Review iPhone 4

Glass and stainless steel, still the apex of modern design. Though it might sound like I'm talking about a Manhattan skyscraper, I'm really describing Apple's latest iPhone. The iPhone 4 departs from the rounded corners and (literally) feel good design of the past 3 iPhone models and goes for modern, angular sharp edges. It's a thing of beauty to look at, though I'm not sure I prefer it over the iPhone 3GS. Maybe that's a gender thing; women are supposed to prefer soft lines, but being a tech geek I'm not typical-- I actually loved the Motorola Droid's incredibly angular design. But that's up to you, prospective buyer.

Display: Retina Display: 3.5" capacitive IPS multi-touch display running at 960 x 640 resolution, 326ppi, 800 to 1 contrast ratio. Screen size diagonally: 3.5". Supports both portrait and landscape modes via accelerometer. Has ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, compass and gyroscope.

Battery: Lithium Ion rechargeable. Battery is not user replaceable. Claimed talk time on 3G: up to 7 hours.
Performance: Apple custom A4 CPU (same CPU as the iPad), 512 megs RAM.

Size: 4.5 x 2.3 x 0.37 inches. Weight: 4.8 ounces (according to Apple, 5.0 ounces according to our digital scale).

Phone: GSM quad band world phone 850/900/1800/1900MHz. Quad band 3G HSDPA/HSUPA 850/900/1800/1900MHz.

Camera: Rear (main) camera: 5.0 MP with autofocus lens and LED flash. Can shoot video at 720p, 30fps. Has front-facing VGA camera that can be used with Facetime video calls over WiFi.

Audio: Built in speaker, mic and 3.5mm standard stereo headphone jack. iTunes player built-in.

Networking: Integrated WiFi 802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz only) and Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR.

Software: iOS 4 (iPhone 4 operating system). Google Maps, Safari web browser, email, threaded text/MMS messaging, Stocks, YouTube Player, iTunes, App Store, Phone, Clock, Calculator, Photos, Camera, Voice Memos, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Compass and Settings.
Expansion Slot: None.

Storage: Available in 16 and 32 gig capacities.

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Droid Bionic by Motorola

After 9 months, the Droid Bionic by Motorola is here. Motorola and Verizon first teased us with the Bionic at the CES trade show in January 2011, and since then Moto has gone back to the drawing board, to make their flagship phone more competitive and attractive. The smartphone business is a fast moving world, and much can change in 6 months. In the Droid Bionic's case, the phone got a cleaner, slimmer design and a 1GHz TI dual core CPU rather than the commonplace, though capable, dual core 1GHz Tegra 2. This Android smartphone is fast both in terms of 4G data speeds and CPU performance. It's well built, has good battery life and a sharp display. Is it Verizon's best LTE 4G phone yet? We'd say so, with a nod to Samsung's Droid Charge for its fantastic Super AMOLED Plus display. The Droid Bionic looks much like the Droid X2, in fact it's basically a souped-up LTE 4G version of the Droid X2. It has the same soft touch back with a tapered design that rises in the camera area, a qHD 4.3" touchscreen and an 8 megapixel rear camera. The Bionic has a gig of RAM vs. 512 megs in the X2 (it needs more RAM to power the Webtop OS used with dock accessories), a CPU brand change, more internal storage, a larger battery (LTE needs more power) and a front video chat camera. Like the Motorola Atrix 4G, the Bionic works with dock accessories and the Webtop software that turns the smartphone into a laptop of sorts. In fact, Motorola has really gone to town with expansion options, and there are 5 docks available for the Bionic. The most flashy and interesting is the Lapdock that's an 11.6" laptop minus the brains. As with the Atrix, the Bionic is the brain literally behind the Lapdock, providing the CPU, graphics processing and storage for the setup. The Bionic sits in a small cradle at the back of the Lapdock, and automatically switches to Webtop, which has a file manager, desktop, email and the Firefox 4 web browser. It sells for $300, which is more reasonable than AT&T's price for the Atrix Lapdock (no, they're not interchangeable), and you can get it for $200 if you sign up for a contract with a $50 or higher data plan. There are several more affordable dock solutions including a $99 HD Multimedia dock and a $30 Webtop adapter that connects to the phone's micro USB and micro HDMI ports (as do all the docks) and turns Webtop on, for those who want to provide their own display and Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. When connected to one of these docks, the Droid Bionic indeed rules all machines, at least the phone variety that can't morph into a computer-surrogate. Webtop isn't a full-featured operating system in its own right, but it can run all your installed Android apps in a window to make up for the bare bones selection of Webtop apps. Design and Display The Droid Bionic feels weighty in a pleasing way, and it looks like a good quality piece of hardware. Its casing is primarily plastic, but the soft touch finish and smoked chrome surround impart a quality esthetic. The front is a huge slab of Gorilla Glass, and this is a large phone. Verizon's LTE phones haven't been petite, largely because they sport big displays and high end components inside.

