Sunday, February 26, 2012

HTC Evo 3D

HTC Evo 3D Review: Dual-Core, 3D Display, 4G Speeds

HTC Evo 3D Review, by Ginny Mies June 21, 2011

I'm not sold on 3D for consumer devices, and I'm certainly skeptical of it on a smartphone-size screen. However, Sprint and HTC make a great team, so I decided to keep an open mind about the HTC Evo 3D. Did the Evo 3D change my opinion of 3D phones? Well, let's just say it is a very good thing that there's more to this phone than just a 3D display.

Solid, Beautiful Design

First and foremost, the Evo 3D is a gorgeous phone. Like the Evo 4G, the Evo 3D is black with blood-red detailing. Keeping it in the family, the Evo View Android tablet, also announced today, has the same color scheme. The Evo 3D smartphone feels solid, but not bulky in the least. It has a nice, textured rubber backing and a slimmer shape that feels good in hand.
With the battery in place, the HTC Evo 3D weighs 6 ounces. It measures about 5 inches tall, nearly 3 inches wide, and 0.47 inches thick. Its display is a 4.3-inch 3D touchscreen with a sheet of Gorilla Glass for added toughness. Unlike the Evo 4G, the Evo 3D doesn't sport a kickstand--mainly because the twin 3D cameras occupy most of the space on the rear.

3D Display

One of the most important features of the Evo 3D is, of course, its 3D display. The phone uses parallax barriers to display 3D images and video, without the need for clunky 3D glasses (similar to the concept used on the Nintendo 3DS). The Evo 3D's 4.3-inch qHD 960-by-540-pixel screen looks terrific in 2D--and pretty good in 3D, as well. Let me be clear, however: This isn't the kind of 3D you'd see at the movie theater. Images aren't exactly flying in your face. Rather, it looks like you can peer into the phone much like a diorama.
You need to maintain an absolute dead-on viewing angle to properly appreciate the third dimension, though. If you're viewing at a slight angle, the image will look like a blurry mess. This can be difficult with a small screen. With an image or a short video clip, it isn't too hard to hold the phone directly in front of your eyes for a few seconds. And don't even think about trying to watch 3D movies outside; it completely fades in bright sunlight. If you don't want to view 3D images and prefer to stick to the standard 2D display, a toggle switch on the side of the device allows you to turn the effect off.

New HTC Sense User Interface

Like the HTC Sensation, the Evo 3D comes with the latest version of the Sense user interface. Sense 3.0 has a brand-new customizable lock screen. You can pick a theme for your lock screen (the phone offers quite a few to choose from) and then select four apps that you visit the most. When you turn on your phone, you'll see those four apps at the bottom of the screen. To unlock your phone, you drag the circle and move it over an app; you then jump straight to that app. That way, you don't have to go through multiple menus to reach your e-mail or any other items you access frequently.
The new version of Sense also has a spruced-up Walls system. Rather than having to flick back and forth between your walls, as you do in the stock Android operating system, you can flick the Evo 3D's screen to make the walls spin. The effect is slightly reminiscent of a carousel and makes navigation a little easier.
You'll find a clutch of new widgets in Sense, but my favorite is the gorgeous new Weather widget. HTC has a nice tradition of creating visual weather apps, and it is cool to see the company continue to improve them. They might not always be pretty, but they sure are dramatic.

Performance

The Evo 3D is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. The Snapdragon processor supports advanced 3D technology, including full 1080p 30-frames-per-second HD video and stereoscopic 3D video capture and playback.
So how much of a difference does dual-core make? We matched the Evo 3D up against its predecessor, the HTC Evo 4G (a single-core device), and there's quite a big difference--one you'll notice as soon as you turn on the phone. The Evo 4G had a startup time of 74 seconds (!), while the Evo 3D had a much faster startup time of 13.7 seconds.

Samsung Epic Touch 4G for Sprint: Slim and Speedy

Samsung Epic Touch 4G Review, by Ginny Mies September 13, 2011

The arrival of Samsung's Galaxy S II phones has been a long time coming. We first saw the next generation of Samsung's popular line of Android phones back in February at Mobile World Congress. After many successful months in Europe, the Galaxy S II line of phones is finally coming to U.S. shores. The first of the phones, the Samsung Epic Touch 4G ($200 with a two-year contract with Sprint; price as of September 12, 2011) will be available starting on September 16.
Ridiculously Thin

