We’ve already been impressed by how Glass holds up as a wearable camera, particularly during situations – like when you’re playing with your kids or demonstrating a new gadget – when you need your hands to be free. However, we also found it more than a little getting used to, keeping your head still when you’re recording a conversation. All too easily you end up with nodding video, as you unconsciously move and react to the person you’re talking to.

We mentioned that to Brin, and he confirmed that it’s something Google is actually working on addressing. “Stay tuned, we’re gonna have some software that helps you out” he told us; it’s unclear how, exactly, that will be implemented, but digital image stabilization is already available on smartphones, and Google might be using a similar system. Glass also comes equipped with various sensors and gyroscopes – some of which are only partially utilized in this early iteration – and so Google could tap into those to do image-shifting and compensate for head-shake.

As you might expect for a device named the “Explorer Edition” and aimed squarely at developers, Glass is still a work-in-progress. Google aims to translate what it learns from this relatively small-scale deployment to the eventual consumer version – tipped to arrive in 2014 – including both design and functionality refinements.

We asked Brin about the style decisions Google made along the way, and at which point the aesthetics of Glass came into the process. “We did make some functional mockups,” he told us, “but mostly we made functional but uglier, heavier models – style came after that.”

Style is, when you’re dealing with device you wear, distinct in a very particular way from design. Even if the work on physical appearance followed on after function, how Glass sits on the face did not.

Glass-chat with Sergey Brin at Google I/O 2013:

“Very early on we realized that comfort was so important, and that [led to] the decision to make them monocular,” Brin explained. “We also made the decision not to have it occlude your vision, because we tried different configurations, because something you’re going to be comfortable – hopefully you’re comfortable wearing it all day? – is going to be hard to make. You have to make a lot of other trade-offs.”

We’ll have more coverage from Google I/O all week, so catch up with all the news from the epic 3.5hr keynote yesterday!

Glass Video: Controlling AR.Drone with NVIDIA Shield

I picked up Glass a little less than a week ago, and it’s already become a must-grab gadget when I leave the house. A big part of that is how closely it weaves multimedia into your daily life, not just in how you record them, but how you can then instantly share them in a way that doesn’t take you away from the moment.

The quality of the footage Glass produces is actually pretty good. The camera snaps stills at 5-megapixels and up to 720p HD video, and while low-light performance pales in comparison to the more adept smartphones, it’s still good enough to make our your subject in the resulting clip. What takes more getting used to is the actual process of filming clips, which only serves to highlight quite how much movement we make without realizing it.

Usually, with a smartphone camera, we’re pretty adept at keeping it still during filming. When the camera is mounted on your head, though, you suddenly realize that we seldom keep our heads still, nodding and turning around and generally doing things completely at odds with capturing a stable clip. It also took a little time before I learned to plan movements with my eyes before turning my head: otherwise, you dash the frame all around. That also means no nodding when in conversations with people, no looking off to the side to make sure the dog hasn’t run off, and no glancing down at your watch unless you want everybody to look at it too.

If there are compromises to be made, though, then there are advantages to Glass-style filming too. The ability to go hands-free when you’re playing with your kids, or to quickly snap off a photo when a friend is doing something goofy, without having to dig into your pocket first and unlock your phone. It’s also surprisingly useful for documenting things as you do them, from the user’s eye view. Okay, not everybody is going to be running through opening up and applying a screen protector, like I did with Glass and this Galaxy S 4 kit, but giving remote tech support to a distant relative, or sitting in as someone shows you their favorite recipe, or piggy-backing into a meeting when you can’t be there in person.

What would make Glass better? I can’t help but imagine what an UltraPixel sensor as in HTC’s One could do for low-light shots. In fact, HTC’s Zoe system, pulling together a brief video clip (3.5s versus Glass’ default 10s) and a cluster of stills, seems like an ideal match for a wearable like Glass. That way you’d have more likelihood of picking out the best-framed image of the bunch, and with fewer headaches about low-light conditions.

That HTC also manages to fit in optical image stabilization is also tempting, since that might help iron out some of the judders we can’t help but make when wearing Glass. Most of all, though, I’d like to see more battery life: right now, with mixed use, I’m seeing around four hours before Glass is demanding I plug it in, though it’s worth pointing out that it does recharge relatively quickly.

I’m also excited about the camera potential when Glass spreads. Right now, it’s a one-way thing, since most people don’t have Explorer Edition units yet. But, when that changes – and I do believe it will, despite the Glass naysayers – it’ll mean we can effectively split ourselves between multiple places, switching between physical and virtual presence as we jump in and out of other Glass-wearers’ headsets.

