Android Phone Fans |
- ZTE V9 and V9 Plus Hands-on: Could Be a Cheap Alternative For Someone [MWC] [VIDEO]
- Toshiba Regza: Waterproof Android with 12MP Camera, NFC and more
- Dual-Screen, Keyboarded Android Tablets Coming To Japan From NEC [VIDEO]
- ZTE Skate Hands-On – An OK First Attempt at a High-End Smartphone [MWC] [VIDEO]
- Walkie Talkie Feature on SK Telecom Androids Looks Promising
- Huawei Ideos S7 Slim Won’t Hold a Candle to Honeycomb Tablets [MWC][Hands-On]
- Android Desk Phones: Good Idea Or DOA? [POLL]
- [Update: the REAL Video] Acer Iconia A500 is a 10 Inch Beaut [MWC] [VIDEO]
- Samsung Galaxy S WiFi is the Smartphone Minus the Phone
- Funky Android Illustrates 3D Gaming, Video Conferencing, Skype with TI OMAP 4
- Steve Jobs Virtually Kicked In Face By LG: Optimus Pad, Optimus 3D Promo Videos
- Acer Liquid Metal Hands-on and Impressions [MWC] [VIDEO]
- Acer Iconia Smart Runs 2.3 On Huge 4.8-inch Screen
- Acer Iconia 7 Inch Tablet: A Sizable Honeycomb Offering [MWC] [VIDEO]
- Motorola Atrix, XOOM at MWC [VIDEO]
| ZTE V9 and V9 Plus Hands-on: Could Be a Cheap Alternative For Someone [MWC] [VIDEO] Posted: 14 Feb 2011 10:02 AM PST ZTE had a pair of tablets on-hand at Mobile World Congress – the V9 and the V9 Plus. The short story: the V9 left a bad taste in my mouth, and moving on to the Plus made it a bit more tolerable. It’s clear ZTE’s still looking to hang around the low-end market for at least the first half of this year. Both devices are 7 inch tablets running Android – not Honeycomb, unfortunately – and its resolution is only WVGA. Certainly not the high-end beast I thought I’d be checking out when ZTE’s Vice President said they were looking to take that next step. And the V9 itself was just bad. I often had to press things twice to open them, swiping between homescreens was a pain, and it only has Android 2.1. Even in a world of Honeycomb, I would’ve appreciated Froyo, at least. The V9 Plus was a bit better: it adds Android 2.2 and a 1GHz processor. The bump in speed beneath the hood translated well to user experience, though. I had no trouble doing what I wanted to do, but it wasn’t blazingly fast. ZTE’s always been known as a low-end manufacturer, and while they had hoped things would change in 2011, it hasn’t. I’m hoping they really upgrade their wares as their competitor Huawei has as competition is key and they’ll be well-positioned with handsets in all financial levels of the market.
|
| Toshiba Regza: Waterproof Android with 12MP Camera, NFC and more Posted: 14 Feb 2011 10:01 AM PST The United States might be the land of the free, but we’ve yet to earn freedom for many of the smartphones and Android phones in Asia and Europe that we would otherwise Desire (see what I did there?). It only takes a few specs to quickly put the Toshiba Regza near the top of that list: The Regza only runs Android 2.1 but with a 12MP camera, NFC chip, and waterproof conditioning it immediately seems like a pretty sweet phone. In my limited time toying with the Regza I was pleasantly surprised. I’m still dying for the day that we get an Android phone with optical zoom, but the pictures on the Regza – at least in the viewfinder – looked quite gorgeous. I tried to share/E-mail them to myself but they have yet to come through… if they do, we’ll be sure to post them here.
A quick look at some of the specs:
Now Toshiba needs to bring their Android Phones to the American market (please). I’ve owned two Toshiba laptops and have loved them both. Actually, this very post is being written lovingly from a Toshiba laptop. If the Toshiba Regza was available in your area, would it make your short list of Android Phones to consider buying?
|
| Dual-Screen, Keyboarded Android Tablets Coming To Japan From NEC [VIDEO] Posted: 14 Feb 2011 09:49 AM PST We got a few minutes to tour a couple brand new products from NEC that are destined to hit the shores of Japan for too long. The first Android tablet you see demoed has dual-screens with special multi-tasking features built-in while the second device is essentially an Android netbook/laptop. The latter will be out this week while the former is coming in the next couple months – both in Japan. NEC hopes to gain popularity with these tablets and offer them in Europe and the United States, but I have to question that possibility. After seeing the XOOM, Optimus Pad, and Galaxy S2, I simply dont see the point in buying any type of Android Tablet that is running 2.X. Android 3.0 is optimized for tablets and you can tell – most of the Android 2.X tablets are buggy, glitchy, underpowered, and the next generation is already arriving. Manufacturers would be smart to shelve any tablets they’ve got running Android 2.X and immediately begin working on launching products with Android 3.0 if they want to seriously compete. And of course, the idea is to get AHEAD of the curve, so perhaps focusing on Android 3.0 isn’t enough. Maybe they should be working on Android 3.X and beyond… and in that case it’s a matter of getting enough access.
