sequel.

9. Withings Activite Pop

Display: analogue watch face plus analogue step-count dial | Weight: 37g | Compatibility: iOS, Android | Connectivity: Bluetooth

Wearables are finally edging into the mainstream. With this broadening appeal comes new demands, and fashion-conscious individuals have been leading the charge for more design-led offerings. Fortunately French firm Withings has had its finger on the pulse, following up the high-end Withings Activité activity-tracking watch with this, the more affordable but equally stylish Withings Activité Pop.

More Swatch watch alternative than Rolex replica, the Pop has done away with some of its big brother’s unnecessary luxuries while maintaining the same level of tracking. The result, a watch that’s one of the most well-rounded and visually appealing wearables on the market.

Elegant refinement is the best way to describe the Activité Pop’s design. Built around classic watch styling, this is a device that merges traditional looks with modern abilities. Like its sibling, it has a small additional dial sitting within the watch face. This shows your progression on a 0 to 100% pre-set goal such as step count.

Although the Pop has dropped some of the Activité’s original visual highlights – there’s no calf-leather strap, stainless-steel body or sapphire crystal here – it still looks the part. The machine-milled metal body and rubber straps give the watch a more everyman, everyday look and feel.

10. Fitbit Blaze

Display: 1.2-inch, detachable 240 x180-pixel | Weight: 33g | Compatibility: iOS, Android | Connectivity: Bluetooth

The Fitbit Blaze is being marketed as the ultimate “smart fitness watch”. What that means in layman's terms is that this is Fitbit’s attempt to create an all-in-one wearable that can offer robust fitness tracking, as well as basic smartwatch functionality. It's a move that's been embraced by many wearable manufacturers. Samsung's Gear Fit2 is another device that walks a similar line.

At first glance, the Blaze looks like a not-so-attractive cross between the Apple Watch and Fitbit Surge. However, following a few weeks of having it wrapped around my wrist, I found plenty to like about the Blaze, and I can see that it could be a solid – albeit pricey – option for casual runners and those just getting into exercising.

The Blaze looks more like a smartwatch than a fitness tracker. It has a 1.2-inch, detachable 240 x 180-pixel colour screen, metal frame and rubber textured strap. The strap in particular will be familiar to owners of previous Fitbit devices.

As watches go, the Blaze isn’t the prettiest on the market. It doesn’t have the top-end feel of the Huawei Watch or the Moto 360 2, nor can it keep up with the likes of the round-screened Moto 360 Sport or the beautiful Withings Activité Steel.

However, it isn't the ugliest and easily looks nicer than some other sports watches – the Razer Nabu Watch, for example.

Like the Apple Watch and Pebble Time Steel, the 1.2-inch size of the Blaze means that it’s small enough to sit unassumingly on its user's wrist, while being large enough to use without having to squint at on-screen text.

Supercomputers

Top 10 Supercomputers in 2016

What is a Supercomputer?

A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of computational capacity compared to a general-purpose computer. Performance of a supercomputer is measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instructions per second (MIPS). As of 2015, there are supercomputers which can perform up to quadrillions of FLOPS.

Supercomputers were introduced in the 1960s, made initially, and for decades primarily, by Seymour Cray at Control Data Corporation (CDC), Cray Research and subsequent companies bearing his name or monogram. While the supercomputers of the 1970s used only a few processors, in the 1990s, machines with thousands of processors began to appear and, by the end of the 20th century, massively parallel supercomputers with tens of thousands of off-the-shelf processors were the norm.

As of June 2016, the fastest supercomputer in the world is the Sunway TaihuLight, in mainland China, with a Linpack benchmark of 93 PFLOPS (P=peta), exceeding the previous record holder, Tianhe-2, by around 59 PFLOPS. It tops the rankings in the TOP500 supercomputer list. Sunway TaihuLight's emergence is also notable for its use of indigenous chips, and is the first Chinese computer to enter the TOP500 list without using hardware from the United States. As of June 2016, China, for the first time, had more computers (167) on the TOP500 list than the United States (165). However, U.S. built computers held ten of the top 20 positions.

Supercomputers play an important role in the field of computational science, and are used for a wide range of computationally intensive tasks in various fields, including quantum mechanics, weather forecasting, climate research, oil and gas exploration, molecular modeling (computing the structures and properties of chemical compounds, biological macromolecules, polymers, and crystals), and physical simulations (such as simulations of the early moments of the universe, airplane and spacecraft aerodynamics, the detonation of nuclear weapons, and nuclear fusion). Throughout their history, they have been essential in the field of cryptanalysis.

Here is the list of Top 10 Supercomputers in World till 2016:

1. Sunway TaihuLight – China

Processor: SW26010 | Vendor: NRCPC | Operating System: Linux (Raise) |

Total CPU Cores: 10,649,600

The Sunway TaihuLight is a Chinese supercomputer which, as of June 2016, is ranked number one in the TOP500 list as the fastest supercomputer in the world, with a LINPACK benchmark rating of 93 petaflops. This is nearly three times as fast as the previous holder of the record, the Tianhe-2, which ran at 34 petaflops. As of June 2016, it is also ranked as the third most energy-efficient supercomputer in TOP500, with an efficiency of 6,051.30 MFLOPS/W. It was designed by the National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering & Technology (NRCPC) and is located at the National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi in the city of Wuxi, in Jiangsu province, China.