The Epic Touch might be a bit larger than the previous generation of phones, but it is incredibly thin. Measuring 5.1 inches by 2.7 inches by 0.38 inch, the Touch feels pretty comfortable in hand--and this is coming from somebody with small hands! Samsung phones have a bit of a reputation for being plasticky, and the Epic Touch unfortunately falls under that descriptor. In her hands on of the Epic Touch at Samsung's launch even, my colleague Melanie Pinola remarked that it felt "less refined" than AT&T's Galaxy S II version.
On the bottom of the phone, you'll find the MHL port, a feature we've seen on many of this year's high-end smartphones. The MHL specification, which stands for Mobile High Definition Link, is a 1080p HD video and digital audio interface for connecting smartphones and other portable devices (tablets, cameras, and the like) to HDTVs. So what's the big deal? It simultaneously provides power to your phone--something that HDMI cables don't do.
Super AMOLED Plus Display
The 4.52-inch Super AMOLED Plus display on the Epic Touch is quite nice, but text isn't quite as sharp as what we saw on the European Galaxy S II. The Epic Touch's display is slightly larger than the European version (which has a 4.3-inch display) so it seems like the text sharpness may have been compromised by larger screen real estate. The text is still quite readable, but it is something I noticed right away upon using the phone.
Otherwise, the display's colors looked bright, details were crisp, and the viewing angles were very good. Blacks were deep, and colors were richly saturated without being overdone. Even when held in direct sunlight, the Epic Touch's display remained incredibly visible. Whites had a bit of a bluish tint, but it wasn't too noticeable. According to Samsung, Super AMOLED Plus displays have 50 percent more subpixels than the first-generation Super AMOLED displays (seen on the Vibrant, Mesmerize, and other Galaxy S phones) and perform even better than their predecessors in bright light.
Android Gingerbread With TouchWiz 4.0
The revamped TouchWiz 4.0 is fairly similar to the previous version, but it has a few aesthetic and functional enhancements here and there. For instance, the new lock screen displays missed calls and unread text messages; you can swipe these notifications rather than having to unlock your phone and then dig through menus to find the missed messages. The Epic Touch's keyboard isn't the native Android one, but it retains the multitouch key-chording feature (you can simultaneously press Shift and a letter to produce a symbol or number--no need to switch between modes) and the ability to use your voice to correct words as you type.
Taking a page from (or directly ripping off) HTC Sense, TouchWiz lets you pinch your homescreen to see thumbnail-size versions of all of your screens. Samsung borrowed another feature from HTC Sense, too: When the phone is ringing or playing music, you can silence it by flipping it face-down on a surface.
Contacts gets some cool new gesture-based functions. Swipe right on a friend's name, and you'll start a call with them; swipe left on their name, and you'll jump to the SMS composer, which you can use to send them a text message. Each of your contact's cards comes with your communication history--for example, when you last called, texted, or emailed the person.
One funny new feature is the ability to reject a call by sending a text message. Let's say that your brother is calling to ask when you're going to pay him back for dinner the other night. A menu will come up giving you the option to answer the call, hang up, or reject it with a text that says "I'll pay you back tomorrow!"
All of Samsung's Galaxy S II phones have six-axis motion sensing, powered by an accelerometer and a gyroscope. This feature is great for gaming, but Samsung also throws in some gesture-based phone controls. For example, you can zoom in and out of images in your gallery or in the browser by tilting the phone. This feature feels a bit awkward and unnecessary, however; I can't see myself ever using it.
TouchWiz isn't for everyone, so be sure to spend some time with it before purchasing a Galaxy S II phone.
Multimedia and Apps
Because this is a Sprint phone, you'll find all of the usual bloatware: Sprint Music Plus, Sprint Radio, Sprint TV and Movies, and Sprint NASCAR. You also get a game called N.O.V.A. HD and various apps--including Samsung's AllShare app for sharing media over DLNA servers.
Perhaps the coolest app Samsung provides on the phone (and on all Galaxy S II phones we've seen) is the company's own Kies Air. The app lets you view call logs, videos, photos, bookmarks, and IMs, and send SMS messages from PC. In order for the app to work, you'll have to install it on your PC and connect it to the same Wi-Fi network as your phone.
Like all Galaxy S phones, the Epic Touch provides the Media Hub for movie and TV-watching. Video looked fantastic on the handset's display and played back smoothly. Even if you don't like Samsung's Media Hub, you'll want to watch a lot of movies and TV shows on this phone. Unlike the European version, the Epic Touch 4G does not have the Readers or Music Hub for purchasing ebooks or MP3s, respectively.
Performance
Like the AT&T Galaxy S phone, the Epic Touch is powered by a 1.20GHz dual-core Samsung Exynos processor. The Epic Touch booted up in 20 seconds, which is pretty fast; in contrast, the Droid Bionic took 43 seconds to turn on fully.
We also tested the phone using Qualcomm's new benchmarking app, Vellamo, to see how a Samsung processor would fare against its competitors. The Epic Touch 4G earned a very impressive score of 914, putting it right behind the Galaxy Tab 10.1 for overall performance and ahead of two phones running Qualcomm chips--the HTC Sensation 4G and the HTC EVO 3D. You should take these results with a grain of salt, since Qualcomm manufactures the app, but the data is interesting to compare.
I experienced reliably good Sprint WiMax 4G coverage in San Francisco. I had a strong 4G signal pretty much everywhere I went in the city. Sprint's 4G network paired with the Samsung Exynos dual-core processor makes for some excellent Web browsing, too. Over 4G, PCWorld.com (the full site) loaded in a speedy 12.1 seconds. Image-heavy site TheBoldItalic.com loaded in 10.1 seconds, and media-heavy ThrasherMagazine.com loaded in 13.6 seconds.
Of course, 4G coverage and signal strength vary depending on where you live in the country and whether your city even offers 4G. We have good 4G coverage in San Francisco; but in our 4G Phone Shootout, Sprint had the poorest country-wide coverage.
Call quality over Sprint was very good overall. My friends and family said that they could hear my voice perfectly and described it as sounding natural.
Superb 8-Megapixel Camera

