The spec sheet suggests that the Samsung Moment, available on?Sprint?in the USA should be one of the best?Android-powered handsets out there, with its AMOLED screen, fast processor and the "now" network. But can its specs live up to the dream? Read on to find out.

To say that the Samsung Moment is big would be an understatement; to say that it was ugly: a fairer statement; to say it is fast: that much is true.?That's pretty much the best way to describe the new Android 1.5 smartphone, because whilst it's one of the fastest Android handsets we've tested, it's also one of the most unpolished in terms of "wow" factor t.

The decline and fall of the handset starts with the design. A landscape slider, the unit measures a rather bloated 4.6 x 2.34 x .63in and weighs a hefty 160 grams (5.6oz). A brick (Mrs Pocket-lint's words not ours) is probably the politest way to describe it.

The rather impressive 3.2-inch AMOLED 320 x 480-pixel screen holds its own on the front of the unit offering up not only an array of touch-sensitive and physical buttons beneath but a gaudy strip at the top.

Sliding out to the side of the left screen is a QWERTY keyboard while the right offers a dedicated camera button, voice control and the Mini-USB socket. There's also a 3.5mm socket covered by a bit of plastic that will break within 3 weeks and the standard volume keys.

Slide open that keyboard and you'll hurt your eyes, especially if it's dark. Looking like a beehive honeycomb, the keys are laid out over four rows with the numbers getting their own dedicated row.

That means that Samsung?has crammed the rest of the keyboard over the next three. The end result is that the spacebar is in-between the "V" and "B" something that is very off putting and unconformable for the touch typists amongst you. You might not realise it but you know where the keys are on a keyboard and throwing in random space bars for us just doesn't work.

All this pales in significance however if you use it in the dark. The keyboard handily lights up, however all the function keys (there is one for every key) glow a strong blue. Confusing isn't the word.

Back to the top side of the device and the touch sensitive buttons under the screen offer the usual home, menu and back features found on most Android handsets. Beneath that there is a call answer and hang up button and between those a touch-sensitive optical trackpad (like that found on other Samsung handsets and the BlackBerry Bold 9700).?The touchpad is actually one of the cooler elements of the handset as it allows you scroll through menus, icons on the screen or the web pages without touching the screen.

The only other tech on the outside is the 3.2-megapixel camera with flash. With Samsung dominating the megapixel race (it's up to 12 megapixels) we're surprised to see only a 3.2-megapixel offering and at the current state of play it looks like Sony Ericsson will be the purveyor of high pixel cameras for the platform with the Xperia X10 sporting 8 megapixels.

Connectivity is served by Sprint's Dual-Band EVDO Rev. A 800/1900MHz offering and you'll get Wi-Fi b and g along side Bluetooth. There is also GPS in case you get lost.

Power up the phone and that 800MHz chip running Android 1.5 is fast. Even though we've played with a 1GHz Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 (pre-production) the Samsung Moment appears (currently) to be faster.

One of the reasons for this, is that like the i7500 released in the UK, the Samsung Moment has no customisation what so ever. No Sense UI, no Motoblur, no Nexus UX - Samsung might have embraced the Android platform, but it hasn't done anything to enhance the experience above and beyond what Google has offered in the OS.?In fact, beyond the big silver Samsung logo on the front and the second one on the back there is no trace of the Korean manufacturer.

As for Sprint, that's a different matter. As an exclusive handset it gets an even bigger silver logo above the screen and the usual array of Sprint flavoured applications like SprintTV, Sprint Navigation (Google Maps Navigation?is only available for 1.6 and 2.0 based devices at present), and Nascar Sprint Cup (all as found on the Sprint?HTC Hero).

As for the rest of the applications, well it's the usual story. The usual suspects are installed - Amazon MP3, Gmail, and Google Maps, with a further 10,000 available in Marketplace.?All this software or data that you create can be stored on the phone's own internal 288MB of memory or an external microSD card, you get 2GB in the box.

Phone time is around 5 hours from a single charge, while the battery lasted the usual day in our tests, but is heavily dependent on what you do. Use it like a laptop and it will last like one.

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Verdict:

The Samsung Moment really is one of those handsets that looks so much better on paper than in real life. The specs suggest this will be a monster, and in fairness in performance it is. The trouble is that it is incredibly dull both in its software offering and its design.?This makes the T-Mobile G1 look good and that's saying something.

It might be more powerful and faster than the HTC Hero from Sprint, however unless you are ready to be mocked by your friends when your phone rings we would avoid this from a street cred point of view at all costs.

That said, if you have no friends or don't care, you can't (currently) get much faster than this.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Samsung Android Google Sprint

Samsung Moment mobile phone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:45:11 +0000

When RIM launched the BlackBerry Storm in 2008 it was greeted with a mixed reception. Some loved it, others (like Stephen Fry) hated it. So can the second attempt fix the problems and give BlackBerry users a viable touchscreen experience? We've been using one for a couple of weeks to find out.

At a quick glance you'll think it's the same phone as last year. The design is similar, the form factor is virtually the same and the operating system doesn't look too different either.

Of course it isn't the same and RIM has worked hard to address all the minor and major issues associated with the first version of the handset. The software is faster and more responsive, the bottom buttons are now a part of the screen rather than separate, and overall it's a far better experience than before. Say what you want, but this is how the original Storm should have performed.

So does that make it another contender for phone of the year? In short, no. While the Storm users we tracked down were impressed - noting it was much improved in performance levels - the world has moved on from the innovative, if not controversial, approach of the first handset.

If you are moving over from a Bold or Curve, with its hard QWERTY keyboard, then the notion of having to jab the screen to accept your commands (SurePress as RIM calls it) won't be that annoying, but moving from a capacitive touchscreen device you will find it a shock.

The system works by floating the entire high-resolution 480 x 360 pixel 3.25-inch screen so you have to physically press it down to accept your command. It's not as bad as it sounds, but if you're looking to type a long email you will really feel like you have gone 10 rounds in a thumb fight: it's hard work.?

Upgraded from a single hidden button underneath to four actuators in the corners of the screen you get a more responsive press and therefore feedback to your actions. It also means it doesn't shift around as much as the first screen did in its cradle as it's held in place at the four corners rather than the centre. It will allow for two finger pressing, but not pinching to zoom for example.

Hardware-wise it's the usual story, following the "we don't need Wi-Fi" stance on the Storm, the Storm 2 now has Wi-Fi. Personally it's not that big a deal as Verizon and Vodafone's 3G coverage is very good, but if you were upset by the lack of Wi-Fi you now don't have to be. Wi-Fi joins 3G, CDMA (for Verizon) Bluetooth and GPS on the connectivity front. Multimedia wise, you get a 16GB microSD card inside to store your stuff on, a 3.5mm headphones socket, a 3.2-megapixel camera with flash, auto focus, image stabilization, and a 2x digital zoom as well as that very crisp screen ideal for watching movies and BlackBerry OS 5.0.

There's also a bump in Flash memory (double in fact from 128MB to 256MB) and on-board memory for storing Apps goes up to 2GB from 1GB.

The Operating system is the same, obviously adapted for the touchscreen, as you'll find on the latest BlackBerry handsets like the Bold 9700.?Those who have used a BlackBerry before know what they are getting here and the Storm on that front doesn't throw up any surprises.

We tested a Verizon handset in the US, although it is available on Vodafone in the UK. Verizon pre-install their VCast Sony ID, VCast Videos and VZ Navigator as standard on the unit. You can choose to remove them if you want, and there isn't any further customisation. It's not as violent as carriers used to be with dedicated skins for example.

There are tweaks to the software over the original making it a better experience all around, but ones to note are the Inertial Scrolling w/Snap Back that means you can swipe down with your finger and watch the page carry on scrolling (just like the wheel of fortune) and we especially like the ability to now press on the network coverage logo and get direct access to the connections. It's the same for the clock (i.e., alarms) and the volume, although you do get a physical volume button to mute it for when you hit that important "do not disturb" meeting.

Email is fantastic, giving you real power to search. Add that to Xobni's BlackBerry app when it comes out and this, for communicating on the go, will be hard to beat. It's what RIM do best after all, but that's true of the BlackBerry family, not just the Storm 2.

However get into web browsing and the browser is incredibly slow on Wi-Fi and 3G, a shame as Verizon's and Vodafone's 3G coverage is very good. Pages seem to take forever to load and while you can opt for the nippier Opera browser you can't set it as the default, which means you'll soon forget about it when you go to open a link in an email or tweet.

Verdict:

The BlackBerry Storm 2 is a vast improvement on the Storm. It's a better hardware design and better software build that gives you a better experience all around.

In the year since the Storm launched however, we've seen plenty of high-end smartphones hit the market in the UK and the US. The iPhone 3GS, the Palm Pre, the HTC Hero, even the Motorola DEXT show us what can be done with touchscreen and slider devices. In a segment of the market offering great possibilities from a large touchscreen, the Storm 2 just can't keep pace.

So the final result? It's a condescending "well done" to RIM for making it better, but unfortunately it's just not good enough when you compare it to the competition that's now available.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones RIM BlackBerry BlackBerry Storm 2

BlackBerry Storm 2 9550 mobile phone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:00:10 +0000

ELSE Ltd was born today along with their first handset, cunningly named the First ELSE. To clear things up ELSE Ltd was formerly known as Emblaze Mobile and today changed the name of the company as well as announcing their first device to the world. Pocket-lint were on hand to witness the unveiling, and have a close look at the new handset.

The company don't want you to call it a phone. They are pushing the First ELSE as a portable device capable of fulfilling a number of connected roles, but not centred around the phone. Company CEO, Amir Kupervas, called out Apple's iPhone, pointing out that it was named around the "phone" and that at all times the phone took prominence.

The differentiation perhaps doesn't go much further than marketing: it will be sold as a mobile phone, in mobile phone outlets and supported by the mobile phone network. We'll call it a mobile phone and so will everyone else.

In recent times we’ve seen a shift in mobile phone marketing to focus on applications and services, not just hardware. Windows Mobile is doing it with its giant application icons and Apple has been saying "there's an app for that" for yonks: it's fun, it's light hearted. The teaser video for the First ELSE plays out like something from a Tom Clancy movie. You expect to see Matt Damon stroking a PSG-1. It's the stuff of thrillers.

But is the handset itself thrilling?

The hardware specs are fairly typical. It measures 115.6 x 56.6 x 13mm, fairly average dimensions, if not a little on the long side. That gives you a 3.5-inch, 854 x 480 pixel resolution, display. It's a capacitive touchscreen and from what we've seen it seems responsive enough.

The widescreen aspect means that you don't get all the landscape space you might have wanted to reduce scrolling on websites, but it is sharp and the colours from sample images were certainly vivid, allowing of course for the fact that these were put in the device to do just that - show the screen at its best.

On the connectivity front you get UMTS/HSDPA (tri-band), GSM, EDGE (quad-band) as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It connects to the charger and your PC via a microUSB jack. A 3.5mm headphone jack sits on the top.

Around the back is a 5-megapixel camera, but no sign of a flash or a LED illuminator. Kupervas used the opportunity in presenting the phone to take a shot at Sony Ericsson's Satio, asking the audience when they'd choose a 12-megapixel phone over the 5-megapixel Canon camera? We didn't get to see the First ELSE's camera in action, so we don't know how it stands up. Of course you get GPS too.

You also get 32GB of memory, so the First ELSE really punches hard into the storage area. Unfortunately there is no microSD card slot, so you can't just stick your music collection in on a 16GB card, something of an oversight in our opinion.

The First ELSE isn't about the hardware though. It is about the user interface, so everything that is written above you'd be encouraged to ignore, or so the company would have us believe. With the First ELSE comes a new operating system and platform for you to discover. It is based on an Access Linux platform at its core, with a user interface called ELSE Intuition.

ELSE claims that Intuition is the end of the "main menu". In practise it doesn’t look like this really is the case, as you have a number of different styles of menu operation in ELSE. There is a diamond style menu that accesses major application groups and then there is sPlay. It is all designed to be operated by a single thumb for one-handed operation, with sPlay fanning out options for phone, diary and media, as the name suggests. You simply highlight the one you want and lift your thumb off to select that option.

Of course, that one-thumbed operation, as our pictures show, is the right thumb. If you are left-handed, you'll have to snort in derision and get on with it as us lefties so often do. ELSE told us that First ELSE is designed for right-handed folk but perfectly usable by left-handers, with a planned "flip capacity" for future versions. As it is, if you're left-handed, your thumb will cover the menu options as they splay out.

All the usual suspects are here and the interface does look a world apart from the staid menus that plague many other phones. But do you have a problem with Apple or Android's icons? The overall effect on the First ELSE is something like you'd expect to see in The Terminator's HUD. It has a raw futuristic look to it that looks sharp and technical.

There are also a number of shortcut touch buttons running down the right-hand side of the phone, giving you access to the menu, up/down navigation, back, and cross-platform search. This is a feature that we've all been calling for and ELSE claims to offer both device searching and online searching in a single integrated area.

We didn't have the opportunity in our demo to evaluate how this will be in day-to-day use, but it is interesting, futuristic and looks great. We asked Kupervas what the inspiration was behind the First ELSE and the reply was simple: The Fifth Element and Minority Report. The idea that a sci-fi look and feel could be put into a device now drove Emblaze (as it was then) and Access to design the interface that the First ELSE gives us.

We were hoping for three precogs hiding under the back cover, giving a psychic connection to the Internet, or Milla Jovovich wearing a few white straps, but it seems not. Instead the hardware sits on top of a Texas Instruments OMAP 3430 processor, the likes of which we've seen in the Palm Pre.

The First ELSE will also feature "silent communication", meaning you can turn your phone into your very own automated call centre. If you can't take the call, you can trigger a range of questions and responses for the caller, like "press * for urgent" or "press # to call back later".

The on-screen keyboard looked pretty futuristic too, boasting algorithms to workout what you are doing from your presses and predictive text entry to produce the words you meant. The switch from portrait to landscape seemed snappy too and works in most, but not all, applications.

The ethos behind the First ELSE is total integration. Rather than be a phone with a GPS, it is designed to behave like a standalone device. Kupervas named a number of companies whilst detailing the ELSE: iPod-like music system, BlackBerry-like email, TomTom-like GPS. Bold claims indeed, but as a marketing speech it sounds like the perfect device.

But then we come to the crunch, the single point which will likely define the success or failure of ELSE. All the above are supported by established systems whereas the First ELSE is starting from scratch. Almost. Looking at the supporting organisations brings out a few names that reveal what is behind ELSE. Navteq mapping, Emoze email, Alango to improve the voice communication, Nuance voice recognition, Red Bend OTA updating and so on.

ELSE told us that it has set up its own infrastructure for an easy out-of-the-box device that works straight away, but of course, we'll have to see it in action before we can pass a judgement on it. Whether that means you'll get cross-protocol IM or OTA Google Contact syncing, we don't yet know.

We were told that the SDK would be released when the phone comes out to allow third-party developers to generate apps. Given the success of the iPhone and growing success of Android, this has to be a primary concern. We were promised great things from the Palm Pre App Catalog, but that is still to put out the big guns in terms of apps.

Kupervas told us that third-party apps would be integrated to the core, so rather than a standalone app, you'd still get access to the live PIM and all the information there. Using Twitter as an example, Kupervas told us that rather than an extra Twitter layer, it would integrate fully with your existing contacts.

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Verdict:

ELSE made some bold claims with the announcement of the First ELSE. But you need to get people to take you seriously. The company is certainly pushing a different approach from a marketing angle, but ultimately it is joining a competitive marketplace full of smart devices demonstrating convergence and integration at an advanced level. There is nothing new here, per se, but the First ELSE aims to deliver the best of what everyone else is doing.

Companies like INQ Mobile have demonstrated that there is space for innovation and ELSE are certainly sending out the right messages here. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating and unfortunately it looks like we'll be waiting to spring 2010 before we get our hands on it in the real world.

Check out all our hands-on pictures over in our gallery.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones ELSE Mobile First ELSE First look

First ELSE mobile phone - First Look originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:35:32 +0000

The N900 drops the moniker of "internet tablet", choosing to push forward with "mobile computer" as this model comes in to supplant the N810, released back in 2007. 2-years along and the landscape of internet-savvy mobile devices has changed greatly. Can this Nokia pocket computer trade blows with the best of them?

In the hand the N900 is something of a chunky monkey measuring 110.9 x 59.8 x 18mm. Lined up against the likes of the Motorola DEXT/CLIQ, it's is rather fat, weighting 181g, towards the top end of pocket devices.

The construction is good overall showing the wealth of experience that Nokia has. Finished in a neat matte black, the body stays free of dirty prints, except for the screen, of course. As a side-slider the opening action is critical. Forgoing any dodgy curves or angles, the straight-up slide opens with reassuring punch and is nice and tight in its construction: there are no wiggles or twists to worry about here.

The N900 wants to be used in landscape, taking advantage of the 3.5-inch, 800 x 480 pixel, resistive touchscreen display, which fits its side-sliding design. The keyboard has rubberised keys of a reasonable size, more on which later, but built with reassuring quality.

