Saturday, February 26, 2011

Phones Review

Phones Review

iPhone 5 Parts Surface Confirms Suspicions

Posted: 26 Feb 2011 12:50 PM PST

Remember not too long ago there was a rumour that Apple was looking at an edge-to-edge display for a future iOS device, and another that the next generation iPhone would have a larger display, well they were almost right.

According to an article over on Phone Dog and by way of 9to5 Mac, it appears what is presumed to be an iPhone 5 part has surface on Chinese website Ideals China, and just might be the digitiser panel for the iPhone 5.

Apparently there’s no confirmation as to the size of the display but word has it, it could be 4-inches and sports a very thin bezel which would make the display almost edge-to-edge, thus if true we could well be seeing this new display when the iPhone 5 hits later in the year.

Of course as usual it’s all speculation and no one in any officially capacity is saying a word on the matter. Personally I’m still not convince that an edge-to-edge display is the way to go as I can see many operating that display by mistake at one point or another.

But what do our reader’s think, would it be good for the iPhone 5 to have a 4 inch almost edge-to-edge display, or do you feel that holding the device would be somewhat more awkward?

Motorola Xoom Zooms Apart in Latest Teardown

Posted: 26 Feb 2011 03:49 AM PST

The “I’ve got to see what’s inside that device” guys have been hard at it over the last couple of days, with a teardown of the Motorola Atrix 4G followed by a teardown of the Samsung Galaxy S 4G and now the new Motorola Xoom tablet has been torn asunder.

According to the guys over at Intomobile, those busy guys over at iFixit have wasted no time at all in grabbing the Motorola Xoom and taking the Android tablet apart screw by screw to have a butchers at what it is made of.

The Motorola Xoom teardown cover three pages all with numerous pictures of each stage of its dissection to find such things as a Qualcomm MDM6600 with HSPA+ support, Tegra 2 dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, Samsung K4P4G154EC DRAM, Toshiba THGBM2G8D8FBA1B NAND Flash, Broandcom WiFi, Bluetooth and FM tuner along with a Broadcom single-ship AGPS.

When it comes to reparability, the iFixit guys say the Android 3.0 Honeycomb Motorola Xoom is fairly easy to repair and give it a reparability rating of 8 out of 10 with 10 being the easiest and the Xoom has 57 screws in total either T5 or T7.

So there you have it, you can check out all the images of the Motorola Xoom baring its innards by heading over to iFixit if you enjoy seeing device internals on display.

4G LTE Apple Gear Coming Eventually Says Verizon Boss

Posted: 26 Feb 2011 02:56 AM PST

When it comes to 4G LTE tech it appears that Android is taking the lead with the latest technology with the likes of the Samsung Epic 4G, HTC EVO 4G, T-Mobile myTouch 4G, Samsung Galaxy S 4G, HTC Thunderbolt, and so on, but those in the iOS camp that is Apple seem to be somewhat timid in taking the leap to 4G.

However that may change at some point in the future, as according to an article over on Intomobile by way of Phone Scoop, the CEO of Verizon, Dan Mead, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, stated…"You'll see more coming from Apple on LTE. They understand the value proposition of LTE and I feel very confident that they are going to be a part of it."

Just what 4G LTE Apple gear may come eventually isn’t known, perhaps a 4G LTE iPhone 6 in 2012 as one analyst claims which we reported on (here), or maybe we will see a 4G LTE enabled Apple iPad sometime next year.

To be honest it isn’t all that surprising 4G Apple gear will be making its way to the mobile space sooner or later especially as LTE will probably dominate the mobile arena before too long and I’m fairly sure Apple won’t want to be resting on their laurels with an outdated iPhone technology for too long.

We all know that 4G is the future of mobile devices, Android is already ahead of the game while Apple looks to be falling further and further behind in the uptake of 4G, thus although the iPhone 5 probably wont have 4G tech, the following iPhone more than likely will otherwise Apple runs the risk of falling way behind rival Android.

What do our readers think on this matter, is it about time Apple delivered a 4G enabled device, or will Android be left to dominate the 4G LTE mobile space?

HTC Thunderbolt Delay, Possible Cause

Posted: 26 Feb 2011 02:10 AM PST

As most who have been patiently awaiting the release of the latest Android 2.2 Froyo packing smartphone to hit Verizon, the HTC Thunderbolt, know that said release date has been moved several times causing much annoyance with the public, perhaps you need to know what could have possibly caused the delay.

Well according to an article over on Phone Dog and by way of Engadget, the ever present “people familiar wit the matter” are apparently claiming that the HTC Thunderbolt is suffering from a rather drastic battery life.

Apparently testers think the battery life on the HTC Thunderbolt is so bad they have to carry a secondary back up device around as the HTC Thunderbolt battery only lasts between two and three hours before it’s fully drained and needs charging.

It could be that the battery is seeing quick drainage due to constantly using the HTC Thunderbolt’s LTE radio; however, apparently a separate “unnamed source” has stated that there is a new firmware being worked on to address the battery issue.

Just how long that new firmware will take hasn’t been revealed, but as the new released date for the HTC Thunderbolt has been set for the 10th of March, unless the new firmware is ready by then, will we see yet another delay to the HTC Thunderbolt release?

Verizon iPhone Suffers Antenna Problems Consumer Reports Doesn’t Recommend

Posted: 26 Feb 2011 01:24 AM PST

Now I’m sure that most remember the debacle of the iPhone 4 antenna problem which became known as the ‘death grip’ and that Consumer Reports wouldn’t and still doesn’t recommend the iPhone 4, well it looks like the Verizon iPhone has gone the same way.

According to an article over on Phone Dog by Alex Wagner, Consumer Reports is claiming that the Verizon iPhone suffers from a similar antenna problem as the AT&T iPhone, which sought of justifies the earlier rumours of antenna issues with the CDMA iPhone.

Thus just like the GSM iPhone with AT&T, Consumer Reports does not recommend the iOS device. Apparently Consumer Reports engineers put the Verizon iPhone through a bunch of regular tests and followed with the special test they used on the AT&T iPhone.

Also to make a comparison with other Big Red smartphones the engineers also tested the HTC Droid Incredible, Motorola Droid X, Motorola Droid 2 Global, LG Ally and the Samsung Fascinate, and apparently the only handset that showed a problem when finger contact caused a decline in performance was the Apple iPhone 4.

There hasn’t been as much of a kick up over the Verizon iPhone antenna showing ‘death grip’ issues unlike the stink attached to Apple and AT&T with the GSM version, but it would appear the CDMA version does suffer the same issue to some extent.

We have the Consumer Reports video review of the Verizon iPhone 4 for your viewing consideration below, so check out what they have to say.

So, what we’d like to know from any of our readers who have purchase the Verizon iPhone is have you experienced any antenna problems with your new device?
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