The Sunway TaihuLight uses a total of 40,960 Chinese-designed SW26010 manycore 64-bit RISC processors based on the Sunway architecture.Each processor chip contains 256 processing cores, and an additional four auxiliary cores for system management (also RISC cores, just more fully featured) for a total of 10,649,600 CPU cores across the entire system.

The processing cores feature 64 KB of scratchpad memory for data (and 16 KB for instructions) and communicate via a network on a chip, instead of having a traditional cache hierarchy.

The system runs on its own operating system, Sunway RaiseOS 2.0.5, which is based on Linux. The system has its own customized implementation of OpenACC 2.0 to aid the parallelization of code.

2. Tianhe-2 – China

Processor: Xeon E5–2692, Xeon Phi 31S1P | Vendor: NUDT | Operating System: Linux (Kylin) |Total CPU Cores: 3,120,000

Tianhe-2 or TH-2 is a 33.86-petaflop supercomputer located in National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou. It was developed by a team of 1,300 scientists and engineers.

It was the world's fastest supercomputer according to the TOP500 lists for June 2013, November 2013, June 2014, November 2014, June 2015, and November 2015. The record was surpassed in June 2016 by the Sunway TaihuLight. In 2015, plans of the Sun Yat-sen University in collaboration with Guangzhou district and city administration to double its computing capacities were stopped by a US government rejection of Intel's application for an export license for the CPUs and coprocessor boards.

In response to the US sanction, China introduced the Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer in 2016, which substantially outperforms the Tianhe-2, and now holds the title as the fastest supercomputer in the world while using completely domestic technology including the Sunway multicore microprocessor.

With 16,000 computer nodes, each comprising two Intel Ivy Bridge Xeon processors and three Xeon Phi coprocessor chips, it represented the world's largest installation of Ivy Bridge and Xeon Phi chips, counting a total of 3,120,000 cores. Each of the 16,000 nodes possessed 88 gigabytes of memory (64 used by the Ivy Bridge processors, and 8 gigabytes for each of the Xeon Phi processors). The total CPU plus coprocessor memory was 1,375 TiB (approximately 1.34 PiB). The system has a 12.4 PiB H2FS file system consisting of IO forwarding nodes providing a 1 TiB/s burst rate backed by a Lustre file system with 100 GiB/s sustained throughput.

3. Titan – United States

Processor: Opteron 6274, Tesla K20X | Vendor: Cray | Operating System: Linux (CLE, SLES based) |Total CPU Cores: 299,008

Titan is a supercomputer built by Cray at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for use in a variety of science projects. Titan is an upgrade of Jaguar, a previous supercomputer at Oak Ridge that uses graphics processing units (GPUs) in addition to conventional central processing units (CPUs). Titan is the first such hybrid to perform over 10 petaFLOPS. The upgrade began in October 2011, commenced stability testing in October 2012 and it became available to researchers in early 2013. The initial cost of the upgrade was US$60 million, funded primarily by the United States Department of Energy.

Titan is due to be eclipsed at Oak Ridge by Summit in 2018, which is being built by IBM and features fewer nodes with much greater GPU capability per node as well as local per-node non-volatile caching of file data from the system's parallel file system.

Titan employs AMD Opteron CPUs in conjunction with Nvidia Tesla GPUs to improve energy efficiency while providing an order of magnitude increase in computational power over Jaguar. It uses 18,688 CPUs paired with an equal number of GPUs to perform at a theoretical peak of 27 petaFLOPS; in the LINPACK benchmark used to rank supercomputers' speed, it performed at 17.59 petaFLOPS. This was enough to take first place in the November 2012 list by the TOP500 organization, but Tianhe-2 overtook it on the June 2013 list.

Titan is available for any scientific purpose; access depends on the importance of the project and its potential to exploit the hybrid architecture. Any selected code must also be executable on other supercomputers to avoid sole dependence on Titan. Six vanguard codes were the first selected. They dealt mostly with molecular scale physics or climate models, while 25 others queued behind them. The inclusion of GPUs compelled authors to alter their codes. The modifications typically increased the degree of parallelism, given that GPUs offer many more simultaneous threads than CPUs. The changes often yield greater performance even on CPU-only machines.

4. Sequoia – United States

Processor: PowerPC A2| Vendor: IBM | Operating System: Linux (RHEL and CNK) |Total CPU Cores: 1,572,864

IBM Sequoia is a petascale Blue Gene/Q supercomputer constructed by IBM for the National Nuclear Security Administration as part of the Advanced Simulation and Computing Program (ASC). It was delivered to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in 2011 and was fully deployed in June 2012.

On June 14, 2012, the TOP500 Project Committee announced that Sequoia replaced the K computer as the world's fastest supercomputer, with a LINPACK performance of 16.32 petaflops, 55% faster than the K computer's 10.51 petaflops, having 123% more cores than the K computer's 705,024 cores. Sequoia is also more energy efficient, as it consumes 7.9 MW, 37% less than the K computer's 12.6 MW.