Sticking in a landscape format and working around the body of the N900 you'll find the left-hand side offering a Micro-USB socket and one of a pair of stereo speakers, matching another on the right. The right-hand side also gives you a rather unusual sliding screen lock, a 3.5mm AV jack and the stylus, which runs along the bottom edge.

The top then gives you a dedicated camera button, a small central power/device control button, and the volume/zoom rocker. That central button is really useful, letting you lock/unlock the N900, access the phone functions, change the profile and so on.

You'll notice that we've been talking around the phone in landscape. That's because the N900 really isn't a happy puppy in portrait; there is limited support for portrait interaction. With the N900 closed you'll get the phone in portrait mode, but little else, not even the customizable homepage. We are used to having the content of our devices change to suit how it is being held. There is an accelerometer on-board, however, as your photos will change aspect. It's an odd move and hopefully something that Nokia will address to offer more options when you want to use the device single-handed on the train.

As a phone it works nicely, with easy access to contacts on a large on-screen dialler. A proximity sensor kills the screen when it is next to your head: pull the phone away and you are presented with in-call options. Audio quality was good, but a hard rim around the screen is a little uncomfortable.

Recent announcements have revealed Nokia is looking to move its N series devices over to Maemo 5, an open source Linux platform, which is what the N900 is running on. Unfortunately at the time of writing this review, you won't find wide application support, so at present it doesn't compete with the likes of the iPhone or Android in terms of bringing in new apps. The Nokia Ovi Store for Maemo is yet to launch.

The N900 operating system gives you several layers. The top layer is a neat desktop which slides from side-to-side, giving you effectively four pages to customise. These can be filled with shortcuts, bookmarks, contacts and various widgets. So you get the usual offering of weather, Ovi shortcuts, media player, RSS and calendar widgets, with a neat mapping "where am I?" widget. They are live and seem to run well enough.

You can add contacts and once you have fed in the information, contacts are rich and full of detail and presented practically. Dump a contact shortcut and you'll have their picture (with online status if connected to one of your IM accounts) – a quick press and you have a full screen contact sheet, giving you the option to phone, message, call with Skype and so on.

The Facebook widget is a bit of a standalone feature: you still need to login to the webpage to use Facebook proper and to get your Facebook images to marry up with your contacts you'll need another app (Hermes). It's connected, but in a rather disconnected way, and doesn't go as far as HTC Sense or Motoblur.

You can login to Skype, Google Talk account, Jabber, SIP as well as Ovi by Nokia. You do get the option to import contacts from those services, but not your entire Google contacts or access other calendars for example. Merging contacts is easy, then giving you access to multiple avenues of communication for each individual.

IM conversations are handled rather well, as are text messages, in the Conversations area. This pulls SMS and IM threads into the same place, so you can open up a chat you were having with a contact. It's much better than having to open each different application individually.?

Email isn't handled in the same integrated inbox however. Setting up email is easy, whether you are gunning for Exchange, IMAP or POP mail. As with other Nokia devices, it will intelligently figure out your settings for common email services too. Received attachments are handled well, launching DocsToGo where necessary, or a PDF viewer.

One oddity, however, is that the send button is at the top of the message and as you write an email, it will vanish off the top, so you'll have to scroll back up to send it. Meanwhile at the bottom of the screen you'll get the option to change the font, colour and other such nonsense. If you want to attach a file or insert a picture, you'll have to open a menu to do so. It doesn't really seem to address the need of power emailers who want core features at their fingertips: we'd rather see font colours buried in a menu to be forgotten.

Talking attachments you really get to see the power of the N900 when you start saving pictures from websites, cropping them, and reattaching to emails to send out again. It's simple and a level of advanced file handling that many devices don't offer.

A big part of what the N900 is about is multitasking. The second level the OS offers is a neat icon-based breakout of your running application windows (behind which sits a third level in the form of a simple icon-based menu). Once you reach 12 windows however you'll need to start scrolling the page, so you'll never find what you are looking for.?

A top status bar (when not in fullscreen mode) displays the time, battery and data connections, with a neat pop-up menu where you can change profiles, volume, data connection or your availability for IM. In applications the top of the screen gives you access to menus, to close windows or to jump back into the multi-panel view.

The Maemo browser is easy to use and renders full HTML, thanks to its origins with Mozilla. You get Flash support too, something that hasn't yet appeared on rival devices. Flash video playback is a little haphazard, with the first play often just giving you an audio track with a few frames. A few plays would bring the frame rate up, but in all our tests over Wi-Fi, we were left wanting for better performance overall.

The high-resolution screen means that you can read full web pages, but the lack of conventional multi-touch interaction via a capacitive screen is glaringly obvious. Double tap zooming is a little random, but you can use the volume rocker to zoom web pages in their entirety. It's a little frustrating, but you do get used to it, especially as the swirly zooming alternative is unreliable. Selecting boxes for text input can be frustrating: sometimes you feel like you are being ignored until you zoom right in and stab it hard with your finger.

Multitasking does have an impact on the response of the N900 too. When pushing the device it will get sluggish. You'll often also find that background activities throw the N900 out of its comfort zone. When it can't connect to a particular messaging service it will pop-up a message telling you whilst everything else slows painfully.

The lack of applications (currently) means that things are more complicated than they need to be. In the absence of a solid consumer-ready Twitter application you'll find yourself using the website and another service for images, in another full webpage. It's a big draw on resources compared to a lightweight app, but does show you the power options that the N900 offers and that's the ultimate caveat: if there isn't app support for an online service, you'll almost certainly be able to easily use the web original.?Only 265MB RAM is dedicated to apps, but it is boosted to 1GB by virtual memory.

The keyboard itself is good, but the layout isn't the best. Every key has an alternative function in blue accessed by depressing the blue arrow key, on the left side. Shift is only on the left-hand side as well, whilst the space bar is offset to the right. The right has a set of cursor keys, which can be useful and we'd rather have them than not. Overall we didn't find it as fast as a BlackBerry keyboard, but once you get used to the layout, it is responsive enough.

Impressively there is a degree of UPnP support on the N900, as it found our Cisco Media Hub and Mac running Orb on our network. Navigation is slow and we had little success with video or photos, but we did get playback of audio files. Video out, with a cable in the box is a nice touch, reminding us that there is 32GB of storage available here, as well as the microSD card slot hiding under the back.

Media support is generally good, with MPEG4, AVI, WMV, 3GP all claiming to play (H.264, MPEG4, Xvid, WMV, H.263 codecs), but in reality we had to be selective with which video formats we used. Music support gives you WAV, MP3, AAC, eAAC, WMA and M4A. You also get access to internet radio through the media player and there is an FM transmitter too.

Around the back is a 5-megapixel camera, with Carl Zeiss optics, which performs nicely in daylight, but suffers when the light dips resulting in noisy images. The dual LED flash will illuminate your subject but won't result in a nice picture at the end. Shutter lag is terrible, so blurring is often common as the subject moves on, or you forget to stand still and wait for the camera to catch up with what you were doing. Some sample shots are included with this review.

Video capture gives you the single option of 848 x 480 pixel resolution, which is fair in daylight shooting. The 20fps frame rate is a little choppy and it does tend to drop frames and sometimes deliver patchy audio too, suggesting some optimization is needed in this area. Low light video is poor.

Geotagging is an option on images using the on-board GPS and there is a degree of photo editing possible. We found that cropping was no problem, but the option to change the brightness and contrast caused the phone to get very laggy, so is best avoided.?The N900 comes with Nokia's Ovi Maps included, which is a heavy-weight application, giving you 3D map views to get the most out of the GPS.?

Battery life, however, is a weakness. Nokia admits to a 1+ day of connected use, but we've found that it starts complaining from low battery levels within the day (and mostly only using Wi-Fi or 2G). Step-up to 3.5G and you need to stay near the power. A day of heavy use will see you out of battery during your working day.

We were testing a pre-production sample of the N900, so accept that it might still be needing some updates before it really hits the market. Hopefully this explains away a couple of restarts that the device executed off its own back.

Verdict:

The Nokia N900 has been a highly anticipated device and with the divide between the internet tablet and mobile phone having closed, many have expected it breathe life into the struggling phone giant.

To a certain extent it achieves these aims. The N900 is an extremely capable handset, which will let you do some very clever things and too many to cover in this review. But would we choose it over the best smartphones the rivals have to offer? Probably not.

The N900 will do a lot, but you feel like you are working for it and as a consumer you are likely to get more satisfaction from some of the more recent Android devices, which still have the open source goodness, but with a community that is a little more established. At the same time, we can see that the N900 has the potential to go a long way. Resource-sparing apps to make your life easier, combined with the wealth of options here and you could have a very accomplished handset.

The ball is really in the court of those supporting the handset. It needs aspect switching for the home pages, it needs the Flash support enhancing and it needs to develop the app offering. Until these things arrive the N900 is a supporting role, rather than the star of the show.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Nokia Nokia N900

Nokia N900 mobile phone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:44:49 +0000

The official availability maybe some time off, however that hasn't stopped us from getting a hands-on with the Android sporting Xperia X10 for a second time (this time in New York) so we can bring you a First Look (over two sittings) of the new handset from Sony Ericsson. Will it be a game changer that will bring the company back into the spotlight? Read on to find out.

On the surface the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is another Android 1.6 handset with a large screen and yet another user interface or User Experience (UX) as Sony Ericsson calls it, promising to improve the usability stakes over everything else.

The hardware sees you get a 4-inch touchscreen display that dominates proceedings. Beneath this there are three additional buttons that allow you to access menus, the home screen, and skip back a step, and in between this there is even two white tiny LEDs that give you notifications as to what is going on although you will no doubt loose track over time. A dedicated camera button and volume controls pepper the side.

For the Droid or G1 fans out there, there is no slide-out keyboard. Get over it.

Around the back you'll get an 8.1-megapixel digital camera top centre and beneath that a flash - something not present on the HTC Hero or Apple iPhone.

Although impressive, specs are nothing out of the ordinary, certainly not for your top-of-the-range model and that means you get virtually every tech acronym you can think of including HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, DLNA, A-GPS, 3.5mm jack and Qualcomm's 1GHz Snapdragon processor. Storage is provided by an 8GB microSD card in the box and connects to your computer/charger via Micro-USB on the top. Unfortunately we weren't able to confirm what the storage allocation for applications is, but let's hope it is more than 256MB as with the Motorola Droid.

It is large, comparable to the Apple iPhone, but not as big as the HTC HD2. Underneath all that User Experience you get Android 1.6. Sony Ericsson are currently sending out mixed messages as to whether or not the handset will sport Android 2.0 when it eventually launches in February, with some spokespeople for the company saying it will and others not so sure.

What this means is that you will miss out on some features, like the ability to search the contents of your phone at the press of a button and Google Maps Navigation (US only). With a strong integrated interface in the guise of what Sony Ericsson is calling Nexus, you get, like the Sense UI from HTC, a lot more friendly functionality than Google offers as standard.

Of course you do get that "standard" approach. The Nexus UX Platform sits on top of Android 1.6 meaning you can run all the standard Android apps as well as apps designed for the phone and UX.?Unlike Motorola and HTC, both of whom have also decided to customise the Android experience, Sony Ericsson is hoping for further development by releasing a WebSDK.

The move means that developers will be able to develop applications specifically for Sony Ericsson handsets (the X10 is the first of many) that work only for Sony Ericsson. It's a brave move and one that will be interesting to watch. As a developer are you really going to be bothered to develop an app for an as yet unproven smartphone when you've got Apple, Android, Palm's WebOS, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Samsung's Bada and BlackBerry to develop for as well?

Either way in reality it seems that Sony Ericsson are playing the "you can play with us too" card and regardless of this forging on with their own apps to impress and improve on the Android OS.

In steps Timescape and Mediascape. Timescape is a communications app, which aggregates email,?Facebook, Twitter, IM, and SMS into one big lifestream that you can navigate through. Each "event" is represented by a tile, which you can tap to view in more detail, or long-press to get a preview of. The experience is very "Aero" from Windows Vista and in practice not the easiest thing to read.

Each tile has a button marked with an "oo" infinity symbol. Hitting that will take you to related content - which could be content from the person in question, or it could be web content related to whatever is on the tile. It's a bit like HTC's contacts feature that shows you all the contact you've had with that person, however it's no Xobni. The list can be filtered by medium, and you can reply to individual messages within the application.

Mediascape is the other "signature" application. It's built around music, video and images and organises all three on your device. It incorporates players for all three, too, and can hook into various bits of online content. YouTube was named explicitly, but we'd expect Last.fm and perhaps Flickr to show up here too with talk of Spotify being banded around at our briefing (something that might be harder to do than Sony Ericsson realizes thanks to Spotify's poor API).

Items in Mediascape also have an infinity button and pressing this will again summon related content. For a band, that could be songs on your device, YouTube videos, or even other artists that are similar to whatever you're listening to. The overlaid controls of this section looked quite similar to the Zune HD's UI, though that's only a good thing.

Then there is the image viewer in Mediascape that supports facial recognition. What this means is that you can tag up to five people in a photo and then the handset will attempt to identify those people in other images too - the more you tag, the more accurate it is, very much like Apple's face recognition feature in iPhoto. The feature can also hook in with your contacts list - you can tap a person in a photo to call them, for instance, however won't talk to Facebook or Flickr.

Those apps, and others for the Nexus UX, will be available from the PlayNow store.

Elsewhere and it's pretty standard Android fare for the handset. The software is, and acts, as you would expect for an Android 1.6 handset, however for some reason, one that continues to baffle us, is no multi-touch support.?With a touchscreen so large with no keyboard we think it's a catastrophic move, but then hey, what do we know?

As for performance? Well it's a little too early to say. The models we looked at both in London and New York have all been pre-production, and early builds at that. It certainly wasn't as zippy as we would have hoped, certainly for a device with a Snapdragon chipset, but then its too early to tell whether this is just because it's early code, or because Sony Ericsson has baked in so many graphical, almost PS3-like niceties, that it's buckled under the weight. We expect it's the former.

Verdict:

So is this going to be the Android handset that you wish you waited for? At the moment it's too hard to say as the software wasn't (we hope) working at full speed. That said on the hardware front it really is just a screen with some buttons and every acronym you can think of, looks good and has the potential to perform well.

We get the feeling though, that as soon as HTC announce an HD2 with Android, probably called the HD3, that shininess – i.e., the 4-inch screen - will soon disappear.

So how can Sony Ericsson hope to win your hearts? By getting developers to embrace the Nexus UX platform or for Sony to roll out as many apps as it can including dedicated apps like a PlayNow store, PSP emulator and PS3 Remote Play. Now wouldn't that be nice?

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is expected to be available in February 2010.

?

Related links:

• Photos - Sony Ericsson Experia X10 hands on

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Sony Ericsson Android First look Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mobile phone - First Look originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0000

It's fair to say the BlackBerry Bold took the QWERTY market by storm. It was a badge that said you'd made it in business, as commuter trains packed full of suits flashing RIM's flagship device. The last Bold hit as the world economy slumped, so it's perhaps fitting that the new Bold trims off the fat, tightens up and is a meaner machine.

The design is the biggest change you'll notice, as it steps closer to the form factor of the Curve 8900, a handset that's been incredibly popular both in business and among consumers. Touches of the old Bold are still here, not only on the tech spec side of things, but also around the back, with the leather insert meaning your fingertips get to enjoy that textured premium feel.

From the front the BlackBerry Bold 9700 looks like a slightly more mature Curve 8900, with a flash of angle applied to the edge of the screen to make it more Audi than VW. Around the sides you now have the tactile rubberised finish so the 9700 is secure in your hand, with the side buttons getting the rubber finish we saw on the 8520.

The top is slightly more pronounced than previous BlackBerrys, with the key lock and mute "buttons" having a positive and substantial feel to them, where the 8900 is rather unsubstantial. The left-hand side of the 9700 gives you the 3.5mm headphone jack and Micro-USB with a user-defined shortcut button, which we like to assign to launch Twitter. The right-hand side sees the camera shortcut and volume.

The optical trackpad has now moved into the 9700, ousting the "Pearl" trackball that now seems destined to the recycle bin. This is one of the primary interfaces you'll use for menu navigation and browsing on the device, but fortunately the switch is a seamless one and you'll barely notice the difference. We took the sensitivity down a touch to reflect the trackball response we used previously, but it's easy to set it to your preference.

The trackpad sits on a middle belt giving you your calling, back and BlackBerry menu buttons. Above is the 2.44-inch, 480 x 360 pixel resolution display which is beautifully crisp and bright. It might not be the largest screen or pack in touch technology, but it does have the brightness to be visible in bright sunlight, something that we really like.

But the BlackBerry Bold is all about the keyboard and here in the new 9700 it keeps the ridges of the previous Bold and an action that is possibly the best QWERTY keyboard of any mobile phone. With the keys flush together, they are larger than those of the 8900. There is a silky feel to the keyboard. Not only is the choice of materials perfect, but the action is tight and responsive too.

The backlighting shines through so you can happily bash out those midnight emails and there is enough space for some serious two-thumbed action, whilst still letting you reach all the keys with a single thumb for those moments when you have your hands full. Converts from the 8900 will find that that keyboard has less of a click, but it has a softness that is reassuringly premium.

