Ekatechnology's Blog

Reviews Apple iPad 2 review: Love and hate 2.0

ekatechnology — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 06:45:58 +0000

Introduction

The Apple iPad 2 is about to hit European shelves, fresh form a diet and exercise regime that’s helped it shed weight and build muscle. Faster, thinner and lighter is an accurate account of what’s been going on in the year that divides the two editions of Apple’s tablet.

Apple iPad 2 official photos

Apple is taking it easy with the upgrades as usual – everything is carefully planned to ensure smooth traffic of new and repeat customers. It’s weirdly inconsistent with the hype about every new release. Anyway, faster-thinner-lighter is a fair deal to offer new users without making the original iPad adopters feel duped.

Apple iPad 2 official photos

It’s a sequel from the creators of a blockbuster. The iPad 2 is in no mood to start a revolution. But evolution should be good enough considering the original iPad is yet to be beaten.

Key features

9.7” capacitive IPS touchscreen display with a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels; oleophobic coating
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n connectivity
Optional 3G connectivity (data only)
Optional GPS with A-GPS support
Apple A5 SoC – 1 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor, PowerVR SGX543MP2 graphics
512MB RAM
iOS 4.3
16/32/64GB of onboard storage
Weight of 601 grams (607 grams for the 3G version)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
10 hours battery life
Accelerometer, compass and three-axis gyro-sensor
Compatible with every iPhone app without any modifications
The cheapest version costs less than an unlocked iPhone
0.7MP auto-focus camera, 720p video recording at 30fps
VGA secondary camera capable of Facetime calls
Impressively slim 8.8mm waistline
Four and five-finger gestures (locked by default, but easy to enable with a Mac and a $5 app)
1080p TV-output with the Apple Digital AV Adapter (purchased separately for $39), 720p video streaming
Magnetic Smart cover ($39 or $69)

Main disadvantages

iTunes required for uploading content
No Flash support in the web browser
Poor still cameras – though, really, this thing isn’t meant for taking candids
No standard USB port
No kickstand – it cannot stand on a table without the help of a dock stand or a Smart cover
Non replaceable battery
No stereo loudspeakers
No GPS receiver for the Wi-Fi only version
No memory card slot
3G model uses micro-SIM, instead of a regular size SIM
iPhone apps designed for HVGA resolution squander screen real estate or look pretty bad uspcaled

The list of disadvantages of any iOS device is the usual long read. Apple’s iOS has limitations that we all have to live with. Apple will never bring Flash support, allow regular file management or make iTunes (or at least the mandatory cable connection) optional. As to the actual iPad 2, if you want real GPS functionality you have no choice but to opt for the 3G-enabled model, which adds $120 to the regular bill.

But if you’re willing to forgive the shortcomings, the iPad 2 brings both a performance upgrade and a redesign. The tablet is powered by the new Apple A5 SoC, with a dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 processor, PoverVR SGX543MP2 graphics and 512MB RAM.

The Apple iPad 2 comes to address one of the main issues of the original iPad: weight. And while the handling is improved we’re less certain about the aesthetics. True, it’s an impressively thin tablet (slimmer than the iPhone 4) but uses the older generation iPhone design.

Apple iPad 2 live shots

Anyway, the speed boost is all there and we’ve enjoyed some impressive performance in our early tests. The Facetime video-calls and 720p videos are nice add-ons too. Unfortunately, higher screen resolution is too much of an upgrade to ask for in only the second release.

The iPad 2 has its ups and downs but, like it or not, it will sell in millions just like the original. But Apple is probably keeping a wary eye on the Android army readying a massive deployment in the coming months.

That’s still to come though. For the time being, the Apple iPad 2 gets our full attention. Follow us on the next page where we start exploring Apple’s new tablet.

Unboxing the iPad 2

The iPad 2’s retail package brings no surprises. Only a tad wider than the device itself the box holds your brand new iPad 2, a short manual, a very compact charger (think the original iPhone’s) and a USB cable.

Unboxing the iPad 2

If you opted for a Smart Cover the only thing you’ll really miss is a headset. Their thinking must be that this is not a phone but a computer. You don’t get headphones when you buy a MacBook. Or maybe it is more likely for iPad buyers to have an iPhone than not.

Design and construction

Apple kept the aluminum unibody but gave the iPad 2 the tapered edges typical of the older generations of the iPhone.

A metal case is always a premium feature especially with the iPad’s thickness of just 8.8 mm. It’s the slim girth and the reduced weight that make the iPad 2 notably more comfortable to use and handle. However, we do find the original sharper and more attractive with its hard square edges.

The iPad 2

The first iPad looked more like the iPhone 4 while the iPad 2 returns to the curvy shape used in the first three generations of iPhones and the iPod Touch family. The new design and the somewhat different choice of materials make the iPad 2 more comfortable to hold in hand. You will instantly feel the difference to the slippery first-gen iPad.

The curvy-shaped iPad 2 next to its predecessor

This time, the iPad’s back is completely flat so it doesn’t wobble when you place it on its back. It also won’t scratch badly around the Apple logo as the original one did. It’s not to say that the iPad 2 will better cope with the daily wear and tear. It’s just that the design doesn’t make a particular part of the device more vulnerable.

The back of the first-gen iPad after a year of use

The iPad 2 doesn’t have many hardware controls: there’s the Home key on the front, of course, the power/screen lock key on top, plus a volume rocker on the right.

Just above the volume rocker is the screen rotation lock, which doubles as a mute button – you can assign either function to the key.

The volume rocker and the rotation lock/mute button

The top of the iPad 2 features the 3.5mm audio jack, the Power/Lock key and the microphone.

Topside of the iPad 2

At the bottom is the proprietary Dock connector and the single loudspeaker. The connector position on the tapered edge of the device so plugging a cable is a bit trickier than usual.

The iPad’s bottom houses the Dock connector and the lone loudspeaker

Above the screen is the front-facing camera (VGA). There’s also a hidden ambient light sensor, which is in charge of the automatic adjustment of the screen brightness levels.

The FaceTime camera at the front

The only thing to note at the back is the tiny 0.7MP camera lens (and the centrally placed Apple logo). The rear facing camera can also be used in FaceTime but its more important feature is the 720p video capture.

The Apple logo and camera lens at the back

Smart cover

You’ve seen the promo videos for the Smart Cover – the nifty little accessory that magnetically attaches to your iPad 2 and protects its screen/back. It can also easily be converted to a stand to use when you need to type or watch movies.

The Smart Cover

You should know though that despite losing more than 100 grams, the iPad 2 is still quite heavy and likely to tire your hand fast (in case you are holding it with just one hand).

The Smart Cover

Using the iPad 2 with two hands is pretty hard too in some scenarios. For example, it’s almost impossible to type properly unless you have very long thumbs (or huge hands). It’s also uncomfortable to interact with most of the apps this way.

Holding the iPad

So, for long browse-a-thons you’ll want to rest the iPad in your lap or on a desk. Using the Smart covers or another type of case as a stand would make all the difference.

The official iPad 2 dock

A slightly better display

The iPad 2’s screen has the same size and resolution as the first-gen iPad. In fact, it should be the same LED-backlit IPS-TFT display as before. Well, we guess it’s just too early for that 2048×1536-pixel screen that had the rumor mill rolling. And the reasons might go beyond the sheer manufacturing costs. The new resolution might have led to serious performance issues and larger storage requirements for apps.

The screen is pretty good

There are some improvements in the new gen iPad though. The viewing angles are better, with far less contrast loss. That makes the difference between the two noticeable, despite the fact that color shift when viewed from extreme angles is about the same on the two iPads.

The colors are slightly warmer on the iPad 2, and we think this is more accurate.

The iPad 2 screen has excellent viewing angles

Sunlight legibility is decent but we have certainly seen better. The screen is very reflective and being so big it’s pretty hard to find a proper angle for working with it. Plus, the iPad 2 screen picks lots of fingerprints and those really hurt the outdoor usability.

iPad vs iPad 2 screens viewed from angle

Still, if you take your time wiping the screen and find a suitable angle text is readable enough. The screen is not as bright as the iPhone’s though, even at the brightest setting. So, while it is possible to read e-b ooks on the iPad in those conditions, it’s not as nice an experience as on E Ink readers regardless of what Apple says.

iPad vs iPad 2 screens viewed from angle

In general, we find the iPad 2 screen to be pretty good, despite the low resolution. The excellent colors and viewing angles put your privacy at risk though so be careful with viewing sensible information in public places.

Display brightness and contrast

And here comes the newest test that we have introduced to our reviews. With manufacturers refusing to share the contrast ratio and brightness levels of their devices and giving confusing figures when they decide to do so we though the it would be best if we just measure that ourselves.

Normally, the brightness measurement is repeated twice for each devices – once with it’s the display brightness set to 100% and once with the brightness reduced to 50%. Different units have different behavior when you reduce their brightness – some get an increase in contrast, while others do worse than they would at full brightness.

To demonstrate the viewing angle improvements that the iPad 2 screen brings this time we also added the measurements at 45° viewing angle and with the tablets rotated to 45°, which we found to be one of their weakest spots. You can see that despite the pretty similar performance in the first test, the iPad 2 has a huge edge here. While the new Apple tablet does lose plenty of contrast (also notice the huge drop in luminance) when you look at it that way it still remains way nicer than its predecessor.

iOS on the iPad – the basics

The iPad is still a big iPod Touch. And it will stay like this until iOS reaches Mac OS X in terms of capabilities (if that ever happens) or until the tablet gets powerful enough to run the actual Mac OS X. In case you are not familiar with the iPad user interface, we’ve prepared a quick walkthrough for you.

The iOS looks slightly different on the iPad mostly due to the larger screen and less importantly – the higher resolution. And while there are not too many UI tweaks to make better use of the extra space, most of the system apps have been reworked and use split screen allowing you to see more content and saving you a few taps.

The homescreens on the iPad UI support landscape orientation too and the dock can harbor up to six icons. The iOS 4.3 saw the addition of a screen brightness slider to the multi-tasking bar.

The iPad lock and home screens

Great examples of the iPad-specific UI are the email client, the settings menus and the contacts app. As you can see from the screenshots below their interface is divided in two columns – the left one for navigation and the right – for displaying content.

The email, settings and contacts apps

Not all the apps keep the split-screen view when the iPad is in portrait mode, though. The navigation bar in the Notes and Mail apps (for example) gets integrated into a pop-up balloon and can be accessed from the upper left corner at any time.

Notes in portrait and landscape view • Email in portrait view

Most other system apps have some extra eye-candy and usability improvements over the iPhone and iPod Touch too – those include Contacts, Calendar, iPod, YouTube, Notes, Safari, App Store, iTunes, etc. . The looks and design can even fool someone the iPad uses a different iOS version from those on the iPhones and iPods.

Calendar • YouTube • AppStore

Finally, the drop down selectors and pop-ups no longer occupy the whole screen but only a part of it as is more natural. Tap-and-hold now works in more places and other similar tweaks were also present.

The iOS pop-ups

Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab review: An expanding universe

ekatechnology — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 13:53:26 +0000

Introduction

Not so long ago the tablet was a futureless species, stuck in an evolutionary dead-end. The technology and the the operating systems didn’t offer the right balance of portability and usability to suit its needs. But just look at it now…

It was the Apple iPad that made the first splash and many other tablets are on their way on following its steps. We guess Samsung’s had an easier job than Apple bringing it to market. They already had the Samsung Galaxy S in the works and just had to make it bigger. Plus, they didn’t need to go to great lengths explaining what a tablet is and what it does.

Official photos of the Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab

If nothing else, the Galaxy Tab makes the S in Galaxy S meaningful. But the Tab itself is not size XL. In a nutshell, the new Samsung tablet is a Galaxy S with 3 inches added to the screen and 2 megapixels taken away from the camera. The Tab is equipped with the same 1GHz Hummingbird processor and PowerVR SGX540 graphics accelerator, 512MB RAM, a complete connectivity set and 16GB internal storage. The whole thing’s running on Android’s latest – v2.2 Froyo.

Key features

190.09 x 120.45 x 11.98mm, 380g
Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G support, 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support
Full GSM phone calling functionality
7″ 16M-color TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen of WSVGA (600 x 1024) pixel resolution, Gorilla Glass
Android OS v2.2 with TouchWiz 3.0 UI customization
1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird CPU
PowerVR SGX540 graphics accelerator
512 MB of RAM
3.2 MP autofocus camera with smile detection and geo-tagging
D1 (720 x 480 pixels) video recording at 30fps
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n support
GPS with A-GPS connectivity; Digital compass
16GB internal storage, microSD slot
DivX and XviD video codec support, Full HD video playback
HD video out (with a proprietary dock)
Accelerometer, ambient-light and gyro sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
30-pin connector and stereo Bluetooth v3.0
Office document editor
Secondary video-call camera
Swype predictive text input
Adobe Flash Player 10.1 support
Stereo speakers
4000 mAh Li-Ion battery
Great audio quality

Main disadvantages

No FM radio
Poor viewing angles
Picture ghosting due to slow LCD response
Some apps incompatible with the new resolution
Gallery displays downsized images only
Quiet loudspeaker

That’s a long list of features but the full phone functionality is perhaps what sets it apart from the arch-enemy. Soon enough however, the Galaxy Tab will have other things to worry about than a certain Apple slate. With the likes of Dell Streak and even RIM’s PlayBook around, the Samsung tablet will be trying harder to convince users it’s the perfect fit between a phone and a laptop.

Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab live shots

When Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Tab they stated that its purpose was not to rival the iPad but to bring something different to the tablet market. This might have just been a face saving statement but it’s obvious the iPad and the Galaxy Tab are each aimed at quite different types of users.

Samsung Galaxy P1000 Tab over Apple iPad

Lighter and smaller, easier on the pocket
Telephony (including 3G video calls)
3.2 MP camera with D1 video recording @ 30 fps and LED flash
Android OS v2.2 Froyo
Proper multitasking (though the iPad is getting that too in a couple of months)
microSD card slot for memory expansion
Uses regular size SIM card
16:9 widescreen display
Adobe Flash player 10.1
DivX/XviD 1080p video playback
Bluetooth 3.0

Apple iPad over Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab

Larger and better screen
Metal body
iOS 3.1.3 with more than 25 000 apps tailor-made for it
Larger internal storage (iPad 64GB)
Better battery life
YouTube app streams higher-quality footage

The Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab compared with the iPhone 4 and the Apple iPad

It’s not about which one is superior: more powerful or better looking. It’s about what you need the tablet for. Some will call the Galaxy Tab plain smaller. To others it will mean more pocketable, manageable and easier to handle. Some need to make calls on their tablets, to others it’s irrelevant. Where some will see a small screen, others will appreciate the better DPI.

For all the good and bad of it, the Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab has finally arrived at our place and we are ready to give it a test ride. Everything you may want to know starts right after the jump.