As of June 17, 2013, Sequoia had dropped to #3 on the TOP500 ranking, behind Tianhe-2 and Titan. In June 2016, it slipped again, to fourth place on the TOP500 ranking.

Record-breaking science applications have been run on Sequoia, the first to cross 10 petaflops of sustained performance. The cosmology simulation framework HACC achieved almost 14 petaflops with a 3.6 trillion particle benchmark run, while the Cardioid code, which models the electrophysiology of the human heart, achieved nearly 12 petaflops with a near real-time simulation.

The entire supercomputer runs on Linux, with CNK running on over 98,000 nodes, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux running on 768 I/O nodes that are connected to the Lustre filesystem.

5. Cori – United States

Processor: Xeon Phi 7250 | Vendor: Cray | Operating System: Linux (CLE)|

Total CPU Cores: 632,672

Cori is NERSC's newest supercomputer (NERSC-8), a Cray XC40. It is named for American biochemist Gerty Cori, the first American woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first woman to be so honored with the prize in Physiology or Medicine.   Cori is a unique supercomputer, comprised of 2,004 Intel Xeon "Haswell" processor nodes, 9,300 Intel Xeon Phi "Knight's Landing" nodes, and a 1.5 PB Cray Data Warp Burst Buffer.

NERSC's newest supercomputer, named Cori, currently has Phase I (the Haswell partition) installed.  Cori Phase I has a (theoretical) peak performance of 1.92 petaflops/sec, 52,160 compute cores for running scientific applications, 203 terabytes of memory, and 28 petabytes of online disk storage with a peak I/O bandwidth of > 700 gigabytes (GB) per second.

The cabinets of the Cori Phase II system (the Knights Landing partition) arrived in July 2016, and integration with the Phase I system began in September 2016.

6. Oakforest-PACS – Japan

Processor: Xeon Phi 7250| Vendor: Fujitsu| Operating System: Linux |

Total CPU Cores: 556,104

The University of Tokyo, the University of Tsukuba, and Fujitsu Limited today announced that the Oakforest-PACS massively parallel cluster-type supercomputer, built by Fujitsu and operated by the Joint Center for Advanced High Performance Computing (JCAHPC), has achieved a LINPACK performance result of 13.55 petaflops, as ranked in the November Top500 list for supercomputer performance. Given this, Oakforest-PACS has surpassed the K computer to officially become the highest performance supercomputer in Japan. The system's peak performance is 25 petaflops, which is about 2.2 times that of the K computer.

The Oakforest-PACS system is located in the Information Technology Center on the University of Tokyo's Kashiwa Campus, but everything is carried out jointly by the University of Tokyo and the University of Tsukuba, including financing, implementation and operation of the system, as well as the majority of program usage. The system is made up of 8,208 computational nodes using Intel Xeon Phi high performance processors with Knights Landing architecture that uses many-core processor technology.

 The nodes are connected by Intel® Omni-Path Architecture. Because of the progress in semiconductor and interconnect technology over the past five years, the system, which uses commercially available processors, has been able to achieve the highest level of performance in Japan.

7. K computer – Japan

Processor: SPARC64 VIIIfx | Vendor: Fujitsu| Operating System: Linux |

Total CPU Cores: 705,024

The K computer – named for the Japanese word "kei" meaning 10 quadrillion (10¹⁶) is a supercomputer manufactured by Fujitsu, currently installed at the RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science campus in Kobe, Japan. The K computer is based on a distributed memory architecture with over 80,000 computer nodes. It is used for a variety of applications, including climate research, disaster prevention and medical research. The K computer's operating system is based on the Linux kernel, with additional drivers designed to make use of the computer's hardware.

In June 2011, TOP500 ranked K the world's fastest supercomputer, with a computation speed of over 8 petaflops, and in November 2011, K became the first computer to top 10 petaflops. It had originally been slated for completion in June 2012. In June 2012, K was superseded as the world's fastest supercomputer by the American IBM Sequoia and as of August 2016, K is the world's fifth-fastest computer.

8. Piz Daint – Switzerland

Processor: Xeon E5-2690v3, Tesla P100 | Vendor: Cray| Operating System: Linux (CLE) |Total CPU Cores: 45,216

Named after Piz Daint, a prominent peak in Grisons that overlooks the Fuorn pass, this supercomputer is a Cray XC30 system and is the flagship system for national HPC Service.

Piz Daint has a computing power of 7.8 PFlops, this means 7.8 quadrillion of mathematical operations per second. Piz Daint can compute in one day more than a modern laptop could compute in 900 years.

This supercomputer is a 28 cabinet Cray XC30 system with a total of 5'272 compute nodes. The compute nodes are equipped with an 8-core 64-bit Intel SandyBridge CPU (Intel® Xeon® E5-2670), an NVIDIA® Tesla® K20X with 6 GB GDDR5 memory, and 32 GB of host memory. The nodes are connected by the "Aries" proprietary interconnect from Cray, with a dragonfly network topology.