Still, as I said, there’s more to Glass than its camera. Next up I’ll be looking at the practicalities of slinging an Android computer to your head, and whether wearable tech really does offer more than just a capable smartphone. Meanwhile, if you have any Glass questions, ask them in the comments!

Google Glass: Sample shots

Hardware and Design

Like both UP and Fuelband, Flex is intended to be strapped to your wrist. Unlike its counterparts, however, the logging dongle itself is actually separate from the band: a narrow, tapering lozenge of mostly white plastic, it slots into the rubberized strap leaving nothing but a row of five LEDs visible along the upper edge.

The strap itself is stretchy but Fitbit will still offer two sizes depending on how big your wrists are. By making the two parts separate, it means you can change strap color depending on your mood or outfit, if you so prefer, though it does introduce a little extra bulk. Nonetheless, the shape of the band is less annoying than that of Jawbone’s UP: the springy arms of UP get all too easily caught on clothes, for instance, and while the band looks good, it can be frustrating to wear.

In fact, out of the three, Flex is the most comfortable and the most discrete. It’s water-resistant, too – as is UP – which means you can wear it in the shower or the pool, and the row of LEDs is a convenient, but low-power, way to keep an eye on your progress toward your daily goal. Each lit LED shows 20-percent progress; you tap the band with your finger twice to wake the LED display.

Bluetooth 4.0, however, is the key to the full data Fitbit is collecting. The latest iteration of the short-range wireless standard, it promises significantly lower power consumption than before, meaning devices like Flex can remain connected without sucking through their battery in a matter of hours. If the LED indicators aren’t giving you enough feedback, you can open up the Fitbit app on your phone or computer and see all the data there. Fitbit includes a Wireless Sync Dongle – basically a low-profile USB Bluetooth 4.0 adapter – for you to hook up your PC or Mac.

Fitness Tracking

Flex’s criteria for activity tracking are pretty much in line with what UP and Fuelband record: steps taken, distance traveled, active minutes, and calories burned. Inside the Flex dongle are a battery of sensors and gyroscopes to figure out when you’re moving, along with what sort of movement you’re making.

It’s worth making sure you’ve got the Flex strapped tightly to your wrist first, however, as we found a little extra play in the band was enough to throw off the accuracy of the tracking. After a day with it more loose around our wrist, we found we’d apparently done significantly more activity – at least, according to the Fitbit logs; the outlier day is outlined in the graph below – than had actually taken place.

There’s also food recording, though as with other platforms it’s a largely manual process. Fitbit claims to have more than 50,000 foods in its database, or you can add your own custom meals complete with nutritional information. The end result – if you’ve also set a weight goal – is a daily estimate of how many calories you’re allowed in order to stay on track, as well as an estimated date for when you should reach that goal, assuming you don’t cheat.

However, just as we’ve found with other fitness trackers, actually taking the time to punch in your diet can be frustrating, especially if you’re not eating the sort of easily-quantified foods Fitbit has in its database. If you’re making your own meals from scratch – sensible, if you’re trying to lose weight, since you know what’s actually going into them – then every mealtime will be a patience-trying session of calculations and figure-input.

Even when you’ve done all that, Fitbit’s recommendations are limited to suggesting you cut your calorific intake, rather than anything more comprehensive like a custom diet plan with attention to the various food groups. Until we can wave our smartphone camera at a plate and have it automatically assess that exact meal, we’re not confident food tracking will catch on in any great numbers.

Sleep Tracking

Like UP, the Flex band promises to watch you while you’re sleeping and tell you the next morning exactly how well your night went. Repeatedly tapping the band for 1-2 seconds kicks it into sleep tracking mode – two of the LEDs light and then slowly fade to show it’s set correctly – at which point it monitors how long you sleep and how much you moved around.

Unfortunately, sleep tracking is where we encountered the most issues with Flex. The band would consistently under-track our total sleep, on some nights recording as little as two hours of rest (and nine or more waking periods) whereas in fact we’d been sleeping for considerably longer. Where UP differentiates between light and deep sleep, Flex only sees resting in black and white, and while you can go back into the app and retroactively add sleep details (useful if you forget to turn sleep mode in in the first place) the general inaccuracies don’t exactly encourage you to use it.

We ran a direct comparison between Flex and UP, wearing them both overnight. As you can see from the results above (Fitbit on left, Jawbone on right), the Flex counted considerably less sleep than the UP: an incorrect 26 minutes, compared to the more accurate 5hrs 12m on the UP.