|
| ZTE Skate Hands-On – An OK First Attempt at a High-End Smartphone [MWC] [VIDEO] Posted: 14 Feb 2011 09:42 AM PST ZTE looked to make a splash at Mobile World Congress as they vowed to wow everyone with a high-end line-up of tablets and smartphones. The ZTE Skate was one of them and it looked really nice on paper. Unfortunately, smartphone users don’t really care much for paper. It’s a 4.3 inch handset, but ZTE decided to come up short in the processor area as it houses an 800MHz Qualcomm-made chipset. I’m not too confident it was the Scorpion as it only houses an Adreno 200 GPU. It certainly doesn’t feel like a Scorpion, anyway. Things were quite jittery when moving about the OS. It runs Android 2.3, and although it’s believed that Gingerbread is supposed to be even more efficient, the ZTE just doesn’t have enough juice to keep up. I’m not sure why they didn’t opt to include a more powerful processor, but it’s a missed opportunity at the company’s most crucial stage of evolution. The device also has a 5 megapixel camera, but that’s it as far as any surprises go. This one should be available sometime next month. Take a look at our quick hands-on look above.
|
| Walkie Talkie Feature on SK Telecom Androids Looks Promising Posted: 14 Feb 2011 09:41 AM PST I’m not really a Push-To-Talk kind of guy, but I can appreciate the purpose in having a walkie-talkie like feature on your phone. Maybe you’ve got a group of people you want to have loose connection, you’re on a road trip, you’re hiking or skiing, you could be doing pretty much anything. Let’s just say you want a walkie talkie – surely there’s an app for that? SK Telecom – a Korean carrier – has custom created their own walkie-talkie-like offering found on their Android devices and they call it Voice Cafe. Despite the poor lighting on the screen (oops) and representative’s seeming lack of competency (she was Spanish, we’re in Barcelona, definitely not her fault), I felt the video was appropriate given the bigger picture. Not illustrated to perfection, but you get the idea. Initially I thought this was just to be used within small groups of your contacts, but apparently you can create “chat rooms” that anyone can join. They aren’t really chat rooms because only one person can talk at a time, and I prefer the more personal use which I think serves the largest purpose. To talk, you just hold down the screen and say your bit and it’s transmitted to everyone who is in the “room”. It seems like a helpful aid in certain situations or at its lowest common denominator, an interesting social tool to kill some time. SK Telecom was also showing off “Voice Blog” which essentially just uses Android’s Voice-To-Text feature to translate a message and asks to which social networking sites you’d like to share. Obviously they’ll get posted in all that you choose. What walkie-talkie like apps do YOU use and enjoy from Android Market? What do you think about Voice Cafe?
|
| Huawei Ideos S7 Slim Won’t Hold a Candle to Honeycomb Tablets [MWC][Hands-On] Posted: 14 Feb 2011 09:35 AM PST Just when the Android tablet fire starts burning hot, along comes something like the Huawei Ideos S7 Slim tablet to throw water on the flames. It just wouldn’t be a mobile conference without a sea of low-quality, shoddy Android slates, and the S7 doesn’t disappoint in that area.
Alright, alright. Maybe I am being harsh, but after seeing superior products like the LG Optimus Pad, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, and the Motorola XOOM it’s kind of unfair to stick the Ideos S7 in front of me and expect praise and roses. What you see is what you get: a 7-inch Android 2.1 tablet with a questionable custom UI and specs you might not even waste the breath on. Sure, Huawei will win some battles in the trenches when it comes to price point, we’ll give them that. This is a much better experience than most other tablets of its class. But we would have been more interested to see the beefed up (though smaller in screen size) S7 Pro with Android 2.3 in working condition. Or maybe the prototype Honeycomb tablet the company has little more than the shell of on display. They say it will be dual-core, but we won’t see it until early 2012 at that. Until then we live with the Ideos S7 Slim.
|
| Android Desk Phones: Good Idea Or DOA? [POLL] Posted: 14 Feb 2011 09:21 AM PST We constantly hear about Android being implemented in settings you’d currently define as unlikely: refrigerators, coffee pots, automobiles, and beyond. We haven’t seen this take off, but I’m still optimistic that Android will make lateral movements and we’re already seeing small successes such as Google TV and various hybrid form factors and accessories (although admittedly not too lateral). How about Android Desk Phones? We took a very quick unplugged look at a Huawei Android Desk Phone at Mobile World Congress and it reminded me… about desk phones… that they exist and that I actually think they’re a pretty decent idea. It’s easy to forget when you don’t own a landline, and I think more and more households are going that direction, but businesses aren’t likely to unplug anytime soon and honestly, Android seems like a logical technology to leverage. Why not custom design apps to increase productivity? I’m sure this is already happening, but I’m unaware of where. Do you know any companies using Android desk phones effectively? How about households using Android desk phones? And furthermore, do you think Android desk phones are a good idea that will slowly but surely take off, or desk phones in general are a dying breed and any desk phone is DOA? Why not take the Atrix approach and dock your actual Android phone into a desk phone shell? Discuss!