Unboxing the Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab

The Samsung Galaxy Tab retail box is not nearly as exciting as the tablet itself. It has the basics covered and that’s that – an Apple-influenced charger, a 30-pin USB cable and a one-piece wired headset.

No, it’s not the best, but at least the package is better than the iPad’s, which only had a USB cable/charger combo included.

The Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab comes in a modest retail package

Of course we would have really appreciated a carrying case, a QWERTY keyboard or an HDMI dock, but these are things you’ll need to buy separately.

Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab and its optional QWERTY keyboard • HDMI dock

Design and construction

In the Galaxy Tab design the sides match the color of the front rather than the back panel, and the body is curved in the opposite direction. And the result is really smooth and convincing despite the all-plastic build. The white rear is quite sleek too and surprisingly fingerprint resistant.

The plastic body also brings another advantage – it lowers the Galaxy Tab overall weight to a manageable 380 grams. Of course it’s much heavier than any phone, but feels light as a feather next to the iPad.

Unfortunately, the front glass, Gorilla or not, is the usual fingerprint-prone surface we find on most devices today. Whatever you do, no matter how often you clean it, the glass will be always covered in smudges.

Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab

The front of the Samsung Galaxy Tab is mostly about the 7” WSVGA (1024 x 600 pixels) LCD touchscreen. It has great picture quality for an LCD unit and even though the contrast isn’t quite as impressive as on SuperAMOLED, it’s good enough to rival the iPad. Of course the higher density (192 ppi) also helps here.

However when it comes to viewing angles the Galaxy Tab appears to be behind the Apple tablet. It seems the colors start to wash out at much wider angles than on the iPad. This is not to say that you are unable to see the Galaxy Tab display from an angle – the colors might not be accurate but the image is still there.

The 7″ screen of the Tab has great picture quality but small viewing angles and just descent contrast

While browsing the gallery we noticed one more thing we didn’t much like about the display – picture ghosting. Some fast scrolling through the image gallery revealed some unpleasant ghosting, especially on darker images. This issue is probably caused by a slower LCD response time (16ms or higher).

The bright side is the sensitivity of the Samsung Galaxy Tab touchscreen, which is simply superb. But hey, that is hardly any news when talking about a capacitive unit. It may make styluses and gloves a no-go but every single touch of your bare fingers is sure to register.

Above the display we find the video-call camera and the ambient light sensor.

The video-call camera on top

Below the display we find four capacitive buttons. Those include Back, Home, Context menu and a dedicated Search key. They are all large enough and comfortable to use. And since the keys use the same technology as the screen, the transition is as smooth as it gets.

Four Android keys under the screen

The right hand side (assuming portrait is its default position) of the Galaxy Tab is quite busy. Samsung has placed the volume rocker and the power/screen lock keys there, as well as the SIM card tray and the microSD card slot. There are small plastic lids covering the two slots so they’re safe against dirt and moisture.

The right-hand side of Samsung Galaxy Tab is quite busy – two key combos and two card slots

By contrast, the 3.5mm jack is exposed and it’s the only thing of interest to find on the top of the device. There is one more concern too – the jack position. When you plug the headphones in, they easily become an obstacle for your left hand in landscape use.

On top there’s only the 3.5mm audio jack

The left is also pretty bare, with the microphone pinhole the only thing to note. It’s located near the top so it’s harder to muffle with a finger when holding the phone.

The left-hand side is empty save for the mic pinhole

The bottom of the Galaxy Tab is where the stereo speakers and the 30-pin connector are located. Samsung did consider using a standard microUSB port instead, but that would’ve ruled out accessories such as HDMI cables, so they went for the proprietary connector.

Unfortunately the Galaxy Tab does not charge over the USB cable, you’ll need to plug the charger in for that.

If you look closely at the USB cable you’ll find that it’s exactly the same unit (length, connector, shape of the USB plug) as the one used with Apple’s iPad/iPhone 4. Just don’t try using either cable on the wrong device, it won’t fit. The cables use completely different pins and any attempts will result in damage on the wrong receiving port.

At the bottom you can see the stereo speakers and the proprietary 30-pin connector that looks like Apple’s

We conclude our trip at the beautiful white rear where we find the 3.2 megapixel camera and its LED flash. Samsung has never considered the Galaxy Tab as a device that you can use to take photos all the time. Instead they placed the camera as a tool that enables more apps to run on the Galaxy Tab. There are plenty of apps in the Android market that need the camera to work and that’s the main reason why the snapper is there.

The 3.2MP camera with LED flash is on the back

The battery of the Samsung Galaxy Tab is not user removable. In the event that you need to change it, you’d have to visit an authorized service center. Samsung claims the 4000 mAh unit is good for 7 hours of video playback (we are assuming SD content here). This doesn’t sound bad at all but the iPad does 10 hours of that on a bigger screen so it’s not exactly great either.

The general impression of the Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab hardware is very positive. The display is not as good as we hoped, but the controls are large enough and there are generally no ergonomic blunders. We are sorry they had to go for a proprietary connectivity port but at least that does allow HDMI output (via the optional dock), which makes good sense on a 1080p DivX-capable device. We would have been definitely happier with a higher-res (5MP or so) camera with HD video recording.

Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab held in hand

The Samsung Galaxy Tab handles great in general and that’s down to its slim profile, narrow bezel and light weight. It is also pretty compact and you might even be able to squeeze it in a wider pocket depending on your clothes that day. This is all, of course, only true if you look at it as a tablet. If you want it to replace your phone on the other hand, things look quite differently.

Okay, so now that we have the hardware covered, let’s see what the Galaxy Tab has to offer on the software side of things. Join us after the break.

User interface: Froyo XL

For the Galaxy Tab user interface, Samsung has used the latest reincarnation of the Android platform, 2.2 Froyo, but unlike their Android smartphones kept the customizations to a lower level. This means that you won’t be getting the full TouchWiz experience, though most of the important parts are here anyway.

It’s more Froyo and less TouchWiz with the Galaxy Tab

The homescreen offers you up to nine panes to populate with widgets. You are free to rearrange them as you see fit and delete the ones you do not need to speed up the navigation. The easiest way to manage your homescreen is to pinch zoom out and than use the Samsung equivalent of HTC Helicopter view.

Pinch zoom out the homescreen and you are in editing mode

As usual Samsung has added a few widgets of its own to the standard Android selection, but this time there’s no separate entry for them when adding content to your homescreen. Anyway, with so many widgets (and even alternative homescreens) available from the Android market this is hardly considered as big a differentiating factor as it was before.

The set of widgets that comes with the Tab

Unlike the Galaxy S and the rest of the TouchWiz gang, the Samsung Tab has three buttons docked at the bottom of its homescreen and only the middle one remains visible when you open the menu. It’s the one used for alternating between your main menu and you homescreen.

The other two take you to the email and stock web browser by default but you are free to change them as you see fit.

The main menu consists of side-scrollable panes, much like the homescreen. You can add new pages manually, by dragging an app to a new screen while in edit mode. Unlike most Android smartphones however the Tab offers landscape mode here.

When the launcher is in edit mode, you can uninstall applications (only the ones that you installed) just by tapping their right corner.

Managing the main menu

The task switcher has been updated too and now features shortcuts to the eight (as opposed to six) most recently used apps. There is also a button that takes you to the Samsung home-brewed task manager, which turned out to be rather capable.

The task switcher and task manager of the Galaxy Tab

It allows you to close running apps or even uninstall them completely. You can also move an application to the SD card (as long as the app supports it). In contrast, this requires a 3rd party app on the Galaxy S even after the Froyo update.

Finally, the task manager also brings an app monitor widget, which if placed on you homescreen, will warn you if there are any running apps that might consume your battery.

The notification area has the usual Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and sound toggles, but this time also adds auto-rotation switch (which can disable the accelerometer-based rotation) and brightness slider. With all those a single swipe away, you will rarely need to enter the Settings menu on your Galaxy Tab.

The notification area now has a brightness slider

When you turn on Wi-Fi your Galaxy Tab automatically connects to any known network in the vicinity. If there are no known Wi-Fi networks, a pop-up appears that lets you pick a network. It doesn’t get much simpler than that really.

Unlike the Galaxy S, Samsung Galaxy Tab comes with the stock Android lock screen, where you need to swipe sideways and place the padlock icon over the green dot to unlock. There are cool alternative unlocking patterns too when you have a missed event – a message or a call. Not only do they indicate what events you have missed but they also take you straight to the call log/messaging app when you use them.

Also bear in mind that the Android market offers several apps that allow you to customize your unlock screen beyond recognition. You can change the image, the unlock pattern, the presence and location of the clock etc.

Some interesting touches by Samsung are to be noticed in the Galaxy Tab settings menu. This is the first Android-running device that we can think of to offer display settings such as saturation and contrast.

The performance of the Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab was quite impressive. The ghosting (which as we told you is probably the hardware’s fault) aside, everything is as smooth and quick as you could hope for.

Now according to Samsung’s official information, the Galaxy Tab is supposed to have the same amount of RAM as the Galaxy S (512MB each). Yet the tablet has access to over 400MB of those in the task manager, while the smartphone gives you just over 300MB. So you can be sure that the Tab will have enough free operating memory at all times.

On a side note, that difference between the two will further fuel the rumors about the Galaxy S not having the full promised 512MB RAM inside.

We’re now giving you a short video demonstrating the Galaxy Tab real life performance.

Finally, we ran the usual benchmarks on the Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab and it did pretty well. As you can see the Tab’s performance is not much better than that of the Galaxy S running Froyo.

The Galaxy Tab benchmark results

Samsung I9000 Galaxy S benchmark results (Android 2.2 Froyo)

Nokia World 2010 live coverage: Nokia E7, C7, C6, N8, C3

ekatechnology — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 13:06:58 +0000

Introduction

Nokia World 2010 has already started and we are reporting live from the event. We will be publishing the live photos and videos of the newly announced devices in this article along with our first impressions so make sure to keep an eye on it.

This year’s Nokia World 2010 started a few hours ago. Here’s a video from the grand opening:

The official announcements of the Nokia new business flagship – E7 and the mid-range touch-driven Nokia C7 and NokiaC6-01. All three new devices run on the Symbian^3 OS so unless we see another announcement tomorrow MeeGo fans will leave London disappointed.

The progress Nokia has made from the first Communicator to the E7 and the rest

As the Nokia Executive Vice President in charge of Nokia’s Mobile Solutions Anssi Vanjoki put it the new OS keeps the familiar interface but performs a lot better and adds plenty of new features. Well we will see about that soon, after we spend some quality time with each of the new phones.

A few photos to give you a feel of the Nokia World event

Oh and we’ll have a chance to check out that N8 monster of a cameraphone so there’s every reason for you to stay tuned. The first portion of live images follows after the break.

Nokia E7

The Nokia E7 has a tilting 4″ AMOLED touchscreen with nHD resolution and a four row slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It’s got high-end connectivity – 10.2Mbps HSDPA, 2Mbps HSUPA, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, A-GPS and Cell-ID positioning along with USB On-The-Go.

Nokia E7 official photos

The Nokia E7 highlights list continue with an 8MP camera with dual-LED flash, 720p video capture, and 16GB of built-in storage. Unfortunately though, it turned out that the promising shooter is lacking autofocus, which takes some of the fun out.

There’s HDMI port with Dolby Digital Plus surround sound support. The Nokia E7 weighs a hefty 176 grams – but that’s because it’s made of anodized aluminum.

The Nokia E7 display uses the new ClearBlack technology, which promises darker blacks, better sunlight legibility and lower power usage. The E7 is expected to cost around 495 euro (637 USD) before taxes and subsidies.

Nokia E7 hands-on

Having already spend some time with the E7 we can easily agree with the description of Anssi Vanjoki – this thing is BIG. But luckily those bits about its great build quality and sleek design turned out true, too.

By the way, here’s a hands-on video of the Nokia E7 that we shot at the event.

The Nokia E7 is certainly not easy to handle if you have smaller hands but it certainly is great to look at. The keyboard feels very comfortable as one would expect from a device that claims to succeed the omnipresent Nokia E90 communicator. Just how can the successor sport a resolution lower than its predecessor is a whole different question, which we can’t answer at this point.

Nokia E7 live photos

The resolution aside, the Nokia E7 Clear Black display does look pretty good. Its viewing angles are comparable, although not quite as good as the ones on the iPhone 4. The typically high for AMOLED screen contrast makes everything go live on the screen and the display doesn’t seem to have too many reflections, which suggests that it will be easily visible under direct sunlight.

Nokia E7 in silver

Finally, a quick thought about the user interface. It does seem to do everything they promised at the announcement – fix most Symbian^1 flaws, but retain the same structure. Now depending on how you look at it that second part could either be good news or bad news but we would rather stay positive at this stage.

More Nokia E7 live photos

After all Symbian is still the most popular smartphone platform out there so people are quite used to it. And that means they will be able to find their way around the Symbian^3 OS quite easily too.

Nokia C7

Next, we’re moving on to the Nokia C7 – this stainless steel beauty is just 10.5 mm thin. It has an 8MP camera with dual-LED flash and 720p video, and the same excellent connectivity features as the E7, except the HDMI – it relies on the more traditional composite video-out instead.

Nokia C7 official photos

The Nokia C7 has a 3.5″ AMOLED screen with nHD resolution and 8GB of built-in memory. But unlike the E7, the C7 memory is expandable through the microSD card slot. The Nokia C7 is expected to cost 335 euro (430 US dollars).

Nokia C7 hands-on

The Nokia C7 may not be able to outdo the E7 but it is destined to sit on top of the Nokia most popular (in terms of sales at least) series. Symbian^3 and the larger screen alone should be enough to make C7 undisputed leader there but the top of the Cseries is already well above the entry-level territory so it will face tough competition from outside.

Nokia C7 live shots

Weather or not the Nokia C7 will be up for the challenge is a bit hard to say at this point. Sure the device is nicely slim and feels great to handle. Metal is used a lot for its body and that gives it the solid feel that we appreciate so much.

Nokia C7 live shots

The performance is also there so it won’t be annoying in normal day to day use and the connectivity options are more than adequate.

The Nokia C7 AMOLED compared to the Apple iPhone 4′s IPS LCD

Yet Symbian has earned itself quite bad reputation as a touch-driven OS so we are not sure that the pricing is properly chosen. People will need more persuasion to buy a Symbian device now than they did a couple of years ago and we somehow don’t see the C7 as a package as attractive as the other two devices announced today.

But then again it’s way too early to judge now as we need to spend far more time with the device before we confirm or deny those speculations.

Here’s a hands-on video of the Nokia C7:

Camera samples

We managed to get our hands on several samples from the Nokia C7 camera. Unfortunately the photos are taken with a 16:9 aspect ratio, which may fit the screen perfectly but doesn’t make use of all the sensors so they come in 6MP resolution.