Packed into the BlackBerry Bold 9700 you get all the connectivity you expect. You get HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. You get the assisted GPS and the 3.2-megapixel camera with an LED flash. RIM has a habit of differentiating between their devices by omitting some critical piece of hardware and fortunately the Bold 9700 gets the full bunch.

Dive into the interface and the 9700 comes with BlackBerry OS 5, the latest version of their software, carrying the look and feel that was introduced with version 4.6. In essence little has changed here: it is functional and relatively easy to use, but occasionally you'll find yourself digging around in some minor menu looking for an obscure setting.

If there is a criticism of the BlackBerry family of devices, it is that the user interface is tired and doesn't bring with it the wow factor that many of the new touch devices have. Sure, a bigger screen and touch interaction gives you greater visual scope, but you get the feeling that some of the core interaction with social networks or existing online services needs to be deeper ingrained in the BlackBerry ethos in the future.

Yes, BlackBerry App World is bringing together many applications for you to download for free or at a price, but it doesn't compete with Apple's App Store or to a certain extent the Android Marketplace.

But one area that BlackBerry still reigns supreme is email. The optimised push email service is RIMs knockout punch. Setup is incredibly easy and the way it handles attachments just makes your life so easy if you are a heavy email user. It might lack some of the visuals of its rivals, but it is dependable, and this is a key point for those who rely on email.

The 3.2-megapixel autofocus camera doesn't bring any surprises with it and performance is very similar to the 8900. It might not reach the vaulted 5- or 8-megapixel levels, but we feel that 3.2 is enough. It gives you an image that is great for sharing and using online and is better than many other phones in the 3MP range. Video, captured as 3GP is restricted to 480 x 352 pixels, so it can't compete with other devices, except in offering solid 30fps capture, so performance isn't too bad.

The BlackBerry Media Player is reasonable, giving you support for the usual video and music formats. There is only 256MB of memory however, which you'll need to keep aside for your applications that you download. Under the back cover you'll find a microSD card slot to handle expansion, and our review model came with 1GB in the box, although this may vary by carrier.

The BlackBerry browser is pretty good. It does at least let you open most pages in full and the optical trackpad makes navigation easier than previously. If browsing the Internet is the most important thing for you, then this probably isn't the right device. At least you know that when you need to look something up, you'll be able to dive in and quickly jump in to page columns to read the details and so on, with minimal fuss.

The battery in the 9700 is the same as the original Bold. It stands up well against touchscreen smartphone rivals, but the constant data consumption does leave its mark on the phone. In normal use it will get you through a couple of days, but on intensive days you'll find it needs charging every night. But it will also happily sit around for several weeks, picking up emails and still keep charge.

Verdict:

The BlackBerry Bold 9700 feels like the last step in an evolution of devices, bringing together the form factor from the Curve 8900 with the tech specs of the original Bold. It brings with it the two key elements that BlackBerry users love: an excellent keyboard with which to abuse BlackBerry's excellent email service.

This is a device with communication at its core. It is a comfortable handset to use for voice calls, with good quality audio for both the caller and the receiver. It provides an excellent messaging platform for those who use email day-in-day-out with SMS and MMS not ignored. Instant messaging via BlackBerry's own service, or via a more popular download like Windows Live Messenger will keep you in touch with your most important people. Diving in and out of calendar, browser, instant messaging, copy and pasting information is what the BlackBerry is really good at.

But step outside this communication-heavy business-friendly core and the BlackBerry seems to give a nonchalant shrug. Social networking? Well, sort of. By this stage of the game, Apple and Android have a big lead. For business users this might not be a concern, but as the divide between business and social lives narrows, it's becoming much more important.

RIM will certainly evolve their BlackBerry offering and as it stands the BlackBerry Bold 9700 is the best BlackBerry yet: a very comfortable device to use, delivering its core functions with aplomb.

Thank you to T-Mobile for the loan of this handset.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones BlackBerry RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700

BlackBerry Bold 9700 mobile phone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:22:12 +0000

If you are a regular reader of Pocket-lint this gadget probably isn’t for you. You've already mounted the convergence pony and are riding it hard into the future. Your phone is more than just a device that makes calls: it is the gateway to your digital world.

For us convergence has its place and we can see why you would want it. We want a dedicated camera but a phone should do everything. Your phone lets you check email, surf the web, check Twitter, control your home music system and TV, play games, check your business figures and get you home when lost.

However what if you aren't that way inclined? What if you just want a phone that is a phone? So the idea of a dedicated device that lets you just see and read Twitter is an interesting one, isn't it?

Created by Peek, the TwitterPeek is a follow-on device from the company's dedicated email-only handset that emulates the BlackBerry from almost a decade ago. At the time RIM, the makers of the BlackBerry, were criticised and lambasted for making a device that could "only" do email. Why would you want that many asked? Now the BlackBerry is common place around the world, and widely regarded for the email service it does provide.

The TwitterPeek is a slim-line gadget the size of a small notepad with a colour screen (you've got to get that Twitter blue in somehow) and a QWERTY keyboard.

There are two payment options. The first is $99 down with access to your tweets for the first 6 months before having to pay $7.95 a month thereafter. The second is $199.99 down and never having to worry about data costs for the lifetime of the device.

The design is simple, quaint and straightforward to use with a focus on shortcuts for getting you around the system quickly. For the old school BlackBerry fans there is a jog wheel on the right-hand side that can be used by your thumb and a further "back" button beneath this.

The keyboard itself is on the stiff side, but well spaced out and we found easy to use. The hardware is identical to the email Peek. There is also a flashing "envelope" for when you get new tweets and this can be custom set to either tweets from your friends or your DMs and @ mentions.

Connect the device to your Twitter account - as easy as typing your Twitter name and password - and minutes later your Twitter messages will start downloading to your device. Tweets are displayed on the screen just like email in your inbox and you get the author, the first 24 of characters and the time it was received.

The jog wheel allows you to scroll through the list and because the device is always on it makes for a more "all inclusive feed" rather than dipping in and out.

Annoyingly the software is slow in use. Overly slow in fact for what it is and without the shortcuts the process is painstakingly over-designed, but luckily the Peek does offer most of the commands you need as shortcuts. There are shortcuts for looking at tweets, seeing the next, previous, first, or last tweets as well as retweeting or DM'ing.

Frustrations though include the DM forcing you to re-type the persons twitter name again, and the system not just displaying the Tweet in full on the home screen in the first place.

Then there are links. With no browser you aren't going to be able to whizz off onto the Internet to read what's what. However, so you aren't completely in the dark, you can pull the text from the website. It's basic, but it will get you the information you want (just probably not the way Murdoch would want you to).

You can of course see your followers and your following, but can't add more. Search is also limited, to what is on the device rather than Twitter as a whole and features found in applications like Tweetie 2 on the iPhone like translate, location, add pictures, video, search, and trends aren't here either.

One of the best features though is being able to set up a buzzing alert for when you get tweets, @ mentions or DMs. Simple, but lets you know you've got a personal message.

This is for those who want to tweet and check their tweets in the rawest form.

Verdict:

So who is the TwitterPeek aimed at? As we said at the beginning, it's not for anyone who has a smartphone. After all why would you spend up to $200 on a device that an app could do for free? No, the TwitterPeek is for those who've got a basic mobile phone, want in on the Twitter experience, and don't want a regular $30 a month data plan to go with it.

With more and more people using Twitter as a communications and information tool, the idea is certainly interesting. However while the concept (for non-smartphone users) is sound, the realisation of those ideas isn't fully achieved here.

While the TwitterPeek isn't for us (we currently have 12 devices on the desk capable of checking Twitter) I can see why people might want it.

Tags: Gadgets Twitter Twitterpeek peek Phones Mobile phones

TwitterPeek originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:58:50 +0000

Another carrier, another handset, that is pretty much the story with the?Droid Eris, now on its third iteration from the?HTC Hero?launched in Europe back in May. So what has?Verizon?brought to the table and for American's, should you opt for this one over the?Sprint HTC Hero?

We haven't seen the official press release, but no doubt when it does arrive on our desk it will say the new design oozes a black finish never before seen, and one that is tactile to touch over the silver shimmers of the Sprint offering.

In reality there is very little between the two in terms of design. The Verizon Droid Eris sports a black shell with a slightly more rounded bottom curve. The Home, menu, back and search buttons are now in a single line. Touch-sensitive, they've been built into the same casing as the screen. The only physical buttons underneath the multi-touch screen are a call and hang-up buttons an a trackball as found on the MyTouch 3G and G1 handsets.

That trackball is very responsive, not that you'll find yourself using it that much.?Why? The touchscreen above.

The screen remains at 3.2-inches, the same as the Sprint model. Compared to other smartphones on the market it is slightly larger than the Palm Pre's 3.1-inch screen and slightly smaller than the iPhone's 3.5-inch screen. Either way the smaller hyptic-enabled screen means a more compact phone that won't take up as much real estate in your pocket, but one that is still very usable.?

Like the Sprint handset the phone offers a 3.5mm jack, volume buttons and a 5-megapixel camera on the back. There is no flash. Slip the case off and you'll find a microSD slot.?

Keeping on the technology front, you'll get Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity as well as GPS so you can find your way home. This being Verizon the handset runs on the CDMA network. However with no GSM support you won't be able to travel to Europe with it. This is not a world phone.

Of course this isn't just an identical phone in a different colour for a different operator. HTC doesn't do that. So the offering is slightly thinner, which in turn means that the battery is slightly smaller. While HTC wouldn't, in our play, be drawn on what this would mean to the overall performance, it confirmed that users would notice very little difference (it's 1300mAh compared to 1500mAh for those wanting the numbers).

On the upside the company has fixed one of the underlining bug bears from the original version and added a proximity sensor so when you put it up to your head the screen turns off. Handy.?

Running Google's Android 1.5 OS, the Droid Eris is Verizon's second handset, the Droid by Motorola is the other. Like the Sprint HTC Hero, HTC has once again taken the Android OS as a starting point, and put their own special sheen on the operating system. Called the Sense UI it basically gives you a graphical skin over the Android OS giving it a more grown-up experience.?

In reality you'll mostly experience this through a series of customised screens giving you quick access to a number of the key features. Whether it's work, play, social networking or all of the above, the screens are incredibly easy to use, stylish and the key to the phone's simplicity.?

In our brief play the Droid Eris was quick and nimble, most likely benefiting from the HTC Hero update recently rolled out to the Sprint variant. It's fast enough that you won't find yourself struggling with whether or not you've pressed the button or flipped a screen. And as flipping through screens is something that you'll find yourself doing a lot, it only fair to expect good performance. We weren't disappointed. ?

Software-wise you'll get all the usual apps, with Verizon only choosing to install its Visual Voicemail service on the phone. Like the Motorola Droid, this is a clean handset.

Verdict:

Software wise there is very little different between the HTC Hero released in Europe, the HTC Hero on Sprint and the Verizon version. Where the difference appears is in the hardware and cosmetic design of the handset.

Whether you choose the Sprint HTC Hero or the Verizon HTC Droid Eris is going to be down to networks and what you are happier with. Both carriers have left the handset pretty unfettered, both haven't done anything crazy with the hardware to make them stand out from each other either.?

One deciding factor however is likely to be the price. The Droid Eris is at the time of writing $80 cheaper.?

For the non Apple or Palm believers, this is one to strongly consider.?

Tags: Phones Mobile phones HTC Verizon HTC Hero Droid Eris First look

Droid Eris by HTC mobile phone - First Look originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:00:00 +0000

HTC knows how to steal the show. On the day that Microsoft "officially" unleashed Windows Mobile 6.5 on the world, HTC pulled the covers off the HD2, their flagship Windows Phone and one that leaves other Windows Mobile devices in its wake.

HTC have a history of customising interfaces from previous iterations of Windows Mobile to more recent Android devices. A large part of the HTC Hero's success was down to HTC's Sense UI, which now finds its way onto the HD2, although visually it is close to previous TouchFLO layer that HTC have used.

With a massive 4.3-inch 480 x 800 pixel resolution display, it steals the crown from Toshiba's poorly-received TG01. Unlike the TG01, however, HTC have designed this handset well, with neat industrial-looking lines.

It measures 120.5 x 67mm but it is only 11mm thick, so despite the large footprint, it is still pocketable. We've been carting it around in the hip pocket of our jeans, but with such a large glorious screen, you can't really put anything else in the same pocket for risk of scratching. It is perfectly suited to an inside jacket pocket, however, which is where we suspect HTC see this phone heading: a corporate world of finely tailored suits.

Running across the bottom of the screen you get the usual suspects in terms of control buttons: calling, Home, Windows and back. As we saw on the HTC Touch2, the Home button takes you to the front of HTC's Sense interface, whilst the Windows key takes you to the front page of Windows Mobile 6.5 and the new honeycomb interface (which can also be accessed through the "Start" option in the top left-hand corner on all pages except in "full screen" viewing modes).

Around the body of the handset you have a volume control on the left-hand side, but that's the only other hard button on offer. On the bottom you'll find the Micro-USB and 3.5mm connections. Around the back is the 5-megapixel camera, with a dual LED flash, sitting next to the outlet for the built-in speaker, which is rather good.

The phone itself is edged in a rubberised finish which neatly caps the top and bottom, as well as running around the edges making it feel secure in the hand. The neat metal backplate removes to give you access to the battery, microSD and SIM slots. It all feels and looks like the premium product that it is. One slight disadvantage, like the iPhone, is that you get a hard edge across your ear when actually using it for phone calls.

Power on and you are greeted with familiar setup pages from HTC, helping you to swiftly hook-up to a Wi-Fi network and taking you on to register on your social networks (if you want to), so you are instantly jacked-in to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Ominously missing is a connection to Google, which the Android siblings thrive on.

As we saw in the First Look of the HD2, the HTC Sense in this form is similar to previous iterations of HTC's TouchFLO customisation, but that's no bad thing: it is user friendly. Instead of being greeted with Microsoft's rather boring opening menu, you have the luscious HTC gloss on everything.

From the Sense front page you can swipe across like you can on the Hero, but rather than having 5 pages, here you move across the shortcut bar at the bottom, giving you access to what is essentially a range of widget pages. You can customise some pages as well as adding and removing widget pages, so you can dump Stocks, or Twitter, if you don't think you'll use them.

The more you dig through, the more it does look like Sense as we know it from the likes of the HTC Hero. You don't get the same visual pop as the screen changes, but it is easy to get around and you can run your finger across the bottom shortcut bar to land you on what you want to access.

On the front page you have three visible shortcut spaces, which you can add contacts, applications or bookmarks for instant access. The front page, though, has hidden depths. Swipe it up and the clock neatly folds away and you are into a customisable grid of shortcuts, so you can dump your favourite apps, contacts or bookmarks in here, so you never have to press that Windows button.

Contacts offers the same luscious visual experience. Arrive at the Contacts page and you again have a customisable grid where you can select your frequent contacts for one-press access. A great thing about this shortcut list is that you can choose what that shortcut does – take them to that person's contact details, or call one of their numbers, or perhaps directly into email.

You can have a regular list of contacts under "All people" which you can either flick to scroll through, or run your finger down the right-hand edge to jump to a letter of the alphabet. Of course, once you've pulled in Outlooks contacts from your PC via ActiveSync, the HD2 will pair them up with your Facebook friends - but you'll have to nudge it to do so – bringing in more info and populating the images and so on. It's a far cry from the bland Windows Mobile default Contacts display lurking in the back somewhere.

From a contact's details page you can pull up the Google Map of their location to instantly get directions, or move sideways to view their messages, emails, updates and call history too, which is a great person-focused approach and the very essence of the Sense UI.

The same experience ranges through messages and emails, with easy access to multiple accounts, be they POP, IMAP, or Exchange. Moving through to photos you can flick through your photos with a finger swipe, with pinch or double-tap zooming. Photos and videos can be quickly shared right from the off, with Facebook and YouTube links already established.

The Twitter widget page in Sense is pretty much like the Android version, letting you view, or enter Peep proper. If you are a heavy Twitter user, you might as well just add a link to Peep right from the front page to head straight into your Twitter feed, rather than scrolling across, but each to their own. The widget pages in Sense can be rearranged too, if you prefer.

Pressing the icons across the top of the screen will bring up your notifications area, which will tell you if you have missed calls, messages and so on, as well letting you view the mobile operator, Wi-Fi and battery statuses, so you can kill Wi-Fi or whatever you choose. Like Windows Mobile 6.5 proper, the lock screen on the HD2 also gives you notifications, so you can see with a tap that you have emails, missed calls and so on and get right to them.

What HTC have done with the HD2 then, is taken the pain out of Windows Mobile and they have done it in a way that takes the integration their own interface very deep indeed. In fact, in most daily tasks, you don't have to touch a Windows Mobile page – even the Settings menu as been reskinned. It's a beautifully refreshing experience as a result.

There will be occasions then you get a frightening reminder of what is lurking underneath, when you'll get a rough Windows Mobile 6.5 page punching through. For example if there is an error in your email setup or something like that, you get a glimpse back into the dark ages. Depending on how you use the phone, you may experience more of less of this, of course.

You also get those benefits that Windows Mobile brings, and with the HD2 packing in a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, Microsoft's operating system runs with a fair lick. Opening applications is swift and it copes with skipping around without getting bogged down. Copying and pasting multiple files from the memory to an inserted microSD card, for example, was quick and easy in File Manager.