The front capacitive buttons work well, but the side volume controls are small and a bit hard to operate. The 3.5mm stereo jack is sensibly located up top and the micro USB and micro HDMI ports are on the left side. We noted a low volume high pitched whine when using a variety of wired headphones, and Motorola expects to have a software fix in November for this issue. The microSD card slot is under the back cover, stacked above the LTE SIM card slot. You don't need to remove the battery to access the included 16 gig card, but you do have to pull the battery to remove the SIM card (not that there's generally a reason to pull the LTE SIM card). The phone, though large, is very easy to operate one-handed. The capacitive buttons and display are all within reach of your thumb, with no contortion needed. The Bionic has a 4.3", 960 x 540 pixel capacitive multi-touch Gorilla Glass touch screen. That's currently the highest resolution available on Android phones, and it's a good match for the display size in terms of font sizes and image rendering. It's a PenTile display, which I know a few of you dislike, but we find it plenty good enough. Like most recent high end Moto Android displays, it's very bright, has very high contrast and a cool color bias (whites tend toward blue rather than yellow). The cool colors can make things look a little stark (human flesh lacks warmth), but it's really a matter of personal preference. The display isn't as super-saturated as Samsung's Super AMOLED Plus used on the Droid Charge. 4G LTE and Calling Motorola knows how to make phones, and we've come to expect very good voice quality as well as strong reception. The Droid Bionic delivers very good voice quality with good noise reduction, but reception on LTE is just average. Average isn't a bad thing, but this isn't one of those Moto phones that could get an LTE signal in a lead-lined box. 3G EV-DO Rev. A and 1x reception on the other hand are excellent. Data speeds on Verizon Wireless' 4GLTE network were as usual impressive. We averaged 18 megs down and 2.9 megs up according to Speedtest.net with a 3 out of 5 bar signal in the DFW metro region. Web pages obviously download quickly at those speeds; Adobe Flash content doesn't pause frequently to buffer and Netflix plays well. The Bionic can act as a mobile hotspot that shares its 4G/3G connection over WiFi for an additional $20/month. If you buy the Bionic with a contract, Verizon will require that you add a data plan, and these range from $30/month for 2 gigs of data to 10 gigs for $80/month (mobile hotspot increases your data allowance by 2 gigs and costs an additional $20/month). Beware: LTE is like using WiFi, and it's easy to consume lots of data. If you go to town streaming movies or consuming other high bandwidth content, you'll easily go through 5 gigs in a month. So use WiFi when you can if you want to avoid higher data plan pricing tiers. That said, when Verizon first introduced LTE phones, they offered special data plan pricing of $30/month for unlimited (really unlimited) data. I picked up a Bionic at the begininng of October 2011, and customer service offered me that plan, so you might get lucky. Horsepower and Performance Dual core CPUs have been a challenge to combine with an LTE radio in smartphones. Perhaps that's why Motorola switched from the Tegra 2 CPU to a TI OMAP dual core. We know Moto fell months behind getting the LTE radio upgrade ready for the Tegra 2 equipped Motorola Xoom, and we haven't seen LTE phones with that CPU (the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the first tablet to successfully combine the Tegra 2 and LTE). Whatever the reason, we don't mind the Texas Instruments CPU one bit; in fact it's a very solid performer. The TI OMAP4430 1GHz dual core CPU performs as well as the Tegra 2, and the only drawback is you lose access to the handful of Tegra Zone 3D games for Android. The phone scored 2126 in the Quadrant benchmark, and 59 in the Linpack multi-thread test. Those are excellent numbers that put the Bionic among top scoring phones. In terms of perceived performance, the Droid Bionic feels fast, and can handle Webtop handily when docked. Even with Motorola's custom software running on top of Gingerbread, the phone doesn't pause or lag with several apps running in the background. It handles Adobe Flash well and does well with 3D games. Among the handful of Verizon 4G LTE Android smartphones (HTC Thunderbolt, Droid Charge by Samsung and the LG Revolution), the Droid Bionic is the only dual core, and is the fastest.

Motorola Droid Bionic Video Review

Software

Motoblur hasn't received a whole lotta love, and Motorola's recent high end Android phones run toned down versions of Motoblur minus the name. The broad social network and email support with contacts integration is here, as are some of Motorola's widgets. The widgets no longer hog the screen as they did on mid-tier Motoblur phones, and the UI customization is subtle: you get Motorola's square app icons, a launcher strip on the home screen and a side-swipeable app palette. Motorola does a good job of integrating online services and social networking, but their UI doesn't improve on the basic Android experience (nor does it detract).

Motorola includes both business and pleasure titles like Motoprint, Citrix, GoToMeeting, ZumoCast for file sharing with your desktop, and VideoSurf, which attempts to identify videos using the camera and then provide you with related videos and info. ZumoCast is particularly cool and useful: it's basically a remote access app that gives you access to your computer's files, and it can stream multimedia (videos, music) including iTunes playlists. It's extremely easy to set up, works with both Mac OS X and Windows and it works very well. It starts with a default selection of folders like My Documents and your iTunes settings folder, and you can add (and remove) folders from any mounted drive.

Camera

Motorola's cameras haven't impressed us, but the Droid X2 and Droid Bionic's cameras are sharp 8 megapixel shooters. Images have a high contrast, super-sharp look that's a bit stark, but there's plenty of detail and not too much artifacting. Moto seems to like cool colors, and like the display, the camera favors cool colors. That's fine for landscapes with plenty of blues and greens, but humans look a little pallid. Still, it's one of the better camera phones on the market, and it can shoot 1080p video in MP4 format that's reasonably smooth with good detail and modest blockiness. Our only wish? That the photo shoot time were quicker. There are 3rd party utilities that can speed things up (not free) so we know it's not a hardware issue.

Click on the sample photo to see a larger version.

Battery Life

Battery life is never a cheery subject with LTE phones, but Motorola's aggressive power management and the relatively large 1735 mAh Lithium Ion battery put up a good fight. While Verizon's first LTE phone, the HTC Thunderbolt had trouble making it past mid-day, the Bionic can last until you get home from work. That's assuming average use; if you spend your workday hiding in a corner cubicle and playing YouTube and Netflix for hours, don't expect it to last until dinner. Standby times were very good in LTE coverage areas, and the phone should last a week in standby. Verizon claims up to 10.8 hours of talk time, which is somewhat optimistic. In our tests we managed just over 8 hours.

Motorola and Verizon offer a 2760 mAh extended battery that turns the trim Bionic into a thicker but not obese version of itself. The extended battery comes with a new back cover that accommodates the larger cell. You can also buy a $30 inductive charging back if you own a PowerMat or equivalent, and there's a battery dock that can charge both the phone and a spare battery simultaneously.