When we reviewed the European version of the Galaxy S II, we were impressed by its 8-megapixel camera. Luckily, Samsung seems not to have changed the sensor for the U.S. versions. The Epic Touch took excellent photos indoors and out. My only complaint is that colors in my indoor photos looked a bit oversaturated. Details were quite sharp and I didn't detect any graininess or pixelation. The shutter speed on the camera was fast enough to capture photos of sports, kids, and other quick-moving subjects. Again, I must lament the lack of a physical shutter

button, but the camera's quality makes up for it.
Like the Motorola Photon 4G, HTC Sensation 4G, and the LG Optimus 3D, the Epic Touch 4G supports up to 1080p HD video capture. Video quality was good: The Epic Touch could handle fast-moving cars and slower-moving people without distortion or pixelation.

HTC Wildfire S

HTC Wildfire S review: S-size droid

Introduction

Mini phones are hot and HTC don’t want you take Sony Ericsson’s word on that. What started as a small niche is now a segment that keeps growing – and one that no manufacturer can afford to ignore. Sony Ericsson have just announced their updated mini lineup while Samsung and LG routinely have more than one thing going on in the midrange.
HTC know they can’t afford to stop right in the middle of what they’ve been doing with the Wildfire, the Aria and the Gratia. Going all the way back to the Tattoo, which first put Android on the radar for budget shoppers.

HTC Wildfire S official photos
There’s plenty of choice already for those who like their droid in a small package. The HTC Wildfire S seems to be aware of that and does well to make itself seen. The lively paintjobs and friendly compact size are the right features to show to potential buyers. The Wildfire S has found a way to further reduce size while keeping the same 3.2” screen.
One thing we should keep in mind though. HTC seem to be in power-saving mode currently with all their recent releases but facelifts offering minor improvements over predecessors. That holds true for the Wildfire S too, though this is not to say that it shouldn’t be on your list if you’re looking for the next hot mini. HTC seem to have worked exactly on the things that most needed improvement. Display is key here, HVGA finally bringing it to acceptable levels. CIF video-capture was upped to VGA and the phone runs the latest Android Gingerbread.
These things should give it enough value as an upgrade. The Wildfire S is well-designed and well-built – a colorful little droid to offer good bang for buck. Let’s look at what else the S stands for.

Key features

Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support
7.2 Mbps HSDPA, 384 Kbps HSUPA support
3.2" 256K-color TFT capacitive touchscreen of HVGA (320 x 480 pixels) resolution
600MHz Snapdragon MSM7227 CPU, Adreno 200 GPU; 418MB of user-available RAM
Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) with HTC Sense 2.1 UI
Wi-Fi 802.11 b, g, n with hotspot functionality
GPS with A-GPS connectivity; digital compass
5 MP autofocus camera, LED flash, geotagging and face-detection
VGA video @ 24fps
microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v3.0
microSD slot (up to 32GB, 2GB in box)
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
Accelerometer, proximity sensor
Gorilla Glass display
Stereo FM radio with RDS
Light and compact
Turn-to-mute, lift-to-tone-down, flip for speakerphone
Smart dialing
XviD video support
HTCSense.com integration
HTC Portable Hotspot
Ultra-fast boot times (if you don’t remove battery)

Main disadvantages

Poor camera performance
No HD 720p video recording
No shutter key for the camera
No Adobe Flash player, Flash Lite only
No Document viewer
No secondary videocall camera

The Wildfire S is the usual all-round smartphone – with the latest Android inside at that – but now in an even friendlier shape. All work and no play wouldn’t do for the Wildfire S and HTC have added some twists to the old recipe to make it 2011-ready.