9. Mira – United States

Processor: PowerPC A2 | Vendor: IBM | Operating System: Linux (CNK)|

Total CPU Cores: 786,432

Mira is a petascale Blue Gene/Q supercomputer. As of June 2013, it is listed on TOP500 as the fifth-fastest supercomputer in the world. It has a performance of 8.59 petaflops (LINPACK) and consumes 3.9 MW. The supercomputer was constructed by IBM for Argonne National Laboratory's Argonne Leadership Computing Facility with the support of the United States Department of Energy, and partially funded by the National Science Foundation. Mira will be used for scientific research, including studies in the fields of material science, climatology, seismology, and computational chemistry. The supercomputer is being utilized initially for sixteen projects, selected by the Department of Energy.

The Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, which commissioned the supercomputer, was established by the America COMPETES Act, signed by President Bush in 2007, and President Obama in 2011.The United States' emphasis on supercomputing has been seen as a response to China's progress in the field. China's Tianhe-1A, located at the Tianjin National Supercomputer Center, was ranked the most powerful supercomputer in the world from October 2010 to June 2011.Mira is, along with IBM Sequoia and Blue Waters, one of three American petascale supercomputers deployed in 2012. The cost for building Mira has not been released by IBM. Early reports estimated that construction would cost US$50 million, and Argonne National Laboratory announced that Mira was bought using money from a grant of US$180 million. In a press release, IBM marketed the supercomputer's speed, claiming that "if every man, woman and child in the United States performed one calculation each second, it would take them almost a year to do as many calculations as Mira will do in one second"

10. Trinity – United States

Processor: Xeon E5–2698v3 | Vendor: Cray | Operating System: Linux (CLE) |Total CPU Cores: 68,138

The Trinity supercomputer is provided by Cray, Inc. and is based on its XC30 platform architecture. Trinity is a mixture of Intel Haswell and Knights Landing (KNL) processors. The Haswell partition provides a natural transition path for many of the legacy codes running on the Cielo supercomputer, Trinity’s predecessor. In order to effectively use the KNL processor to its full potential, the ASC code teams to must expose higher levels of thread- and vector-level parallelism than has been necessary for the traditional multicore architectures. To help facilitate this transition, the Trinity Center of Excellence was established, with staff from the ASC tri-Labs, Cray, and Intel.

Trinity introduces tightly integrated nonvolatile “burst buffer” storage capabilities. Embedded within the high-speed fabric are nodes with attached solid-state disk drives. The burst buffer capability will allow for accelerated checkpoint/restart performance and relieve much of the pressure normally loaded on the back-end storage arrays. In addition, the burst buffer will support novel new workload management strategies such as in-situ analysis, which opens a whole space in which projects can manage their overall workflows.

Trinity also introduces advanced power management functionality that allows monitoring and control of power consumption at the system, application, and component levels. Although advanced power management is not needed for the current power and operational budget, its functionality is being used to gain a better understanding for future system requirements and features.

4K TV's

TOP 10 4K TV's IN 2016

      Sales of 4K/Ultra HD TVs are booming. In fact, even if you haven't already been seduced by the attraction of having more than eight million pixels in your TV screen it's reaching the point where it's becoming difficult to find TVs to buy that don't feature a native 4K resolution.

Personally, though, we can't find any reason to see this as anything but a good thing. After all, four times as many pixels means four times as much detail in your pictures - something that has a particularly spectacular impact when you get to screen sizes of 55 inches and more.

As if this wasn't a big enough attraction in itself, a growing number of 4K TVs are also now offering high dynamic range (HDR), which expands the range of brightness in the image, as well as wide colour spectrum technologies.

The only catch is that just because a TV has a 4K resolution and, perhaps, HDR and wide colour technologies does not automatically mean that it's a brilliant TV. In fact, HDR in particular is proving quite a challenge for TVs to get right. So let's try and make your buying decision at least a bit easier with my pick of the top 10 4K TVs you can buy today.

1. Samsung KS9500 range

Price: $1,687.99 Onwards (amazon.com)

As well as delivering some of the sharpest 4K pictures yet, the KS9500s also go further than any other TVs to maximise the impact of HDR.

Jaw-dropping, class-leading HDR pictures Unexpectedly good sound Curved screen won't suit all Some backlight 'blooming' in dark scenes

No TVs in 2016 deliver pictures more downright spectacular than Samsung's KS9500s. Partly because no other commercially released TVs have ever delivered as much brightness, but also because Samsung has used a high-end backlighting system and a proprietary take on Quantum Dot colour technology to ensure that the emphatic brightness is joined by excellent contrast and explosively rich but also gorgeously nuanced colours.

Push all this technology to the max with today's highest quality sources - especially, the incredible images you can get from the new Ultra HD Blu-ray format - and you'll witness pictures the like of which just haven't been seen on a TV before.

The KS9500s aren't perfect; the push for such extreme contrast from an LCD screen can sometimes cause backlight clouding around very bright objects, and the most accurate Movie preset can cause colour striping with UHD Blu-ray. There's no 3D support either. So extraordinary are the KS9500s' pictures at their best, though, that their flaws become seriously easy to forgive.

2. LG OLEDE6 series

Price: $2,997.00 Onwards (amazon.com)

The OLED TV technology so beloved of AV enthusiasts for the past few years is taken to bold new heights by LG's ground-breaking OLEDE6 series.

Incredible black level response Jaw-dropping ultra-thin design missing details in very bright areas various subtle picture noise issues

For the sort of AV enthusiast who always preferred the contrast and subtlety of now defunct plasma screens to the more brightness focussed charms of LCD, OLED technology has long looked like the next big thing. And LG's stellar OLEDE6 models do nothing to dispel this notion.