|
| [Update: the REAL Video] Acer Iconia A500 is a 10 Inch Beaut [MWC] [VIDEO] Posted: 14 Feb 2011 06:55 AM PST Another Acer tablet on show here at Mobile World Congress was the Acer Iconia A500 – the 10 inch version of the A100, essentially. This one’s a bit different: inputs and slots and all those gizmos have been moved around a bit, and it’s bigger obviously. It also has no capacitive buttons, but in its Android 2.3 form, you can bring up Android’s controls to navigate through the OS. We’re told Android 3.0 will be ready in time for launch. This also looks an awful lot like that Verizon prototype we saw earlier, but I’m not confirming that. It has NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 processor, as you’d surely expect, and an HD resolution to feed all of your favorite content to you in full HD. HDMI-out is present just as in the A100, and the A500 has an extra USB port – it’s standard in size. It also has a front-facing camera and a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera. Speaker grills sit at the bottom of the device on the back. All of its components are housed inside of an aluminum unibody structure, so it looks and feels great all around. Once this thing is fully ready for launch and has the software acer intends for it to have, it’ll be just as hot of an item as the XOOM, Galaxy Tab 2, and the LG Optimus Pad are. Be on the lookout for it sometime this quarter or next. Video is above.
|
| Samsung Galaxy S WiFi is the Smartphone Minus the Phone Posted: 14 Feb 2011 06:51 AM PST
We had long heard whispers of a Samsung Galaxy S PMP, but figured we would just have to settle for the Samsung Galaxy Player, a mobile device not quite as capable as the good ol’ S. But Samsung didn’t abandon the project after all, as the new Samsung Galaxy Player WiFi is bringing all the features of the phone without a cellular radio. It will be available in 4 and 5 inch options. We’re penned-in to spend some time with Samsung later this evening at MWC, so if we track this sucker down expect a hands-on to follow. [via CrunchGear]
|
| Funky Android Illustrates 3D Gaming, Video Conferencing, Skype with TI OMAP 4 Posted: 14 Feb 2011 06:41 AM PST We stopped by the Texas Instruments booth after they announced some pretty awesome integrations of their TI OMAP 4 dual-core processor, the exact chip used to power the LG Optimus 3D and their partners had some pretty cool apps to show off. Leveraging the chipset, we saw an awesome 3D Gaming integration, effective video conferencing solution, and Skype – all running on a rather funkdified piece of hardware running Android 2.2. The 3D Gaming was pretty exceptional in concept. The game itself was pretty basic and seemed to lack direction and polish, but it really shows you what is possible. The Phandroid Team could benefit from the video conferencing solutions and we were happy to hear the company behind them will be offering an API/SDK for 3rd party development. And Skype… I’m pretty excited about what these new processors and chipsets will enable on mobile devices and this is just a glimpse of what’s to come. Unfortunately the 3D doesn’t jump out at you by watching my video, but testing it out for the first time I think it’ll put a smile on your face. At least… that’s what happened when I first played with the LG Optimus 3D which is powered by the TI OMAP 4.
|
| Steve Jobs Virtually Kicked In Face By LG: Optimus Pad, Optimus 3D Promo Videos Posted: 14 Feb 2011 06:33 AM PST Whether you can’t get enough Optimus Pad/3D or just couldn’t help but click with the aforementioned title, you’ll DEFINITELY want to check out the following Official Promo Vids that run through all the features in a pretty entertaining format. Skip to 1 minute in the first video to see the “Optimus” take on the “A Pad” in “Spec Fighter” which is essentially a Street Fighter fake. The characters are clearly a Korean vs. Steve Jobs and, well, I think you know by the title that Steve Jobs gets pummeled with a jump kick to the face: In case you missed it:
I’m loving my first uses of the Optimus 3D while the Optimus Pad is a little less enticing because you actually need to wear 3D glasses to enjoy the effect. For me, that’s asking a bit too much. Although I’ve been told I look pretty cool in 3D glasses.