Those photos have plenty of fine detail indicating that the Nokia C7 packs fine optics. The noise is also rather low so the potential seem to be all there. However, understandably at this stage of the development of the handset, the image processing still needs some tuning. Still even at this stage most of the images look pretty well and while we can’t say anything about the shooting conditions this is still encouraging.

Much like the E7 however, Nokia C7 lacks autofocus and relies on the so-called full-focus (or extended depth of field) instead. Yet this doesn’t allow photographing objects that a less than a meter away from the camera so it’s by far not the real thing.

Nokia C7 camera samples

Nokia C6-01

Last of the three newly announced phones is the Nokia C6-01 (not to be confused with the C6-00). It’s shorter than the C7 – 103.8mm vs. 117.3 mm. The screen size has been reduced – 3.2″ AMOLED touchscreen with nHD resolution using the same ClearBlack technology as the E7.

The Nokia C6-01 boasts the same camera and connectivity features as the C7 (sans TV-out) and its 8GB built-in memory is extended by a 2GB microSD card in the box. It too has a stainless steel body though it’s quite a bit thicker than the C7 – 13.9 mm.

Nokia C6-01 official photos

The Nokia C6-01 is the cheapest of the bunch, it is expected to cost 260 euro (334 USD).

Nokia C6-01 hands-on

Nokia C6-01 certainly isn’t the most interesting of the bunch announced today but from where we stand it might be the one with the best prospects on the market. Bringing the nicely looking 3.2″ ClearBlack AMOLED screen at a lower price is a feat that might make quite a lot of people consider it when picking their next phone.

Nokia C6-01 live photos

And the contrasty display (which is also smaller so the nHD resolution looks perfectly acceptable) isn’t the only thing that C6-01 puts to the table. We are huge fans on the extensive usage of metal for its body, which is not something we often see in this price range. And the fact that recycled materials have been used will be music to the environmentalists’ hearts.

Nokia C6-01 live photos

Finally, and probably most important, the Nokia C6-01 brings a performance identical to the more expensive C7 and even the E7. Symbian might not be the flashiest OS out there but it is certainly one of the most functional and now that its latest ^3 reincarnation addresses most of the user-friendliness issues things start to look better and better for the C6-01.

The Nokia C6-01 ClearBlack screen compared to the Apple iPhone 4 retina display and the Samsung M8910 Pixon12 AMOLED unit

Nokia N8 hands-on

Unlike the other handsets we met so far the Nokia N8 wasn’t announced now. However it is still not available on the market so paying its corner a visit was the only chance to get to see it in flesh.

The metallic unibody of the handset grabs your attention straight away and it feels so good to touch that you wouldn’t want to let go of it. Okay that might be taking things a little too far but the N8 is one sleek device indeed.

The Nokia N8 is a real beauty

We are even willing to live with the fact that the Nokia N8 battery isn’t user replaceable (as long as that 1200 mAh unit doesn’t turn out completely inadequate) if that was what it took to achieve the excellent build quality.

More Nokia N8 live shots

Unfortunately, the large image sensor that Nokia stuffed into the N8 took its toll on the device waistline and it isn’t as slim as most of its competitors. Yet the camera is certainly the handset’s key feature and seeing its output we cannot help but feel that the few millimeters of added thickness were well worth it.

Plus the N8 brings the same S^3 goodies as the E7, C6-01 and C7. That means that both user friendliness and performance are better than in previous Nokia touch-driven Symbian smartphones.

Symbian^3 comes with an updated camera interface and web browser

Again we are giving you a short demo video so you can see what the N8 real life performance is like.

Nokia N8 vs Samsung M8910 Pixon12 shootout

We conducted a brief shootout between the Nokia N8 and the Samsung M8910 Pixon12 to see how far Nokia has gone with their N8 12 megapixel flagship cameraphone. The Samsung Pixon12 is currently on top of the cameraphone food chain so naturally we had one handy on site to do some comparative head-to-head shooting with the Nokia N8.

Nokia N8 • Samsung M8910 Pixon12

As it turns out the two cameras had quite different approach to shooting in the low-light conditions we had to work in. The Pixon12 chose to keep the ISO low minimising noise levels, but that resulted in a massive speed drop to about 1/15. Normally that would make clear, blur-free hand-held shots almost impossible. We used a tripod for this test so that’s a bit of an unfair advantage for the Pixon12.

Nokia N8 • Samsung M8910 Pixon12

Even so the Nokia N8 produced sharper, more detailed images even though it has a wider viewing angle so it fits more stuff onto its 12 megapixel sensor. It’s also got some livelier color output. It didn’t however manage to impress with low noise levels as much as we hoped.

We also noticed that the Samsung M8910 Pixon12 images suffer from barrel distortion noticeably more than the Nokia N8 shots. Kudos to Nokia for achieving this, despite having to work with wider-angle lens (28mm vs 30mm on the Pixon12).

Still this test is far from scientific and we will have to wait until we get to spend more time with an N8 before we pass a final judgment.

Nokia N8 • Samsung M8910 Pixon12

Nokia N8 camera samples

Nokia put a lot of eggs in the camera basket with the N8 and they are really keen to prove that all the hype is worth it (and hopefully generate even more hype). What we have for you here is a boatload of sample images that Nokia say come straight from the N8 camera.

To call them impressive will be a vast understatement… you know what, we won’t try to comment on each one of them. Just check them out for yourselves. It’s quite obvious that a LOT of hard work and preparation has gone into making such nice shots and what we are looking here is the N8 at its best. In your regular day-to-day usage you will hardly achieve the same level of results but it’s good to know that you could if you wanted.

Now it’s time for the show to begin.

When we reviewed the Nokia 6700 classic we loved it – the smooth metal body gave the phone an amazing feel. That’s why we were really excited when we got our hands on the new Nokia C3-01 Touch and Type.

Introducing the Nokia C3-01 Touch and Type

Anyway, here’s a hands-on video to give you a better feel for the Nokia C3-01 Touch and Type.

It has the same finish as the 6700 classic, the back cover is especially reminiscent of what we dubbed “Sirocco Lite”. It’s a whisker slimmer than 6700 classic too – just 11mm thick. And it’s lighter too – 100 g – but it’s just enough to give it a pleasant heft.

Nokia C3-01 Touch and Type hands-on photos

Series 40 devices rarely had exciting specs but the Nokia C3-01 Touch and Type chock full of them. It’s not just the touchscreen, which will aid navigation quite a bit, but won’t do much for the ease of text input.

The Nokia C3-01 has got dual-band 3G with HSPA for speeds up to 10.2Mbps and Wi-Fi b/g/n so it will be a while before the Nokia C3-01 Touch and Type gets outdated in terms of connectivity. The camera is the same as the one on the E5 – 5MP, fixed focus, with LED flash and VGA@15fps video recording. Fixed focus? Perhaps this is where they lost us.

The Nokia C3-01 is 11mm thin and covered in stainless steel

The Facebook and Twitter integration is welcome, but it may put a strain on the keypad.

The Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type which was unveiled a month ago is company’s first handset to pack a touchscreen and a regular alphanumeric keypad simultaneously. It is also the first S40 touch-driven device to get a global release.

Despite its low standing in the food chain, the Nokia X3-02 packs excellent connectivity with WLAN (including the new N standard), 3G with HSPA, Bluetooth and microUSB all on board. The music fans will also appreciate the 3.5mm audio jack.

Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type

The Nokia X3-02 touchscreen measures 2.4″ in diagonal and sports QVGA resolution. This is one of the smallest touchscreens on the market so we really hope that Nokia did a good job of optimizing the interface.

The final noteworthy feature of the 9.6mm slim device is its 5 megapixel fixed-focus camera that is also capable of recording video.

Nokia X3-02 should hit the shelves by the end of the month in White Silver, Dark Metal, Petrol Blue, Pink and Lilac color versions. Its estimated retail price is 125 euro before taxes or subsides.

Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type hands-on

After spending a few minutes with the X3-02 Touch and Type we can finally share with you our first impressions of the device. Before we go on, we should first note that the thing looks as nice in reality as on those official images posted above.

Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type hands-on photos

The first thing you’ll notice once you touch the device is the missing navigation buttons. There is no D-pad, soft keys or whatsoever. And this is where the touchscreen comes in handy. With its help you can easily browse the menu, the image gallery, you name it.

A closer look at the first S40 touch-driven device

The touchscreen feels responsive enough and the image quality is fine too. The interface is responsive too with rare occasional lags. It’s well touch optimized, with large on-screen buttons and well thought menu structure.

More X3-02 Touch and Type live shots

The Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type feels nice when held in hand. You may need a little while to get used to it but once you’re done with that there, should be no issues with the phone’s ergonomics.

The thin body and the great built quality are just another plus.

HTC Wildfire review: Desire Mini

ekatechnology — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 14:57:33 +0000

Introduction

Occasionally HTC takes a little break from high-end smartphones and dips its toes in the waters of the lower midrange. The HTC Wildfire is a down-sized, down-clocked and down-priced version of the HTC Desire. If Sony Ericsson can do it with the X10 mini, then HTC have all the right in the world to make a Desire mini too.

HTC Wildfire official photos

But while the Desire was something that easily snatched everybody’s attention, the Wildfire is a bit more toned down despite its fire-some name.

Key features

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
3G with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA
Android OS v2.1 (Éclair) with Sense UI
3.2″ capacitive touchscreen of QVGA resolution
Multi-touch support
Qualcomm MSM 7225 528 MHz CPU, 384 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM
5 megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash and touch focus
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and GPS receiver
Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
Turn-to-mute, lift-to-tone-down
Proximity sensor
Smart dialing
Standard miniUSB port for charging and data
Bluetooth with A2DP, file transfers
microSD card slot, a 2GB card in the box
Standard 3.5mm audio jack
Social network integration: Facebook, Twitter and Flickr through Friend Stream
Flash-enabled browser
Direct access to the official Android repository
Stereo FM radio with RDS

Main disadvantages

Poor screen image quality, QVGA doesn’t do Android OS and the display size justice
No video-call camera or videocalling whatsoever
CIF@15fps video recording (352 x 288 pixels) is below par
No voice dialing
No DivX or XviD video support out of the box
No TV-out port

The Wildfire is certainly the right phone for those who like to always stay in touch. The high-end connectivity is all there, along with solid social network integration and browsing. It seems the display and CPU are the only downgrades from the Desire.

But that’s still a lot. Android phones with QVGA screens have failed to impress and the size of the Wildfire’s display gives no reason to be optimistic here.

HTC Wildfire at ours

On the other hand, the Wildfire boasts the premium finish of the Nexus One and the HTC Desire. Not only is a touch of style always welcome in the lower tiers of the market but users will probably appreciate the compact size too.

So, repackaging a flagship device to sell to a wider range of customers is easier said than done, so let’s see what the Wildfire has to offer. By the way, choosing a name that’s so much catchier is a good way to start.

Retail package: good enough

Considering the lower price range, the HTC Wildfire’s package is fairly complete. It has the essentials and a couple of small perks: a 2GB microSD and a one-piece headset with music controls. The headset uses the a standard 3.5 mm audio jack so you can use your own instead, but you will have to live without the remote.

Unboxing HTC Wildfire

The microUSB cable plugs into the charger so you will need both to charge your HTC Wildfire the old fashioned way. USB charging is enabled too. A bunch of manuals complete the list of items in the box.

HTC Wildfire 360-degree spin

Keeping it compact was high on the Wildfire designers’ priority list. At 106.8 x 60.4 x 12 mm the device can easily slip in any pocket – let alone a purse. The phone certainly hopes to appeal to both male and female customers, and has the color range to do it. The Wildfire will be available in white, black, brown and red.

The Wildfire next to the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X8

Design and construction

So, the Wildfire is a pretty close replica of the Desire (and the Nexus One). It doesn’t have the kind of looks to make your heart skip a beat, but it’s a subtly stylish and solidly built phone – and that’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Ok, it’s a phone that will grow up wearing its older brother’s old clothes. But we don’t have to worry about its self esteem. The designers were after decent functionality in an attractive looking package and we think they’ve done a pretty good job. The only thing to be concerned with is the screen. WVGA AMOLED was a treat in the Desire, but sadly the Wildfire is nowhere near that.

At 3.2” and QVGA resolution, the HTC Wildfire touchscreen offers the lowest pixel density we have seen lately and that’s a real disadvantage for the picture quality. 125 ppi is pretty good for a computer screen but you look at it from a much greater distance. The Wildfire you are meant to hold in your hands.

The contrast levels of the LCD unit are also quite underwhelming and we’re particularly disappointed with the depth of blacks on the Wildfire screen. The brightness levels are good but they are not enough of a boost for the overall poor picture quality.

And the Wildfire isn’t any better when exposed to direct sunlight either. You will struggle to find a proper angle for working with the phone when outside on a bright sunny day.

In general, the screen is where most of the cost-cutting has been done on the Wildfire. This doesn’t seem like a particularly smart move. The fact is, on a full-touch device the screen is almost all you look at and use. Having such a relatively large yet low-res screen creates a rather negative effect for the whole user experience.

On a positive note, the sensitivity of the capacitive touchscreen is excellent, plus 3.2” is more than enough space to press on. But still, a smaller display to make the low resolution less prominent might have made more sense, and the device would’ve been even more compact too. We just can’t see the point of making such a big QVGA screen. Neither Android nor HTC Sense looks good on it.

Below the display we find four capacitive controls. They are in charge of bringing you back to the homescreen, opening the context menu, taking you a step back in the menu navigation and getting you to the quick search box.

There are four touch-sensitive keys below the display

Sufficiently spaced and sensitive enough, those cause no usability problems whatsoever. The transition between them and the screen is seamless.

Under those four keys we find the optical joystick, which by the way is of pretty limited use. It will work in some menus to replace sweep gestures and can be used to take the occasional photo but that’s about it. Most users would probably never notice even if it didn’t work at all,– you can get by just fine without it.

Above the display we see the earpiece, the proximity sensor and the status LED.

The status LED and the proximity sensor are next to the display on top

The left side of the Wildfire features the large volume rocker and the exposed microUSB port. The right side of the device is completely bare. A dedicated camera key would have certainly been nice.

The volume rocker and the exposed microUSB port • The right side is perfectly bare

At the top there are a couple of elements to note. The silver key in the right corner is the power/screen lock button, the 3.5mm audio jack is at the other end.

The audio jack and the power key are on top

The tiny mouthpiece is the only thing of interest at the bottom.

The mouthpiece is as usually, on the bottom

The 5 megaxpixel camera lens is near the top of the back cover, flanked by the loudspeaker grill and the LED flash. The lanyard also attaches at the back, near the bottom of the phone. You do need to remove the cover to attach it though.