Mobile Apps

Real-time updating is the big advantage Flex has over its wearable rivals, and you’re most likely to access those from a smartphone display. Fitbit does support desktop sync, but to really get the benefit of knowing exactly where you’re up to with your goal, the mobile apps edge ahead.

Fitbit has apps for both iOS and Android, though if you’re a user of Google’s platform you’ll need to have one of a fairly limited number of phones in order to actually use it. While the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, 5th-gen iPod touch, iPad 3, and iPad Mini all support the Flex sync app, currently only the Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II work with the Android app. We tried it with the Galaxy S 4, for instance, and the option to synchronize simply wasn’t present; Fitbit tells us that’s down to the different Bluetooth 4.0 implementations between Android manufacturers.

Assuming you have a compatible device, you see a timeline of your weight, sleep, and activity, as well as details from any friends who also use Fitbit and who have shared their progress with you. A public record is published online, though you can choose to pare back any of the specific activities, goals, and other information if you don’t want them to be generally visible. Each of the progress made toward your step, distance, and calorie goals is shown on a progress bar; it’s worth remembering, though, that Flex is only really tracking steps, and then calculating the probable distance and calories from that.

The app is also where you set silent alarms, with up to eight supported at any one time. Rather than a blaring notification from your phone on the nightstand, the Flex band vibrates and flashes its lights to tell you to get up. There’s support for one-off alarms and for repeating ones, such as on weekdays at a certain time, but still letting you sleep in at the weekend.

Unlike with UP, you don’t get the sleep-related alarm option (which promises to wake you when you’re in the phase of sleep most conducive to feeling bright), though it’s worth noting we had mixed results with that anyway. However, whereas UP must be plugged into your phone to set its alarms (or, indeed, sync its data) Flex can be controlled remotely over Bluetooth, a less fiddly affair that meant we made greater use of the alarm functionality.

Price and Battery

Fitbit may be trailing UP and Fuelband to the market, but it arrives with a price advantage. The Flex is $99.95, $30 less than the Jawbone version, and 50-percent less than Nike’s premium-priced Fuelband. That’s despite it using low-power Bluetooth; the Fuelband has Bluetooth too, but it sucks down battery life unlike the Flex.

In fact, Fitbit’s battery estimates of 5-7 days turned out to be reasonably accurate in our experience, with the Flex lasting 5-6 days of average use. Fitbit supplies a special charging cable to refuel the Flex, though it quickly proved a frustration. The dongle is held in place against the charging contacts by a clip, but we found it was insufficient to actually keep the Flex in place. The only way to actually get it to charge consistently was to wedge a piece of paper or something similar in the gap too, pressing the Flex against the pins.

Wrap-Up

In some ways, the Fitbit Flex is the best mainstream health tracker out there. It’s the most comfortable, has the best balance of wireless connectivity and battery life, and – for daily fitness recording, anyway – does exactly what you want to to, assuming you’re wearing it properly. The addition of Bluetooth 4.0 addresses one of our biggest complaints about the Jawbone UP: that there was basically no feedback about our performance during the day, until we plugged the band into our phone.

Nonetheless, the Flex isn’t perfect. Like all of these trackers, it calculates much of its data – calories, distance traveled – from a few fundamental factors, which means they’re not infallible. More disappointing is the poor sleep tracking functionality, which pales in comparison (and accuracy) with other models.

If you’re keen to measure your sleep routine, we’d still recommend the UP. However, for everything else, the Flex has the advantage. It’s more comfortable and easier to use than the UP, and considerably cheaper and with better Bluetooth implementation than the Fuelband. If you’re looking to get into wearables, that makes it a great place to start.

Hardware and Design

This is an all-new phone, but don’t be surprised if nobody realizes it. The GALAXY S 4 ticks all the must-have boxes for a recent Android handset, but Samsung’s decision to stick to the familial design language we’ve seen on the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II means that it’s only really when you have them together that the differences become clear.

The display is obviously larger – more on that in the next section – but the dimensions of the GALAXY S 4 itself are little changed. In fact, although at 136.6 mm long it’s identical in length to the Galaxy S III, judicious slimming of the bezels have left the newer phone narrower, at 69.8 mm versus 70.6mm, and thinner, at 7.9 mm versus 8.6 mm. That’s impressive stuff, whether you like the design or not. At 130g it’s a basically unnoticeable 3g lighter, too.

Side by side, and how Samsung has achieved that becomes obvious. At the top, the earpiece has been squashed up right next to the chromed plastic trim, flanked by the proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, and front-facing camera. The screen butts up closer to the sides of the phone, too, and extends further down into the chin, leaving the physical “home” button and touch-sensitive, backlit “back” and “menu” keys somewhat cramped. The angle of curve of the corners has reduced, losing a little of the “pebble” silhouette the old phone has. You still get the side-mounted power key and volume rocker, as well as a microUSB port and 3.5mm headphone socket.

Interestingly, although it’s officially thinner, the more squared-off sides of the GALAXY S 4 can leave it feeling thicker in the hand. The more pronounced taper of the Galaxy S III has the effect of making it feel like a slimmer device. Samsung has given the S 4′s edges a slight knurling, which makes it a little easier to grip, though the plastics are still glossy and slippery. That makes slipping the GALAXY S 4 into a pocket or bag an easy thing, but does also mean it can be easy to drop.

It’s also miles away from the premium feel of the HTC One or the iPhone 5. Samsung’s decision to go with plastic rather than metal (or even matte-finish polycarbonate, as we’ve seen Nokia use to good effect in its Lumia range) was one of our key complaints about the Galaxy S III, and keeping the lightweight casing has seemingly proved inescapable since the company wanted to announce a thinner phone. White and black versions of the GALAXY S 4 will be offered, both with a glossy finish, and they simply lack the high-end crispness that HTC and Apple deliver.

That’s not to say the Samsung is flimsy. The phone is creak-free, and the removable battery door – though wafer-thin – flexes just enough to reassure you that it’ll stand up to a trip in your pocket, rather than that it will snap as soon as you squeeze it. Samsung has used Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3.0 to protect the screen, the latest iteration and rated as three-times more scratch-resistant than v2.0.

It’s inside that things get really impressive, however. Samsung has boosted the memory to 2GB, and will offer 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB versions, all with microSD slots happy with up to 64GB cards. There’s WiFi a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz) complete with WiFi Direct, DLNA, hotspot, and Miracast support; Bluetooth 4.0; NFC; GPS/GLONASS; USB On-The-Go for external memory and peripherals; MHL-HDMI 2.0 for hooking up a TV or projector (with the right adapter); and an infrared port to turn the GALAXY S 4 into a universal remote. Sensors include an accelerometer, gyroscope, and digital compass, but also a moisture-measuring hygrometer, a thermometer, and a pressure-tracking barometer.

Not all GALAXY S 4 units are created equal, mind, and the big difference comes in connectivity and processor type. Samsung will in fact make multiple versions of the phone, to suit different networks. In the US, Samsung will offer a model for each of the big networks, all powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600 (APQ8064T), a quadcore processor using four 1.9GHz Krait 300 cores, and accompanied by Adreno 320 graphics.

The same chipset will be at the heart of the international LTE GALAXY S 4, but for the non-LTE version, and the KT and SK Telecom LTE models for South Korea only, Samsung has saved its new eight-core chipset. Named the Exynos 5 Octa, this combines four ARM Cortex A15 cores (running at 1.6GHz on the non-LTE model and 1.8GHz on the South Korean version) with four Cortex A7 cores (running at 1.2GHz), and is the first example of ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture. Of the eight cores, only four are ever active simultaneously: either the Cortex A15 for when more processing power is needed, or the Cortex A7 for greater power efficiency. It also gets an IT SGX544MP3 graphics chip.

How well that system works will have to wait until we can get our hands on the octacore-powered phone, though for the US it’s perhaps all academic since none of the carriers will be offering a version with the Exynos 5 Octa inside.

Display

Samsung’s Super AMOLED technology makes a reappearance on the GALAXY S 4, this time a 4.99-inch panel running at 1080p Full HD resolution, versus the 4.8-inch 720p panel of its predecessor. Controversy continues to rage over whether a near-5-inch display makes for a manageable phone, though the Android segment seems wedded to the “bigger is better” ethos for at least the time being.

The screen itself is undeniably a beauty. AMOLED is known for its bright, vivid colors and excellent viewing angles, and the GALAXY S 4 has both in spades. That, combined with the 1920 x 1080 resolution, means that – though purists may shudder at the mention of PenTile on the spec sheet – the phone is a joy to look at. As ever, AMOLED tends toward the over-saturated, and side by side with the HTC One, the slightly smaller phone arguably looks a little more natural.

Nonetheless, it’s a fantastic screen for multimedia, with video looking great while text is crisp even at tiny fonts. Web browsing also does well, with even full-site webpages easily navigable on the GALAXY S 4′s capacious display.

Software and Performance

The GALAXY S 4 admirably comes with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean – the latest version – out of the box, at a time when rival firms are still launching new devices with older iterations. However, Samsung simply can’t let Android escape without modifying it, and so you end up with the TouchWiz “Nature UX” and a long, long list of tweaks and new features.

Some are familiar from before: S Voice, for instance, Samsung’s take on Siri, as well as S Health for fitness monitoring. S Health can keep records of how many steps you’ve taken using the phone’s pedometer, as well as log the weather conditions around you using the various sensors; it will also work with a selection of new fitness-tracking accessories, too, though Samsung did not provide any for our review. ChatON, the voice/video/chat app is also preloaded, along with Samsung’s Hub.

The old Galaxy S III used its front-facing camera to make sure the screen didn’t go to sleep when you were reading but not tapping it; on the GALAXY S 4, that has been upgraded to what Samsung calls Smart Scroll and Smart Pause. The former tracks how you tilt the phone when you’re looking directly at the display, scrolling through ebooks or webpages automatically, while the latter pauses video playback when you turn away from the phone, and resumes it when you look back.

The screen itself has become smarter, too, with Air Gesture and Air View introduced. Just as the Galaxy Note II can track the nib of its S Pen stylus when it’s hovering over – but not touching – the display, now the GALAXY S 4 can recognize a fingertip close to its screen. Hover your finger over a Flipboard story, say, or a calendar entry, and a preview window will eventually pop up. It works, but it’s a little on the sluggish side for our liking: sometimes it proved quicker to actually tap in and then hit the back button, rather than wait for Air View to react. Not all apps support the feature, either: if you want Air View in your inbox, for instance, you have to use Samsung’s email app, not the Gmail app we prefer. One plus is that the GALAXY S 4 can be used even when you’re wearing gloves.

Air Gesture, meanwhile, builds on the Galaxy S III’s screenshot function – which screen-grabbed when you swiped the side of your palm across the display – by tracking hand movements above the phone. Using them, you can navigate through photo galleries and slideshows, through webpages, music playlists, and answer or dismiss calls. We still like the screenshot shortcut, which is often easier to trigger than holding down multiple buttons, but the rest can feel gimmicky.

Thankfully, you can selectively disable those you don’t want to use from an extended shortcut panel in the drop-down notifications menu. In fact, granularity of control is one of the big advantages of the GALAXY S 4: yes, there are plenty of add-ons and features that Samsung has thrown at its flagship, but it also recognizes that some people simply aren’t going to want to use them, and doesn’t make it difficult to turn them off.

Samsung has been bundling universal remote functionality with its Galaxy Tab tablets for some time now, using Peel’s Smart Remote software, but the GALAXY S 4 is the first of the company’s flagship phones to see the company’s home-grown technology. A small IR sensor on the top edge works with the new WatchON app, turning your handset into a touchscreen remote. Setup is straightforward – pick your TV, PVR, or cable box brand, and which cable, satellite, or other media provider you subscribe to – and you can start controlling channel selection, playback of recordings, and read through an EPG while you watch the big-screen.

So far, so like HTC’s Watch app on the One. However, where the HTC software only reminds you of shows if you’ve previously favorited them, the GALAXY S 4 can actively learn from your viewing habits and prompt you with new shows the algorithm believes you might be interested in. By hitting the Like or Dislike buttons, you teach WatchON your preferences, though it takes a little time before the suggestions felt like they were truly relevant. Being able to simply tap view (or, indeed, record) and have the phone automatically switch to the right channel is useful, however.

Happily, whether you’re running Samsung’s apps or third-party software, we’ve got no complaints as to how fast they run. In Quadrant, the GALAXY S 4 scored 12,593 overall – just slightly ahead of the HTC One – while in Linpack for Android it also bested HTC’s phone, managing 749.63 MFLOPS compared to the One’s 694.102. In Qualcomm’s own Vellamo test, it scored 1,783 in the HTML5 category and 814 in the Metal category: worse, and better, respectively than the One. HTC grabbed the lead in AnTuTu, however, with the GALAXY S 4 scoring 17,320, nearly 7,000 points behind the One.

In practice, it’s a smooth running, swift phone. No lag when hopping between apps or loading webpages, and no slow-down even when performing graphically-intensive tasks. Of course, our real interest is in how the big.LITTLE-powered variants do, since those models debut ARM’s new heterogeneous architecture.