The size of the HD2 also neatly sidesteps one of our gripes about Windows Mobile, and that's the occasional need to press a tiny "X" or "OK" to close a page. Here the icons are big enough to tap with a finger. Ditto the two options presented that the bottom of the page, usually to access the menu or make a selection. Here you can actually do it reliably first press.

And that is due to the HD2's capacitive touchscreen display. It means that presses are so much more reliable than before and you don't find yourself pressing away with no response. That response is essential when you move over to the keyboard.

The keyboard is HTC's own keyboard supported by their predictive entry which helps to iron out any mistakes that you introduce whilst bashing in a message. It is responsive enough to actually use at speed too and we found the experience to be very close to the HTC Hero – high praise indeed.

You get options for a full QWERTY, a compact QWERTY, or a standard 12-key phone keypad, but with the space on offer here, you never really need to dive out of the full thing, even in portrait mode. It will also spell check as you go, if you want it to.

The screen lends itself to photos and video viewing, which we’ve already mentioned and a YouTube app is ready installed to get you off to some online video viewing. With so much space available it also lends itself to browsing the Internet too.

You get multi-touch browser support in the form of pinch zooming, but once we really set it to task, we found it was not as reliable as the Palm Pre, occasionally stuttering around the edges of pages and bouncing back to the centre. Double tap zooming is also present, quickly snapping in and out of pages. Dragging pages around is also relatively smooth, not quite as good as some other rivals, but the best we've seen on a Windows Phone. This is partly due to ditching Internet Explorer Mobile in favour of Opera, so you get great full screen browsing which is relatively quick, with support for multiple pages.

The 5-megapixel camera around the back performs well but does suffer from some shutter lag. Autofocus will pick-up on your subject, or you can touch to focus, with touch and hold to take a picture, so saves you from the shake of moving your finger. The dual LED flash gives some hope to indoor snappers and ISO runs up to 800, but with noticeable noise.

Video capture comes in at 640 x 480 and seems to hold a regular 25fps fairly well, and we found the results were good – better than many mobile devices seem to achieve.

Another headline feature of the HD2 is its Wi-Fi router feature. Our Mac found it and hooked up with no problems at all, drawing data through the mobile phone network. Apparently on some phones you'll be charged for tethering, which isn't a problem here.

The battery life is also surprisingly good. You'll get a full day of average use from it. Yes, it will need charging every night, but with calls, plenty of data and a bit of everything else, it's seen us good. Those who plan to use it as a Wi-Fi router and make plenty of calls might want to look at getting a second battery however.

Verdict:

The HTC HD2 gives you a full smartphone experience from all angles. The tech specs are fully loaded, giving you HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, a digital compass, accelerometers, proximity sensors (so it knows when it is next to your face…). You get that 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, video capture that actually looks ok and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Then there's the responsive 4.3-inch high-resolution capacitive touchscreen display.

It wouldn't be fair to mark the HD2 down simply because it is a Windows Mobile device, despite that OS having a number on inherent problems. If anything, HTC should be praised for what they have achieved with the HD2 through their customisation.

But you do have to consider that when you push beyond what HTC Sense offers you here, you are back to Windows Mobile and that unfortunately includes a rather basic Windows Marketplace, which still looks a little sparse at present.

Another downside, of course, is that you have a giant phone. If you spend most of your time moving from home to desk via the train, this might not be a problem, but slip it into a pair of shorts come summer and you might want something smaller.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones HTC HTC HD2 HTC Leo

HTC HD2 mobile phone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:52:38 +0000

Back at Mobile World Congress 2009 Sony Ericsson introduced us to the concept of Entertainment Unlimited, typified here by the Aino. The phone drops to the Walkman and Cyber-shot branding, but punches hard in both the camera and multimedia sectors, including Remote Play on the PlayStation 3.

Out of the box you get a slider handset measuring 104.0 x 50.0 x 15.5mm. You'll find a 3-inch widescreen display with a 432 x 240 pixel resolution. The screen is touch-enabled, but the Aino is a hybrid device, meaning sometimes you can touch and sometimes you can't, which we'll come to later.

The design of the phone is pretty sleek: the front is free from buttons with the screen closed and moving around the body the only other buttons are the lock on the top and the volume rocker and camera button on the right-hand side.

Slide the screen up and it opens with a nice crisp action, exposing the 12-key keypad and usual range of control buttons across the middle. The keyboard is pretty average for Sony Ericsson's handsets, giving a reasonable response, but not the best for fast action messaging. It does feel like a good quality keyboard and feels like it will last the length of your contract. Our review version was finished in black throughout and it looks like a cool phone overall.

The menu system is typical Sony Ericsson stuff, with a main menu divided into icons giving you access to all the main areas. It is looking a little tired, as essentially the layout and content of these menus hasn't changed over the years, it's just expanded. With Apps now taking centre stage on many phones, Sony Ericsson still has "Applications" languishing in "Organiser".

You get the feeling that things are no longer cohesive: you have Entertainment, Media, Music Player menus, but they don't contain all the options for media control. The main media menu employs Sony's XMB, which is great to use and mirrors the PSP and PS3 layout.

You also get a separate media interface that is operated by touch control when the phone is closed. This is the only time that the Aino does accept touch however (except to take incoming calls and set camera controls), and gives you access to the camera, photos, music, video and radio. Sadly, this touch menu has its own design, dropping the XMB, but it does give you access to media without opening the phone.

It is a shame that you can't do more via touch. Whilst being able to access your media and use the camera is nice, it seems like a missed opportunity not letting you browse your messages for example.

Our Aino came with an 8GB microSD card in place, so it is ready and willing to get funky with all your tunes on the move. It is perhaps a surprise to find that the Aino doesn’t feature a 3.5mm headphone jack given that it is pitched squarely as a multimedia beast. But our rage was thwarted by the inclusion of the MH100 Bluetooth adapter, meaning you can simply plug your headphones into the Bluetooth dongle and stash your phone in your pocket. The MH100 even gives you volume controls, play/pause and track skip functions and a mic for when you need to make a call.

The bundled headphones can be bettered if you have a decent set of your own, which will really get the most out of your music, but the bundled set aren't too bad. Taking things a step further you also get a neat dock to sit both the handset and the MH100 on, meaning you can charge and sync your phone with your PC with minimal hassle.

One of the big headline features in the Aino is the PS3 connection. In reality it isn't that exciting and isn't very reliable as you are given little guidance for configuration. However, once you have made your connection you can connect over 3G or Wi-Fi. You don't get to remote play games, but you can access content on your PS3, if you have any, or drive PlayTV whilst you are away from home.

You can also connect up to UPnP servers to play music over a network, if you have such a service available. The handset is DNLA certified and also supports BBC iPlayer, so you can download programmes you've missed and watch them on the train, or stream them.

The second big headline feature of the Aino is an 8-megapixel camera. But hold your horses and remember that 8 is just a number and not a gauge of performance. In fact, the 8-megapixel sensor here inhibits the performance terribly.

The camera interface is fairly clean, with controls selected through on-screen options. You can capture an image either through the button, or by pressing the screen, which in reality is a bit of a pain, as the slightest touch and you'll be taking a picture of something you didn't want.

Writing a full-resolution file to the memory card takes about 10 seconds, so this is time you'll just be sitting and waiting. Better performance is offered by turning the thing down to a more reasonable 3-megapixels, which will save you standing around for such a long time waiting, at least. Unless you have perfect lighting and a perfectly still subject, it isn't worth using the full resolution anyway as there is a lack of detail to offer opportunities for large scale prints or cropping, so best to stick with something more manageable.

The camera suffers not only lag on buffering, but also in the shutter, with noticeable delay. The shutter speeds are often slow, even with the LED "flash", so any movement in low light, or even average lit indoors scenes, result in blur and high contrast scenes attract a great deal of fringing around edges.

Video is offered at a top setting of 640 x 352, giving you a widescreen aspect, or 640 x 480 for 4:3, captured in MPEG4. The results aren't too bad, but there is a noticeable lag on the display when filming. It captures at 25fps, so copes with moving subjects better than some but low light shots can be very noisy. Given the phones media "sharing" angle, we'd have expected a higher video resolution, but as it is it performs well enough.

In terms of data you get HSDPA and Wi-Fi, so you can enjoy the rich media experience whilst on the move or at home. There is a GPS too with Google Maps doing the usual business. The browser does leave you wanting however, so if browsing the Internet is high on your list of priorities, you might want to look elsewhere.

The Aino doesn't really step to the plate against smartphones. It doesn't give you access to thousands of applications to further expand what the phone will do. You do get a Facebook app pre-installed, with Facebook links appearing in photos and messages for example, and a homescreen status update "widget" that although nice, took about 3 days before it would show us any info.

We also found that the battery life was surprisingly poor for a slider handset. We found ourselves charging it every day during testing.

Verdict:

The Sony Ericsson Aino offers features galore, but fails to wrap them into a package that really wows. There is a lot on offer here, but you feel like you have to work for it at times, finding the best route to get to the content you want. The link to the PS3 is a nice addition, but doesn't feel like a reason to buy the phone.

The same can be said for the 8-megapixel camera offering. It is just a number and comes with limitations not found on your compact camera, so don't choose the Aino because you think it will replace your compact camera – it won't.

The Sony Ericsson is something of a premium handset too, because it comes in a quite a price, comparable with smartphone rivals, which will ultimately offer greater flexibility and a better user interface.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Sony Ericsson Sony Ericsson Aino 8 megapixels PS3

Sony Ericsson U10i Aino mobile phone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:35:02 +0000

When Google released its first Google phone with T-Mobile in 2008 the industry had high hopes. Here was an open source platform that would change the face of the industry and give Microsoft, Apple and anyone else who happened to be interested, a run for their money.

The problem was, that while the concept was there, the execution was poor. The G1 was a dog of a handset with a poor design and while sporting a promising interface, was lacking in many ways.?Here at Pocket-lint we gave it a 5/10 citing the handset as a "not consumer ready device" and one that you should steer clear of:

"Our suggestion would be to wait 6 months to a year and by then you'll have so many handset choices (perhaps even the Touch HD) that will offer a far better, sexier, more consumer focused, offering that this will be old news and look, well, rather crap. A great OS let down by a shoddy handset design."

And guess what? 6 months down the line we started to get those far better handset choices in the guise of the HTC Hero and Samsung i7500. Now a year to the day since we posted our G1 review, has Android, Motorola and Verizon brought a handset to market that is any better? Read on to find out.

As a quick background, it's worth pointing out that this handset has been created by three parties, all hoping to get something out of the deal. Motorola has built the hardware, which we will come to in a moment, Google provides the interface and Verizon the network.

Motorola or Verizon have, it seems, been allowed to interfere with the software implementation. There is no Motoblur, no operator bloatware and certainly nothing that isn't Google.

Motorola might have been "allowed" to slap a user interface on the CLIQ (DEXT in the UK) but here, they haven't even been allowed so much as nuance. Its job has been hardware, and hardware alone. Even the name, Droid, is going to be used by Verizon to create a family of handsets from a range of manufacturers.?Motorola is very much an OEM player in this threesome.

Sporting all the exciting features that you would expect (more in a moment) all of these features have been shoehorned into a handset that is surprisingly compact, but distinctively retro in its appeal. While the iPhone and iPhone 3GS is all about curves, the Droid by Motorola is about angles. It's not dainty by any stretch of the imagination.

Slightly thicker than the iPhone, it is weighty in the hand and comfortable in the pocket. It's not small, but its not HTC HD2 massive either.

Rather than opt for a white or silver, it's black and "brown sugar". That "brown sugar" will come across as "bling gold" though, and it's the first time we've seen gold on a phone that wasn't attempting to charge us thousands for the privilege. We're sorry to say that it's a bit too ostentatious for our liking. Luckily it's really only kept to three small details: the speaker grill on the rear, the d-pad on the front and the dedicated camera button.

There is a reason it has been called the Droid: the design, like a robot, has no emotion.

So what have they put inside? The key tech specs include a massive 3.7-inch screen, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Android 2.0 and a processor fast enough (550MHz) to power it all. Storage is offered by a 16GB microSD card that comes pre-installed (not hot swappable) and there is of course the usual bevy of connectivity technology such as GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Quad-Band and, because of Verizon, CDMA.

There is a 3.5mm jack and speaker for the music savvy and a small green light that flashes when you've got a message or alert of some sort. You can turn it off, but it will keep the BlackBerry switchers happy.

Gaming-wise the processor is powerful enough to cope and with built-in Open GL support for the games we played (Robo Defence amongst others). With only 256MB of available memory for apps, the move could limit what games (i.e., high octane graphic-filled) will work. It will certainly make developers lives harder.

On the camera front you get a 5-megapixel camera with the ability to capture video at DVD quality up to 24fps and zoom in 4x via a digital zoom. There is a dual LED flash and it features automatic focus.

Within the camera application itself, which is turned on by pressing the dedicated button on the side of the handset, you have some control over the way the camera acts. There is of course the usual still and video modes and a quick access point to the photo galleries. There is also the ability to change the settings of your images like White Balance, Scene mode, Flash mode, Color effect, Store location, Picture size, Picture quality and Focus Mode.?Scenes offered include Portrait, Night, and the like but there is no Macro.

In use and the camera struggled to autofocus on our subjects. You get a warning and the ability to take an image still, but what's the point if it's blurry? This is a nice addition rather than a reason to buy just like most phones that aren't camera focused. Dedicated compact cameras don't have too much to worry about just yet.

Then there is the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Used landscape it instantly reminds us of the HTC Touch Pro from 2008. The keys are arranged across four rows and lay flat. You'll either love or loathe this as it doesn't give you any indication of where you are on the keyboard - one of the key reasons for going QWERTY over touch. Next to the keyboard there is an overly-large d-pad.

Of course you don't really have to ever slide-out the keyboard as the phone's 3.7-inch touchscreen combined with Android's landscape and portrait keyboards, don't need you to. The screen is bright and as crisp as any other screen in the market that isn't OLED. Beneath the screen are four quick shortcut keys: back, menu, home and search and they get you to where you want to go quickly. All are touch-sensitive and all are built into the glass screen so it's a continuation, like the BlackBerry Storm 2, rather than four separate buttons.

Physical buttons, aside from the hidden keyboard, are kept to a minimum: dedicated camera, volume and lock. Even though it has a QWERTY keyboard, those keys are really just for that. There is no "Mail" key or five ways of accessing the home screen as can found on your average Nokia.

Power it on and the fun starts. Someone, somewhere, clearly has a sense of humour. While the notion of a HAL-esque eye looking out at me sends shivers down my spine every time I've booted the system, the fact that is plays an audio clip that says "Droid" in a robot accent does make you giggle. Expect yourself, if you sign up for this handset, to be boring you friends for days, if not weeks.

If you've used Android before you will know what to expect. As we said at the beginning, this is very much a Google experience. There are no tricks, no Sense UI elements, no Motoblur. You get a desktop, and the slide-out draw for your applications and that's it.

Sporting Android 2.0 there are a number of new features that have been added to the mix to justify getting this over the HTC Hero - for the time-being (HTC have confirmed 2.0 will be coming to the Hero). The OS is quick and nippy in use.

Android 2.0 offers more functionality improvements over 1.6, rather than visual flair or excitement in the same way that perhaps Apple concentrates on. But it's the little things that can soon add up to make it better than the sum of its parts.

One of those is the ability to mute the handset with a swipe of your finger before unlocking it. The other is the search box that like the Palm Pre and iPhone allows you to search the phone, and its data straight away. Where it beats the iPhone is that it automatically starts searching the web for you, integrating those results into the mix as well.

Among the improvements will be email and contact syncing with multiple?accounts from multiple sources, Exchange sync support, a combined inbox for those multiple email accounts, better calendar, improvements in address book UI, loads of camera improvements including flash, digital zoom and a macro mode, a better virtual keyboard, improved graphics, three-point multi-touch, a better browser and Bluetooth 2.1.

Setting up email was (almost) straightforward. Gmail users will be able to punch in their username and password, while Google Apps users will have to make sure they are running all the right software on their domain. We had to enable Google Talk (Chat) before it would allow us to sign in to the service - cunning.

If you are a Google Apps user it will automatically sync everything to the phone. Contacts, Calendar dates, the lot. It's very pain free, In fact the most pain-free install we've ever experienced. Multiple calendars, multiple contacts, and over 10,000 emails accessible in about 60 seconds. This is very much the essence of Android for those already in the Google system.

As for browsing the phone as you covered too. It's not iPhone easy yet, but there are lots of impressive new features. The main one is that when you load up a page you get a full "desktop" view of the page you are looking at. Double tapping zooms you in to the page, but frustratingly there is no pinch zoom or multi-touch support. We aren't sure why as it's on the HTC Hero and the lack of it makes the browser harder to use. You do get zoom buttons, but they aren't the same.

We also noticed some strange page layout issues with the browser (see picture) that while not impeding your browsing experience completely, isn't how those pages were designed.?YouTube videos are playable and loaded into the handset's media player. It's a painless experience.

One of the biggest elements to gain excitement on the launch of the Droid by Motorola and Android 2.0 was the introduction of Google Maps Navigation. Currently only available on the Droid, it brings true turn-based GPS to the phone for free.