The camera lens is flanked by the loudspeaker and the LED flash

Under the cover you will find the microSD card slot and the 1300 mAh battery. The Li-Ion unit is quoted at up to 480 hours of stand-by or 7 hours and 20 minutes of talk time in 2G networks, and 690 hours and 8 hours in 3G mode.

The microSD card slot is under the battery cover

Those are some impressive numbers indeed but here’s one case perhaps where the low-res screen does count in its favor. The Wildfire did last for about three days of moderate use (10 minutes of calls and just under an hour of using the other features a day), which is still good but not that great.

The HTC Wildfire feels nice in the hand. Its size is just perfect for single-handed use and the screen sensitivity is a point in favor too. It’s ultimately the same screen though that puts the whole package in question. Users coming from touchscreen feature phones will probably not notice anything wrong. But upgraders from the Magic or the Tattoo might be disappointed.

Handling the Wildfire feels nice

We have no arguments with the build quality and the finish. The Wildfire is a solid looking and stylish phone that will suit conservative tastes. There’s a selection of paintjobs too for those looking for something more expressive.

Now let’s go through the software side of things.

Eclair and HTC Sense deserve a higher-res screen

HTC Sense and Android have had a god run so far. From the Hero to the Desire, users have been treated to a wealth of graphics and features. Even the entry-level HTC Tattoo has the company’s custom interface, which we found to blend well and do a good job. It just didn’t look its best on the QVGA screen.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’d know the HTC Wildfire is having the same problem. And this time, the same number of pixels is stretched over 3.2 inches.

The Wildfire still has a clear advantage over the Tattoo. The capacitive display has excellent response. You’ll find the latest Sense UI too on the HTC Wildfire.

The main differences between this version of the Sense UI and back on the Tattoo are the new context icons, a few new wallpapers and the unified Widget section. Whether you are using the People, Mail, Music or Gallery Tabs, the scrollable icons at the bottom will please you with new color skins. We like it this way – the old ones looked a bit dull against the otherwise graphically rich and colorful UI..

The lock screen • some of the homescreen panes

The left key at the bottom of the screen launches the main menu. This time around you simply tap to get to it, you can’t drag the menu out, though you can drag it back in.

The middle key is a shortcut to the Phone app and the right key brings up the “Add to Home” menu. And there’s plenty to add to the homescreen but more on that later.

The scrollbar at the bottom is just an indication of which homescreen you’re on – it can’t be used for actual scrolling. HTC have extended the homescreen to a total of seven panes instead of the usual three. With all those widgets at hand (which are quite useful too) they may not even be enough.

The HTC Sense UI revolves around Scenes, which are essentially six custom homescreen setups (Work, Travel, Social, etc). Each scene changes the wallpaper and the widgets on the homescreen – for instance, the Work scene has a stocks widget, while the Social offers a Twitter widget.

You can’t modify the scenes but if you rearrange the current homescreen you are prompted to save changes as a new scene.

The Clean slate scene lets you start from scratch – it’s just the default Android setup with a Clock and a few shortcuts underneath.

Switching between scenes takes a couple of seconds but sure allows wide customization – the business and personal modes that some competing phones offer seem quite limited compared to the HTC Scenes.

Social scene on the left and Work scene on the right

Now back to the other stuff beyond the homescreen and the available Scenes. The changes brought by the Sense UI go deeper than just the homescreen.

For instance, the main menu has the typical grid layout, but you can switch it to a list similar to in TouchFLO in HTC WinMo phones. With it, you can use an alphabet scroll, which makes locating apps faster.

The grid layout • the list layout • alphabet scroll

The widget section has been revamped since the HTC Tattoo and now both types of widgets (custom HTC and stock Android) are placed on one page. There are so many of them that you may find the seven homescreen panes insufficient.

Plenty of HTC widgets • you can even add program shortcuts

When you select a widget you are prompted to choose between several versions – most widgets have at least two styles. The different versions typically offer at least two sizes of the widget and a different look (There are twelve different clocks. That’s right, twelve!).

Some different Clock widget styles

And some widget styles even offer different functionality. Take the Twitter widget for instance – one version will show updates for the people you follow, while the other version only lets you tweet from the homescreen. There’s nothing stopping you from using both of course.

Two versions of the Twitter widget for different functionally

The HTC widgets offer a better level of interaction than the stock widgets – there’s a Favorites widget that keeps a list of your favorite contacts you can scroll through, meaning there’s no need to dip into the contacts list.

The People widget and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth setting widgets

The Photo album widget is a “stack” of photos that shows all the photos in some folder and you can flick them to view the next photo in line. This is quite fun but the experience is somewhat ruined by optimization. During the animation of the photo going up and the next one settling in, the widget uses low resolution previews of the photos and it takes a couple of seconds for the next image to load up in full quality. Higher-res photos suffer the most from this, of course.

Photo widget is smoothly animated, not smoothly drawn

The Messages and Mail widgets work much the same way, but instead of photos, you flick messages. And you don’t get the pixelation issue.

The Mail widget • Messages widget

The Wildfire has the fancy way of accessing any of the homescreen panes without scrolling. With a single tap or pinch, Leap view displays the thumbnails of all seven homescreen panes at once.

Leap View lets you quickly toggle

You can pinch to “zoom out” on any of the homescreen panes but tapping on a screen will do the trick too.

The Android 2.1 in the Wildfire packs the app sharing application for posting your impressions on mobile applications via Twitter, SMS or email. It’s very simple but helps you share or receive app impressions from various social services.

Leap View was available back on the HTC Desire – it’s nice to have it in the budget package too. However, one thing the Wildfire obviously lacks is Live Wallpapers. The weaker CPU and the QVGA screen just can’t handle them.

Well, that’s about the part of the Sense UI that’s closest to the surface. There’s more to it but we’ll discuss those bits and pieces throughout the review.

The HTC Wildfire UI is fast enough, the only place to notice lags is in widgets that need internet connection to refresh content.

The trackpad is an auxiliary navigation tool here – given the responsive capacitive touchscreen. You can swipe, scroll and precisely select elements with the trackpad but we were barely using it except in the camera app. It serves as the shutter key there but it’s far from essential, as the touch focus works well.

Two more things – most apps won’t run without a microSD card inserted and screen vibration feedback works on the virtual QWERTY keyboard but not elsewhere throughout the homescreen.

Socialized phonebook

HTC Wildfire features the same powerful phonebook we first saw on the Hero. It resembles the one from the HTC TouchFLO but considerably extends its functionality.

Selecting a contact displays the basic details: name and photo, numbers, emails and such. What you’d notice though is that there are another five tabs at the bottom and you’re just viewing the first of them.

Viewing a contact

The next tab holds the messages received from the contact – it would have been a lot more useful if it held the entire conversation, but for that you’d have to go to the Messages app.

The third tab holds a list of emails you’ve exchanged with the contact. The next two tabs are quite interesting and can turn the Wildfire (or in fact any phone running the Sense UI) into a powerful social networking tool.

The first holds Facebook contact updates, and the other – called “Albums” – pulls the albums that contacts have created on Flickr and Facebook.

Facebook updates • Facebook and Flickr albums • call history

The last tab shows the call history for the contact.

The entire People app (the phonebook) is tabbed too and with more tabs than the stock Android. You have all contacts, groups (including favorite contacts there), as well as a call log and “Online directories”. The latter holds information for all your buddies’ online profiles.

Phonebook • favorite contacts • groups • online directories

With Android 2.1, the HTC Wildfire packs the new Quick contacts feature. It lets you use the contact photo in the phonebook and call, text, or email the person with a single click.

The contact editing screen looks exactly as in the HTC Desire. There’s no plus key to add a new detail of a certain type, just a delete detail key. This saves some space (one line per each category) but you have to scroll down to the bottom every time you want to add a new detail.

Editing a contact • Quick contact

There is a lot of information you can store per contact as usual, and searching the phonebook is very easy – just press the search button.

Telephony

Voice quality in calls is good and the volume levels are excellent. We experienced no reception issues with the HTC Wildfire.

The dialer features a keypad, a shortcut to the call log and a list of contacts beneath (you can hide the keypad). Smart Dialing is also enabled.

Thanks to the built-in accelerometer, the HTC Wildfire has turn-to-mute enabled. You can mute the ringer by simply turning the phone face down on the table. There’s an extra feature too – the ringing volume will go down as soon as you lift the handset up.

The dialer • calling Dexter

The built-in proximity sensor makes sure the screen automatically switches off when you hold it next to your face during a call. That way you don’t risk pressing any keys by mistake with your ear or cheek.

The call log shows the latest dialed, received and missed calls all in one.

The call log holds incoming, outgoing and missed calls

The HTC Wildfire doesn’t have voice dialing but what at least some users are more likely to miss is video calling.

We conducted our traditional loudspeaker test and here is how the Wildfire stacks among some other handsets.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overall score
Apple iPhone 4	65.1	60.3	66.2	Below Average
HTC Wildfire	74.3	66.6	75.7	Good
Google Nexus One	69.9	66.6	79.1	Good
HTC Hero	76.7	71.9	77.7	Very Good
HTC HD2	75.7	72.8	78.0	Very Good
HTC Legend	78.0	74.3	79.7	Excellent

Messaging

The HTC Wildfire can handle all common types of messages – SMS, MMS and email. Google Talk is in charge of instant messaging. Email support is excellent with support for Exchange out of the box and social media buffs will be pleased with the level of integration of that content as well.

The on-screen full QWERTY keyboard on the HTC Wildfire works in both portrait and landscape modes. Button size is decent and sensitivity just fine and we had no problems using the keyboard.

The on-screen QWERTY is quite good in landscape

Composing a message is a little frustrating as the text box only takes a small part of the screen even if you hide the keyboard, which really only gives you little to work with.

To add recipients, just start typing a name or number and choose from the contacts offered. After choosing a name it’s added in a bubble under the main textbox, where you can view or remove it by single tap.

Adding recipients

A press-and-hold on the text box gives you access to functions such as cut, copy and paste. You are free to paste the copied text into any other application like email, notes, chats, etc. and vice versa.

Copy, cut and paste are here

Adding multimedia content to a text message will turn it into MMS. You can just add a photo or an audio file to go with the text, or you can choose to go into a full-blown MMS editor depending on your needs.

Attaching a media file turns texts into MMS

Two Email clients as usual: HTC Mail and Gmail

Gmail is one thing that you can’t expect to have changed much compared to other Android handsets.

Batch operations lets you manage multiple conversations • reading emails

The extended Gmail features include spam report and of course conversation-style email view mode.

When replying to an email you can opt for either Gmail or the generic mail client, and set one of the two options as default. The reason behind most Android handsets coming with two email clients is the added corporate Exchange ActiveSync support.

The standard HTC Mail app is the same too. The general Inbox displays the last sync time, the sort order, the email account in use and the actual messages of course.

At the bottom there are five virtual buttons that let you filter the inbox. You may opt to view conversations, emails with attachments only, unread mail only or display the messages from your VIP mail groups.

The standard HTC email app

Email sorting is possible (in either ascending or descending order) by date, subject, sender and size. The chosen filter is displayed in the top right corner of the display.

There’s hardly anything the HTC Wildfire lacks in terms of email features. What you basically have is a local copy of your Gmail account bundled with its main functionality plus a Microsoft Exchange compatible alternative client, which can manage multiple POP and IMAP accounts.

Socialized phonebook

HTC Wildfire features the same powerful phonebook we first saw on the Hero. It resembles the one from the HTC TouchFLO but considerably extends its functionality.

Viewing a contact

The next tab holds the messages received from the contact – it would have been a lot more useful if it held the entire conversation, but for that you’d have to go to the Messages app.

The first holds Facebook contact updates, and the other – called “Albums” – pulls the albums that contacts have created on Flickr and Facebook.

Facebook updates • Facebook and Flickr albums • call history

The last tab shows the call history for the contact.

Phonebook • favorite contacts • groups • online directories

With Android 2.1, the HTC Wildfire packs the new Quick contacts feature. It lets you use the contact photo in the phonebook and call, text, or email the person with a single click.

Editing a contact • Quick contact

There is a lot of information you can store per contact as usual, and searching the phonebook is very easy – just press the search button.

Telephony

Voice quality in calls is good and the volume levels are excellent. We experienced no reception issues with the HTC Wildfire.

The dialer features a keypad, a shortcut to the call log and a list of contacts beneath (you can hide the keypad). Smart Dialing is also enabled.

The dialer • calling Dexter

The call log shows the latest dialed, received and missed calls all in one.

The call log holds incoming, outgoing and missed calls

The HTC Wildfire doesn’t have voice dialing but what at least some users are more likely to miss is video calling.

We conducted our traditional loudspeaker test and here is how the Wildfire stacks among some other handsets.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overall score
Apple iPhone 4	65.1	60.3	66.2	Below Average
HTC Wildfire	74.3	66.6	75.7	Good
Google Nexus One	69.9	66.6	79.1	Good
HTC Hero	76.7	71.9	77.7	Very Good
HTC HD2	75.7	72.8	78.0	Very Good
HTC Legend	78.0	74.3	79.7	Excellent

Froyo may not be tablet-ready, Galaxy Tab to go the CDMA way

ekatechnology — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 14:35:18 +0000

Samsung have adopted a different strategy than Apple’s – instead of carrier exclusivity, most major US carriers are getting a Galaxy S phone. Reportedly, Samsung will be taking the same approach with the Tab making it available on most US carriers including AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.

The Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab is running Google’s latest – Android 2.2 Froyo – but Hugo Barra, Google’s Director of products for mobile says that Froyo is not designed for tablets and some apps won’t run correctly and won’t be accessible from the Android Market on tablet devices. He said it’s unit specific, but nothing concrete about the Tab. Current gossip is that Android 3.0 Gingerbread will be the tablet-friendly branch of Android.

Still, the Wall Street Journal quotes three people saying that the Samsung Galaxy Tab will be available for GSM and CDMA carriers, maybe even WiMAX. So, AT&T, Verizon and Sprint are said to be getting a Galaxy Tab (strangely, no T-Mobile, not yet anyway).

That’s not beyond Samsung’s capabilities – with different variants of the I9000 Galaxy S for the different carriers, they sure have the hardware for it. The pricing is still unannounced, but the Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab will probably cost between 200 and 300 US dollars in the States.

Samsung plans to sell 10 million Tabs – so putting their eggs in more than one basket sounds like a good idea. Of course this is still unconfirmed, but Samsung will be unveiling the Tab for the US on September 16 – then we’ll know for sure.

Samsung I9000 Galaxy S vs. Apple iPhone 4: Collision course

ekatechnology — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 13:21:28 +0000

Introduction

It’s not like you’re out of options. Here’s one. Another one would be to get a friend’s iPhone 4 and another friend’s Galaxy S, put them on a table, close your eyes and… tell your friends to bugger off. Or you can do it the old-fashioned way. Flip a what?

Now seriously, do we need another iPhone vs. insert phone of choice thing? Well, do you need Retina display when it’s more than the human eye can see? Do you need a 4” Super AMOLED when 3.5” would’ve been just fine – and easier to handle?

Apple iPhone 4 • Samsung I9000 Galaxy S

Yes, we’ll be comparing the best screens in business. But it’s not even the beginning of what this is all about. There’s not just muscle being flexed here – it’s about ideology too. It’s open source Android against control freaks Apple, democracy against the royalty.

And technically, the Samsung Galaxy S is not alone in this fight. It’s backed by an army of overseas mercenaries, marching to take on the Apple phone on different markets: Samsung Vibrant, Samsung Captivate and the Epic 4G.

The different call signs aside, we have two of the best phones you can get today and this is not a kill-or-get-killed game. The first thing we try to find out when reviewing phones is who they are for. The tech inside is always exciting but ultimately it all comes down to whether the right users are getting the right treatment.

The specs are the players – the phone is the team. You can always tell a star player. But the winning team isn’t always the one with the better players. And sometimes you don’t even want to look at the score. That’s when we know it’s been a hell of a game.

Samsung Galaxy S over Apple iPhone 4

Android 2.1 Éclair, 2.2 Froyo update just around the corner
4” SuperAMOLED display with a 15:9 widescreen aspect ratio
Regular SIM card support
DivX/XviD video support
FM radio with RDS
Notably cheaper

Apple iPhone 4 over Samsung Galaxy S

iOS 4
640 x 960 pixel Retina display
Scratch-resistant, high-quality glass panels
LED flash
Precise movement tracking via a gyro sensor

It’s Android’s finest against the iPhone but that’s how we tend to look at it on our side of the pond. The truth is, there are meaner and keener droids out there. The Motorola DROID X and the HTC Evo 4G are obviously not part of our story but are the kind of phones to merit a place in history.

Anyway, there’s enough firepower here even without the US heavyweights. Screen and OS are the most powerful weapons of both the Galaxy S and the iPhone 4. SuperAMOLED came first and impressed the world but now the Retina display is claiming the crown.

With platforms it’s a mirrored image of the same events: iOS (known as iPhone OS at the time), redefined touchscreen usability but Android claims to have leapfrogged it with Froyo.

To further complicate things, even absolutely identical specs don’t produce the same performance. The cameras on both devices may look similar but the rival camps took a completely different approach to processing – that holds true for both still imaging and video recording.

At times, it will look like the Galaxy S is competing against a first-gen iPhone. There are still things Apple will never bother put in their phones. Elsewhere, the Samsung Galaxy S might find it hard to match the stature and eloquence of the iPhone. That’s how we like it though – punches flying both ways. Be right back.

Design and construction

Say what you will about specs but they’re not the first thing you notice about a handset. What we have here is some amazing pieces of technology – phones you’ll want to show off. But a touchscreen bar isn’t exactly the form factor to let designers unleash their creativity. Plus, a large, bright, high-res screen is enough to make any handset a looker.

We have two completely different approaches here. Design is a rather broad concept: there’s handling and ergonomics – and there’re engineering choices that affect the actual performance. In terms of pure looks though, the iPhone is having a walkover here.

Apple deserves much credit for the styling of their latest phone. They did a complete overhaul of one of the most minimalist designs ever. The iPhone 4 has the right measures of simplicity and sophistication. And it’s all meaningful. It’s the latest in a line of phones that redefined user-friendliness but it’s the next generation too in features and technology.

The new iPhone 4 has a brand new design

Samsung on the other hand, don’t seem to care too much about the packaging. The Galaxy S does little to stand out among the multitude of affordable mass-market touch phones that the company has been churning out. The simple and plasticky phone is quite in line perhaps with Android’s egalitarian nature.

Simplicity was key for Apple too, but premium finish for their latest and greatest must’ve been a matter of noblesse oblige. Some of Apple’s innovative design solutions are questionable to say the least but the glass-covered, metal-framed iPhone 4 is a joy to behold.

Choosing an all-plastic case for the I9000 Galaxy S, Samsung were able to keep the phone’s weight to the incredible 119 grams (the iPhone 4 weighs in at 137 g). Quite an achievement this one – don’t forget we’re talking a 4″ screen. Among other things, the plastic body makes the Galaxy S much cheaper to make too.

The Samsung I9000 Galaxy S is amazingly light for a 4″ phone

Now depending on how you look at it, the lower weight might be an advantage, as it makes the handset less of a burden in the pocket, or a disadvantage, as it takes away some of the solid feel we’ve come to expect in premium phones.

The glossy plastic body of the Galaxy S doesn’t look quite so nice after a short while – it doesn’t take long for it to become a greasy mess. The rear of the phone is less affected by this unpleasant effect. The bluish dots on the back cover were also an attempt perhaps to give the premium handset a bit of personality. The subtle holographic depth effect might have seemed relevant to the phone’s name too.

One aspect where the Galaxy S does beat the iPhone 4 however is handling. The Samsung handset has a subtle chin at its back that makes the handset both comfortable and more secure to hold. A 4″ screen does push the limits of comfortable single-handed use but the Galaxy S feels good in the hand – especially with the tapered edges, which previous iPhones had too.

The Apple’s latest on the other hand has top-notch finish but this is somehow at the expense of secure handling. The iPhone 4 is so slick and smooth with all that glass up and front that it makes you take extra care not to drop it.

The iPhone 4 has a quality finish and feels great in the hand

This brings us to the next aspect of design – durability. Firstly, the iPhone 4 has a clear advantage as far as day-to-day wear and tear is concerned. The scratch-resistant glass panels can suffer quite a lot of abuse and will look as good as day one.

However glass, sturdy as it may be, is still pretty sensitive to dropping. Early tests showed that the iPhone can survive landing on its face, but falling on a side is likely to cause a nasty crack on the front or bacl. And with glass panels that are pretty hard to replace this is not something you want to have to deal with.

A bumper case is usually good enough to stay out of trouble but those cheap looking (but pretty expensive to buy) pieces of plastic do take away quite a lot of the device’s appeal.

The plasticky Galaxy S on the other hand is far easier to scratch but is less vulnerable to dropping. Not to mention that replacing its full-face back panel is far easier and cheaper and requires less technical knowledge. We’d rather call it a tie here.

The Samsung Galaxy S is plastic all around

On a final note we’d like to point out the size difference. The 4″ screen of the Galaxy S is marvelous to look at but might be an issue for some users. We guess 3.7 inches is as far as phones should go to. Our two rivals here are keen to support that claim. It just seems the iPhone puts the majority of people at ease. The big screen of Galaxy S will delight power users, but might turn off the average Joe.

Telephony

The fact aside that telephony is still one of the main jobs of a mobile phone, we don’t think we would have normally included such a chapter in a shoot-out. But this has quite a lot to do with design, as many unfortunate iPhone 4 users have come to learn the hard way.

If you are reading this, chances are you already know everything there is to know about the so-called Antennagate. In the end, it’s not about a weak spot in a phone that’s pitched as the pinnacle of evolution. It’s about how Apple handled the whole thing.

The iPhone 4 dialer

Apple thought it had nailed it with their all-new antenna design giving the iPhone 4 better signal reception than any iPhone before it plus keeping thing as compact as they come. But it didn’t quite work the way they hoped. It could’ve been an oversight. Or they knew contact with skin will most certainly interfere with the antenna and cause the phone to lose signal – but didn’t care to act when they should have.

Either way, the thing was blown out of proportion, fueled by Apple’s own high-octane mix of arrogance and denial. It seems it’s all heading towards a happily-ever-after. Our own tests showed iPhone’s reception was mostly problematic in areas of spotty coverage . And bumper cases are certain to sort all issues out.

So there you go, Apple decided to give away free bumpers.

Of course not every iPhone 4 owner is happy to have a piece of plastic wrapped around their shiny handset. Not to mention that depending on the bumper you choose it might take up to 3 months for it to arrive. Not quite the best way to treat the customers, who paid good money for your device.

And to make matters worse, the antenna isn’t the only problem of the iPhone 4. Proximity sensor issues have been reported since day one and this has nothing to do with external factors like the cellular network. We’ve done our own investigation into the issue and you can see, the problem is very much real.

The Samsung Galaxy S has some clever ways to dial

The proximity sensor on the iPhone 4 is somewhat buggy and the screen will sometimes turn on even though you are holding the phone right next to your face. Accidental presses are likely resulting sometimes in dropped or muted calls, which can be quite annoying. At least Apple owned up to this one and promised a fix in the next iOS version (in fact the iOS 4.1 beta is already available and early reports suggest it does fix things up).

Next up is video calling. The Apple FaceTime videochat service only works over Wi-Fi (unless you have a jailbroken device) and both parties must have an iPhone 4. So it’s not exactly the most widely adopted option for video chats.

The Galaxy S has video-calling enabled too. And what do you know, the other person doesn’t even have to have a Galaxy S, just any 3G handset will do (well, okay, most of them). The Galaxy S also brings contact widgets, quick contacts and that neat little feature that allows you to dial or text a contact in your phonebook by a swipe gesture.

Apple iPhone 4: 4/10 • Samsung I9000 Galaxy S: 9/10

Display

This is where it gets serious. The best displays in business, the pride and joy of Samsung and Apple.

In the Galaxy S corner is a 4” SuperAMOLED display of WVGA resolution (800 x 480 pixels). Across the ring we have the iPhone 4 and the Retina display – a 3.5” S-IPS LCD unit at 960 x 640 pixels. Both of course have support for up to 16M colors, so banding isn’t an issue.

There isn’t much to say about the sensitivity of the two touchscreens either – they are both superb. We see capacitive at its best here and with screens this big and interfaces so well optimized you’re likely to enjoy yourselves.

The iPhone 3G, iPhone 4 and Samsung Galaxy S indoors

The SuperAMOLED technology is superior to LCD, especially on hand-held where its relatively shorter life span doesn’t really count. The iPhone 4 has higher nominal resolution, for finer, sharper image quality.

Besides the LCD mounted on the iPhone 4 has out-of-this-world viewing angles and manages to do something we never believed possible. It turns out that from extremely tight viewpoints the iPhone actually looks a bit better. However, considering that no one actually looks at their phone screen from such steep angles it’s a fact interesting to scientists but irrelevant to users.

Now for the resolution – the iPhone 4 is certainly impressively sharp, with pixel density unmatched by a GSM phone. No matter how close you look at it, it’s virtually impossible to see individual pixels. That’s certainly a welcome upgrade over previous iPhones, which had incredibly low pixel density but is not to say that the Galaxy S is the sad loser here.

The three phones outside in the sun

Right on the contrary – the Samsung I9000 with its WVGA resolution is pretty sharp too. What’s more, the way you normally hold your phone (at just under an arm’s length away from your eyes) the difference between the two is hardly that big.

Even at that distance, however you can easily see the superior contrast of the Galaxy S SuperAMOLED screen. Those kind of displays, unlike LCDs, are able to display pitch-black and much more saturated colors in general, which is really what we all want to see. It’s also what makes the difference when watching a movie on your mobile phone, giving the Galaxy S an edge here.

And speaking of video playback, the Galaxy S has another advantage over the iPhone 4. Its widescreen 15:9 display is much better suited for watching movies, which all tend to come in 16:9 aspect ratio or even wider. You still need to lose a small part (where black bars appear) of the screen or crop the edges of the frame, but the iPhone has it much worse here.

Viewing angles compared: Samsung I9000 Galaxy S, Apple iPhone 4 • iPhone 3G

All that said, we really believe that the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S takes an edge on the more important parts of the display performance. Plus it gets an extra point for the extra size to win this one.

Still camera

The 5 megapixel snappers of the two devices in question are not their key selling points. You can get better still imaging on a phone for half the price. Yet it doesn’t hurt to have a quality camera on board and with the specs so evenly matched it was inevitable that we will compare them.

The iPhone 4 sets off to a good start here with its LED flash. Not that it is that much good with its limited range but the Galaxy S has nothing to offer in return so it’s still an advantage.

As we said in the introduction, despite the similar specs the two cameras actually have completely different outputs. The iPhone 4 doesn’t process its photos much, fighting with chroma noise, but leaving luminance noise alone. The Galaxy S on the other hand tries to eradicate all kinds of, which given the qualities of the cameraphone sensors easily results in lost detail.

Samsung I9000 Galaxy S • Apple iPhone 4 • 100% crops

So the iPhone 4 gives you slightly noisier but more detailed images, which depending on your preferences might be a good or a bad thing. We don’t mind some luminance noise in our images (it is certainly far less objectionable than the colored chroma noise), so we are siding with the iPhone here.

Samsung I9000 Galaxy S • Apple iPhone 4 • 100% crops

However what we do mind is the iPhone 4’s tendency to overexpose and oversaturate the camera shots. In more contrasty conditions this leads to irritatingly blown highlights and even in less uncomfortable conditions leaves to negative side effects. For example take a look at the crop of the flower – the iPhone 4 shots lacks any detail, because the oversaturated red channel has clipped. Apple have obviously tuned the camera for on-screen use only compensation for the slightly undersaturated display output. Somehow it hasn’t occurred to them that getting images to look fine on the iPhone4 screen would ruin their viewing on any other screen.

Samsung I9000 Galaxy S • Apple iPhone 4 • 100% crops

On the other hand if you are only used to looking at photos on you smarphone’s screen the boosted colors will probably impress you more than such defects will bother you. Still there’s little point in 5 megapixel cameras if you are to only look at photos on your mobile, so we are leaning towards the Galaxy’s take on the color processing. We gotta note however that there are times such as this sunset, where the iPhone 4 oversaturation provides for an extra striking image.

Samsung I9000 Galaxy S • Apple iPhone 4

Finally there’s another issue with the iPhone 4 camera. It tends to get the color balance wrong more often than not. Even in the world of mobile phones, which are famous for their poor color accuracy the iPhone 4 overly saturated yellow-tinted shots can look really bad.

Samsung I9000 Galaxy S • Apple iPhone 4 • Samsung I9000 Galaxy S • Apple iPhone 4

And as luck would have it the conditions in which that phenomenon is most pronounced are not quite so rare. Those include outside shots on a sunny day and indoor photos with bulb lighting in the room. The second case is much worse, the photos ranging from bad to downright unusable.

Samsung I9000 Galaxy S • Apple iPhone 4 • Samsung I9000 Galaxy S • Apple iPhone 4

So as far as image quality is concerned it’s about even between those two. The iPhone 4 gives you more detailed and more saturated images that in proper lighting look much nicer. However camera tuning is all about compromises and the one the iPhone makes here is reliability. So while the Galaxy S photos sometimes will go down to being okayish, the iPhone 4 shots can get really ugly.

However the Samsung Galaxy S has an advantage here that helps it to the victory. Camera interface is almost completely absent on the iPhone but the Samsung I9000 offers a whole load of settings in a nicely thumbable tabs.

iPhone 4 camera interface

You get different scenes and effects for the rookies and more advanced settings like metering, contrast, saturation and sharpness for the more experienced users. So if you fiddle with them for a while you could probably achieve result close to what the iPhone can give. Going the other way around isn’t possible though. Not to mention that the Galaxy S offers extra features such as self-timer and face and blink detection.

Galaxy S camera interface

iPhone 4: 6/10 • Samsung I9000 Galaxy S: 7/10

Video recording

While a 5 megapixel still camera won’t inspire any geek, the 720p video recording most certainly will. There is still no mobile phone on the GSM market capable of recording anything better than the 720p@30 fps movies that those two offer. And all that processing power has allowed for pretty decent quality of the videos too.

The LED flash of the iPhone 4 matters more here as it can be used as a video light. Again, it’s range is limited but videos need less light than still photos so it’s certainly good to have one of those.

And again it’s the Galaxy S striking back with a more functional, but still well organized camcorder interface. Of course nothing can beat the iPhone 4 for simplicity of use but that’s just because it has no options whatsoever.

Galaxy S camcorder interface

The only extra feature the iPhone 4 offers is the manual touch focus that happily works during video recording. In response to that the Samsung Galaxy S offeres continuous auto focus but it works too slow and is somewhat unreliable in close ups.

iPhone 4 camcorder UI

As far as image quality is concerned the iPhone 4 produces striking 720p videos that are way more detailed than those made by any other phone. As you can see it is able to resolve much more detail than the Galaxy S, producing much sharper clips.

Here are a couple of crops that demonstrate that pretty well.

100% video crops

Those crops are taken from the following videos (combined in a playlist). You can open them fullscreen to see the difference more easily. It’s like the iPhone was made to shoot test charts like this one – it’s that good.

Samsung Galaxy S lands in two more countries, Brazil and Chin

ekatechnology — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:31:04 +0000

Samsung Galaxy S made it to Brazil and it seems that along the way it has picked up a strange appendix pointing from its top. Yup, it’s a digital TV antenna. Unlike the other Galaxy S versions spread around the globe, the Brazilian Galaxy S comes with ISDB-Tb Digital TV on board. Oh, and it’s pretty overpriced.

As for the rest of the features, you should be familiar with them since those are common for the Brazilian and the non-Brazilian Galaxy S variants. So, you’ll find the same gorgeous 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen of WVGA resolution as well as the 5MP autofocus camera on the back which is capable of shooting HD videos (720p@30fps).

Live images of the Brazilian version of Samsung Galaxy S

To refresh your memory, the Galaxy S is powered by a fast 1GHz processor and packs an impressive 1500mAh battery. At its launch the Brazilian version will run Android 2.1 (a.k.a. Eclair) but an official Froyo update should follow up pretty soon.

The only downside of the Brazilian Samsung Galaxy S is its price. The SIM-free handset is said to cost good 2400 Brazilian reais (around 1036 euro). Hopefully, the Brazilian operators will offer a better subsidized price at the launch of the phone (some time in September).

Samsung I9008 Galaxy S

By the way, China will apparently get the Galaxy S as well (versions for both China Mobile and China Telecom are expected). The one on the picture above is called Samsung I9008 Galaxy S and should become available at the China Mobile stores soon.

HTC Wildfire review: Desire Mini

ekatechnology — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:33:41 +0000

Introduction

HTC Wildfire official photos

But while the Desire was something that easily snatched everybody’s attention, the Wildfire is a bit more toned down despite its fire-some name.

Key features

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
3G with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA
Android OS v2.1 (Éclair) with Sense UI
3.2″ capacitive touchscreen of QVGA resolution
Multi-touch support
Qualcomm MSM 7225 528 MHz CPU, 384 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM
5 megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash and touch focus
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and GPS receiver
Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
Turn-to-mute, lift-to-tone-down
Proximity sensor
Smart dialing
Standard miniUSB port for charging and data
Bluetooth with A2DP, file transfers
microSD card slot, a 2GB card in the box
Standard 3.5mm audio jack
Social network integration: Facebook, Twitter and Flickr through Friend Stream
Flash-enabled browser
Direct access to the official Android repository
Stereo FM radio with RDS

Main disadvantages

Poor screen image quality, QVGA doesn’t do Android OS and the display size justice
No video-call camera or videocalling whatsoever
CIF@15fps video recording (352 x 288 pixels) is below par
No voice dialing
No DivX or XviD video support out of the box
No TV-out port

But that’s still a lot. Android phones with QVGA screens have failed to impress and the size of the Wildfire’s display gives no reason to be optimistic here.

HTC Wildfire at ours

We’re back after the break with a spin and a closer look at the HTC Wildfire exterior.

Retail package: good enough

Unboxing HTC Wildfire

Design and construction

And the Wildfire isn’t any better when exposed to direct sunlight either. You will struggle to find a proper angle for working with the phone when outside on a bright sunny day.

There are four touch-sensitive keys below the display

Sufficiently spaced and sensitive enough, those cause no usability problems whatsoever. The transition between them and the screen is seamless.

Above the display we see the earpiece, the proximity sensor and the status LED.

The status LED and the proximity sensor are next to the display on top

The left side of the Wildfire features the large volume rocker and the exposed microUSB port. The right side of the device is completely bare. A dedicated camera key would have certainly been nice.

The volume rocker and the exposed microUSB port • The right side is perfectly bare

At the top there are a couple of elements to note. The silver key in the right corner is the power/screen lock button, the 3.5mm audio jack is at the other end.

The audio jack and the power key are on top

The tiny mouthpiece is the only thing of interest at the bottom.

The mouthpiece is as usually, on the bottom

The camera lens is flanked by the loudspeaker and the LED flash

The microSD card slot is under the battery cover

Handling the Wildfire feels nice

Now let’s go through the software side of things.

Eclair and HTC Sense deserve a higher-res screen

If you’ve been paying attention, you’d know the HTC Wildfire is having the same problem. And this time, the same number of pixels is stretched over 3.2 inches.

The Wildfire still has a clear advantage over the Tattoo. The capacitive display has excellent response. You’ll find the latest Sense UI too on the HTC Wildfire.

The lock screen • some of the homescreen panes

The left key at the bottom of the screen launches the main menu. This time around you simply tap to get to it, you can’t drag the menu out, though you can drag it back in.

The middle key is a shortcut to the Phone app and the right key brings up the “Add to Home” menu. And there’s plenty to add to the homescreen but more on that later.

You can’t modify the scenes but if you rearrange the current homescreen you are prompted to save changes as a new scene.

The Clean slate scene lets you start from scratch – it’s just the default Android setup with a Clock and a few shortcuts underneath.

Social scene on the left and Work scene on the right

Now back to the other stuff beyond the homescreen and the available Scenes. The changes brought by the Sense UI go deeper than just the homescreen.

The grid layout • the list layout • alphabet scroll

Plenty of HTC widgets • you can even add program shortcuts

Some different Clock widget styles

Two versions of the Twitter widget for different functionally

The People widget and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth setting widgets

Photo widget is smoothly animated, not smoothly drawn

The Messages and Mail widgets work much the same way, but instead of photos, you flick messages. And you don’t get the pixelation issue.

The Mail widget • Messages widget

The Wildfire has the fancy way of accessing any of the homescreen panes without scrolling. With a single tap or pinch, Leap view displays the thumbnails of all seven homescreen panes at once.

Leap View lets you quickly toggle

You can pinch to “zoom out” on any of the homescreen panes but tapping on a screen will do the trick too.

Well, that’s about the part of the Sense UI that’s closest to the surface. There’s more to it but we’ll discuss those bits and pieces throughout the review.

The HTC Wildfire UI is fast enough, the only place to notice lags is in widgets that need internet connection to refresh content.

Two more things – most apps won’t run without a microSD card inserted and screen vibration feedback works on the virtual QWERTY keyboard but not elsewhere throughout the homescreen.

Socialized phonebook

HTC Wildfire features the same powerful phonebook we first saw on the Hero. It resembles the one from the HTC TouchFLO but considerably extends its functionality.

Viewing a contact

The next tab holds the messages received from the contact – it would have been a lot more useful if it held the entire conversation, but for that you’d have to go to the Messages app.

The first holds Facebook contact updates, and the other – called “Albums” – pulls the albums that contacts have created on Flickr and Facebook.

Facebook updates • Facebook and Flickr albums • call history

The last tab shows the call history for the contact.

Phonebook • favorite contacts • groups • online directories

With Android 2.1, the HTC Wildfire packs the new Quick contacts feature. It lets you use the contact photo in the phonebook and call, text, or email the person with a single click.

Editing a contact • Quick contact

There is a lot of information you can store per contact as usual, and searching the phonebook is very easy – just press the search button.

Telephony

Voice quality in calls is good and the volume levels are excellent. We experienced no reception issues with the HTC Wildfire.

The dialer features a keypad, a shortcut to the call log and a list of contacts beneath (you can hide the keypad). Smart Dialing is also enabled.

The dialer • calling Dexter

The call log shows the latest dialed, received and missed calls all in one.

The call log holds incoming, outgoing and missed calls

The HTC Wildfire doesn’t have voice dialing but what at least some users are more likely to miss is video calling.

We conducted our traditional loudspeaker test and here is how the Wildfire stacks among some other handsets.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overall score
Apple iPhone 4	65.1	60.3	66.2	Below Average
HTC Wildfire	74.3	66.6	75.7	Good
Google Nexus One	69.9	66.6	79.1	Good
HTC Hero	76.7	71.9	77.7	Very Good
HTC HD2	75.7	72.8	78.0	Very Good
HTC Legend	78.0	74.3	79.7	Excellent

Socialized phonebook

HTC Wildfire features the same powerful phonebook we first saw on the Hero. It resembles the one from the HTC TouchFLO but considerably extends its functionality.

Viewing a contact

The next tab holds the messages received from the contact – it would have been a lot more useful if it held the entire conversation, but for that you’d have to go to the Messages app.

The first holds Facebook contact updates, and the other – called “Albums” – pulls the albums that contacts have created on Flickr and Facebook.

Facebook updates • Facebook and Flickr albums • call history

The last tab shows the call history for the contact.

Phonebook • favorite contacts • groups • online directories

With Android 2.1, the HTC Wildfire packs the new Quick contacts feature. It lets you use the contact photo in the phonebook and call, text, or email the person with a single click.

Editing a contact • Quick contact

There is a lot of information you can store per contact as usual, and searching the phonebook is very easy – just press the search button.

Telephony

Voice quality in calls is good and the volume levels are excellent. We experienced no reception issues with the HTC Wildfire.

The dialer features a keypad, a shortcut to the call log and a list of contacts beneath (you can hide the keypad). Smart Dialing is also enabled.

The dialer • calling Dexter

The call log shows the latest dialed, received and missed calls all in one.

The call log holds incoming, outgoing and missed calls

The HTC Wildfire doesn’t have voice dialing but what at least some users are more likely to miss is video calling.

We conducted our traditional loudspeaker test and here is how the Wildfire stacks among some other handsets.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overall score
Apple iPhone 4	65.1	60.3	66.2	Below Average
HTC Wildfire	74.3	66.6	75.7	Good
Google Nexus One	69.9	66.6	79.1	Good
HTC Hero	76.7	71.9	77.7	Very Good
HTC HD2	75.7	72.8	78.0	Very Good
HTC Legend	78.0	74.3	79.7	Excellent

Apple iPhone 4 review: Love it or hate it

ekatechnology — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:58:15 +0000

Introduction

You can’t make a phone that everyone loves and Apple is not even trying. Much like any other iPhone so far, the iPhone 4 is a phone that everybody loves AND hates.

Apple’s latest is always the greatest – you have to give them that. Sometimes it seems they put less effort into making it than in letting people know they did. But with the Apple iPhone 4, they were obviously hard at work. The 4th generation iPhone has an all new look, new feel and plenty of new skill. We already caught a glimpse of the iOS4. But there’s much more: a 1GHz chip, two cameras, HD video and of course the Retina display – the highest-res screen we’ve seen so far on a GSM phone.

Apple iPhone 4 official photos

Surely there are still enough blank spots on the feature list but that’s Apple and its iPhone. Compromises are being made in every phone out there anyway. But the simple fact is Number 4 is the best iPhone to-date. Let’s see how good that is.

Key features

Quad-band GSM and quad-band 3G support with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
3.5″ 16M-color LED-backlit TFT capacitive touchscreen of 640 x 960 px resolution
Scratch-resistant glass front and rear, with fingerprint-resistant coating
1GHz Apple A4 SoC; 512MB of RAM
5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and touch focus
720p video recording at 30fps
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
GPS with A-GPS connectivity; digital compass
16/32GB storage options
Accelerometer, proximity sensor and three-axis gyro sensor
Active noise cancellation with a dedicated secondary microphone
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack, stereo Bluetooth v2.1
Excellent audio output quality
Slim waistline at only 9.3mm
Secondary front-facing camera
Some degree of multitasking
Rich AppStore

Main disadvantages

Hardware design is prone to reception issues
MicroSIM card support only
No Flash support in the web browser
No true multitasking for all applications
FaceTime video calls work only over Wi-Fi
No file transfer over Bluetooth or USB Mass Storage mode
No hardware shutter key for the camera
No FM radio
No stereo speakers
No microSD card slot
No smart dialing
Too dependent on iTunes for loading multimedia content
Poor loudspeaker performance

As you can see, most of the main disadvantages are simply passed from one generation to the next but – whatever iPhone you’re coming from – the Number 4 will tick most of your boxes. Upgraders will be used to the shortcomings, and unbiased observers will have less points to complain against.

It just seems some features will be forever missing. The iPhone’s memory isn’t expandable and you can’t use the thing as an external drive (this also means that files are only transferred via iTunes, again). Bluetooth has been upgraded to cover not only for music and calls but a compatible wireless keyboard too. File transfers however are a no-go.

The lack of Flash support in the Safari browser is no surprise given the Apple-Adobe feud. Luckily there’s the good old YouTube app to partly make up for that but Flash games are still out of the question.

There is now a secondary video-call cam but the “reinvented” FaceTime video calls feature only works over Wi-Fi (for now) and between two iPhone 4’s.

As for the multitasking, this is the closest the iPhone has ever gotten but there is no true multitasking, and certainly not for all apps.

You’ve probably also heard of the user reports of reception issues and you’re wondering how much of that is true. Well, we’ve checked that in detail, too.

The Apple iPhone 4 is a thing of beauty

All that (and a bit more) aside, the new goodies seem to merit at least some of the iPhone 4 hype. The Retina display is gorgeous. The 3.5” capacitive TFT touchscreen has four times the resolution of the older iPhones. At 640 x 960 pixels, it’s the best we’ve seen – statistically. But perhaps the most impressive too, for its actual performance.

