This post is brought to you by BMW Advanced Diesel. Clean. Powerful. Efficient. |
Let’s talk cars for a minute. More specifically, let’s talk diesel cars. It’s not uncommon for Europeans to be familiar with diesel-driven engines, and the technology behind them. However, for those in the US, diesel has a stigma attached to it. It’s a stigma of poor cold-weather starting, stinky black exhaust and lower performance than their gasoline-firing counterparts. But these are myths, and BMW is hoping that the introduction of the 328d and 535d diesel sedans to the US market can help to quell them.
Over the next week, I’l be driving a 535d, on loan from BMW. It’s the larger of the two cars, touting 413 pound-feet of torque. For those unfamiliar, torque is what gets you moving. The higher the torque rating, the more likely it is that you’ll feel yourself pulled back into the seat as you take off with hard acceleration.
For the 535d, that 413 pound-feet rating places it higher than some names you’re likely to recognize suck as the Porsche 911 Carrera S, the Ferrari California and American muscle like the Dodge Charger or Ford Mustang.
On the other side of the equation is the 328d. The company promises me that drivers will see fantastic fuel economy (around 45 mpg on the highway, which is better than my 2012 Focus SEL daily driver), and I don’t doubt that. Ultra-milage diesel engines have been a staple in Europe for years. But I’m also promised that I’ll see performance the likes of which are not typical for a diesel-powered car. That’s the part that excites me.
The 328d is no slouch when it comes to power, boasting 280 pound-feet of torque. BMW’s 3-series sedans have been a crowd favorite for years, and with good reason. They’re notoriously fun to drive, they ride like they’re on rails and they’re well-equipped at a reasonable price point.
I’ll be looking pretty heavily at points related to the torque and fuel efficiency of the car. I’ll do the usual daily-driver things like merging into traffic, passing and hard acceeleration. But I’ll also be taking the car to a local closed-circuit course to get a better feel for what it can do when you really don’t have to worry about having other people around you.
In all, it should be a good time, and I’m looking forward to digging into the technology that has made BMW pull the trigger on reintroducing diesel engines to the US market. If you have questions, or things that you’d like me to try during the week, drop a comment. Consider yourself a keyboard-version backseat driver for the week.
Sony unveils Xperia T2 Ultra phablet and Xperia E1 smartphone with a focus on entertainment
It’s been a year packed with new products for Sony so far — after debuting the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact and Z1s Android smartphones at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show last week, it has today announced another two smartphones with a focus on entertainment features, the Xperia T2 Ultra and Xperia E1.
The Xperia T2 Ultra is a massive smartphone with a six-inch screen and was designed specifically with customers from emerging markets including China, the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia-Pacific in mind, Sony says. It is therefore priced mid-range (though pricing is yet to be confirmed), but features a HD display and a 13-megapixel camera with add-ons such as portrait retouch and collage creation. It runs on a 1.4GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor, has 1GB of RAM and a 3,000 mAh battery.
The Xperia T2 Ultra will also have integrated movies and music from Sony Entertainment Network out-of-the-box, the company says.
The Xperia E1, by contrast, is a mid-tier Android smartphone with a 4.4-inch display, 1.2 GHz Qualcomm dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM and a 1,700 mAh battery.
Sony focuses on audio for the Xperia E1 — it comes with a 100Db speaker to produce a louder and cleaner sound. It also features shake-to-shuffle controls and a dedicated ‘long press to launch’ Walkman button to access your music faster. The Xperia E1 will also come pre-loaded with a 30-day pass for Sony’s music streaming service, Music Unlimited .
Both smartphones also come with dual-SIM capability. The Xperia T2 Ultra will launch in major markets in the first quarter of this year, while the release date for the Xperia E1 is as yet unknown.
Headline image via David Becker/Getty Images
Moto X+1 placeholder appears on Motorola’s Moto Maker website
Corroborating a tweet published by @evleaks , Motorola has updated its Moto Maker site with mention of a new handset called the Moto X+1 . This is presumed to be a successor to its flagship Moto X smartphone, which Motorola plans to release in “ late summer “.
The tidbit was spotted by MobiFlip , but unfortunately there’s little else to report here. There are no images or specs to dive into, and clicking the ‘Moto X+1 Details’ button simply triggers a broken link .
Even so, its appearance suggests that the device will be unveiled fairly shortly. Motorola issued an invite yesterday for a press event on May 13, which many suggest will be for a new low-to-mid-range device called the Moto E . It could be that the Moto X+1 will be launched at this event instead, or perhaps both of them will be revealed simultaneously – although the wording “the next smartphone” implies a single product announcement.
Whatever Motorola has in store, TNW will be covering the event live as it unfolds later this month. Be sure to check our site for all the details.