The new offering aims to take on the GPS hardcore from TomTom and Garmin by offering a fully-functional GPS device in your phone. Users can speak their directions to the handset rather than having to type them in and access maps and Points of Interest via the "cloud", suggesting mapping updates and new features needed to be downloaded will be a thing of the past.

In practice and it's as good as it sounds. Telling a phone to "Navigate" to a destination is very Start Trek.?Feeling peckish, our first request was to "Navigate to pizza in Hoboken". After it analysed our dulcet tones, it then offered us a number of pizza restaurants in Hoboken with the option to click on one to give us directions. No multiple menu systems, no working out where they were - just a phrase and off we go.

While the system waits for the GPS to kick in you get a run through of the route and then there are a series of different views you can catch including 2D, 3D, and Street View. You can also overlay layers on to the maps such as live traffic (where supported), Satellite, and Points of Interest like ATMs, Gas Stations and Car Parks.

The software does take some getting used to, we struggled at first, and it doesn't seem to be as intuitive from the outset as TomTom or Garmin. It lacks that experience of helping people out get from A to B, like easily finding recent destinations. There also is valueable information that is missing from the "dashboard", like estimated time of arrival, the ability to block roads, and other niceties that you just expect from even the cheapest PNDs. The voice is pretty ropey as well, and of course, you are dependent on downloading your maps too.

The performance is good, but Google has a long way before the dedicated manufacturers should really start the firesale.?This is a free GPS solution and therefore one that isn't to be sniffed at, just don't expect to ditch your dedicated device just yet.

Being the most advanced Android handset on the block currently has its benefits, mainly that you have full access to virtually all of the apps in the Android Marketplace. While our recent review of the HTC Tattoo found that there is currently plenty missing from the lower end phones, this didn't seem to be the case here.?

So you've got your new phone, it's a funky new shape and there isn't the massive eco system. While the Droid doesn't come with speaker docks and cases, Verizon is offering two accessories that make perfect sense. The first is a docking station for your nightstand, the second is a windscreen cradle so you can use the Google Maps Navigation. Both cost $30 and really are just cleverly designed bits of plastic with magnets in the right place to activate software on the phone - hence the cheap price.

The docking cradle loads a dashboard style interface that lets the phone become a glorified alarm clock. It works too. You get a big clock, the weather, access to your music and photos as well as the ability to dim the light so you can sleep. There is also a quick button to the alarm settings. We really like it. It's a neat idea first seen on the BlackBerry Bold and one that is welcomed here. The car mount does a similar thing and loads the navigation interface. It doesn't however go the one step further - like the TomTom for iPhone cradle - and boost the GPS signal, but Google has confirmed to us that it would be possible within Android to do it if a manufacturer wanted to.

Verdict:

It's the question that everyone will ask, so we might as well get it out of the way now - is this an iPhone or HTC Hero killer? And the answer is no.

Where the Droid by Motorola or Motorola Droid, as it will no doubt be known, succeeds is that it offers you a state of the art experience of Android 2.0 on a network that has flawless telephone reception across the country. Against the iPhone, which is a multimedia internet device first and a telephone second, that will be a deal clincher for many.

In tests around New York, a notorious AT&T blackspot, the Droid outperformed the iPhone when it came to network connectivity every time.?Get past the small detail of making phone calls and there are some really nice features here. The docking station, the ease of setup and the sheer list of tech specs make this no slouch.

But there are issues. The QWERTY keyboard isn't that great, no multi-touch in browsing is frustrating, and the Google Maps offering is close but not quite there yet.

In fact the best way to think of this handset is the true sequel to the T-Mobile G1. For some, especially those who don't like the idea of their OS being meddled with (a la the Sense UI) this will be their calling. To others looking for that graphical eye candy you won't get it here.

This is a fantastic phone, but would we personally choose it over the Hero? Not if the Hero, as suggested by HTC, will be getting Android 2.0.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Motorola Verizon Google Motorola Droid Android

Droid by Motorola mobile phone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:09:29 +0000

INQ caused something of a wave when it dropped its INQ1 handset into the mobile phone pond last year. Taking an approach that focused on software, the INQ1 was one of the first devices to offer out-of-the-box access to social networks and online services, fitting closely with 3's move towards offering the likes of Skype on their handsets.

The mobile phone world has changed significantly in the last 6 months and some might credit INQ for ushering in this change: we now have the likes of Motorola's Motoblur and HTC's Sense UI picking up your social networks and delivering an enhanced connected experience, but at a much higher price than INQ.

The INQ Mini itself is a compact candybar handset, measuring 102.9 x 45.8 x 12.8mm, small enough to slip into any pocket and at 128g, it is pretty light too. At first glance it looks like a number of entry-level devices from the likes of Sony Ericsson or Nokia, with a 12-key keypad, a central bad on control keys and a 2.2-inch display above. The display is 240 x 320 pixels, a typical resolution for entry-level devices.

Buttons are kept to a minimum around the body: on the right-hand side you'll find a camera button and a shortcut button that will take you to the Switcher banner, containing instant access to apps or websites. A volume rocker sits on the left-hand side.

The top of the devices sees the Mini-USB connection next to a small catch to release the back cover, which comes in red, but can be swapped out for a number of other colour options available separately. Ominously missing here is a 3.5mm jack, so you'll be left using the bundled headset unless you go for a Bluetooth option.

The bundled headset is of the hard plastic earbud variety which doesn't do your music justice. We've questioned many manufacturer's decisions in the past to omit a standard headphone jack, and with the INQ Mini pitching straight to the youth market, it seems almost criminal here.

Around the back of the phone is a 2.0-megapixel camera, which is an average performer and nothing more. It is fine for candid shots and sharing on the phone, but lacks the quality for prints. Images lack detail, the colour is poor and fringing is abundant around high contrast areas. Video capture is also offered, at a miserable 176 x 144px at 10fps, which is fine for sharing on a phone, but lacks the quality these days for much else. Also sitting on the back is the external speaker, which is relatively good considering its size.

The keyboard itself is positive enough in use, although the tactile finish wasn't to our taste. It doesn't feel nice under your fingertips and is reminiscent of running your fingernails down a chalkboard, for those old enough to remember what a chalkboard is. For the most part it doesn't matter, but the placement of the two keys beneath the screen is too cramped, especially when you are frequently using these to selection on-screen options.

INQ could have given more space over to the controls if they shrunk the logo'd "ok" button in the centre of the four-way controller.

Based on the Brew OS, the INQ Mini 3G is really all about the interface. It doesn’t have the same luscious visuals as some of the latest releases, but that is partly due to the lower resolution screen and the need to keep the cost down.

Out of the box you have access to Twitter, Facebook, Skype and Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger, which for many will cover their major social networking bases. You also get the Gmail app, which runs reasonably well, and also provides access to your Google Contacts. The INQ Mini doesn't ask you to integrate your Google Contacts from the off, but you can then call people using your Google Contacts via the app if you wish.

Missing Google Contacts is a shame as it is a simple way to get all your contacts from one central place like you do on rival services. So to get a truly centralised Contacts book in the INQ you'll need to bring in your numbers, then make the connections with other networks, merging contacts into one form. From Contacts you can dive over to a Facebook profile or call via Skype or just use regular messaging.

The clever thing is being able to send Facebook messages direct from contacts as you would a text message, which for heavy Facebook users will save plenty of time. Equally, you'll get access to received Facebook messages via Messages. Messages pulls together your various communications nicely, without having to rely on the different apps.

The menu system is interestingly designed, giving you a nice bright look and feel. It can sometimes be a little sluggish, refusing to respond to button presses, which reconfirms the budget status of the phone.

Dive into the menu and all the usual suspects are here, so you get access to your applications (most of which you'll probably access through the shortcut Switcher), but you'll also find access to music, photos, videos, etc. Sadly there is no radio.

You'll want to take advantage of the microSD card slot hiding under the back cover to expand on the minimal internal memory, especially if you are looking to carry around any quantity of music.

Getting content on to your phone is a breeze too, thanks to some thoughtful inclusions on the INQ. Connect the phone to your PC and options open up allowing you to use your INQ Mini as a 3G modem for your PC on the move, sync, transfer files or use DoubleTwist to manage your media. Mac users are also catered for, which is a rare thing indeed.

You can also customise the homepage with a number of widgets, so you can have weather, or a Google or Yahoo search right from the off, without having to dive into the browser. The browser experience isn't great, constrained by the size of the screen and although it renders full web pages, it is slow to do so, preferring mobile versions instead.

In terms of hardware, as the name suggests this is a 3G device, giving you HSDPA connectivity, but you don't get any backup for that: there is no Wi-Fi to continue your browsing without drawing on the mobile phone connection. There is no GPS either, although Google Maps is included, offering triangulation location and easy map searches.

Battery life in practise is reasonable, although if you make a lot of calls you'll find the battery might not last you the day. We found that standby was better and we got a couple of days from it before we needed to be charging again.

Verdict:

There are things we don't like about the INQ Mini 3G when you stack it up against what larger devices are doing, but then when you compare it to some of the current offerings outside the "smartphone" category, it copes very well indeed.

Sure, you don't get all the hardware specs, but we like the OS and the way it integrates aspects of your digital life in an innovative way. It's becoming more common, but stacked against rival Symbian S40 devices, it's a breath of fresh air. We mention S40 devices because the INQ Mini 3G also comes in as good value for money: the handset is free on a ?15 a month tariff from 3, or ?59.99 on pay as you go.

For those who want a compact and affordable phone, which offers the integration of the major social networks, then the INQ Mini 3G is well worth a look. But do try the keyboard as we found this the most annoying aspect of the device.

Related links:

• Photos - INQ Mini 3G and INQ Chat 3G

Tags: Phones Mobile phones INQ Mini 3G Inq

INQ Mini 3G mobile phone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:24:37 +0000

RIM picked a hell of a week to release its new flagship smartphone, the BlackBerry Bold 9700. Microsoft and Apple have been fighting for press attention, with the former releasing its most-anticipated operating system for many years and the latter attempting to drown out that announcement with a slew of product updates.

Nevertheless, the new Bold has managed a decent amount of attention from the world's media. Much has been made of its new, slimmer form factor, and the improvements in responsiveness over the occasionally sluggish original. Pocket-lint managed to get hands-on with the smartphone as it was announced today. Does it stack up to its competitors? Read on to find out.

Let's start with the looks. The Bold 9700 doesn't throw any of RIM's established style out of the window - it looks like a BlackBerry and no-one would mistake it for anything else. There's plenty of rhomboid-y shapes and the keyboard is as familiar as ever. But it's certainly more refined than past handsets from RIM.

Performance has improved too. RIM told us that a whole host of bug fixes and little tweaks to get more out of the onboard hardware have been included in the form of BlackBerry OS version 5. The hardware comprises a new 624MHz processor and 256MB of flash memory which definitely seemed, in our short play with the device, to make things more responsive.

In fact, the only time when it behaved slowly was when it had to load a big chunk of text - specifically the subscriber agreement for the App World which is present and correct on the handset - which took a good 30 seconds or so. In terms of the actual operating system, very little has altered from the changes we saw come in with version 4.6 last year.

The keyboard is top-notch, as you'd expect from a handset from RIM, as email and instant messaging is still key to the whole handset, with BlackBerry's exemplary email system underpinning the experience. If you're not the kind of person who spends all their time in their inbox, then given the advances in multimedia on rival devices, you'll probably want to look elsewhere.

That said, the speakers aren't bad. Blaring out Beastie Boys yielded a reasonable level of detail, but a complete lack of bass. You'll want to plug headphones into the included 3.5mm jack if you're serious about listening to music on this handset, but it doesn't get a look-in on the multimedia keys found on the Curve 8520.

The screen, which isn't touch-enabled, is 2.44-inches and slightly smaller than its predecessor (which was 2.6-inches diagonally). It does, however, run at a slightly higher resolution than the original Bold. It's clear and bright and displays colours well. Although we didn't get a chance to take a look in direct sunlight, if it anything like previous screens, it will be happy outdoors. Viewing angles are also impressive.

The camera isn't too bad, either. Although it's only 3.2-megapixels, it captured images acceptably in a well-lit room. We weren't able to test how well that'll stack up in a darker situation, but there is a flash onboard, and we'd imagine the performance to be much like previous BlackBerry handsets.

Verdict:

Overall, in our short time with the device, the Bold 9700 seems like a solid improvement on the old Bold. It doesn't do anything terribly revolutionary - focusing on the communications experience above everything else - but it's a solid smartphone choice for those who prioritise messaging functionality.

It's sure to be widely adopted in business and email-aholics, but we’ll be giving the handset a full rundown when we get a review sample.

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News -?BlackBerry Bold 9700 announced

Photos -?BlackBerry Bold 9700

Tags: Phones Mobile phones BlackBerry RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700

BlackBerry Bold 9700 - First Look originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:04:36 +0100

HTC has played the biggest part in bringing Android to the masses. If you want a new operating system to take off, you need to gain some degree of market base, which is why the HTC Tattoo is exciting. Like the Huawei's T-Mobile Pulse, the HTC Tattoo is pitched as an entry level device, for those that can't afford a premium phone like the HTC Hero.

It is no surprise to see the Tattoo coming from HTC: they have a history of producing various formats of Windows Mobile devices so are ideally placed to repeat this operation for Android. The HTC Tattoo, then, follows the inoffensive design lines of preceding HTC touch devices and at first glance could easily be taken as a Windows Phone.

Although it is an entry-level or "mass market" device, the build quality is still good. Plastics are used throughout, but they are free from creaks and it looks smart. A range of custom covers will be available with the option of designing your own through tattoomyhtc.com; ours simply had an Android popping his head out of the back cover, the cuddly little chap that he is. The HTC Tattoo measures 106 x 55.2 x 14 mm, so is relatively compact.

The front sees the usual range of controls: Home, Menu, Back and Search sit paired on two rocker keys under the screen, with a central four-way/ok controller flanked by the calling keys. The action on the buttons is reasonable, if a little shallow, although those with bigger hands might find that bending your thumb to use them is a little uncomfortable.

The locations are reasonable too but you'll probably find in one-handed use that reaching the extreme left or right key (Home and Search respectively), depending on which hand you are holding the phone in, is difficult. The four-way controller might not actually get much use, but can slide through the HTC Sense homepages or up and down menus as you see fit without touching the screen, perhaps overcoming some of the niggles with screen responsiveness.

The left-hand side of the phone sees a volume rocker. The top of the phone gives you the 3.5mm headphone jack and around the back is the 3.2-megapixel camera, sans flash. On the bottom is the bespoke USB connection, which we have found will accept a standard Mini-USB in absence of the supplied cable.

The screen is the area where the HTC Tattoo really differentiates itself from the HTC Hero and other Android devices released so far. The HTC Tattoo comes with Android 1.6 (Donut) which supports a wider range of screen resolutions than previous versions, which is where HTC really save the money in this model.

The screen is a 2.8-inch QVGA 240 x 320 pixel resolution display and it is resistive - quite a drop down from the impressive screen found on the HTC Hero. The operating system, Android with HTC Sense sitting on top, is essentially the same but the experience is quite different.

Being a resistive display means that you lose the multi-touch support that gives the Hero such a good browsing experience. It also means that general navigation of the user interface loses the precision and immediacy that the best devices have. It means you'll spend more time poking the screen to elicit a response and scrolling isn't as accurate as you'd like it to be.

That said, Android and HTC Sense have been well designed for touch control, so this isn't a throwback to the bad old days of Windows Mobile: it still all works as it should, with HTC Sense binding together the Android experience.

We won't go into detail in HTC Sense here, but if you haven't heard about it, we'll run through the highlights. You get five homepages and the ability to flick left and right through them. They can be customised to your liking, adding HTC widgets for major applications like weather, email, Twitter, etc as well as Android widgets or shortcuts to people, applications, bookmarks and so on.

You also get Scenes, so if you want a different homepage selection for work, home, travel or whatever, you can do so. Android already pulls on your Google account for calendars, email and contacts, but Sense takes it a step further, giving you the option to pull in Facebook and Flickr too. It links Facebook and Google contacts, giving you a rich contacts experience, with easy access to an individuals updates, photos and so on. It doesn’t go quite as far as Motorola's Motoblur, but as a front end to a phone, we can only say that HTC Sense is the way modern mobile phone should be.

You still get those Sense quirks that don't quite work, like arriving at a "live" widget and finding it isn't updated, so you have to then wait for the refresh before you get the current information, but the same is true of the Hero. You'll also get the occasional pause on opening your more information-intensive apps, but nothing devastating.

But the biggest thing you'll notice is the step down in quality that dropping to QVGA resolution brings. The screen isn't as sharp as we'd quite like and the smaller size means less space for widgets overall. It also means that you'll need to view text larger for it to be clear enough to read.

However, if you haven't been living with a higher resolution device, then this isn't something that will really bother you and it competes with other compact smartphones, bringing with it both the customisation advantages of the Android platform and the friendly and fun HTC Sense.

But not so fast. As this is a Donut (Android 1.6) device with a lower resolution, there is a marked difference in the Marketplace too. For those that don't know, the Android Marketplace is where you go to pick up applications. The combination of Donut and QVGA mean that at present not all the apps are available yet. Developers have to recompile their app for 1.6 (which shouldn't be a problem) as well as make any changes to the user interface to it works with the screen. It's a process that will take time, but at the time of writing, most of our favourites have not yet made an appearance.