There’s a generational leap in imaging too. The first two iPhones had a single 2MP fixed focus camera on board. Last year’s 3GS tried to make some sense with a 3-megapixel autofocus snapper. With the iPhone 4, Apple are finally beginning to look good. The primary 5-megapixel autofocus camera not only takes impressive images but shoots 720p videos too. Oh, and it has a LED flash.

Now, let’s see what else is in that tiny white retail box and check out those shiny glass panels. Let the iPhone 4 unboxing begin.

Unboxing the Apple iPhone 4

The new iPhone comes in a tiny white box with not much in it. Underneath the phone itself, we found the usual set of accessories: a charger, a USB cable and the same set of earphones with a 3.5mm audio jack as the one of the 3GS.

Nothing surprising to see in the Apple iPhone 4 retail package

Amidst the booklets (an iPhone 4 brochure and product guide) we came upon the SIM eject tool and a couple of stickers with an apple on them. That’s that. No free bumper case, no polishing cloth, no dock. You’re buying a 600 euro phone SIM-free – and you’re supposed to be able to afford some extra accessories.

Apple iPhone 4 360-degree spin

Three generations and an iPad later, the iPhone finally looks different. Better. At 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm the iPhone 4 is impressively slim and obviously less curvy. The weight has stayed almost the same at 137 g, an emphatic statement of the newly found poise and presence.

The metallic frame around the body actually consists of two separate parts and both are individual antennas. You probably have heard by now, that this design is reportedly causing some reception issues. Well, we’re about to test that further down in the Telephony section of this review.

Apple’s external antenna detailed

The new materials used on the iPhone 4 account for much of the weight. A stainless steel band frames the handset top to bottom, scratch-resistant glass covering both the front and rear. The trademark curved back is now gone and it’s not the phone’s loss but the user’s. The iPhone 4 looks great but just isn’t as comfortable – and secure – to handle. It just feels way more slippery to hold in hand than the previous two generations.

Design and construction

OK, a new look for the iPhone does sound risky. After all, they didn’t bother to change the design for three generations and still sold ship loads of the thing. The Number 4 is here to open a brand new page in the iPhone history but a complete departure from the original styling could’ve been way too adventurous.

The all-new Apple iPhone 4

To be honest, Apple simply nailed it. Some will tell you the Number 4 has just about nothing in common with its predecessors. They may be right. We wouldn’t call it a complete overhaul though. You know, one of the things that made iPhone what it is, was the belief that no design is the best design.

When all you have is touchscreen and an interface that sets the standards for user-friendliness, you don’t need to put the focus elsewhere by getting too fancy with the finish. The iPhone is one of the most minimalist phone designs out there and Number 4 knows better than to try anything stupid.

So, Apple had no design to start with, made very little changes to it and ended up with a brilliant new design. What do you call it? Here’s one – magic. The iPhone 4 is thinner, sharper, more advanced, refined. The one thing to note probably is that it somehow feels more delicate than the older versions. This has nothing to do with the build and finish – we wouldn’t call the iPhone 4 fragile (despite glass being inherently quite easy to shatter).

If you put a 3GS and an iPhone 4 side by side on the table, you may have a hard time noticing a profound difference. That’s when the screens are off though. Once that gorgeous Retina Display powers up, you will want to turn off the 3GS and put it hastily away to save it the embarrassment. Hard to believe it was considered one of the better phone screens out there.

At the rear, the new styling is way more prominent. Instead of plastic there’s glossy glass surface that is said to be scratch-resistant and quite more sturdy than plastic. But as it turned out, if you want to get it scratched or broken, you’ll succeed.

Future meets past

The oleophobic coating – both front and rear – is supposed to reduce fingerprints but there isn’t much you can do to keep the high-gloss surface clean. The special coating at least makes sure smudges are easily removed.

Fingerprints get on easily but are as easy to wipe off

Up front, the newly added secondary camera is located right next to the earpiece, on the left. Above the display we also find the proximity and the ambient light sensors. The round Home button is all there is at the bottom.

The iPhone 4 front • Earpiece and secondary camera • Home button

The Retina display

The iPhone 4 Retina display is the highest resolution screen we’ve seen in a mobile phone. Retina is just a marketing name made up by Apple to differentiate it. But it doesn’t need the extra differentiation cause it’s among the best screens we’ve seen too.

The new display has the same size as those on the previous iPhones (3.5 inches) but the the resolution has been bumped up four times. From 320 x 480 pixels on the previous generations, the new iPhone 4 screen has the amazing 640 x 960 pixel resolution.

The Retina display

Thanks to the increased pixel density (reaching 326 pixels per inch) images now appear way sharper (or smoother, if you like) than before.

Based on an IPS panel, just like high-end desktop displays, the new iPhone’s LCD screen has LED backlighting and resulting contrast ratio of 800:1, which is 4 times the previous ones, as well.

The new and the old display put face to face (iPhone 4’s wallpaper is grey)

In reality things look as impressive as on paper. The 16M-color capacitive iPhone 4 display delivers great image quality. Colors are vibrant, blacks are deep and the sunlight legibility is remarkable. The viewing angles are excellent as well, comparable to the results of Samsung’s Super AMOLED displays. As for touch sensitivity, it’s excellent, too. Of course, multi-touch support is here again.

Magnified view of the new and the old display (iPhone 4’s wallpaper is grey)

Going around

The left side of the Apple iPhone 4 features the Ring/Silent switch and the volume controls – two separate round knobs instead of the rocker button in previous versions. Those are prominent enough and surprisingly solid to press.

The Ring/Silent switch and the volume rocker are on the left

On the right side the microSIM card slot is all there is. To remove the SIM card you need to use the enclosed SIM eject tool or a paper clip – or even a pinboard pin would do. Again, there is no hardware camera key.

It takes a special tool to handle the SIM tray

At the top we find the traditional Sleep/Wake button as well as the standard 3.5mm audio jack. Next to the audio jack is the the extra mic for the active noise cancelation during phone calls.

Sleep/Wake button • 3.5mm audio jack • Noise cancelation mic

The bottom is reminiscent of the previous iPhone generations. It has the proprietary Apple USB cable/charger/dock connector, as well as the tiny loudspeaker grill and mouthpiece on either side of the connectivity port.The iPhone 4 surely would have made a good use of a pair of stereo speakers. As it turned out in our dedicated loudspeaker performance test the single loudspeaker is not that good. But more on that further on in the review.

The bottom • Mic hole, dock connector, loudspeaker grill

The flat glossy rear features the lens of the 5-megapixel autofocus camera. The LED flash next to it is another iPhone novelty. As usual, the battery is not user replaceable and there is no memory expansion slot.

The Apple iPhone 4 is powered by a 1420 mAh Li-Po battery, which is quoted at up to 300 hours of stand-by, up to 14 hours of talk-time and up to 40 hours of non-stop music playback.

Update 09 July: We just concluded our dedicated iPhone 4 battery life test and we are pretty pleased with it. The iPhone 4 managed almost three days on a single charge under some normal usage (or at least what we consider normal) including the following:

30 min of general usage
90 minutes of video playback
40 minutes of voice calls
40 minutes of web browsing
40 minutes of gaming
40 minutes of photo browsing
2 hours of music playback

That’s better than what we hoped for and certainly much better than the iPhone 3GS. We were even pleasantly surprised by the dedicated video playback test – the iPhone 4 played our test video for 9 hours and 40 minutes before the battery went down. Downright impressive!

Camera lens and LED flash on the back

Come to think of it, Apple were too kind to original iPhone owners. They used pretty much the same design over three generations and the iPhone 2G users didn’t feel their device outdated.

But Number 4 turns it all upside down. All the functionality upgrades aside, rarely have we seen an upgrade that makes the previous one feel so old, if not obsolete? The Apple iPhone 4 has an extra premium feel that few contemporary flagship phones can match.

The finish is impressive – the level of refinement and sophistication is all the more remarkable considering the altogether minimalist design. The iPhone 4 is nothing short of beautiful. Handling will perhaps be less comfortable at first, if you’re coming from any of the older iPhones. The Number 4 just doesn’t allow as secure a grip.

The Apple iPhone 4 held in hand

iOS 4.0: at full throttle

The iOS 4 is can be installed on any iPhone 3GS and – technically – 3G. We see no point porting it on a 3G though – the whole thing gets dismally slow and some of the new features are not supported anyway. What matters now is how the OS performs on the iPhone 4. There’s a quick video you may have already watched in our blog.

Thanks to its gorgeous new screen, better still camera and vastly improved camcorder, gyro sensor and video-call camera, the iPhone 4 is the device on which users can genuinely appreciate the potential of iOS 4. iPhone 3GS can run it almost without any compromises but you’ll get the fastest and most seamless performance on the iPhone 4 and its 1GHz Apple A4 platform.

On an iPhone 3G you will get neither homescreen wallpapers nor multi-tasking. The rest of the stuff is there, but the performance drop is too much to bear.

But let’s be positive here – we have an iPhone 4 and a 3GS to enjoy, which is more than enough. You might have already been through our iOS 4 review – you’ll find it’s got a lot of common with the follwoing part of the iPhone 4 review. You will find identical wording, don’t you worry, we’ve made sure all the details are updated with iPhone 4 specifics.

Let’s start with the changelog:

General UI changes

Homescreen wallpapers
Applications can be organized in folders
Multitasking – fast app switcher with app specific pause or backgrounding
You can do Google/Wikipedia searches straight from Spotlight
Minor icon facelifts
Video call support (only in iPhone 4 and only over Wi-Fi)
Settings menu gets you the last toggled setting screen

Text input and management

Keyboard layouts now cover QWERTY, QWERTZ, and AZERTY
Spell checker

Contacts

Simplified contact adding and editing

Messaging

SMS character counter
SMS search
Email threading
Unified Email inbox
Email archiving is now available as an option when you setup Gmail

Camera

5x digital zoom in still camera
Touch-focus in video capture

iPod player

iPod music player can now create, edit and delete playlists

Bluetooth

Bluetooth keyboard pairing support

iTunes store and AppStore

Free iBooks e-book and PDF reader
iMovie adds advanced video editing to the iPhone 4 (paid app)
iAd service allows for free, ad-supported apps

And the stuff iOS 4 failed to deliver

No Flash support in the web browser
No true multitasking for all applications
No quick switches for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or 3G on the homescreen
No social networking integration in the contact list
No lockscreen or homescreen info widgets or plugins
No new ringtones or SMS tones
SMS,,email, and calendar tones are still not customizable
No proper file browser or access to the file system
No USB mass storage mode
Screen has no vibrating haptic feedback
No Bluetooth file transfers to other mobile phones
Contacts lack a swipe-to-delete or mass delete feature
No SMS/MMS delivery notifications
No smart dialing (but Spotlight is a somewhat of a substitute)
No DivX or XviD video support and no official third-party application to play that
The whole iPhone is too iTunes dependent and you’re also limited to syncing particular types of content only with ONE computer..

General user interface and key features

The traditional flat interface should be all too well familiar by now. Tap an icon to open an application; press the hardware Home key to close the application and return to the Home screen. That’s all there is to it. Only the Settings section goes several levels deep. Basically that’s all you need to control your iPhone.

Main menu

Folders

You can group up to twelve apps into a single folder. Check out the video below to see how it’s done

It’s easy, isn’t it? Folder names are automatically generated depending on the selection of items you’re grouping together. But you can rename folders anytime. The folder icon is also created automatically – it simply displays the icons of the apps inside.

A homescreen folder • opening a folder • editing a folder

The folder animations on 4 and 3GS are fast and fluid, while on 3G you can notice a slight lag. Still we are happy Apple didn’t cut them out of the iOS 4 for 3G users.

The new iPhone 4 does pack a serious punch under the hood. The previous iPhone 3GS is a responsive device by all means, but the capable hardware in the Number 4 makes quite a difference. The iPhone 4 is faster in all aspects – general interface response, programs, menu scrolling, web browser, app loading, etc.

Multitasking

Now it’s time for multitasking. Just to be clear here, Apple gave due warning it wouldn’t be the multitasking that hardcore users expect. It’s more of a quick app switching than actual multitasking.

To start the task switcher you double click the hardware home button below screen (there goes our Favorite contacts shortcut). At the bottom of the screen, a side-scrollable row of icons will display, showing the running apps. You can kill apps by tapping and holding on an icon – you then hit the red corner switch.

Multitasking interface • killing some apps

Apple’s idea of multitasking is not to let apps run in the background, but instead pause them at their current state for later access. There are exceptions for certain apps – such as the iPod or Pandora – they can actually play in the background.

So the paused apps are not actually working in the background and that way you can have more than 30 different apps readily accessible in the task switcher.

The positive side is the ability to quickly resume any of these apps exactly where you left them even games – with no new loading times.

The only one drawback is you can’t leave MOST regular apps do their thing in the background and return to them later. If they are not among the lucky few enabled to properly run in the background (such as Pandora), they would simply pause instead.

Bear in mind that not all apps are multitasking enabled. If you minimize a game that’s not yet compatible, later when you get to it again, it will start from the beginning instead of it resuming where you left.

As we said, the task switcher is a scrollable list of icons – but if you swipe to the right you’ll get quick iPod controls and shortcuts, along with the accelerometer lock switch. The latter will enable or disable portrait orientation lock.

iPod controls in the task switcher • portrait orientation lock/unlock

Despite iPhone 4 and 3GS finally have multitasking support, the push background notifications service is also onboard. The service can inform you of new events in applications that support it (such as some IM client) by changing the app icon (via an icon badge), by invoking a pop-up reminder or via sound alerts. In the same time the applications can simulate that you are constantly online.