Conclusion

No doubt, the Droid Bionic by Motorola is Verizon's fastest phone with its dual core processor and LTE 4G combo. Despite 9 months of marketing and excitement, it's not a world-changing phone, but we put it at the top of Verizon's lineup of Android smartphones. The Bionic is especially appealing to those who like to accessorize and find the idea of turning a 4.3" phone into a laptop substitute using the $300 Lapdock exciting. We like the looks, solid build quality, sharp display and good battery life by LTE standards. We know that some of you will miss the Droid Charge's supremely vivid Super AMOLED Plus display, but that's the price you have to pay for a dual core CPU. The Droid Bionic by Motorola is definitely our top pick on Verizon Wireless as of this writing.

Price: $299 with a 2 year contract, $589 without contract

Websites: www.verizonwireless.com, www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN/

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Review HTC Sensation 4G

The HTC Sensation is one of the hottest high end Android phones of 2011. Given how quickly Android smartphones evolve, that could be a risky statement, but the Sensation 4G’s qHD 4.3” display, 1.2 GHz dual core processor, 4G HSPA and elegant unibody design are likely to keep it at the top of the heap this year. Currently, its strongest competitor on T-Mobile US is the LG G2x and the Samsung Galaxy SII on other carriers (it doesn’t look like T-Mobile will be offering the Galaxy SII).  We’ve been looking forward to the Sensation 4G for quite some time; even since it leaked under its code name, the HTC Pyramid. The combination of HTC’s elegant design, HTC Sense software (now updated to 3.0) and a higher resolution big screen with dual core goodness had us all hot and bothered. Now that it’s landed, we’re as impressed with the phone as we’d hoped, and it does indeed give the G2x a run for the money.  The Sensation 4G has 14.4Mbps HSPA 4G, WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, a front VGA video chat camera, 8 megapixel rear camera with quick focus and a microSD card slot. The Sensation 4G runs Android OS 2.3.3 Gingerbread, putting it one major revision ahead of the G2x running 2.2 Froyo (the G2x will eventually get Gingerbread). Gingerbread has been out since December 2010 when it launched on the Google Nexus S, but oddly we haven’t seen many phones running Gingerbread out of the box. Gingerbread has an improved on-screen keyboard, improved copy and paste, an integrated task killer, a download manager, UI tweaks and support for SIP Internet calling.  Unfortunately, the Sensation 4G doesn’t support video chat inside Google Talk because that requires version 2.3.4. Hopefully the Sensation will get that minor revision; video chat in Talk is the best we’ve seen among video chat apps on Android in terms of video quality and ease of use. Design and Ergonomics Build quality and design are very good, as we’ve come to expect from HTC. The unibody design here is particularly interesting; with the back cover actually wrapping around the sides of the phone. Remove the cover and you’ve got a lot of naked electronics showing, which is fascinating for you Pop Sci types but scary for klutzes. There are several metal contact points on the back cover, and these connect antenna plates on the cover to the phone. When the cover is removed, the phone automatically turns off the wireless radio. The attractive looking 3 panel rear cover is made of both metal and plastic: the top and bottom are plastic so they don’t reduce antenna reception (take that, Apple). Though the phone is large, it’s no bigger than the 4” G2x, and it feels particularly comfortable in hand thanks to curves and a grippy finish. The buttons are just right: not wobbly like the original HTC HD7 nor too difficult to press. The power button has a pleasant tactile click and the large volume buttons feel solid. The volume buttons are raised just a bit and it is easy to accidentally press them when handling the phone by its sides though. The micro USB port is actually an MHL connector, which means it acts both as a USB sync/charge port and an HDMI port with an MHL adapter that’s sadly not included in the box. MHL adapters generally have a micro USB charging port so you can plug the charger in when playing back video over HDMI. The Sensation has a tricolor LED that indicates charging, new mail etc..