|
| Acer Liquid Metal Hands-on and Impressions [MWC] [VIDEO] Posted: 14 Feb 2011 06:33 AM PST The Acer Liquid Metal doesn’t really do anything special software wise, but it’s the hardware that its name is derived from. The phone is constructed of mostly aluminum, but a unibody design it isn’t. Still, all of the materials come together to make a nice looking phone that anyone would want to carry around. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Acer Liquid Metal was its LED notification system – three backlit icons on the top of the device will notify you for three different things. One is there for messages, one for battery life indicator, and the other is for missed calls. I believe there’s a general one on the face of the device for everything else . The specs don’t make it sound like the most amazing of devices – it has a 3.6 inch display, Qualcomm’s 7230 800MHz processor, Android 2.2, 720p HD video recording, a 5 megapixel autofocus camera, plus more. Not bad, but not exciting. Solid is what it is. Take a look at it in the video above.
|
| Acer Iconia Smart Runs 2.3 On Huge 4.8-inch Screen Posted: 14 Feb 2011 06:07 AM PST Double take. That’s exactly what I did when I saw the Acer Iconia Smart. The screen size alone didn’t get me, after all it seems we’ve got 10-inch tablets in bulk, but the shape of the Acer Iconia Smart caught my eye and I was immediately intrigued: I like the concept of the 4.8-inch screen. If you take your typical 4-inch or 4.3-inch smartphone and scale it evenly, you would likely have a fatty phone that looked pretty awkward in your skinny jeans. By keeping the width of the screen more fixed and extending the phone’s screen area vertically, you keep a pocketable nature while expanding the real estate for browsing the web and other media. The issue, in my opinion, is with “other media”. The resoultion of the Acer Iconia Smart screen is an awkward 1024 x 480 pixel resolution with an aspect ratio of 21:9. That’s great when, like the web, the dimensions are non-defined. For videos and games it likely means you’ll see black bars on either side… aka wasted space. I rather liked Acer’s adaptation of the app tray, swiping up on the bottom panel and allowing the main launch icons in the bottom bar to be interchanged with other apps. And I especially liked that it was running Android 2.3 Gingerbread – yum. Other nice specs included an 8MP camera, 2MP front camera, HDMI-out, 720p video recording/playback, 1GHz Snapdragon processor and a 3.5mm headset jack.
The Acer Iconia Smart should cost about $499 and be available in Europe in April and the United States in June or July. Below you’ll find the full press release and specs:
Acer Iconia Smart Specs:
|
| Acer Iconia 7 Inch Tablet: A Sizable Honeycomb Offering [MWC] [VIDEO] Posted: 14 Feb 2011 06:00 AM PST We popped into Acer’s outside pavilion at Mobile World Congress to find a lot of stuff we haven’t had the chance to see. Of note were the Acer Liquid Metal the Iconia Smart 4.8-inch phone, and some of those 7 and 10 inch tablets they announced at a press event a while back. The 7 inch tablet – the Iconia A100 – is supposed to be running Android 3.0 Honeycomb at launch, but the version on display was only on Android 2.2 Froyo. It’s hard to give a real opinion about it considering it’s nowhere near final, but the hardware was pretty satisfying. It’ll have a dual core Tegra 2 processor, HDMI out, a 5 megapixel camera on the back, a 2 megapixel camera on the front, a 7-inch 1024×600 display, and more. There’s also a gyroscope inside that should be great for gaming. I didn’t check it out on this version, but if it’s anything like the one inside the 10 inch variant – the A500 – then it’ll be great. It’ll be a fine alternative for folks who were begging for someone to bring out a 7 inch Android tablet with pure Honeycomb. Samsung hasn’t released their 7-inch Galaxy Tab with Honeycomb as some would have liked, so be sure to give Acer a real look once they’re ready to hit the market, whenever that is. Check out the video above.
|
| Motorola Atrix, XOOM at MWC [VIDEO] Posted: 14 Feb 2011 04:23 AM PST The Motorola Atrix and Motorola XOOM were announced and displayed at CES last month, but I still took a few minutes to get full demos on each. Why? First of all, I played with the LG Optimus Pad and Galaxy Tab 10.1 and wanted a frame of reference for comparing the XOOM. At CES the XOOM software wasn’t yet ready and I didn’t personally attend the Honeycomb event so this was my first full experience with the XOOM. The build quality of Motorola’s tablet definitely seems more sturdy and superior to the competitors although the software seemed a bit behind (all 3 run stock Honeycomb). I also took some time with the Atrix and accessories: the product manager was on-site – who better to give a demonstration of the device and components? Wonderful demo, great product concept, great execution, now we just need to do a little work on the price. No specific dates have been set for a US launch but we’re eager anticipating the debut. I’m curious to see how the various accessories perform – they are SO original that I think they may have a hard time breaking through, but I’d be willing to bet we’ll see a LOT more accessories like the laptop in the future. If you’ve already got a device with a CPU and internals to power a laptop, why pay for it again with a full laptop? That’s Motorola at MWC… stay tuned for more coverage!
|
| You are subscribed to email updates from Android Phone Fans To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment