On 10 November 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, then marketing director of the Guinness Breweries, went on a shooting party in the North Slob, by the River Slaney in County Wexford, Ireland. Find it on Google Maps, it's an amazing place. Anyway, after missing a shot at a golden plover, the gentleman found himself in an argument over which was the fastest game bird in Europe, the golden plover or the red grouse?
In the heat of the moment, Sir Beaver realised that it was impossible to confirm in reference books (what they used before, you know, Wikipedia) whether or not the golden plover was Europe's fastest game bird. Falling short on substance behind his educated argument, Beaver knew that there must be numerous other questions debated nightly in pubs throughout Ireland and abroad, but there was no book in the world with which to settle said arguments about records. Perhaps the noble sir knew little of the club law. But nevertheless, he gained a valuable idea! He realised then that a book supplying the answers to this sort of question might prove successful, and this is the short briefing on how the Guinness World Records were born.
Throughout the course of history, many animate and inanimate objects have entered the pages of this peculiar reading. Many of them gained fame or notoriety because of it. As of recent, smartphones too have become Guinness record material! Here's a brief showcase of 5 record-breaking smartphones for your entertainment.
1. LG G4 broke the record for world's longest "selfie relay chain".
What's a selfie relay chain? Basically, LG lined up a mass of over 2500 people in Mexico city, and a single LG G4 passed between them. The smartphone took 746 selfies over two hours, taking a photo every 10 seconds on average and beating the previous record, which was established by 531 selfies taken with the Galaxy A3 & A5. The LG G4 went through everything without needing a recharge or battery swap, which is quite impressive! LG claims the smartphone had enough juice to go on snapping selfies, but the company "ran out of people". Ah, people problems!
2. Gionee Elife S5.1 became the thinnest smartphone for a while.
Chinese manufacturer Gionee made a name for itself by pushing smartphones to unprecedented limits. It made a 0.2in (5.1mm-thick) smartphone, the Elife S5.1, and stuck a 6020mAh battery inside the Marathon M5. The former, released in September 2014, won Guinness World Recognition for its svelte profile, keeping the title for a good few months before the pressure from other Chinese manufacturers intensified and the following thing happened...
3. Oppo R5 crushed the Gionee Elife S5.1's thinness record.
Thought the Gionee is thin? Think again, because the Oppo R5 is, like, 0.19in (4.85mm) of smartphone thickness! It appeared just a month after the Gionee, and shamelessly stolen its Guiness thinness crown! We got to review this one a short while after its announcement, and our coherent summation went on something like this: "If a super-thin phone is what you are looking for, then the R5 is a good option, but be wary of the trade-offs – sub-par audio quality, a battery that doesn't agree with heavy usage, low internal storage with no option to expand."
4. HTC One set the world record for largest animated mobile phone mosaic
HTC might not be setting sales records, but they did bag an artful world record! Together with China Unicom and Sohu IT, HTC built an animated mobile phone mosaic consisting of 400 HTC One smartphones playing pictures and stuff in sync. The record was achieved as part of the inaugural China Smart Device Games, and the installation itself was on display at the National Olympic Sports Centre in Beijing.
5. LG Optimus 2X got the Guinness treatment for... being a dual-core smartphone.
In the age of octa-core flagships and deca-core chipsets looming on the horizon, you'd be forgiven if the notion of the LG Optimus 2X becoming Guinness royalty because of its modest dual-core processor gives you a chuckle. But believe or not, in 2011, dual-core smartphones were considered state of the art! In just four short years, they became obsolete, as even low-end smartphones of today pack four CPU cores. Talk about progress!
0 comments:
Post a Comment