The design is attractive and the phone has a bit more rounding at the corners compared to other recent HTC smartphones. Some might say that many of HTC’s phones follow the same mold these days, but if it works well and is ergonomic, we won’t complain. If you want extremely novel designs, try a Motorola (BackFlip and square phones galore).  We particularly like the Sensation 4G’s curved Gorilla Glass: there’s a subtle concave curve at the edges of the display so the metal frame contacts the tablet, sidewalk or other dangerous surface should the phone tumble face down. It’s the opposite of the LG G2x’s convex curve that looks cool but means the glass makes contact with other objects rather than the frame. Display The 4.3” capacitive Super LCD display is sharp and bright (bright enough to be viewable outdoors), and there’s no pixelation or screen door effect. 960 x 540 pixels rather than the usual 800 x 480 makes all the difference to keep everything looking sharp and avoid those black bars around 16:9 movies. Here’s our usual “but”: this isn’t a Samsung Super AMOLED display and you won’t get those almost unnaturally vivid colors or luscious blacks. If you’re hooked on Samsung Android displays after a love affair with a Vibrant, Galaxy S 4G or other high end Samsung handset, you might not be willing to go back to standard LCDs. How does the HTC compare to the T-Mobile G2x display? Quite well, though the G2x has more contrast and wider viewing angles (blacks fade to dark gray on the Sensation when viewed at a 160 degree angle).  It’s not an easy choice between the higher quality IPS display on the G2x vs. the Sensation’s larger and higher resolution panel. We hope that HTC some day makes the leap from Super LCD to higher quality panels. Still, I’d pick the solid 4.3” qHD display over the LG’s 4” 800 x 480 display for size and pixel count. Give me more words per ebook screen, more web page without zooming and no black bars in movies, please. Video Review Here's our 18 minute HTC Sensation 4G video review. We compare it with several competing phones, explore the new HTC Sense 3.0 software, test Adobe Flash playback and more. Calling and Data The Sensation has better than average voice quality, particularly for outgoing calls thanks to HTC’s multi-mic noise canceling design. Incoming audio is likewise clear with decent volume, though we wouldn’t mind a little more fullness (particularly bass). Reception is average and runs nearly identical to our Nexus S and LG G2x as measured in db (bars aren’t very meaningful). We had no trouble with grip of death and didn’t note signal loss when holding the phone normally or resting it flat on a palm. Data speeds on T-Mobile’s HSPA 4G network are good, and we got slightly better numbers on the HTC vs. the LG. We’re in a 4G market, in fact we have T-Mobile’s recently rolled out 42Mbps HSPA+, though the phone is 14.4 so it won’t be as fast for data transfers as T-Mobile’s new Rocket 3.0 USB stick. That said, with a good signal we got as high as 9 Mbps down and 3.6 Mbps up according to the Speedtest.net app. With a middling -95db signal the phone averaged 3.5-4.5 megs down and 1.5-3 megs up. The Sensation 4G won’t keep you waiting, to say the least. It has the usual WiFi mobile hotspot feature so you can use the phone as a high speed wireless modem for your WiFi tablet, laptop or other device. Data speeds as a hotspot weren’t that impressive though, and we averaged 1.5 megs down and 1 meg up using a MacBook Pro and Lenovo ThinkPad X1. The Sensation’s speaker was the only letdown in our calling and multimedia experience. The speaker isn’t very loud nor does it have an ounce of bass. That means calls, music and video voice tracks sound thin and a bit harsh. Our Nexus S is much louder and we had a bit of trouble hearing spoken navigation in a loud car. If you’ve got a quiet sedan with windows closed, you will however be able to hear speakerphone conversations and navigation directions. The Sensation 4G supports WiFi calling, and that means you'll be able to make crisp, clear calls over WiFi. There's no handoff to the cellular network though, so you'll need to stay in range of the hotspot or the phone will drop the call. Horsepower and Performance On paper, the 1.2 GHz dual Scorpion core Qualcomm Snapdragon is the fastest CPU shipping in a smartphone (Sprint’s HTC EVO 3D will use the same CPU). Experientially it feels very responsive, even with a gaggle of apps running in the background, and the phone absolutely eats 3D games and 1080p locally stored video played on the phone or to an HD TV using an MHL adapter.  YouTube full screen playback using Adobe Flash 10.3 was smooth at 720p, bandwidth permitting, and 480p was solid. The phone uses the Adreno 220 graphics chip, which should be a significant step up from the already peppy Adreno 205 used with second generation single core Snapdragon CPUs. (Updated with second review unit) The Quadrant benchmark has become a popular standard, and we’re not sure if Quadrant fully understands this new CPU since it couldn’t report the minimum and maximum frequencies of the chip. The HTC Sensation 4G scored 2269 on Quadrant, which is very respectable, though not quite as good as the Motorola Atrix 4G that sports the same resolution but with a 1GHz Tegra 2 CPU that scored 2481. In Linpack the Sensation 4G scored a very impressive 45. In the Sunspider Javascript test, the Sensation 4G scored 3578 vs. 5901 for the single core 1GHz Hummingbird in the speedy Nexus S and 4074 for the LG G2x with a 1GHz dual core Tegra 2 CPU (lower numbers are better).  Very nice! The only phone that beats it at the moment is the Samsung Galaxy S II, which scores 3353.

In Browsermark , the Sensation 4G scored 49,440, while the G2x scored 47,775, tge Samsung Galaxy S II on AT&T scored an amazing 61,601, the iPhone 4 scored 35,901 and the Nexus S scored 37,098 (higher numbers are better).

The Sensation 4G scored 2540/1653 (productivity/gaming) in the Smartbench 2011 benchmark, while the G2x scored 2095/2443 and the Nexus S scored 935/2385 (higher numbers are better).  In all benchmark tests, the Samsung Galaxy SII scores the highest and seems to be the handset to beat in terms of raw speed and synthetic tests.

We’re surprised a flagship phone like the Sensation ships with only 1 gig of available internal storage. The phone actually has 4 gigs total, but ¾ is reserved for HTC’s protected, self-restoring ROM. HTC recently announced that they’ll no longer be locking bootloader in this way for future phones, but the Sensation’s is indeed locked. If you don’t understand what I’m talking about, then this doesn’t matter one bit to you; it’s only those who like to hack their phone and root it or install custom ROMs who care.

The Sensation ships with an 8 gig microSD card and the slot is located under the back cover (no need to pull the battery). It has 768 megs of RAM, which is generous by Android phone standards. Should you need more storage, you can use cards up to 32 gigs in capacity.

Software

This is an HTC Android smartphone, and that means you get HTC Sense software. This is the first phone to run Sense 3.0 with a more 3D-looking widget carousel and a new unlock screen that lets you drag an app to the unlock ring to launch it without unlocking the phone. Watch our video to see Sense in action. Some reviewers complain that Sense hasn’t changed much over the past few years, but we still find it useful, attractive and unobtrusive. By the same standards, the iPhone’s user interface hasn’t changed since the first model came out 4 years ago.  Beyond widgets for weather, time, social networking, HTC’s FM radio and HTC Music you get social networking integration with contacts, the excellent Friendstream app for Twitter and Facebook, a quick link to all sorts of personalization,  HTC Watch for TV show and movie rentals and purchase, and HTC Hub with the HTC Sense service that offers downloads, phone finder, remote phone wipe and easy contacts editing.  Unlike most manufacturer customizations of Android, we actually enjoy HTC Sense.

Other apps include T-Mobile TV (streaming TV via MobiTV), TeleNav, HTC Music, Polaris Office (read, write and edit MS Office docs), HTC Transfer, Visual Voicemail, WiFi Hotspot (turn your phone into a WiFi hotspot) and a demo of the game NOVA.

Camera

HTC’s cameras certainly have improved in the past 2 years, and while they won’t dethrone high end Nokia N Series imaging phones or Sony Ericsson’s top offerings for still shots, they take very good photos. This is one of the few camera phones that can shoot 1080p video—a good use for the dual core CPU’s processing power.  

Images have plenty of detail and colors are good, but the camera is slow to adjust to lighting changes. If you move from a sunny area to one with a part shade area for example, it takes about 2 to 4 seconds for the camera to increase exposure so the shady area isn’t black. And if you move from a shady or partly shady scene to sunlight, likewise the camera at first whites out the scene until it stops down and reduces the exposure. Focus times in decent lighting are excellent thanks to HTC’s new quick capture feature, and even indoor low light shots are quicker than average by cell phone standards. The phone has a dual LED flash that’s capable of lighting a small group of people and the camera doesn’t overexpose terribly when the flash is used.

1080p video capture is a bit oversharpened with a distracting amount of detail in leaves and extra-distinct edges on objects. We’re overstating the case a bit, but it’s not as natural looking as a Flip Video or the Nokia N8. Camera shake is easily transmitted and there’s no software option to reduce shake (great for that Blair Witch handheld camera look). That said, there aren’t many phones that can shoot 1080p video with stereo audio so we won’t complain too much. That stereo audio isn’t terribly loud if you’re the one narrating the scene from behind the camera since the mics are facing away from you and at your subject.

The front VGA video chat camera works decently (hey, it is VGA after all), and T-Mobile ships the phone with their usual pick: Qik Video Chat. The front camera also works as your mirror using HTC’s clever Mirror application.

Battery Life

Good news: this dual core, large screen 4G phone actually has decent battery life. HTC and Qualcomm’s power management algorithms are spot on, and we had no trouble making it through the day with average use. We visited 30 web pages, had push email on for two accounts, played 20 minutes of YouTube video, watched a few locally stored movie trailers, navigated a short trip using Google Maps and talked on the phone for 30 minutes and the phone still had 35% at the end of the day. The Sensation has a 1540 mAh Lithium Ion battery.

Conclusion

The HTC Sensation is no doubt one of the top Android smartphones for 2011. With a very high resolution 4.3” touch screen, dual core CPU, 4G HSPA and 1080p video recording, it’s hard not to be tempted. Throw in HTC’s Sense software and services and an elegant and classy industrial design and we’re sold. The only thing that bothers us are the Sensation’s benchmark numbers, which should be higher given the phone’s 1.2 GHz dual core Snapdragon CPU and Adreno 220 GPU.  That said, the phone handles Adobe Flash, 3D gaming and 1080p video playback with aplomb: in the real world it’s a fast smartphone. Even more impressive is the phone’s solid battery life.  It’s close race with the T-Mobile LG G2x, but I’m leaning toward the Sensation 4G for its larger and higher resolution display in a similar sized package and HTC Sense software. But we’ll give the LG points for its faster browser rendering, sharp IPS display and selection of Tegra 2 games.

Price: $199 after rebate with a 2 year contract, $549 retail

Websites: www.htc.com/us/, www.t-mobile.com

1:36 AM | 0 Comment | Read More

Review Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch

What's hot: Super display, extremely fast, very good camera. What's not: Large phone, display resolution is lower than we'd like. WiMAX 4G coverage still spotty.   The Samsung Galaxy S II is one of the hottest Android smartphones of 2011 in Europe and Asia. After 4 months it’s finally making its way to 3 of the top 4 carriers: Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile (Verizon is rumored to carry the LTE Nexus Prime by Samsung instead).  The Sprint version is first to market, and it has an epically long name: the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch. Yes, the phone has more names than a twice married English noblewoman because Sprint wanted to retain both their Epic 4G branding and the hot Galaxy S II name. Monikers aside, this is a seriously good phone with Samsung’s Super AMOLED Plus display, their insanely fast Exynos dual core CPU, 16 gigs of storage, WiMAX 4G and an impressive 8 megapixel camera. Display Sprint, like T-Mobile, has stretched the Euro Galaxy S II display from 4.3 to 4.5 inches. Bigger is better in America we suppose, but that does make the phone harder to hold despite its thinness. We love movies and photos on the bigger screen, but navigating icons and text in the OS and apps is a bit of a let down because Samsung went with the more pedestrian 800 x 480 resolution rather than the new high end standard qHD 960 x 540 like the HTC Sensation 4G and Motorola Droid Bionic. Icons look comically large and menu text is larger than necessary unless you have poor vision that’s not well corrected with glasses.  Other than resolution, it’s hard not to love the Super AMOLED Plus display with its better than life super-saturated colors and high contrast. Samsung offers 3 saturation levels under display settings so you can crank up those colors even more (ouch) or tone it down just a little for more natural colors. The phone is viewable outdoors, but washes out and isn’t as easy to see as the iPhone 4 or Droid Bionic. Android and TouchWiz The Epic 4G Touch runs Android OS 2.3.4 Gingerbread with Samsung TouchWiz 3.0 (according to Samsung’s specs page, that’s the version number) software that’s evolved since 3.0 since its release many months ago. There are HTC Sense-like touches here, including a carousel view of home screens (though not 3D), and the strange square backgrounds imposed on application icons is gone.  The widgets are mostly the same, and are in general useful. Performance: Fastest Phone Ever Along with the stunning and huge Super AMOLED Plus display, Samsung’s own dual core 1.2GHz Exynos CPU with hardware graphics acceleration is the star here. This is the fastest mobile CPU in a shipping phone, and it blows the socks off others by a wide margin. In the Quadrant benchmark, a score of 2,000 is pretty darned good for a dual core 1GHz CPU. The Epic 4G Touch scores 3,100-3,300. Wow.  It averages 78 in Linpack’s multi-thread test, which is well above the top performers that manage scrores in the upper 50’s to mid 60’s. Does the phone feel fast? Absolutely. There’s no waiting when working with the camera, the web browser renders so quickly it makes up for our sometimes slow data connections and games run flawlessly. NOVA 2 HD, a game whose controls are sometimes difficult, suddenly became fluid—we are talking fast phone here. The only drawback? Since the phone doesn’t run on the Nvidia Tegra 2, you won’t be able to play Tegra Zone games.

Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch Video Review

Design and Ergonomics

From the front, the Epic 4G Touch looks like every other slim slab phone on the market, including Samsung’s many other successful Android slate phones. It’s remarkably thin at 0.38” and impossibly light; Samsung is a master of featherweight phones and tablets. The drawback? Plastics abound, and though Samsung has moved away from the fingerprint loving piano black plastic, we’ve got a textured bland matte black back instead on this 4.6 ounce wonderphone. It just doesn’t scream quality the way a high end HTC phone does, but then HTC phones use metal unibody designs and are heavier.

The wafer-thin back cover peels off to reveal an ample 1800 mAh Lithium Ion battery and a hot-swappable microSD card slot (no card is included since the phone has 16 gigs of internal storage). Typical of Samsung, the power button is on the upper right side and the volume controls are on the upper left. This means that it’s easy to accidentally hit the opposing button, and it’s easy to squeeze one or both buttons when pulling the phone out of a slip case, pocket or purse. The 3.5mm stereo headphone jack is up top, and the mono speaker is on the back near the bottom.

The phone has capacitive front Android buttons and these are large enough to be easy to use, but not so large that we accidentally pressed them. The 5.1 x 2.74 inch phone looks like it should weigh your pocket down, but it’s absurdly light at 4.6 ounces. We actually checked to make sure the battery was inserted after pulling it out of the box—it’s that light.

Calling and Data

The Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch has 3G EV-DO Rev. A and 4G WiMAX. In our area of the Dallas metroplex, WiMAX isn’t strong, so we spent most of our time on 3G. Outdoors on 4G, we managed an average of 2.5 to 3Mbps down and 1Mbps up according to the Speedtest.net app. That’s not terribly impressive, but if you’re in a strong WiMAX coverage area, then you’ll likely see numbers closer to 10Mbps down. On 3G we averaged 460k down and 434k up, and that’s standard fare for Sprint in our area, though it pains us to see such a high end phone hobbled by a slow data connection. As with 4G WiMAX speeds, much depends on your location, so if you usually see better numbers with your current Sprint phone, you’ll see better numbers with the Samsung.

Reception is average on 1xRTT and 3G EV-DO, but less impressive for WiMAX. Perhaps Samsung is throttling WiMAX’s radio power since it’s a battery-hungry technology. 4G reception isn’t terrible, but when we compared it to our Motorola Photon 4G, the Samsung had weaker signals (Moto tends to produce excellent RF phones).

Call quality is very clear with plenty of volume. Our call recipients couldn’t tell we were on a cell phone, and we enjoyed crisp, clear and full incoming voice. The speakerphone is reasonably loud when set to higher volumes (the last few notches make for serious volume jumps), but the speaker sounds tinny for calls, though fairly full for music playback.

Multimedia and Software Bundle

The Samsung Epic 4G Touch has absolutely no trouble with Adobe Flash thanks to its extremely fast CPU and GPU. Flash Player controls are usable without the usual balking and pauses we see on many other smartphones. Playing HD media that’s stored locally is also a breeze and Samsung’s Media Hub is on board for Movie and TV show rentals. Sprint’s TV and music services are here as well, along with the usual bevvy of apps like NASCAR, TeleNav and Sprint ID. You’ll also get the standard Android apps including the Android Market, YouTube, email, Gmail, Search, Maps and Navigation.

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy S II has an excellent camera, and Sprint’s version is no exception. The 8 megapixel rear camera with LED flash takes some of the best photos you’ll see from a US 8 megapixel camera phone, and it can shoot 1080p that’s decently sharp with some motion blockiness.  Indoor photos are particularly impressive with low noise and excellent colors even in low light. Outdoor shots are crisp but not too harshly sharpened, and have plenty of color with good accuracy.

Battery Life

The phone comes with an 1,800 mAh Lithium Ion battery, and that’s a high capacity battery by smartphone standards. The phone needs it to power that very fast CPU and 4G WiMAX. In our tests, when in a 4G coverage area with 4G turned on, the phone lasted through a full work day on a charge with moderate use (9-10 hours). If you stream video, use the GPS for long trips or use the mobile hotspot feature, you’ll get much less, and a spare battery should be on your wish list.

Conclusion

It’s easy to recommend the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, even if you’ll dread telling your friends your new phone’s full name. It’s incredibly fast, extremely slim and has Samsung’s winning Super AMOLED Plus display. If you’re in a good WiMAX coverage area, you’ll revel in solid 4G speeds, and if you’re in a 3G-only area—well, you’ll get average Sprint 3G speeds and enjoy longer battery life. Speaking of battery life, the Samsung manages better than average 4G battery life, in part thanks to the high capacity standard battery. Our only complaints? It’s a plasticky phone (though solid) and we really wish it had a qHD display. The phone is large thanks to the 4.5” display—keep that in mind if you have small hands or small pockets.

Price: $199 with a 2 year contract

Websites: www.sprint.com, www.samsungmobileusa.com

1:30 AM | 0 Comment | Read More

Game Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance

Download to PC

 

Model:

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Deion:

N.O.V.A. - Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance v1.0 for Android, free android games, htc android games free:

Join the fight for mankind's survival against the aggressive aliens known as Judges in this immersive space opera. With Earth no longer able to sustain life, huge artificial satellites called “near-orbitals” were constructed for people to live on. To protect themselves, the near-orbitals banded together to form N.O.V.A., the Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance. Now, a strange threat has emerged from the darkness of space. A Marine ship, reported missing just a week ago, has suddenly reappeared and is headed directly for the near-orbitals, ignoring all communications. Against his will, retired Marine hero Kal Wardin is forcefully returned to active duty to prevent mankind's annihilation. N.O.V.A. - Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance provides an unparalleled gaming experience!

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1:18 AM | 0 Comment | Read More

Performance LG Optimus 2x (P990) GSM/UMTS smartphone Videos

Performance of LG Optimus 2x (P990) GSM/UMTS smartphone
All synthetic tests associated with the performance of Nvidia Tegra2 in comparison with modern flagships are in the separate article.

We wanted to explain how web pages are opened or how Optimus 2x deals with menus viewing. Optimus X2 is considerably faster, but it's not that dramatic. You can see the difference, but the advantages are better observed in the interface. It is the fastest modern on the market. On the downside we have to mention that when it goes into sleep you cannot activate the phone during one or two seconds sometimes.





In the following section you will read about the camera, communication features, software and other characteristics of the model.

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Review LG Optimus 2x (P990) GSM/UMTS smartphone

Review LG Optimus 2x (P990) GSM/UMTS smartphone

Live photos of LG Optimus 2x

In the box

• Phone
• 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery
• Charger
• USB cable
• Wired stereo headset
• A CD with LG PC Suite
• User Guide

Positioning

In 2010 Samsung chose Android models as their priority and paid special attention to its flagship Galaxy S. After its sales started the model became extremely popular and around 10 million items were shipped rather quickly, which is a sensation for the price segment. We do not take Apple iPhone into equation as it is unique and follows other rules with constant demand on the market. LG could not offer a single model to rival Samsung Galaxy S in 2010. As far as the company targeted Android as well and managed to become successful in mid-price segment with its Optimus line the absence of a flagship was a problem. Every company needs not only millions of sold phones, but the revenues too. Flagship models offer maximum margins and provide considerable profits even if you don't sell many items. Apple shows that by controlling a mere 3% of the market you can earn more than the big three (Nokia, Samsung, LG) who can boast of combined 70% of the market.
In 2011 LG will target the increase of its average model price, which is impossible without expensive flagships. LG understood it well before the reorganization started and quarter results went down. The development of Optimus 2x began in the first part of 2010 being aware that Samsung will launch Galaxy S soon and would dedicate all resources to the model LG decided to come out later, but be prepared for this tough competition.
The main issue is the absence of strong departments developing components for its models, for example screens, processors or memory. Many years ago LG decided not to concentrate on processors and memory, but they do make their own screens. LG even sells them to others and its screens can be found in some Apple devices. The quality is high, but LG could not compete with Samsung in terms of processors, so they needed an external partner in the shape of Nvidia, which was always popular as the manufacturer of graphic solutions. Two years ago Nvidia tried to enter the segment with Tegra and banked on the resurrection of Windows Mobile. It was a mistake as Microsoft started from scratch and Nvidia products were never released. Nvidia lost two years, but changed its priorities to Android. LG and Motorola became first and strategic partners. Both companies rely on SOC Tegra2 to compete with Samsung, which had different plans. At the same time Samsung started developing its own system named Onion. Qualcomm and Texas Instruments could not produce the goods in time and by choosing Nvidia LG and Motorola successfully won half a year of leadership.
LG use a better solution and they do it first. Huge sales of Optimus 2x are not an absolute priority. Consumers must understand that LG models can offer the latest technology. Optimus 2x will help other models in the Optimus line and showcase know-how available for LG. It is a win-win situation.
Surprisingly LG found a small segment of techies ready to pay premium prices for a revolutionary model boasting some cutting-edge features, for example, a dual core processor. Around 5 years ago the same approach helped Sony Ericsson make a breakthrough and increase its market share. Flagship models are expensive, but they advertise other solutions. This simple trick works every time and LG is not an exception here.
Mass market audiences are still not familiar with LG and even Samsung can be suspicious for some. People looking for flagship models are happy to buy Apple iPhone and see no alternatives. That is why the rest of the pack (Motorola, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson) get only the consumers who somehow failed to buy an iPhone. It is still a large slice of the pie though.
Optimus 2x is positioned as the leader not only for LG, but for the segment of flagships as well. LG can only emphasize its technological advantages, while the ease of use and other features will not be prominent. Mass market audiences will not pay attention to the handset despite the omnipresent advertisements. On the other hand the image of Android as the leading OS marries well with the LG flagship. The target was be hit well. Motorola helped LG too by retreating from the majority of European markets. ATRIX 4G will be available in USA, UK, Germany, Canada and may be Spain with Poland. Optimus 2x will do well in Korea and the rest of Europe.
Another question is the relations of this flagship with Optimus 3D. This is a variation of the original Optimus with two cameras for 3D video recording. I think this exotic product is far from the mass market. It is too much even for the techies. The same can be said about Samsung Android smartphones with in-built projectors. The sales have already started, but they failed to capture the imagination even in Korea. Optimus 3D will follow suit due to its features and the price.

Design, dimensions and controls

Optimus 2x was unveiled at CES 2011 during the press conference of Nvidia. Its CEO mentioned that the model has industrial design, which is true. It looks like any other rival handset. The build is excellent, but the front side of the model lacks any peculiarity. Do you remember a 3 meter rule from Motorola designers? At this distance people should guess the phone model. Unfortunately, even Motorola abandoned this rule. Look at pictures with Motorola ATRIX 4G at the forefront followed by LG Optimus 2x. Both handsets look similar. We cannot criticize LG for that as it is a general tendency nowadays. Both phones look the same.
The back panel is equally recognizable. A vertical metal element creates an illusion that the whole panel is made of metal, but it is only plastic. The cover is too thin, but fits well without any looseness.
The model weighs 144 g with the dimensions of 123.9х63.2х10.9 mm. It is quite heavy, but my HTC Desire offers 135 g, which is comparable. There is no much difference from rival models - Atrix 4G, Samsung Galaxy S, HTC Desire HD. You get accustomed easily and the phone fits any hand well. It is too broad though.
LG Optimus 2x vs Samsung Galaxy S:
LG Optimus 2x vs HTC Desire:
LG Optimus 2x vs Apple iPhone 4:
At the back you have a slightly protruding camera and the handset usually rests on it. On sliding surfaces Optimus 2x can swing easily. Galaxy S sports an upturn at the bottom to prevent siding. Here the back cover is a good launching area for sending the phone falling down. Remember it when you put the phone on a closed laptop or car's dash-board.
The body is well-built, but uses plastic only. The sides have a metal resembling paint, but there is no metal here if you scratch the surface.
The front hosts a grilled speaker and the proximity sensor to the left with the frontal camera to the right. Below the screen are located four sensor keys. All manufacturers now get rid of hardware buttons, which is not convenient, but it is not a serious issue anyway.
Much has been said about the screen protecting plastic. If you look at the list of products on Gorilla Glass website you will not find Optimus 2x there, but if you analyze the features of the material you will end up with something very similar. It can't be scratched, but it is not protected from fingerprints by an oil-repellent surface.
On the right side we see a paired volume rocker, while the top hosts an on/off button responsible for unblocking the phone. A 3.5 jack and an HDMI are covered by plastic caps.
At the bottom we have a microUSB jack together with speakers. During the music playback only one speaker is in active use, but the sound will persist if you cover it with a finger. It becomes feebler, but comes from different sides. Developers managed to ensure that the phone will play music well in different environments.