HTC Wildfire S live shots
Balance was sought above all – no groundbreaking features are to be expected. Not in this price range, not in a pint-sized package. Minis are friendly and playful. Let’s see if the HTC Wildfire S matches the description.

Economical retail package

The tiny box of the HTC Wildfire S has the essentials duly covered. You get the mandatory charger and an USB cable (to use with the charger as well as in data connections). There’s a set of nice looking headphones and a complimentary 2GB microSD card inside too. The rest is the usual papers.

HTC Wildfire S retail package
The white set of accessories is suspiciously similar to the iPhone’s, the earphones especially almost a complete replica.

HTC Wildfire S 360-degree spin

The HTC Wildfire S measures 101.3 x 59.4 x 12.4 mm and is smaller in real life than it appears on a picture. It’s made entirely of plastic, tipping the scales at the acceptable 105 grams. Maybe it’s the similar styling but we got it wrong initially. No aluminum unibody in the HTC Wildfire S.

The phone feels great in your hand and – being so small, one-hand operation is hassle-free. 3.2” is still more than enough screen real estate to work with – you don’t feel crammed for space.

Design and construction

The HTC Wildfire S borrows some styling ideas from its bigger brother the Desire S and has inherited others from the original Wildfire. Bottom line, the Wildfire S is neat and friendly, and delightfully compact. The finish hasn’t suffered from the plastic build. The soft rubbery back contrasts nicely with the brushed finish of the front frame.

A little Desire S
The phone will be available in a variety of colors and the selection makes sense for a phone targeted at the young. Size is still the key selling point though.

The Wildfire S next to the Galaxy S II, iPhone 4
The front of the Wildfire S is dominated by a 3.2” capacitive touchscreen of HVGA (320x480) resolution. It’s a reasonably bright LCD unit but with no automatic adjustment for the lack of an ambient light sensor - our unit is a pre-release one and doesn't offer it. The final market-ready unit will have this covered. The smallish screen is quite reflective – making it uncomfortable to use outdoors. The poor viewing angles don’t help it either: colors quickly get washed out. Still it’s enough of an improvement over the poor QVGA screen of the original Wildfire.

Nokia N9 review: Once in a lifetime

Introduction

When the first touch-only OS debuts on one of the hottest pieces of hardware this year, you can bet we want a piece of the action. Windows Phone is where Nokia want your attention, but it might turn out that MeeGo is the place you want to be.

Nokia N9 official photos
Not shown much love by its own maker, the Nokia N9 is embraced by the consumers. You won’t see Stephen Elop getting all too fired up about MeeGo and spending hours explaining how it’s the best thing since Santa, sauna and the N95. But if you care to look, you'll notice thousands of people hitting our site each day to just check out the Nokia N9.
And when a smartphone’s popularity is off the charts without it being all over TV, it must really be something special.

Key features

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
Penta-band 3G with 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.7 Mbps HSUPA support
3.9" 16M-color AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of 480 x 854 pixel resolution
Scratch resistant Gorilla glass display with anti-glare polarizer
8 megapixel autofocus camera with dual LED flash, 720p@27fps video recording and fast f/2.2 lens
Meego v1.2 Harmattan OS
1GHz Cortex A8 CPU, PowerVR SGX530 GPU, TI OMAP 3630 chipset, 1GB of RAM
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Non-painted color polycarbonate unibody, curved screen
GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigation
Digital compass
16/64GB on-board storage
Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
microUSB port
Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and EDR
Nice audio reproduction quality
Impressively deep and coherent SNS integration throughout the interface
DivX and Xvid support

Main disadvantages

No Flash support in browser
Limited set of apps
No office document editing
Non-user-replaceable battery
No memory card slot
microSIM card slot
No FM radio

The Nokia N9's list of features is worthy of a flagship, but the pinnacle is undoubtedly the MeeGo platform. It’s what makes all the remaining bits work together to create a seamless user experience. The light and agile MeeGo does well without a massively overclocked multiple-core CPU too.