Acer Liquid review: Android breed

ekatechnology — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:49:04 +0000

Introduction The Android meter is ticking. Acer want a piece of the pie. We all add two and two together. Yesterday, Acer didn’t know the first thing about phones (if you can say that for a household name in notebooks), today they’re betting on two horses in the mobile OS race. After their neoTouch running on Windows Mobile 6.5, Acer decided to dip their toe into another kind of water – the free and open source world of Android. This time attention goes to the Liquid – the company’s second Snapdragon powered device. We have to admit we weren’t as impressed as we wished by the neoTouch and its almost naked Windows Mobile OS. It was less the price and more the really strong competition that drew our attention away from it. Acer Liquid Acer Liquid Acer Liquid Acer Liquid official photos We’re certain it’s not how Acer planned it to be and their answer was immediate – the sexy Liquid powered by Android 1.6. Just like the neoTouch, a Snapdragon core is ticking inside the Liquid and does all it can to run the OS flawlessly despite the slightly lower clock rates. Key features * Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support * 3G with HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA 2Mbps * Android OS v1.6 with Acer UI 3.0 * 3.5″ capacitive touchscreen of WVGA resolution * Qualcomm Snapdragon 8250 768 MHz CPU, 256 MB RAM * 5 megapixel autofocus camera with video recording * Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and GPS receiver * Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate and turn-to-mute * Digital compass * Standard miniUSB port for charging and data * Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP) * microSD card slot with support for up to 16GB cards (2GB one included) * Standard 3.5mm audio jack * Direct access to the official Android Market Main disadvantages * Camera lacks flash or lens cover, has outdated features * No smart dialing, no voice dialing, no video calling * No web Flash support * Acer UI 3.0 offers only minor changes to the original interface * Somewhat limited 3rd party software availability * No DivX or XviD video support or a third-party application to play that * Poor MP4 playback performance – any videos over QVGA res are barely watchable * No proper file manager out of the box * No TV-out port * No FM radio Both lists give us a sense of deja-vu. It was a similar case with the neoTouch, but this time the situation is a bit different. Some of the Liquid’s weaknesses are inherent to the Android OS (especially its first iteration, the Donut). It’s not that they won’t count against, but it’s at least fair to note most of those are not Acer’s fault. Acer Liquid live photos Anyway, the Liquid will be measured against the likes of HTC Magic, HTC Hero, Samsung Galaxy and Samsung Galaxy Spica and it sure has a few things to offer that they won’t. WVGA resolution and sky-high processing speeds are enough of an edge against competitors. The excellent capacitive screen and all-round connectivity are perhaps no news for the Android species. So, Acer are newcomers but they’re keen to bring value. Let’s see how their Android fits in that plan.

Liquid unpacked

Starting with the basics, in the retail box you’ll find a charger, data cable and a headset. You can use your favorite headphones of course thanks to the 3.5mm audio jack. The charger connects to the phone’s miniUSB port.

Liquid’s retail box

The retail box also includes a 2GB microSD memory card, manuals and a CD with manual.

Design and construction

The full-touchscreen form factor can be pretty limiting for manufacturers in terms of design and devices are beginning to look more and more alike with very few aesthetic distinctions. While that may be true, Acer have tried to push the envelope more than most others and the result is one very sexy Liquid. The huge touchscreen covers most of the front, while the back is pretty plain. The rounded edges certainly earn it some bonus points.

Acer Liquid • The big screen leaves the Liquid little flexibility but it looks nice next to the competition

The 3.5″ capacitive touchscreen unit has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels and amazing image quality. With its type, size and resolution, you can chalk this one up as ‘great’ in our books.

As with the XPERIA X10, that 65K-color limitation of the Android 1.6 Donut takes its toll on some occasions, but unless it’s single-color gradients that you are looking at, it won’t bother you much in day-to-day usage. The default UI graphics by the way have been carefully chosen not to expose this weakness.

The sensitivity of the display is great as well – just what you’d expect in a capacitive touchscreen. You don’t need a push but only a slight touch for a click to be registered. The snappy Snapdragon also plays a part as the responsiveness of a device is the screen and processing power in equal measures.

The four keys below the display are touch-sensitive and similar to the capacitive display in that they will react only to your naked fingers. They are comfortable, but unfortunately don’t provide any haptic feedback. The left button serves the Home function, next is search, followed by Back and the typical Android contextual Menu.

The typical Android controls are touch-sensitive on the Liquid

Unlike the majority of first-generation Androids, Acer’s Android has no dedicated Call and End keys obviously in keeping with the latest Android styling. For that purpose you can use the virtual on-screen keys instead.

The right side of the handset features the camera key and the volume rocker, which also doubles as a zoom control. Those are both painted in silver, comfortable and easy to use.

Camera and volume controls on the right

The left side of Acer Liquid features only the Power/Lock key, also finished in silver.

The Power/screen-lock key is on the left

The top of the Liquid hosts the 3.5mm audio jack and three hidden indicators – battery, messages and missed calls. From time to time, the status LED’s blink with a soft white light from beneath the otherwise pitch black glossy plastic. They are very useful and give the Liquid an even more distinguished look.

The interesting top side

At the bottom of the Acer Liquid we find the miniUSB port and the mouthpiece. The connectivity port is covered by a small rubber lid to keep away dust and avoid an unnecessary gap in the otherwise smooth curved surface. Acer went for a miniUSB connectivity port on the Liquid instead of a microUSB one.

The miniUSB port is at the bottom

The back of the handset features the 5 megapixel camera lens and the loudspeaker grill. In addition, there’s an Acer logo and a really huge – perhaps unnecessarily – camera class description.

The 5 megapixel camera lens and loudspeaker grill at the rear

Unfortunately, there is no protection for the camera lens, so you should be particularly careful not to scratch it. It’s recessed quite a bit but any sharp objects in your pocket might get dangerously close – the Liquid doesn’t come with a carrying case in the box.

The microSD card slot is under the rear cover, but you have to remove the battery itself to access it. And that means it’s not hot-swappable.

To access the microSD card slot you need to remove the battery – no hot-swap is not so hot

The Acer Liquid is well built. It’s all made of plastic but still feels solid in the hand. The white paintjob is quite impressive, with contrasting black front, top and bottom. Despite all that plastic, the Liquid not only feels sturdy but is quite fingerprint resistant too. Only the front panel takes on an increasingly smudgy appearance as the day goes by, but surprisingly not as much as we expected. It seems that Acer are using better glossy plastics than some of the other manufacturers.

The black version will probably prove more popular (and more of a fingerprint magnet), but white is a rare paintjob for phones and it works quite well for the Acer Liquid. White certainly doesn’t make the Liquid look slimmer and smaller but it does look hot. And one thing is for sure – it feels really nice to hold.

The Acer Liquid held in hand

So, that’s about it on the hardware and handling. But the Liquid goes on and we’re back after the jump with the software side of the deal.

User interface

We’ve already had a taste of Eclair, so the first generation Android UI should be no revelation. But for the review to be complete, we’ll go through it once again.

The Donut in the Acer Liquid is a mature implementation that has been optimized and free of bugs. It feels extremely zippy and to be honest it should. There’s a Snapdragon inside (downclocked from 1GHz to 728MHz), and the OS seems to take full advantage of it.

Since the Acer Liquid is the first Android-based smartphone powered by the Snapdragon CPU, we decided to do a benchmark and see how it will stack up next to the upcoming phones running the Android OS.

We used 4 different applications which we found in the Android Market – Benchmark, BenchmarkPi, Neocore, and MemBench. All of them can be downloaded for free.

Take a look at the screenshots below.

Acer Liquid gets benchmarked

But enough of how quick it is, let’s look at what it actually does. The focal point of the interface is the homescreen. Maybe it’s because of its aspirations to be a netbook instant-on OS but it looks closer to a desktop than a mobile phone’s homescreen.

The homescreen is three times the size of the display (side-scrollable), giving you enough room to organize all the items you want to put up front. And there are plenty of things that can go up there. The screen shows you one third of the actual homescreen and you can sweep left or right to get to the other panes.

The three homescreen panes with some widgets

On the homescreen there are three major types of items – the good old shortcuts, then folders and finally, widgets.

First off, shortcuts are just like the shortcuts on your desktop computer, so not much to explain here.

Folders can help you keep the shortcuts organized but you can’t put folders within folders. Still, they can be used for a few quick tricks – like faking a quick-dial contact list. A shortcut to a contact uses that contact’s photo so all you have to do is put them in a folder.

But this is hardly very interesting – it’s when live folders come into play that it gets exciting. The main difference to ordinary folders is that the live folders are automatically filled with content.

All sorts of lists can go into Live folders – for example, you can have a folder that contains all the tweets from a contact, or an RSS feed, or maybe even a folder with all the good restaurants within walking distance from a given location.

The preinstalled Live folders are “Contacts with phone numbers” and “Starred contacts”. They are filled with your Gmail contacts that either have phone numbers or are starred.

The other inhabitants of the Android homescreen are the widgets. Here is the list of all widgets aboard the Liquid.

Liquid’s widgets

The Media player and the Web player look alike. While the Web player widget will bring you to the webpage shown on the small thumbnail, the Media player widget starts the nemoPlayer. To find the media file you are looking for, choose the media type first (using the icons on top of the screen) and then browse the thumbnails below.

The Web player • the Media player

The search widget (or as you may know it, the Quick Search Box) has been updated. Now you can search content on your phone, including apps, contacts, and browser history, as well as content on the web, like personalized search suggestions, local business listings, stock quotes, weather, and flight status, all without opening the browser.

The revamped QSB uses your search history to optimize the search results (by moving the items you use the most higher on the suggestions list). However, the awaited voice searching and voice dialing are not available on the Acer Liquid.

The Quick Search Box

As before, the calendar widget is a little limited – it only shows upcoming events. That’s nice since it manages to fit even long event descriptions but it doesn’t have a monthly view mode. The music player is as simple as it has ever been. It only shows the title of the currently played track as well as play/pause and skip buttons.

With the Power control widget you can easily turn GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Auto sync on and off and set the display brightness. Its downside is that it provides no means to search and connect to a wireless network for example. Unless, it’s an already configured network, you need to go through the Settings menu.

The Power control widget (on top of the screen)

One big advantage of Android is the notification area. It’s a thin bar at the top of the screen with status info about battery, signal strength and others such as Bluetooth or missed events.

But if you slide it down you get a list of all recent notifications – that’s the so called notifications area. Tapping on one of the listed notifications takes a context relevant action – for instance, a tap on a notification of a successful installation would launch that application; a finished download notification will open the file and so on.

The notification area fully open

Since you can open the notification area from wherever the top bar is visible, new events won’t interrupt your work. You can pull the tray down like a window blind just enough to see more details about what has happened and if it doesn’t need your immediate atention you can let it roll back up and continue where you left off.

Sometimes you don’t even have to slide – upon receiving a new SMS the first few words of it flash in the status bar, giving you a general idea what it’s about.

The “task switcher” is only that, it’s not a real task manager and it has some limitations. Android automatically opens and closes applications. When resources start to run out, it might close a currently inactive app but it will restore it back to just how you left it. It’s more like the system puts the app to hibernation instead of closing it.

Phonebook has fields for everything

The phonebook can store quite a lot of information. It lets you input numbers for work and home, and you can even create custom labels. There is of course an email field and you can assign a custom ringtone.

You can also add IM nickname info to the contact as well as a postal address, company and job title, several notes, you name it. Quite interesting is the option to redirect calls directly to voicemail.

The phonebook

There are many info fields that you can assign to each contact, but it still remains perfectly organized. You have all the types listed (numbers, email addresses, etc) and there’s a plus sign on the right – clicking it adds another item of that type. Pressing the minus sign under it deletes the unneeded field.

Viewing and editing a contact

When viewing a contact, the various details are displayed in sections. There is a Dial number and a Send SMS/MMS tab with the numbers for the contact listed. Each number fills an entire horizontal row so that it’s more thumbable.

Email also has a dedicated tab that works just like the ones for numbers. The rest of the information (if any) is displayed underneath.

You can “star” a contact, which puts it in the Favorites tab. Also, in each Gmail account there’s a special group called “Starred in Android” where these contacts go automatically.

Dee Dee’s a star

Adding a photo to a contact is quite easy: when you select a photo, a cropping tool comes up allowing you to use any part of the photo you want. Adding a photo has another pleasing “side effect” – if you put a dialing shortcut for the contact on the screen, it uses the photo as an icon.

Cropping made easy • contact shortcuts on the homescreen

Searching for a contact in the phonebook is quite easy – just hit the search key and a search box pops up.

Still no smart dialing

Acer Liquid’s reception is quite good, as is the voice quality.

Alas, the telephony part of the Liquid has a slight problem – there’s no smart dialing. In Android the phonebook, call log and dialer are all part of the same application. You can search the phone book but that’s still not as convenient as smart dialing. The HTC Hero had it, so we guess that Acer just couldn’t be bothered to make the effort.

The call log shows all the dialed, received and missed calls all in one.

Dialing • searching for contacts • all the calls are stored and displayed en masse

As for loudspeaker performance, the Liquid scored a very good mark. Here it is alongside some of the other devices we have tested. You can find more details about the test itself as well as the full list of tested devices here.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overall score
Apple iPhone 3G	66.1	62.1	71.7	Below Average
Nokia N900	66.7	66.6	70.5	Average
Nokia N97	72.8	67.3	75.8	Good
HTC Touch Pro2	74.6	70.0	78.1	Very Good
Acer Liquid	72.0	72.5	83.5	Very Good
LG KF900 Prada	77.1	75.7	82.0	Excellent

Messaging the simple way

The SMS and MMS department is quite straightforward and simple at first – there are no folders here, just a new message button. It doesn’t stay like that for long – under that button is a list of all your messages organized into threads.

When viewing a thread, the newest message is placed at the bottom, just like with the iPhone. At the bottom of the display is the tap-to-compose box and the send key, of course. There is a counter on the right which shows the number of available characters as well as number of parts the message will be split into for sending.

Composing a message

Composing a message is a little frustrating since even if you hide the keyboard, the text box with the message still occupies the same small part of the screen giving you quite a small part of the text to work with.

To add message recipients, just start typing the corresponding name or number and choose from the contacts offered. The list of recipients is displayed by name too, which is a welcome improvement over version 1.0, which used to only add the numbers.

This is much better

Any unsent messages and drafts are marked with a red “Draft” label. What we really like is that each thread keeps the text in the tap-to-compose box even if you exit without sending it or explicitly save it. There are no “undelivered messages” anymore.

If you wish to manage a specific message in the history, you can press and hold a message to bring up options such as edit, forward and delete as well as view details and copy message text.

A draft message to Dee Dee • managing a specific message

When you get a new message, your whole messaging history with that person is pushed to the top of the messaging menu, no matter when your last conversation took place.

A press-and-hold in the tap-to-compose area gives you access to functions such as cut, copy and paste. You are free to paste the copied text into any other application like email, notes, chats, etc. and vice versa.

Copy, cut and paste are available

Converting an SMS to MMS is logical and easy. Once you have added multimedia content to the message, it is automatically turned into an MMS. You can just add a photo or an audio file to go with the text or you can choose to go into a full-blown MMS editor if the need arises.

Attaching a file turns the message into MMS

When it comes to the Gmail functionality, we really like the batch operations, which allow multiple emails to be archived, labeled or deleted.

The batch operations are a boost to usability

There is also a standard email app for all your other email accounts and it can handle multiple POP or IMAP inboxes. Sadly, the emails are not displayed in a threaded pattern like those in the Gmail app, but you still have access to the messages in the original folders that are created online, side by side with the standard local ones such as inbox, drafts and sent items.

The standard email app in action

And by the way, the folders are organized in a tree structure – one click over a specific folder reveals its contents and the second click closes it.

Google Talk handles the Instant Messaging department. The G-Talk network is compatible with some popular clients like Pidgin, Kopete, iChat and Ovi Contacts.

The user interface of both the Gmail and the generic Email apps has been slightly polished with several icons in the menus changed since the previous versions of the Android OS.

Composing an email with the onscreen keyboard is decently comfortable