This is because it manages to combine OLED's currently unique ability to have every single pixel in its screen produce its own light and colour independent of its neighbours with a substantial leap in brightness versus any previous OLED generation. What's more, this HDR-friendly leap in brightness has been delivered without compromising the remarkable black level reproduction that's OLED's trademark.

LG will need to improve brightness still further if it wants to avoid the loss of detail in really bright HDR areas the OLEDE6 models sometimes fall prey too, but for many AV fans the E6s' freedom from the sort of backlight flaws all LCD TVs suffer with to some extent will prove nigh-on irresistible.

3. Sony KD-75XD9405

Price: $1,098.00Onwards (amazon.com)

When it comes to 4K, size matters. A point this 75-inch Sony monster rams home in emphatic style.

Huge screen tips you into home cinema territory Lovely picture quality Android TV's interface is clunky yucky remote control

The 75XD9405's huge 75-inch screen serves up a spectacular demonstration of the advantages of having four times as many pixels as you get with an HD TV, adding a sense of scale to 4K's enhanced precision that leaves pictures looking so lifelike it's almost scary. Not that size is by any means the only thing the 75XD9405 has going for it, mind you.

Sony's Triluminos wide colour spectrum technology and a strong contrast performance from its direct (behind the screen) LED lighting system also play their part, delivering both standard and high dynamic range pictures in a balanced and nuanced way that combines with the screen acreage to provide a massively immersive experience.

The 75XD9405 isn't as bright as some rivals and extreme-contrast HDR shots occasionally cause backlight clouding, but if your tastes are more home cinema than TV, the 75XD9405 is currently uniquely qualified for the job.

4. Panasonic DX802 range

Price: $ 1166.99 Onwards (amazon.com)

Good value Bright, detailed pictures Native contrast isn't the best some backlight issues

First, the bad news: The DX802s don't have enough brightness and colour resolution to deliver the maximum HDR experience. You also need to use their Adaptive Backlight setting on its highest level to get a convincing black colour during dark scenes, which can cause occasional backlight stability and clouding.

The good news is that once set up right, the DX802s produce far more spectacular 4K HDR pictures than you've any right to expect for such a reasonably priced TV. There's enough brightness to deliver HDR with plenty of punch backed up by unusually good black levels by affordable LCD TV standards, and colours are reproduced with exceptional finesse. This helps the DX802s deliver plenty of impact from its native 4K resolution too, while the mostly lovely pictures are joined by outstanding sound courtesy of an external sound bar that ships free with the TV.

Finally, the DX802s benefit from a seriously eye-catching design that sees the screen hanging between two easel-style legs.

5. Samsung KS7000 range

Price: $1,297.99 Onwards (amazon.com)

Aggressively priced Good all-round picture quality some backlight clouding issues No 3D

Despite being much cheaper than the KS9500 range that tops this list, Samsung's KS7000 series still meets the demanding specifications set out by the Ultra HD Premium 'standard'. Which means, essentially, that it's got enough brightness, contrast, colour and resolution to produce an uncompromising high dynamic range performance.

So it is that HDR sources look unprecedentedly dynamic and rich for the KS7000 range's level of the market. The sets also do an emphatic job of getting the maximum impact from their native 4K pixel counts.

The TVs look brilliant with standard dynamic range sources too - though a recent firmware update means that all Samsung's 2016 SUHD TVs now offer a surprisingly effective processing system for up scaling SDR to HDR.

There's no 3D support, and very high contrast HDR images can suffer with fairly obvious signs of backlight striping and clouding. Neither of these issues, though, stop the KS7000 from being a great value way of finding out what all the HDR fuss is about.

6. Panasonic DX902 series

Price: $ 3441.37 Onwards (amazon.com)

Bright, contrast-rich pictures Clever and usually effective local dimming technology Chunky bodywork some motion blur

Panasonic was so obsessed with nailing high dynamic range picture quality on its flagship 4K TV series for 2016 that it came up with an all-new 'honeycomb' LCD panel technology. This puts physical dividers between the areas of the different 'zones' of picture illuminated by its direct-lit backlight system to cut down on the usual LCD problems of backlight clouding around bright HDR objects, and even introduces a new diffuser filter to try and stop the light 'breaks' between different LED zones looking too obvious.

Even this doesn't completely solve LED's light control issues with very extreme HDR content, but it certainly does enable the TV to deliver picture quality with HDR sources that for the majority of the time are second only to Samsung's KS9500 TVs for their combination of dynamism, detailing and sheer spectacle - and the DX902s cost hundreds of pounds less than their Samsung rivals.

7. LG OLEDB6 Series

Price: $2,497.00 Onwards (amazon.com)

The OLEDB6 series is the most affordable way to get your hands on LG's 2016 OLED TV technology. Which is all you need to know, really.

Gorgeous, contrast-rich picture quality spectacularly thin design Detail clipping in bright areas Occasional brief colour noise

The brilliantly simple attraction of the LG OLEDB6 4K TV range is that they bring you most of the OLED-based picture quality thrills that saw the OLEDE6 range bag a slot right near the top of this list for a much more affordable price.