The Browser is good, but really misses multi-touch. It is fast enough, but you are dependent on double tap zooming or zoom buttons at the bottom the screen. The low resolution also means that you need to zoom a lot, because you can't read the text.

The smaller size and resistive screen also have an impact on the keyboard experience. You get HTC's keyboard with suggestions, which will smooth out the majority of spelling mistakes, but if you have big fingers, even the landscape QWERTY can be a little small. One advantage though, is that if you have fingernails/false nails (girls, I'm talking to you) you'll be able to bash out messages using the tips of your nails, something that the Hero won't let you do.

The hardware specs are comprehensive however. You get HSPDA, you get Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as well as an FM radio, a commuter favourite. You also get lots of sensory awareness including GPS, accelerometer and a digital compass, so as far as smartphones go it ticks all the right boxes.

To expand the memory there is microSD card slot hiding under the back cover, which you'll need to store all those pics, videos and music that the Tattoo is waiting to take on. Battery life is fairly average for a connected touch device, giving you about 5 and a half hours of talk time and 20 days on standby. In practise, once you start drawing on all that data you'll be charging it every night.

Verdict:

Overall the HTC Tattoo experience is a good one. Sure, it is a noticeable step down from the Hero and rightly so. You don't get the same touch response and it doesn't look as sharp as the Hero. The keyboard experience isn't as good (with a caveat on long nails) and the browser doesn't have the same natural experience without multi-touch.

But you don't lose out on the spec sheet, meaning that you'll still be able to take advantage of all the smartphone goodness you are looking for with all the Android customisation to make the phone your own, once the Marketplace catches up. The icing on the cake is HTC Sense, which we love.

If you are looking for an affordable and friendly entry to the Android world then the HTC Tattoo is worthy of consideration, but if you can stretch to the Hero, you'll get so much more out of it.

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PHOTOS: HTC Tattoo

Tags: Phones Mobile phones HTC HTC Tattoo Android

HTC Tattoo mobile phone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:33:28 +0100

The smartphone market might be dominated by phones from Apple, HTC and BlackBerry, but there are some users, mainly teenagers, who can't afford high monthly phone bills. What happens then??The Nokia 6790 or Surge to use its American name is a QWERTY sporting smartphone with a strong focus on attempting to be cool. You know, for the kids.

Those who sign up get a 2.4-inch QVGA screen, a slide-out keyboard and 3G connectivity. Kids might be all about happy slapping and sending picture messages, but Nokia doesn't seem to care that they'll want to do this with any quality. So on the back there is a rather disappointing 2-megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom.

If you're worried about getting lost you don't have to as GPS is included, while stereo Bluetooth should appeal to those of a music disposition although the lack of a 3.5mm headphones jack is disappointing. A microSD card slot, not hot swappable, makes up for the rather poor 128MB of internal memory.

As this isn't your high-end smartphone, you don't get Wi-Fi nor do you get a stylish, mature design. It's not Sony Ericsson Walkman handset crazy, but then it is rather plastic. Designed to be used landscape rather than portrait as you would normally expect a phone to look, the black glossy handset is small enough to put up against your head for the 4 hours of talk time you get without looking like a tool. Compared to the Motorola CLIQ/DEXT, this is decidedly miniature.

In use and that design is cluttered with buttons. Besides the four row QWERTY keyboard, which features flat rectangular keys, the top slider element that houses the screen is awash with them as only Nokia know how. That means two home screen keys (why oh why?) a very clicky loud d-pad and shortcuts to the browser and mail.

Get past the design and surprisingly you do get Nokia's S60 rather than S40 operating system giving you plenty more scope when it comes to apps.?If that wasn't enough to get Nokia fans excited then full Flash support that you can show full screen probably will. None of this ?coming 2010 malarkey, Flash videos from YouTube and other players on your phone. Take that Apple fanboys.

Of course you can't say that too loudly as the browser certainly isn’t the speediest around, and even on the 3G network it will take time to stream those YouTube or Flash video favourites you've found. Getting a "Running low on memory" error message mid watch, doesn't help the cause either.

Head over to the social aspects and you get Facebook on-the-go and JuiceCaster pre-installed, not that it makes much difference as you can download them and others anyway via the Ovi store. This is S60 remember.

Verdict:

As an entry-level phone the S60 sporting Nokia Surge is best described as a mini mini N97 with some of the features stripped out.

The S60 interface is looking tired, certainly compared to many of the more innovative handsets from Samsung, LG and INQ, although we are pleased that Nokia opted for the more functional S60 over S40 OS.

The form factor does make for easy typing, but everything else just lacks excitement. Sorry.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Nokia Nokia Surge Nokia 6790 Nokia 6790 Surge

Nokia 6790 Surge mobile phone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:00:00 +0100

RIM today announced the BlackBerry Storm 2, the second iteration of its touchscreen handset. We had our hands on the new device this morning, and this is what we made if it.

In terms of look, little has changed from previously, following those distinct BlackBerry design lines, which now includes rubberised side volume and convenience keys. The backplate is metal, so feels sturdy enough and is comfortable in the hand. Measuring 112.5 x 62 x 13.9mm, its dimensions are average, even if the 160g is surprisingly weighty.

The front sees a 3.25-inch 480 x 360 pixel resolution display, featuring SurePress technology. SurePress, RIM tell us, is designed to differentiate between touching something and actually wanting to trigger that action. So, to select something on the screen, like an icon, you press the screen, it clicks and the phone reacts.

Previously this was enabled by a mechanical system residing behind the screen. The downside was that the screen had to return to its original position before you could select something else. This system has been replaced with an electromechanical system, so you still click it, but the phone can respond to subsequent clicks straight after. If you are typing, you can now use two thumbs to bash out emails without waiting between letters.

It seems to work too and settling down to crack out an email on the landscape keyboard is easy enough, once you remind yourself to press and not just touch. This is a pretty essential point, as BlackBerrys are known and loved for their keyboards (along with the email service, of course).

Various versions of the keyboard ware available, from QWERTY in landscape and portrait, through to RIM's SureType keyboard, which Pearl users will be familiar with, and works really well in portrait mode. Predictive text helps to iron out any mistakes you might make, whilst the key you press glows blue: it doesn't give you pop-up letters like you get on the iPhone and others, but we found it accurate enough in our short play.

Of course, it is difficult to judge the overall performance of the keyboard experience without really getting down to some power email action – something that BlackBerry users know all about. Email is a core component of your BlackBerry experience, and nothing has changed on this front, which is a good thing, but from a visual point of view it doesn’t have the impact that some of the recent alternatives do.

If you are a BlackBerry user, you'll be able to pick-up the Storm 2 and know where everything is. You'll know how to access the menu, you'll know which settings to tweak. The BlackBerry Storm 2 will ship with OS version 5, which has been waiting in the wings for some time and in that regard, nothing much has changed from a cosmetic point of view.

So your home page carries a number of shortcut icons allowing you to dive into your applications. Once you've entered say, emails or contacts, you'll find it the same as other BlackBerry devices. The touch response was pretty fast, but in a device that is free from content, it perhaps isn't a fair test, so we’ll reserve judgement on how it really performs until we've played with it some more.

Searching is pretty smart however, with touch bringing information to your fingertips easily. For example, you can press a contact's name and the Storm 2 will search for that person. Press the subject of an email, and it will search for that. We didn't get the chance to really test out how far you can go with it, but if it saves you opening a search window and typing in a search string, then so much the better.

We had a little play with cut and paste too, which takes advantage of multi-touch. Put two fingers on the screen and – like the iPhone – you get two tabs to select the text you want to copy. We tested it in a number of different places, so it seems like you can copy pretty much anything – unlike the Palm Pre, for example.

But having said that, we did find it being incredibly sensitive to our touch, jumping over lines and sometimes giving us three tabs for selecting text, suggesting that it's either a system that needs some refinement, or it's going to take a little practise to really use well.

Wi-Fi is included on this model, having been omitted from the original Storm, which will please those who like to browse within a home network, or those who want to avoid the burden of data costs whilst roaming.

You get the usual combination of HSPA, GPS and Bluetooth too, to keep you connected, and around the back is the usual autofocus 3.2-megapixel camera, with an LED flash. A 3.5mm headphone jack will let you listen to your music on the move.

Verdict:

Whilst we are fans of BlackBerry and their exemplary email service, you can't help feeling that the BlackBerry Storm 2 doesn't quite wow like the recent crop of touch devices. You don't get that easy OTA syncing out of the box like you do with Android devices and you don't get that super intuitive interface like the iPhone.

We pushed RIM on this point, asking about whether we would see an integrated contacts list or a "people-focused" approach, but it doesn't seem to be coming. Sure, you can install the Facebook app and use Google Sync to bring your contacts in with pictures, but it doesn’t have the buzz of something like Palm's Synergy or Motorola's Motoblur.

It is worth asking who the Storm 2 is aimed at: is it designed to dominate the consumer touchscreen space, or is it supposed to bring a larger screen to enhance the multimedia experience for business users? In today's world of smartphones is there really a difference between the two?

Taken at first glance, the BlackBerry Storm 2 doesn't seem to make inroads into the consumer space with any great pace. It gives you your core BlackBerry functions - that premium email service that BlackBerry users know and love - but you can't help feeling that over the life of your next BlackBerry contract, the Storm 2 and the BlackBerry OS is going to age quite fast.

We will be getting the BlackBerry Storm 2 in for a full review soon, where we'll see if it really keeps pace with the rest of the touchscreen pack.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones BlackBerry BlackBerry Storm 2 RIM

BlackBerry Storm 2 - First Look originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:46:35 +0100

HTC isn't a company that's shy: over the past few years it has broken out from white label supplier to one of the most exciting and handset manufacturers in the smartphone sector. HTC is now synonymous smartphones, from Windows Mobile to Android and the company isn't afraid of making bold statements. The HTC HD2 can only be seen as that. We were fortunate enough to get our hands on the new model as it launched, and here are our first thoughts on it.

It stands up to Toshiba's TG01 handset, but puts into place a winning formula. Toshiba's handset is unwieldy, with a resistive screen which doesn't respond well to the touch and a software skin on Windows Mobile which offers little gloss and hardly enhances its performance.

The HTC HD2 is a stark contrast to this. The 4.3-inch, 800 x 480 pixel (WVGA) capacitive display puts a shine on even the blandest screen from Windows Mobile 6.5. The touch response is also incredible. You not only have acres of screen to play with, but it reacts with very little lag.

Yes, the HD2 is an enormous mobile phone, measuring 120.5 x 67 x 11mm and weighing in at 157g. But it has all the hallmarks of good design: it looks and feels luscious, with a brushed metal finish and stunning quality. Despite it's enormity, it actually feels comfortable in the hand.

Across the bottom of the screen are the regular complement of controls – the calling buttons, a Home button, the Windows and back buttons. By default the Home takes you to HTC's Sense UI and the Windows button opens the honeycomb Start menu.

On the bottom of the phone is a 3.5mm jack sitting alongside the Micro-USB connection. The only other external control you'll find is the volume rocker.

Sitting inside the HD2 is Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipset giving you 1GHz or processing power. This is backed by 448MB RAM and 512MB ROM. Of course you get a full complement of connectivity too – HSDPA, GPRS, EDGE, GSM, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi b/g. There is even an FM radio.

The neat thing about Wi-Fi is that the HD2 can be used for Wi-Fi tethering, so can function as a Wi-Fi router whilst you are out and about, using your phone's data connection.

Around the back you have a 5-megapixel camera supported by a dual LED "flash". It's an autofocus camera, but beyond that we didn't have the chance to look at anything else it offers.

Peter Chou described to HTC HD2 as an "intelligent phone" and this is certainly true thanks to a number of sensors that it has on-board. It features an accelerometer so will switch from portrait to landscape when you need it to. A proximity sensor lets the phone know when it is next to your face, shutting off the backlight. Cleverly, mid-call when you take the phone away from your face, it lights up again, so you can refer to something you've been discussing with a caller.

An ambient light sensor will also adjust the brightness of the screen for you, dimming it for bedtime viewing and boosting it in daylight.

There is also a GPS and digital compass. HTC also make a car kit for the HD2 (sold separately), making a departure from the normal plastic monstrosity you have to stick to the dashboard of your BMW. By changing the back panel of the phone, you'll get a twist connector to fix it to the slick metal rod mount.

Attaching to the car kit will switch over to the NaviPanel, which optimises the phone for using in your car, giving big buttons for calling and navigation. It looks fantastic and you can check it out in our photo gallery.

Of course the HTC HD2 runs on Windows Mobile 6.5, an operating system which comes with inherent problems. HTC has sidestepped many of the most apparent problems as they have done in the past by including their own skin on the device. HTC are now pushing this as HTC Sense, which we first saw on the HTC Hero.

When it comes to the crunch, HTC Sense on the HTC HD2 is very close to the HTC TouchFLO offering on other HTC Windows Mobile devices such as the Touch2. It has been tweaked and enhanced however, with luscious high-resolution icons giving it a premium look and feel. It is also incredibly responsive thanks to the raw power available here.

We didn't get a chance to explore or test HTC Sense to any great extent in our hands on, so from a performance point of view, with real-world data and populated with hundreds of contacts, we'll have to wait until we have had a chance to give it a full review.

But you get smart features like the grouping of interactions with a particular contact, which is the very essence of what HTC Sense is all about – shifting the focus from applications to people. So when you make a call, you'll be able to touch through tabs to access messages you've received from that person and so on.

In a nod to social networking, you'll find HTC Peep the company's popular Twitter client is installed and easily accessed through HTC Sense's shortcut bar. Running a finger across the bar at the bottom of the screen moves you through to a different section so you can dive into your contacts, emails, photos or music to name a few.

HTC has always been fanatical about weather, with TouchFLO offering smart weather apps for some time. The HTC HD2 takes weather to a new level. As standard it is integrated as part of their homepage in Sense, sitting just under the clock. But now rather than being a static icon, it is supported by full background animation.

When you wake up your phone in the morning, you'll be able to glance at it and lose yourself in the 3D animated weather rolling around the background of your phone. It really uses the sharp screen to best effect and we had a look at cloudy, stormy (complete with lightening), sunny and windy screens (with leaves blowing around). It has to be seen to be believed, it's absolutely stunning.

As we mentioned, this is a capacitive device, so that brings with it multi-touch support. Using the Opera browser, you'll now have finger zooming when you are browsing the Internet. It's very smooth and a world away from what Internet Explorer Mobile is offering on other devices with boring double tap zooming. The text reflow is also very fast, and with the screen size available, it is easy to browse full internet pages. It's just a shame that we're all still waiting for Flash video support.

HTC are claiming 8 hours of video playback, 12 hours of audio playback or about 5 hours of talk time over a 3G network from the 1230mAh battery.?

Verdict:

In the HTC HD2 you can see years of experience in dealing with Windows Mobile devices. The quality of the build and the construction, combined with HTC's Sense skin on Windows Mobile puts it a step ahead of rivals in this super screen size.

We were wowed by what we saw, with the multi-touch browsing really impressing. We've seen some sluggish Windows Mobile devices in our time and the HD2 cuts through it with sense and purpose. But we'll reserve judgement until we've lived with it for some time and given it a real world testing.

Will the HTC HD2 appeal to consumers? Perhaps not, but it may well find itself sitting in the hands of company CEOs all over the world. Peter Chou certainly looked comfortable with his.

Related links:

• Photos - HTC HD2 mobile phone
• Review - Window Mobile 6.5

Tags: Phones Mobile phones HTC HTC HD2 Windows Mobile Windows Phone

HTC HD2 - First Look originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:05:00 +0100

Windows Mobile 6.5 swoops in and ousts the 6.1 variation of the mobile phone operating system. We first got our hands on Windows Mobile 6.5 at Mobile World Congress back in February and today it finally comes to market on a slew of handsets from a number of different manufacturers. If you are after a Windows Phone, then from today you have the choice of all shapes and sizes.

The most surprising thing, perhaps, is that Windows Mobile 6.5 was outlined at the same event that saw the unveiling of the HTC Magic, which has since been supplanted. Such is the rapid pace of evolution in mobile phones, does Windows Mobile 6.5 earn its place in today's line-up of smartphones?

There are improvements across the board, but it's obvious from the name – 6.5 – that this is more of an upgrade than a complete redesign. At Tuesday's launch event for the "new" operating system, Microsoft representatives were careful not to comment on what we already know is incoming: Windows Mobile 7.

So what is Windows Mobile 6.5? It is essentially a stop-gap, plugging the holes apparent in previous editions of the operating system before we see more significant changes in the next iteration. But with such a long lead-time, there's every chance that consumers will find themselves stuck in a contract with 6.5, when 7 emerges. For business users this is perhaps less of an issue, but if you are forking out your hard earned cash, it's certainly a consideration.

Windows Mobile 6.5 is all about shifting from the awkward interface of 6.1 (which bears hallmarks going back to editions much, much, earlier), to a more consumer focus. In this regard it addresses a major hurdle in the fastest changing segment of the mobile phone market: touch control.