Screen

After Samsung with Amoled and SuperAmoled technologies everybody tries to emulate them. LG uses a standard TFT matrix similar to several Samsung phones (Wave II, Galaxy S SuperClear TFT). In terms of marketing the screen is not a highlight and has no special name. Quality-wise this screen shows black as grey, which is visible in the menu with much background, but in real life you will not feel the difference. Moreover, this TFT screen offers comparable quality as SuperAMOLED from Galaxy S. The same happened with Wave II and Galaxy S. Test shots reveal that the color reproduction is almost identical. If you don't use a magnifying glass the picture quality will be the same.
A serious difference lies in the energy consumption, which is higher for TFT screens. According to specification SuperAmoled needs 50% of the power. Unfortunately, we cannot take screens out of handsets to compare operation times as any phone is a combination of a processor, memory, screen and so on. There are too many factors for straight comparisons. Nevertheless we carried out several tests. With the maximum brightness for both models we selected identical slideshow pictures. Samsung Galaxy S came out on top with the lead of 35%. Android 2.2 was used in both phones. In the second test we analyzed operation times during video playback (with DSP for video decoding). DSP can influence the outcome as better architecture can compensate inferior screen, but there was no place for a miracle and Samsung won again with 30%.
In fact we can claim that the energy consumption of its TFT screen is the weakest link in LG Optimus 2x.
We also decided to involve Galaxy S 9003 (SuperClear TFT) and carried out the second experiment with the slideshow. The results were different as the Samsung model was in front by only 6.5%. Galaxy S 9003 differs from the original Galaxy S only with its screen, so all developments are influenced by screen power consumption only.
Our experiments show that the picture quality can be the same, but other parameters can be quite different. In the battery section we will mention different power consumption modes.
The screen displays up to 16 million colors with the bright and condensed picture. Viewing angles are convenient, but in the sun the picture fades. There are no flares though. The screen is very close to Galaxy S.
You can customize fonts for a menu as this option is available from the settings. The default fonts allow for up to 14 text lines and several status lines. Fonts are large and easy to read.
The screen resolution is traditional 480х800 with the physical size of 4″ (52х88 mm).
Frankly speaking, we should compare Optimus 2x with Galaxy S2, which has SuperAMOLED Plus. It has even better energy consumption characteristics. These two models will be direct rivals.

Battery

The model comes equipped with a 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery identical to the one in Samsung Galaxy S, which allows carrying out a meaningful test. The results have been mentioned above in the screen section.
The manufacturer claims up to 11.5 hours of talktime (GSM) and up to 760 hours (30 days) on standby. To get the results you need ideal circumstances. The same applies to Galaxy S performance.
We tested both model in similar environments. During the music playback we used the same headphones, maximum volume and selected a cycle playback. Screens and equalizers were disabled, apps were not running in the background mode with the memory cards out (playback from the in-built memory). Optimus 2x offered 31 hours, while Samsung Galaxy S managed only 25 hours. Optimus 2x won by 24%.
During the video playback we used DVDRip with the following characteristics:
Results depended a lot upon screen settings. With the maximum brightness Samsung Galaxy S gave us around 5 hours, while Optimus 2x could produce only 3.5 hours. Automatic adjustment of brightness leveled the difference between the models, but still Galaxy S produced 5.6 hours, when Optimus 2x could come up only with 4 hours.
Data transfer via WiFi (files downloads through the links in indefinite mode with disabled screens) showed parity with both models working during the identical period of time.
3G (download of files in indefinite mode) offered the parity again (4.5 hours). The result depends on the network, coverage quality and phones interference. Interestingly, with the enabled screens the situation was different. The operation time went down by 1 hour and Samsung Galaxy S received an advantage due to lower energy consumption.
All these tests are not vital for consumers, because they don't tell you how long your sample will work in real life. My HTC Desire usually "dies" by 2 pm, while Galaxy S goes strong until the evening (7 pm). The standard workload is 1.5 hours of talktime, 20 SMS, more than 200 read messages, constant EDGE connection for mail, PUSH and Twitter clients. With this scenario I did not notice much difference from Galaxy S. I think it is quite an achievement as the computational power was boosted and it had to influence the power consumption, especially taking into account the type of screen used. Tegra2 allowed keeping this parameter decent.

Memory and memory cards

The handset has 8 GB of memory divided into two disks: a system one (1.5 GB) and another disk for user data (5.5 GB). Hot swappable microSD cards of up to 32 GB can be used as well. The slot is under the back cover. The model also boasts 380 MB of RAM with 110 MB free for users. It does not affect the performance and if necessary the memory can be freed.

Performance

All synthetic tests associated with the performance of Nvidia Tegra2 in comparison with modern flagships are in the separate article.

10:03 PM | 0 Comment | Read More