The thing is, the reasons the OLEDB6 models are so much cheaper than the E6 models are down to things like design, build quality, reduced audio performance and removing 3D playback from the spec list rather than massively compromised image reproduction. So it still delivers the unbeatable black levels, lovely rich colours, extreme contrast and pixel-level light control of its step-up OLEDE6 siblings.

The OLEDE6 doesn't solve OLED's current issue of lost detail in very bright areas of HDR pictures, but it's as good as it gets with the SDR content we still watch for most of the time and remains the natural successor to the plasma TVs so beloved of AV enthusiasts.

8. Philips 65PUS7601

Price: 2457.77 Onwards (amazon.com)

Brilliant backlight controls make this surprisingly affordable Philips 4K TV one of the year's most pleasant surprises.

Excellent backlight control Great price for the picture quality on offer Complicated picture set up Android TV interface is clunky and impersonal

On paper the 65PUS7601's pictures shouldn't really work. It only delivers 700 nits of brightness versus the 1000 nits we're seeing from the highest-level TVs this year, and it only hits around 76% of the expanded 'DCI-P3' colour range usually considered necessary for a premium HDR experience.

The reality of watching the 65PUS7601, however, is that once you've wrestled with a rather complicated picture set up system it produces one of the most immersive and spectacular pictures the TV world has to offer. Particularly key to its success is its direct LED backlight system, which manages to deliver a good (albeit not full) sense of HDR without causing nearly as many backlight clouding distractions as any of its more extravagantly bright rivals.

The 65PUS7601 does this, moreover, while also giving you the hundreds of apps available via Google's Android TV smart platform and costing many hundreds of pounds less than other direct-lit 4K rivals like the Panasonic DX902s and Samsung KS9500s.

9. Sony XD9305 series

Price: $1,498.00 Onwards (amazon.com)

Sony's new Slim Backlight Drive technology helps the XD9305 series produce some of the most beautiful 4K and HDR pictures 2016 has to offer.

High contrast for an edge LED TV Beautiful colour and detail performance some quite defined light 'blocks' with high contrast HDR content Android TV interface isn't very friendly or slick

With the XD9305 series, Sony has joined the other big brands this year in delivering some genuine, HDR-led innovation. In the XD9305's case this takes the form of the Slim Backlight Drive, which cleverly uses two edge-mounted LED light modules and dual light guides to essentially double how locally the XD9305 TVs can control the light in their images.

The result is a contrast performance that gets closer to what you'd normally only see from TVs with a direct LED lighting system at a fraction of the price.

Sony's Triluminos technology also contributes some mesmerisingly good colour handling, while the brand's X1 processing system ensures that both native 4K and upscaled HD sources both looks fantastically detailed and sharp.

Occasional rather defined backlight 'blocking' artefacts and the clunky Android TV smart engine stop the XD9305 TVs from challenging for the top spot on this list, but at their best the XD9305's pictures are genuinely sensational.

10. Panasonic DX750 range

Price: $1019.38 Onwards (amazon.com)

An eye-catchingly affordable way to bag yourself outstanding 4K standard dynamic range and decent HDR pictures.

Good all-round picture quality Friendly smart TV interface some backlight concerns with HDR only gives a watered down HDR experience

The Panasonic DX750s are some of the cheapest TVs around to offer both 4K and HDR playback. Yet despite their affordability they are also very likeable performers. In fact, with the standard dynamic range sources we still spend the vast majority of our time watching they're nothign short of excellent thanks to their winning combination of 4K sharpness, strong contrast and natural, nuanced colour tones.

With HDR the situation is a little less emphatic, as the screen doesn't have the colour or brightness range to provide a truly full blooded HDR performance. There are various occasional backlight distractions with HDR playback too that you have to work hard in the set up menus to try and minimise. Actually, though, for most of the time the DX750s still look good with HDR and deliver at least a flavour of the extra colour and light dynamics that make it so special.

Add to all this Panasonic's friendly, customisable Firefox TV smart engine and you've got a TV range that offers fearsome amounts of bang for your buck.

Smartphones

Top 10 Smartphones in 2016

What is Smartphone?

A smartphone is a mobile phone (also known as cell phones) with an advanced mobile operating system which combines features of a personal computer operating system with other features useful for mobile or handheld use.Smartphones, which are usually pocket-sized, typically combine the features of a mobile phone, such as the abilities to place and receive voice calls and create and receive text messages, with those of other popular digital mobile devices like personal digital assistants (PDAs), such as an event calendar, media player, video games, GPS navigation, digital camera and digital video camera. Most smartphones can access the Internet and can run a variety of third-party software components ("apps"). They typically have a color display with a graphical user interface that covers 70% or more of the front surface. The display is often a touchscreen, which enables the user to use a virtual keyboard to type words and numbers and press onscreen icons to activate "app" features.

In 1999, the Japanese firm NTT DoCoMo released the first smartphones to achieve mass adoption within a country. Smartphones became widespread in the late 2000s. Most of those produced from 2012 onward have high-speed mobile broadband 4G LTE, motion sensors, and mobile payment features. In the third quarter of 2012, one billion smartphones were in use worldwide. Global smartphone sales surpassed the sales figures for regular cell phones in early 2013.As of 2013, 65% of mobile consumers in the United States owned smartphones. By January 2016, smartphones held over 79% of the U.S. mobile market.