One of the biggest changes in recent times has been the adoption of capacitive screens over resistive. In the past, all Windows Mobile devices were resistive, but that's all set to change with this latest iteration. We've had our hands on the HTC HD2 which features a 4.3-inch capacitive display. The response is remarkable, completely changing what you expect from Windows Mobile, and a world away from the experience of Toshiba's TG01, it's closest hardware rival.

With this capacitive display comes multi-touch too, giving you the sort of features that Apple iPhone users have been enjoying for years. But not all Windows Mobile 6.5 users will experience this with their device. In fact, the demonstration by Microsoft to assembled journalists at the official launch saw an awkward dragging around of an internet page, jumping and staggering around. A stark contrast to what is actually possible.

Microsoft's new homepage is one of the first things to be obliterated by customisation from the manufacturer. The Windows Mobile default homepage presents a selection of major heading bars like pictures, music, through to email and text messages. On each bar you can scroll left and right too, so if you have multiple email accounts you'll get easy access to them. Make a selection on the homepage takes you with a tap through to that image. It isn't whizz-bang flashy, but works well enough.

Microsoft has made a point of adding features to the lock screen too, so rather than just giving you a method of unlocking your phone, you can see your next appointment and notification alerts, with easy access to things such as text messages. It's a mindful modification and considers the way that people actually use their phone.

6.5 users are presented with a new honeycomb menu system, arranging icons which can be easily tapped to launch an application. It works well enough, giving you a long list of your applications, including those you pickup from the Marketplace, or sideload. You can rearrange to a certain degree, sending icons to the top, but you don't get a multi-page arrangement to organise these icons. An application search is included, so it's perhaps not a problem.

Many menus have this honeycomb layout, which is fair enough – getting to your applications or settings is pretty easy, but then the stop-gap which is Windows Mobile 6.5 ends. Dive into the Sounds and Notifications menu for example and you are presented with small tick boxes and tiny tabs, regardless of all the screen real estate on offer.

In fact, these menus are almost identical to a 2002 to a Compaq iPAQ we found in the office, running Pocket PC ver 3. And therein lies the problem that blights Windows Mobile: at its core, it is still an antiquated system and as you dig into Windows Mobile 6.5, it becomes abundantly apparent.

Getting back to new features, your new smartphone now features Microsoft MyPhone. This is a feature we like, not only because it apes Apple's MobileMe offering, but because it is free. All you have to do is run a quick set-up on your device, plug in your Windows Live ID and away you go.

MyPhone backs up your handset to the cloud, a quick and easy process that costs you nothing but the data. It will take care of your contacts, calendar, tasks, text messages, favourites, photos, videos, music and documents. You get to select what you want to sync too, so if you don't want a record of banal text messages, you don't have to have them.

You can then share items through the MyPhone website, with connected social networking sites including Facebook, MySpace and Flickr, as well as the obligatory Windows Live network.

Other exciting features include viewing your phone's last known location. Great! If your phone is stolen, you can see where it got to, until the thief disabled the feature in the menus. "Premium" features include ringing the phone, seeing it on a map, locking it and erasing the content. The MyPhone website offers a "limited time offer" on these features, so if you are planning on having your phone pinched, you'd better do it fast.

The Marketplace is another addition to your smartphone. It has been a long time coming and Windows Mobile users will appreciate finding applications in a central location, rather than having to fish around for them. The Marketplace is currently going through plenty of changes and in the last 2 days we've seen content come and go. Launch teething troubles, we hope.

The interface is rather basic and lacks the gloss you'll find on other devices from the Android Market to the BlackBerry App World. But there is a capable search function and you can select to browse only the free stuff if you want. It's a little early to judge at the moment, but first impressions are a little underwhelming.

The final major overhaul comes in the form of Internet Explorer Mobile. Browsing the Internet on the move has seen massive growth over recent years, fuelled by increasingly affordable data packages and enhanced solutions. Microsoft's Mobile browsers have never been very well received and Internet Explorer looks to change all that.

In reality, it's a bit of a clunky experience still. Double tap zooming in and out, dragging the pages around with a finger, it doesn’t really impress. No surprise then that HTC's CEO Peter Chou demoed multi-touch on the HTC HD2 with the Opera browser. It's free and still delivers the better experience.

Verdict:

But the killer criticisms of Windows Mobile still persist. If you want to close an application, you are faced with a tiny X in the top right-hand corner. Come to make a selection and often you are presented with a small Menu or Done button across the bottom, which is just as frustrating as it always has been. This, unfortunately, is the enduring impact that you are left with.

As a mobile phone operating system it is clear that Windows Mobile 6.5 is still a long way behind the pack. This update doesn’t bring it up to the offerings from Apple or Android which are gunning in the same market and walking off with the fat consumer contracts. Yes, Windows Mobile still delivers stalwart business support and when we hooked it up to our Windows 7 PC to sync with Outlook, the sync process swung in and took over. No messing around, no hiccups, and easy to solve conflicts. It may also be the only operating system that your company will support.

The experience that you get from Windows Mobile will differ greatly from device to device. Today we have seen handsets from Samsung, LG, HTC and Toshiba: all are different, but all have 6.5 lurking under the skin. In this battleground for your slightly-too-sensible smartphone, the lines are drawn out between Microsoft and all the manufacturers. Windows Mobile won't sell itself, but the Sense UI or S-Class interface might just.

These third-party skins can change many aspects of your device, not least including the keyboard. Today we've seen four different on-screen keyboards, QWERTY handsets, sliders and touch phones from the compact Samsung Omnia Lite to HTC's massive HD2.

The choices are almost overwhelming, but cut to its core Windows Mobile 6.5 isn't drastically different from its predecessors. Having seen the stark difference between device performance today, it is clear that there will still be "good" and "bad" devices to choose from.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Windows Phone Windows Mobile HTC Samsung LG Toshiba Microsoft Windows Mobile

Windows Mobile 6.5 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:55:15 +0100

With the coming of the HTC Touch2 we have not only a new device, but a new version of the Windows Mobile operating system. Will this rush in a new wave of love for the Windows Phone?

The Touch2 follows HTC's trend of updating handset models without having to stretch to a new and exciting name. The HTC Touch was, as the name suggested, a full touch Windows Mobile model with HTC's TouchFLO running over the top. Two-years later, and here we have the Touch2, a Windows Mobile model with HTC's TouchFLO running over the top...

The handset takes on a slim and compact profile, measuring 104 x 55 x 12.9mm and weighing 110g. The compact dimensions are partly due to the 2.8-inch QVGA (240 x 320) resistive touchscreen display. It is small for a modern touchscreen phone and the resolution isn't the highest out there. This is shown up especially by Windows Mobile, which hasn't quite embraced the slick user interface you'll find elsewhere.

The Touch2 sits reasonably well in the hand, with soft curved back edges. Although it is constructed entirely from plastic, it seems to pull it off, feeling of solid construction.

The top sees a 3.5mm jack and around the back is the 3.2-megapixel camera, but no flash. A stylus can be found lurking in the bottom right-hand corner and a microSD card slot on the left. It's that bizarre sort of slot that wants you to take the back cover off to access it, but still has an external flap.

Ranging across the bottom of the screen is the zoom bar, allowing you to zoom in and out of web pages, maps and pictures so long as you are using the right application to view them, with multi-touch still not supported by Windows Mobile. Beneath these range a line of hard controls, flanked by the two regular calling buttons.

You might have heard that Microsoft suggested that Windows Phones (or those running Windows Mobile 6.5) should all have a Windows button and a back button, which you'll find here. The Windows button sits next to the Home button, giving the HTC Touch2 a wicked split personality.

Press the Home button and you spring into HTC's wonderful Dr Jekyll TouchFLO skin. Press the Windows button and Mr Hyde crawls out in the form of Windows Mobile 6.5. We are being facetious perhaps, but only because of the disappointment that comes with this latest iteration of Windows Mobile.

HTC's TouchFLO skin is something we like. We've seen it before on a number of devices and it is perfectly useable. It doesn’t have the wow factor that you get with their latest Android device the HTC Hero, but is makes Windows Mobile much more accessible. We only wish it integrated further into Windows Mobile.

Through TouchFLO you get access to contacts, messaging, mail, the Opera browser, photo and video viewer, music, weather, Google Map search and program launcher. These can be edited to suit your requirements, so you can add your contacts and programs of choice to give quick access.

In some cases you get a bespoke application (like the Opera browser over Internet Explorer) and sometimes it just takes you into the application behind. Browsing the Internet is a little awkward through both browsers. One of the new features in Internet Explorer is being able to force a "desktop" or "mobile" mode, but you have to route through several layers of menu to get there, and the lower resolution display doesn't do the small view any justice.

Pressing the Windows button (or tapping the Start logo in the top left corner) launches you into Windows Mobile 6.5 proper. Windows Mobile 6.5 isn't a major departure from 6.1 (hence the same 6.x designation). Microsoft have been talking about these changes since February 2009, aiming to improve the experience for touch users, over the somewhat cumbersome system that needed a stylus for almost everything.

In that vein you now have the honeycomb Zune-alike Start menu full of icons, so you can scroll and tap what you want. Thereafter the experience is very mixed: some applications respond well to touch, some are terrible. All too often you are faced with the same old drop down menu style, for example to select a file location, which is nigh on impossible to do with a finger.

Addressing the changing needs of smartphone users, Windows now has its own Marketplace so you can quickly find applications for your phone. It works very much as the Android Market or App Store does, offering searching, including a "free" filter, so you don't have to browse the paid-for apps.

Windows Mobile 6.5 ushers in a collection of cloud support too, offering backup and sharing options, although it is surprising to find that photo and video sharing, i.e., to YouTube or Facebook, isn't supported at OS level by default. You have to enable MyPhone before these options appear, presumably because Microsoft sends the images from the online space rather than from the device itself. You also get remote options to find you phone and wipe the data, as offered on the iPhone and more recently phones like the Motorola DEXT.

HTC has done it's best to improve the keyboard. You get three options, 12-key, 21-key and full QWERTY which you can select as you wish. The response from a finger isn't great, it doesn't compete with the iPhone or the HTC Hero, but you get used to it. Predictive text entry tried to second guess you and will speed things up somewhat. However, the stylus does make for very quick entry – especially if you are practiced. Much as we dislike using a stylus, at times you get the feeling you need it here.

In terms of hardware specs, the HTC Touch2 is very much a phone of the moment. You'll find HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. There is an FM radio too, not something you always find on smartphones. You also get GPS (with a 14-day trial of Copilot).

The 3.2-megapixel camera ia average, but the lack of flash limits its use indoors or in low light. The results aren't great and don't compete with those phones designed for taking photos. Video capture comes in at a maximum resolution of 352 x 288 pixels, again, which could be easily bettered.

The battery life isn't the best. Using it throughout testing, we found it needed charging overnight, which is pretty much average for this type of device.

Verdict:

With the HTC Touch2 you get a compact device that will appeal to those who need to have a Windows Mobile device to support their office activities or business on the move. Whilst you can find this in other devices, there is no doubt that syncing with Windows 7 was an absolute breeze. Document support, Exchange email and PDF readers are all to be found here. The 3.5mm jack and radio will also make it appealing to commuters.

The HTC TouchFLO interface sweetens the deal somewhat, making this a Windows Mobile phone that is more pleasurable to use than a raw Windows device. But that said, if it is just a touchscreen device that you are after, with an interest in browsing and sharing your media on the move, then there are more compelling offerings elsewhere.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones HTC Windows Phone HTC Touch2 Windows Mobile

HTC Touch2 mobile phone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:30:00 +0100

The Motorola DEXT is a QWERTY side slider running the Android OS, so differentiates itself from recent touch-only handsets out there. It's a format that divides people: if your touch system is good enough - like the HTC Hero or the iPhone - you potentially don't need the physical keyboard.

The phone is weighty enough to be taken seriously at 163g and seems to be solidly constructed. There is some creak and movement around the slide mechanism, but it feels positive enough, and should last your perhaps lengthy contract. The choice of materials is good: although plastics are used throughout, it stays relatively free from fingerprints.

The design though is something of an oddity. It features a 3.1-inch, 320 x 480 pixel, touchscreen display, but that sliding keyboard does account for it being a rather chunky phone. It measures 58 x 114 x 15.85mm, so is relatively thick, but if you like keyboards, that shouldn't put you off.

It is at first glance similar to the LG GW520 in design, although Motorola have made the bottom slightly larger than the top. Rather than an almost seamless fusion of the two halves like the Palm Pre, you can't help but notice you're holding two distinct lumps. Unusually the button labels on the right-hand side for the lock/power and camera shutter are almost obscured by the screen (when closed) and once the phone is opened, the buttons are then lurking around the back of the screen and difficult to get to.

Other hard buttons include a volume rocker on the left, with a neat hard slider that turns the ringer off. A Micro-USB socket sits on the left side too. The top features a 3.5mm jack for your headphones.

Around the back of the phone is a 5-megapixel camera, lacking a flash. Given a steady hand and plenty of light, the DEXT will give you a decent image. It suffers the normal problems of shutter lag, an inability to deal with high contrast scenes and noise in shadows and low light however.

The video capture is a surprising let-down for this level of device. It records at a maximum of 352 x 288 (HVGA) at 24fps, which is notable only because of the low resolution. The results are of little use, fine as novelty, but in the age of sharing via YouTube the DEXT won't compete with other handsets.

Motorola has tackled the social networking trend with Motoblur. Like the INQ, HTC's Sense UI and more recent Vodafone 360 People application, it tackles your existing online existence by mashing this information up together - hence the "blur". Essentially, like the Sense UI, it is a skin that sits over Android to make things immediately more user friendly.

First-up it presents you with five customisable pages that you can thumb between. Each of these pages can be populated with widgets, folders, shortcuts to applications or contacts and so on. The widget selection is good too covering most bases.

When you take your shiny new Motorola DEXT out of the box, you are asked to supply your details for various social networks and services: Google, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Picasa, LastFM and Photobucket are all ready to rock. You can also add POP or IMAP accounts as well as setup your Exchange email. Email refresh is a rather slow 15 minutes at the fastest setting.

Your Google account is already central to the Android experience and a simple way of bringing your contacts and calendars to the fore. Motoblur takes this a step further and integrates information from the other networks so you have one uber contacts list and one uber update stream.

The uber update stream is what Happenings essentially is. It will sit as a widget on the home page and pump updates at you. Sounds great, and for light social networkers, it is. For Facebook updates it works well, giving you the chance to see things happen and respond, without opening up a separate Facebook app.

It's a nice idea and it seems to work well enough, but it isn't without its problems. Occasionally we found the blur too literal: when Happenings just didn't update. There doesn't seem to be a way to force a refresh either, it just tells you that you're looking at an update from 6 hours ago.

Heavy Twitter users might also find that having 500+ Happenings a day is a little to much to bear. Fortunately you can filter the Happenings application (rather than the widget) to display only one of your streams, so you can then scroll through Twitter in a more traditional format.

Of course, this being an Android handset, you could opt out of the Twitter integration and install Twidroid (or whatever) through the Android Market. As with the iPhone's App Store, new apps are always appearing and there is plenty of choice to make your handset do what you want it to.

Happenings aside, Motoblur gives you a great Contacts book. Taking your existing Google Contacts, adding in Facebook pictures (or Twitter pics) and mashing all that information together is impressive.

Open up a contact and you have all your options to communicate with that person. You can phone, text, email them, message them on Twitter, you can write on their Facebook wall or Poke them, or use IM. You'll find their birthday there. When you place a call, you'll see their latest status on the calling screen - an instant ice breaker, or something to avoid asking about.

You also get a Messaging widget, which will filter out your direct messages so they aren't languishing in your uber Happenings stream. Messaging will give you Twitter direct messages, Facebook messages and emails all in one pot, with a universal inbox for everything and the option to flip through to individual accounts to make things easier to view.

The capacitive touchscreen looks good and has a nice sharp resolution, making it great for watching video content. There is no Flash support here as yet, but we suspect it will be along shortly.

The touch interface is responsive enough, but isn't foolproof. Flicking through pages in Motoblur is slick and arriving at a page (usually) delivers real live information. Flicking through Happenings pages likewise has a reassuring speed, only occasionally slowed down by the likes of images from a Twitter picture change and the like.

But lag does creep in on occasion, especially switching around some of the richer content. We also found that sometimes you'll just get no response. You'll be tapping a widget waiting for it to open and nothing will happen. These feel like software issues and hopefully can be rectified with an update from Motorola.

The onscreen keyboard is pretty good, giving you a pop-up letter to confirm a press. Press and hold gives you the character alternatives and as you write you get predictive suggestions in a narrow bar above the keyboard. You get onscreen QWERTY in both landscape and portrait modes, although not all applications will flip to landscape when the physical keyboard is closed.

The landscape onscreen QWERTY keyboard gives you a little more space for the keys, but you do lose much of what you were looking at. The keyboards are relatively fast, but don't match the iPhone for satisfying precision.

However, chances are that you want the DEXT because of the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Unfortunately it isn't the best it could be. The keys are all individual, but sit flush to each other. This lack of separation means it's all too easy to hit a neighbouring key. If they were smaller, ironically, the keyboard might have been better, as it is in the LG GW520.