Here is the list of Top 10 Smartphones in 2016:

1. Samsung Galaxy S7 edge

Price: $591.00 Onwards (amazon.com)

The curved screen is Samsung’s new headline design trait, and it’s using it more and more frequently. The S7 Edge is the best version of it yet, I haven’t spent enough time with the Galaxy Note 7 just yet, and it makes for an iconic phone. It's more eye-catching than the regular Samsung Galaxy S7, too.

It doesn’t just impress in the looks department though; this is an all-round stunner. It has the best optics, crispest screen and even Samsung’s software has taken a step back. The sloping display might make it harder to hold for some, but it’s never become an issue for me.It’s expensive, it’s always going to be, but you’re getting a lot of phone for your money.

Design hasn't always been Samsung's strong suit. Just two years ago, Samsung released the Galaxy S5. The handset was the most powerful phone available at the time, but it wasn’t a looker. Last year’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge signalled a much needed change for Samsung, and the change is only more obvious with the S7 Edge. The Galaxy S7 Edge is downright gorgeous. In my eyes, it’s the best looking phone ever and makes the iPhone 6S Plus look blocky, boring and dated.

2. Google Pixel

Price: $729.00 Onwards (amazon.com)

The Google Pixel is a landmark device, signalling the first proper foray into phones by the search engine giant. And boy, has it done a good job.

The Pixel is available in two sizes – the smaller one reviewed here and a larger 5.5-inch Pixel XL – and has one of the best cameras on any phone, along with a software experience that's better than any other Android device.

You have to pay a premium for these features – this certainly isn’t a Nexus-priced device – but it’s far from the first phone to cost a pretty penny. And when it’s this good, it’s worth paying that bit extra.

The least exciting part about the whole idea of the Google Pixel is its design. I know many people who dislike it completely, but I find it perfectly serviceable. It isn't as flashy as Samsung’s Galaxy S7, but it's much nicer than the latest batch of iPhones.

The body is made from metal and glass – pretty much a given these days – and it tapers down ever so slightly on the rear to help avoid any unnecessary camera bumps. A circular fingerprint sensor sits below the camera sensor, and both are encased in a divisive glass panel that runs about a third of the way down the back.

3. Apple iPhone 7

Price: $709.00 Onwards (amazon.com)

The iPhone 7 entered the world with a bang, thanks to headphone controversy and a price hike seemingly in the wake of Brexit.

But at first glance you’ll wonder what’s changed – it looks pretty much the same as an iPhone 6. I loved that design, but then I loved the design of the iPhone 4 – that doesn't mean I want a phone that looks like that in 2016. Still the 6 design was good, but would any other company get away with a two-year-old look for its flagship phone?

Get past this and the iPhone 7 delivers a unique experience among iPhones, which is both a good and bad thing. The new features – water resistance, an incredible quad-core processor and, crucially, a 32GB starting storage capacity – are all very welcome. So is the excellent camera that’s had the right upgrades to make photos look better.

4. OnePlus 3T

Price: $439.00 Onwards (amazon.com)

The OnePlus 3 was our favourite mid-price phone until this 3T came along. I have no idea why the company is in such a rush to replace its already excellent phone so soon after its launch, but there you have it. And here you have a phone that's the new standout in its category. Oh and don't worry -- the 3 is far from obsolete.

Compared to the 3, the 3T has a darker grey colour and a new 128GB storage option. It's got a faster processor, a bigger battery and a better front-facing camera. It's also a smudge more expensive at $439 for the 64GB variant and $479 for the 128GB model.  

For OnePlus 3 owners, don't panic. You're only missing out on a couple hours of extra battery life and better selfies. Plus, all the 3T's new software goodies will soon roll out to 3 owners too.

The earlier OnePlus 3 was fast -- it outpaced the Samsung Galaxy S7, LG G5 and HTC 10 in diagnostic benchmark testing scores. This time around, the 3T beats the 3 in the same benchmarks and is just as fast as the Google Pixel and LeEco LePro 3 -- two newer phones that have the same Snapdragon 821 processor as the 3T.

5. Samsung Galaxy S7

Price: $518.49 Onwards (amazon.com)

On September 2, 2016, the company recalled its Galaxy Note 7 phone after a major battery flaw caused a small number of the phones to spontaneously explode. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, along with Canada and Mexico, made the recall official, banning the sale of the phone, and certain airlines have blocked the phones from their flights.

Before the Note 7 fiasco, there was the Galaxy S7 Active debacle, which now looks positively minor in comparison. After introducing the flagship Galaxy S7 to rave reviews in March -- we still love it, by the way -- Samsung trotted out the Galaxy S7 Active, a variant equipped with a beautiful display, speedy processor, microSD card slot, excellent 12-megapixel rear camera, and supersized battery. Unfortunately, it received its share of unwelcome attention for issues related to its most highly-touted feature: waterproofing -- or its lack thereof. Though Samsung has fixed the problem on its manufacturing line -- and we've verified the fix -- the Galaxy S7 Active's inconsistent performance in water sapped our enthusiasm, and we can no longer recommend the phone with complete confidence.