Specific weaknesses lie around the alt and spacebar, which are too indistinct ranged across the bottom with a Google search shortcut, symbol and back key. Google search is great, but not in the middle of your normal typing keys. There is no sign of hold a key for caps either, which is a useful addition when bashing out semi-formal emails.

The keyboard is backlit and when you punch the alt key, the alternative characters on the keys light up too, which is great for using in the dark. The four-way navigator on the left-hand edge is excellent, picking its way through webpage fields and navi buttons, or navigating menus, without the need to constantly switch between keyboard and screen control.

The browser is reasonably good too (and you can always download another if you don't like it). The browser was quick to load full pages, giving you all the content. Zoom is handled by a quick press on the icons on-screen - not as elegant as the iPhone, but works well enough. A quick scan navigator lets you jump back and run down the page to the thing you want, before jumping you back in to read the content.

You can also have multiple pages open with ease, and it's easy to grab a link and share through the medium of your choice in Motoblur.

A widget will allow music control from the front pages, with basic pause and skip controls. Dump your music on the microSD card hiding under the back cover and it is quickly arranged in to songs, album, artist and playlist.

In terms of hardware you have everything you'd expect from an Android device. You have HSDPA with Wi-Fi to ease the data burden and Bluetooth. You get AGPS, with geotagging of images and Google Maps, with Orange Maps preloaded on the UK Orange edition of the phone. You also get a digital compass, accelerometer and proximity sensor, so it knows when it is next to your face.

Battery life is something of a let down though so you'll have to charge it every night. A heavy day of calls will mean you need to top it up during the day too.

Verdict:
But there is one more thing that disappoints with the Motorola DEXT and it's surprising: it's a poor phone for making calls. Yes, like the iPhone, the design means it is uncomfortable against your ear when make conventional phonecalls, thanks to a hard plastic ridge at the top of the screen. The speaker for calling is also poor and distorts heavily when you turn the volume up. If you happen to be somewhere noisy or someone is especially quiet on the phone, you'll never hear them.

So yes, there are criticisms, some of which may or may not bother you. The keyboard could be better, the video capture could be better. Motoblur's Happenings can become overwhelming. These things you'll have to live with, whilst the application switching lag, update downtime and occasional freezes could potentially be ironed out with software updates.

We loved the richness that Motoblur brought to contacts, filling them with information. We also like the fact the remote wipe, backup and a "locate my phone" service will be offered through the Motoblur website.

Overall, the Motorola DEXT is a good addition to the Android portfolio, but can be bettered. It's good to see Motorola taking the initiative and providing consumers with the sort of device they'll want. And if it's a QWERTY Android handset you want, then it is well worth looking at.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Motorola Motorola Dext Motorola CLIQ Android Motorola Dext

Motorola DEXT mobile phone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:09:03 +0100

The Sony Ericsson S312 is pitched as an entry-level handset, with a few added touches that bring the camera to the fore. But is this a viable camera phone, or does it struggle to drag itself out of the bargain basement?

The S312 is a typical candybar phone from Sony Ericsson, with the screen occupying the top half and the 12-key keypad the bottom, with the usual shortcut keys across the middle. It is relatively compact, measuring 100 x 46 x 12.5mm and weighing 80g.

It feels a little light in the hand, a little too light perhaps. That said, the weight is something of a problem and probably not for the reason you'd think, so bear with us. The choice of materials used for the S312 matches its budget status, but takes it in the wrong direction: it feels cheap, but sitting on the table it looks pretty snappy. The plastics are smooth and lack any sort of tactile properties, so we dropped the phone a couple of times as it slipped through our fingers.

This cheap feeling rolls over the keypad too. The buttons have a distinct enough click to them, but as a phone it doesn't feel great to use: if you are an avid texter looking for an affordable device, you might find this doesn't really suit.

The design of the two shortcut buttons under the screen is rather odd too - the text at the bottom of the screen which they refer to is never in line with the part of the button that actually moves and "clicks" to confirm that action. You get used to it, but it does feel a little funny.

Moving around the handset you find the first glimpses of another purpose to the handset: using the camera. Around the back is a 2.0-megapixel camera, with a small LED light in place of a flash. The right-hand side also sees a dedicated shutter button, a video button and the volume rocker, which doubles as a zoom for the camera.

The zoom is digital, so isn't worth using - you are better off sticking with the full resolution and cropping the image to get the detail you want later, or just taking two steps forward. The video button is interesting as this is something of a unique feature. It means that you don't have to dive into the settings, select video, and then start shooting, so you might be more likely to capture whatever it was you wanted.

Along the side of the keyboard (on the 3, 6, 9, # keys) are further shortcuts pertaining to the camera. You get continuous or single shot toggle, white balance, self timer and the option to turn the LED "flash" on and off. There is no auto mode for the flash, just as there is no autofocus - it is a fixed focus camera.

The LED flash is only really useful for finding keyholes in the dark, as it lacks any power to illuminate the subject - when it does, it results in a nasty blue-ish cast over everything. But the shortcut keys are useful for accessing the camera features on offer and it does encourage you to play around with these settings, rather than just accepting the defaults.

Video capture is rather lacklustre at a max resolution of 320 x 240 at a flaky 15fps. The audio capture is a little better, but the video doesn't really stand-up against any of the VGA or higher resolution devices and isn't really great for sharing online either.

The camera performance is reasonable outdoors in good light, although images are never sharp like you'd expect from a real camera. Images are fine for use online, but won't stand up to viewing at full size. The sensor does easily become overwhelmed, so high-contrast shots result in a lot of purple fringing around edges and highlights tend to be blown out. Images can be cleaned up slightly using PhotoFix, but there is no control over what it does, and the screen on the phone is really too small to judge any changes.

Images or video viewed on the phone look ok, but the screen is only 2 inches, 176 x 220 pixels, so it is pretty small. The screen is residing behind some sort of mirrored finish too, meaning that once you step into daylight, you can only really see your reflection in it. Using the phone in bright conditions, therefore, is rather difficult, and it is constantly covered in fingerprints.

The menus are fairly standard Sony Ericsson stuff, with main menu icons giving way to simple lists. The normal Sony Ericsson PlayNow is present, along with a basic browser, several Java games and a basic music player. There is an FM radio which requires the headphones to be connected.

There is no 3.5mm jack unfortunately, so you are stuck with the bundled headphones. The external speaker isn't great quality, but it loud enough to be irritating in the street.

The battery life is rated at 8 hours of talk time and 400 hours of standby time. The S312 is an GSM/GPRS/EDGE handset, which will probably be adequate for your minimal data needs. Bluetooth is also present for transferring data to or from your phone and hooking-up to speakers or headphones.

Internal memory is minimal, so if you plan to take many photos, or carry around any music or other content, you'll need to invest in an M2 card.

Verdict:
The Sony Ericsson S312 attempts to deliver a little more convenience for camera users, without really upping the results at the end of it. To call it a camera phone will only set it up for a fall: this is an entry-level handset, which unfortunately due to a few design decisions feels exactly that.

It may be cheap and if you are an infrequent phone user who just needs a handset for occasional or emergency use, then the S312 is simple and reliable. If you are a heavy phone user you might be looking for more.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Sony Ericsson Sony Ericsson S312 Sony Ericsson S312

Sony Ericsson S312 mobile phone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0100

The LG Chocolate BL40 is a beautiful handset. It's an irrefutable fact. Its shape is unique, its colours striking and it's one of the few phones these days that gets more ooohs and aaahs than a certain other touchscreen device that's somewhat taken over the planet. In fact, there's every reason to buy one - until you turn it on.

The sad fact that what the new Chocolate represents is that LG mobile has got pretty much as far as it can until it moves on from the S-Class operating system that hampers its top devices. On the one hand, it feels unfair to focus the review of a phone on its software but, unfortunately for the BL40, it's so integral to your every day enjoyment of this device that you've got to know what you're getting yourself into before you make up your mind to buy one.

Those with an Arena or Viewty Smart who are happy with the platform might well dispute what we have to say on the matter but anyone thinking of switching from S60, Android or even iPhone might well be in for a shock.

The trouble is that the S-Class OS feels more like a showpiece than something designed with functionality at heart. It's colourful and amusing to play with for the first 5 minutes but pretty quickly you realise that the four shortcut facets of the spinning cube GUI are basically redundant.

Once you do get to the one screen that counts, the one with all the app icons, it's just too fiddly here. Either you have the phone in portrait position where the rows of icons move separately and make it harder to find the ones off screen that you're looking for, or you have the Chocolate in landscape and the icons aren't well enough designed to be obvious as to what each one does. It's a shame because otherwise the LG BL40 has everything going for it.

The greatest tragedy of S-Class is that there are no third party apps you can add to customise your experience. The browser does indeed work much better on the Chocolate's extra widescreen than it ever has and the dual/split screen mode is actually a touch of brilliance here from LG. But it's still a clunky piece of software compared to something like Opera Mini.

The only other good additions are the gesture control and cut, copy and paste which works as intuitively as you could want but it's a shame that all these good software advances sit on the back of something can't keep pace with the rest of the phone world.

So, that is the enormous caveat that comes with this phone and if it's something that grates, then you will always covet another handset and rue the day you signed your life away, but others will still be impressed every time you bring it out your pocket because it is a stunning phone.

OSes aside, LG seems to have learned every lesson from every mistake in all their other mobiles and put it all together in the masterpiece that is this fourth black label device. The shape of the thing is so wonderfully original. It's not taken a single lead from any other phone and has set a new standard for design - one of the first phones to do so since Apple got started.

The long slender shape is not only elegant but also incredibly ergonomic and functional. It's unbelievably refreshing to once again hold a phone to your ear that's also close enough to your mouth to pick up every word you say. Better still though, is that outstanding screen making it rather reminiscent of the Philips 21:9 TV.

As it goes it's not just 16:9, but an AMOLED with a excellent WVGA resolution. Films on the go are given a great cinematic feel and probably the only other complaint to make at all about the Chocolate is that it's a little too reflective outside in the sun. Come to think of it the fact that the accelerometer only works in one direction is rather silly too.

That aside, the black gloss finish is a real treat topped off perfectly by the smart scarlet ridges at the top and bottom ends of the phone. The few and well-chosen buttons and ports are superbly implemented with a shortcut to music, a shutter release, volume controls in the perfect finger position, an on/off/lock switch at the top, a universal Micro-USB for charging and data transfer complete with a tidy, sturdy and secure cover flap and, joy of joys, a 3.5mm jack too. Full house. We thoroughly approve.

Apart from the on/off switch, every function of the Chocolate can be controlled by the screen which supports an excellent level of multi-touch that's a breathtaking advance on previous efforts. If only there was a browser worth pinching at.

Phone connectivity and reliability is very good with the full complement of HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and all the expected AV file types are supported in the familiar and user friendly LG media players.

The camera is typically strong with a healthy 5-megapixel sensor and Schneider-Kreuznach optics. It carries most of the features you'd expect on LG smartphones with plenty of exposure controls and recognition settings plus a decent LED flash. We are slightly disappointed by only VGA resolution video capture, which shows up quite badly on the phone's excellent WVGA 345 x 800 pixel screen. It would be nice to see the touch-to-shoot and other top end features packed into the Renoir but otherwise, all is well in this department.

On the practicalities side, the BL40 is a medium to heavy 129g but nothing like other lead weights you can buy and, although some may sneer at the unusual 128 x 51 x 10.9mm dimensions of this slim stunner, it's as good in your jeans as in a coat pocket. Mercifully the battery poses no problems either, even after a day of heavy use.

Verdict:
If you have never used an LG phone, then make sure you try the BL40 out in the shops for a good 10 minutes before you decide it's the one for you. A quick blast around the front of the UI and a go on the browser should be enough to find out whether you're going to get on with it or not. If you do, congratulations on a fantastic new phone with all the good looks and features you could want on a mobile.

The only two other situations under which you should buy this phone are if either (a) you already own and love LG handsets - in which case, you must - or (b) if phones for you are all about stylish good looks. Other than that, the phrase "barge pole" comes to mind. It's a fantastic phone provided S-Class doesn't drive you to distraction and you aren't looking for that full "smartphone" functionality.

Related links:

• Video - Sienna and Savannah Miller review the LG Chocolate BL40
• Photos - LG Chocolate BL40 - up close and personal

Tags: Phones Mobile phones LG LG BL40 LG BL40 Chocolate

LG BL40 Chocolate mobile phone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:20:04 +0100

We started our last HTC Hero review with talk of the chin, so it seems logical to start this one at the same point. That's right, it might have quickly become HTC's signature for it's Android devices, but Sprint clearly doesn't agree.

Instead from Sprint you get a flatter phone. Cosmetically this means that the button configuration at the bottom underneath the screen has changed, and overall the phone has become more rounded.

It comes down to personal preference (well for us, Sprint customers won't have a choice over this or the original European model), but rather than find the buttons in a straight line with the trackball beneath, the buttons are now arranged in more of a cluster with call and hang up getting more prominent buttons.

The menu, home key, search and back arrow get placement on a single flat panel - they aren't touch sensitive before you ask - just buttons behind a single plate of metal. Still that trackball is very responsive, not that you'll find yourself using it that much.

Why? The touchscreen above.

The screen remains the same at 3.2-inches, the same as the original model. Compared to other smartphones on the market it is slightly larger than the Palm Pre's 3.1-inch screen and slightly smaller than the iPhone's 3.5-inch screen. Either way the smaller hyptic-enabled screen means a more compact phone that won't take up as much real estate in your pocket, but one that is still very usable.

Elsewhere the design is fairly straightforward. The rounded edges at the bottom continue to the top, buttons are kept to a minimum and the 5-megapixel camera takes centre stage on the back of the device. There is HTC's slight odd Mini-USB charging socket, and 3.5mm hole for your headphones. Like the original Hero the phone comes with a polytetrafluoroethylene coating giving it a slightly rubberised feel and certainly different from the usual slippery, shiny, smudged handsets you normally find. Slip the case off and you'll find a microSD slot.

Keeping on the technology front, you'll get wireless and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity as well as GPS so you can find your way home. This being the Sprint variant it's geared towards the Sprint Ev network. If you're a Sprint customer this isn't really going to make much difference.

We took the phone on a road trip from Hoboken, New Jersey, down to the Outer Banks in North Carolina and had no trouble with connection on any part of the journey. All east coast admittedly, but you know from either being a Sprint customer or having friends on Sprint whether or not you are going to get good coverage.

Running Google's Android OS, the HTC Hero is Sprint's first Android handset. Android as you probably know is an open source operating system created by Google that allows you to multitask, download additional apps and run a fully-fledged smartphone complete with mail, browser and all the usual apps you would expect.

Taking the Android OS as a starting point, HTC have, like they have previously with Windows Mobile, put their own special sheen on the operating system. Called the Sense UI it basically gives you a graphical skin over the Android OS giving it a more grown-up experience.

In reality you'll mostly experience this through a series of customised screens giving you quick access to a number of the key features. Whether it's work, play, social networking or all of the above, the screens are incredible easy to use, stylish and the key to the phone's simplicity.

Thanks to a ROM update from HTC released in September and automatically installed here, the phone is zippy and is an improved experience over the original HTC Hero, which we originally thought could be improved from a software point of view. We are happy to report that the Sprint HTC Hero really is worthy of the Sprint in the name.

It's fast enough that you won't find yourself struggling with whether or not you've press the button or flipped a screen. And as flipping through screens is something that you'll find yourself doing a lot, it only fair to expect good performance. Basically we weren't disappointed.

Elsewhere specific to the Sprint version you get a Nascar application, which is, it has to be said pretty dull and a GPS application, which is fairly helpful and saves you having to invest in a satnav app from the get go.

Of course there is plenty more to the phone than above. The handset is expected to ship with Android version 1.6 "Donut" however our model, which was retail-ready was only sporting version 1.5 so we weren't able to test out the new features ahead of the launch.

Software-wise it is also fair to say that social networking like Facebook, Twitter and Flickr are at the core of this device, with deep integration into contacts. Of course you have to manually set all this up for it to work to its full advantage, but still it's a nice addition to have and certainly makes the iPhone and its contact system rather outdated.

It's just one of the niceties that can be found on the phone, whether it's the weather updates automatically changing as you change your location, or the different "scenes" that allow you to gear your home screens to what you are in to, the HTC Hero is a very good handset.

Verdict:
Software wise there is very little different between the HTC Hero released in Europe and the HTC bound for American soil (check out our Euro HTC Hero review for more on the UI). Where the difference appears is in the hardware and cosmetic design of the handset.

The lack of chin will be off-putting to some, but you'll get over. For some the button configuration may even be better.

Yes, the Sprint version "sans" chin does lose some of its character making it look like just an "a n other" smartphone. However with the customisable open Android OS and a user interface that is in no way " Apple" this, like the original version, is a great handset.

Where it succeeds is in its ability to zip through menu systems, run applications simultaneously and offer a smartphone experience that still has plenty of growth, including that Android 1.6 update expected soon.

For the non Apple or Palm believers, this is one to strongly consider.

Related links:

• Review - HTC Hero mobile phone
• Photos - Sprint's HTC Hero

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Sprint HTC HTC Hero Sprint HTC Hero

Sprint HTC Hero mobile phone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:00:00 +0100