Meanwhile, Apple has since released its water-resistant iPhone 7 and 7 plus, which appear to live up to their billing when forced to take a dunk. As covered in our full review, the iPhone 7 also takes great photos, provides long battery life, and delivers fast performance, though it lacks a number of the Galaxy Note 7's cutting-edge features such as iris scanner, wireless charging and wrap-around screen.

6. Apple iPhone 7 Plus

Price: $709.00 Onwards (amazon.com)

Apple's recent strategy of bringing out an iPhablet that includes all the best bits of the smaller new iPhone has been a strong one - but this year, the iPhone 7 Plus is a phone that's markedly better than the smaller model.

That's mostly achieved through two things: improved battery life and an innovative camera. The former is always going to be better, given the larger size, but by adding a dual-camera setup to the mix Apple has made a conscious effort to make the 7 Plus seem like a distinctly different choice.

There are also new color configurations, more space to throw in your media and apps, and changes to the internals - we lose the headphone jack, but gain a new kind of vibrating motor.

It's not just an increase in battery size which Apple reckons will see the 7 Plus last longer - it's also the new A10 Fusion chip, which has two low-power and two high-power cores.

The lower-power cores handle basic tasks, such as web browsing and emails, while consuming less power, and the more powerful duo come into play when you fire-up a game or an HD movie.

Whether that has a marked effect on the battery isn't that clear, but we can report that the battery life on the iPhone 7 Plus is very good.

It'll happily last a full day on a single charge with relatively heavy usage, including over an hour of gaming, a couple of hours of Spotify streaming, and regular social media and email action, as well as a fair amount of camera time.

7. HTC 10

Price: $517.48 Onwards (amazon.com)

The HTC 10 has stood the test of time remarkably well. Unlike competing phones, like the Huawei P9, the HTC 10 remains lightning fast. Games open in a matter of seconds and run chug- and stutter-free and I’m yet to have a serious software crash.

The phone has also survived more than average wear and tear. As well as several standard accidental drops onto TrustedReviews' carpeted floor, the phone also survived a hazardous impact with a tree after an accidental trip while running. It remained crack and chip free.

Battery life has slightly deteriorated, but not as much as I’d expected. The HTC 10 still easily lasts a full day off one charge and I regularly manage to eke out two days with light use.

The camera is still a slight annoyance, but only because I’ve experienced the majestic awesomeness of the Galaxy S7 – which still has the best phone camera sensor on the market.

The HTC 10’s camera isn’t bad, but the use of Ultrapixel tech, which instructs the camera to capture bigger pixels and more light, works a little too well. Photos taken in even moderately bright lighting conditions are regularly washed out and have unwanted flare effects.

8. Apple iPhone SE

Price: $251.00 Onwards (amazon.com)

he iPhone SE is no longer Apple's latest phone, that honour goes to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. They might not be radical redesigns, but new features are plentiful. Both are water-resistant, have stereo speakers and a wider colour gamut screen. You'll have to say bye to the headphone jack though, as it's been ditched.

Phones getting bigger and bigger, but the iPhone SE totally bucks the trend. This is a phone that's easy to use with one hand. Yes the the Samsung Galaxy S7, HTC 10 and iPhone 6S Plus are great handsets, but for many of us they’re simply too large.

How can a phone with a three year old design do it? Apple has given people a choice with the iPhone SE. The compact body is rare these days, but even though it's small it packs a mighty punch. This is a very powerful and capable phone. It can boast the same top-notch internals as the iPhone 6S, a Rose Gold hue and support for Apple Pay. 

9. Apple iPhone 6S

Price: $399.99 Onwards (amazon.com)

It’s always exciting when Apple debuts a fancy new iPhone that looks totally different, but that happens only every other year. On the off years, we get S phones, and usually they’re decent upgrade. Last year’s iPhone 6 was a beauty to behold, but under the hood it wasn’t anything special. In fact, it was basically an iPhone 5S, lacking the kind of horsepower upgrade that warrants a fancy new phone. This year, things are different.

Your eyes may not light up when you see the iPhone 6S (unless you’re coming from a 5S), but your future self will thank you for getting one.

With key upgrades in RAM, processing power, camera quality, and screen technology, the iPhone 6S has some tricks that no iPhone before it could pull off, and the speed of a souped-up Ferrari. And hell, it comes in a new color, too! No, not pink. It’s “rose gold.” Like it did with regular gold, Apple has made pink cool again.

10. Huawei P9

Price: $233.38 Onwards (amazon.com)

Huawei wants to play with the big boys. The Chinese company wants to be taken seriously as a competitor to Apple and Samsung, but right now it's rooted firmly among the second tier of Android manufacturers, competing with the likes of Sony, LG, HTC and Motorola in western markets.

A reputation for pairing high-end specs with lower prices than some of its competitors, backed up with some solid marketing, has enabled Huawei to start standing out a little from the crowd. And now the company hopes the P9, plugged with an ad campaign starring none other than Superman can take it to the next level.

But Huawei still needs to impress people. No one buys a phone from a manufacturer they barely know without doing a little research first. Huawei knows it, and the P9 has the specs on paper, and a focus on camera technology, that will catch the eye of even the most discerning prospective purchaser.