Camera

That Samsung would step up to a 13-megapixel camera from the 8-megapixels of the old phone came as no great surprise. That certainly looks the part on paper, in a spec-driven world where bigger is presumed to be better; however, in the meantime we’ve also seen rival phones, such as HTC’s One, concern themselves with more than just megapixel counts. That raises the question: is the best way to improve your photos to throw more pixels at them?

As you might expect, that all depends on shooting conditions. The surfeit of pixels show their worth in outdoor shots where there’s plenty of light. That given, you get bright, saturated colors, impressive brightness, and grain only when you blow things up to near-maximum resolution. We did notice that the GALAXY S 4 prefers subjects to be at a distance, however: some close-up shots (that we wouldn’t quite consider to be in macro territory) show the phone struggling to lock focus exactly onto the subject, leaving things a little fuzzy.

As for actual macro images, they’re reasonable, though the GALAXY S 4′s tendency to over-saturate bright colors can leave things looking like you have HDR mode permanently switched on. In the flower close-ups in the gallery, for instance, the detail of the petals is lost in a botch of bright red, while the paler grasses in the background look grainy and insipid.

When things start to get darker – indoor images, for instance, or in the evening – however, is when we started wishing for bigger pixels rather than just more of them. Low-light images see grain make itself known, the GALAXY S 4 overcompensating with its sharpening correction, and the absence of optical image stabilization (OIS) can often lead to blur as the phone tries to grab more light per frame.

In short, it’s an acceptable phone camera, but it’s not the huge step up from what the Galaxy S III could deliver that, on paper, the megapixel increase might suggest. For low-light shots, too, we’d prefer Nokia’s Lumia 920, the OIS of which does an excellent job of smoothing out blur during longer exposures, or HTC’s One, which uses larger pixels (albeit fewer of them: 4-megapixels versus Samsung’s 13-megapixels) and OIS to maximize how much light it can capture. There’s a noticeably narrower field of view on the GALAXY S 4 compared to the One, too, with detail all around the periphery cropped out.

What you do get with Samsung’s camera is a number of different shooting effects to choose between. Dual Shot, for instance, combines images from the main camera and the 2-megapixel front-facing camera into a single frame: basically slotting your own face into the image. You can move the inset around the frame, and give it different outlines such as a postage stamp or a bubble, and while it can feel gimmicky at times, it does mean that your holiday photos prove you really were there at the time, not just whoever is in front of the camera.

There’s also Sound & Shot, which attaches a short audio clip to each still image – Samsung says it’s to capture the mood when you took the photo, though we prefer HTC’s combination of sound, images, and video with the Zoe system – along with Drama Shot, which combines a sequence of burst-photos into a single collage. You can create short gif images without needing to reach for a third-party app, or trigger a photo by calling out to the phone, just as we saw Samsung implement on the Galaxy Camera.

As for video, the GALAXY S 4 can capture at up to 1080p Full HD resolution both front and back. The camera app usefully adds a pause button along with stop, meaning you can halt and resume recording and still end up with a single file; with some careful timing, it means you may not need to post-process the footage before you upload it to YouTube. We’re also left impressed by the fact that the GALAXY S 4 can use Dual Shot during Full HD video recording, combining footage from both cameras.

Above: full resolution photos with GALAXY S 4′s back-facing camera in both standard and Dual Shot modes. Below: HDR photos with GALAXY S 4′s back-facing camera.

The same strengths and weaknesses of the new Samsung’s camera at stills are carried over to its video performance. Give it plenty of natural light and you end up with great colors and little noise, though the absence of OIS means clips can be shaky, especially if you’re panning. The cropping is also the same as for stills. Get into darker situations, however, and the grain seeps back in, with the closely-packed pixels struggling to make out what’s in front of them. The effect isn’t as pronounced as for stills, however; overall it’s not unusual for a phone camera, no, but it’s also not the best we’ve seen. Worth a mention is the quality of footage from the front-facing camera, which is particularly good.

Samsung GALAXY S 4 Bottle Photo:

HTC One Bottle Photo:

iPhone 5 Bottle Photo:

Samsung GALAXY S 4 1080p Video:

HTC One 1080p Video:

iPhone 5 1080p Video:

Battery and Phone

Just as the GALAXY S 4 is larger than the phone that came before it, so is the battery. Now at 2,600 mAh, it’s also user-accessible meaning that you can swap in a replacement should you run low during the day. There’s also optional wireless charging, if you use the Qi-compatible replacement back cover Samsung offers (but which we did not have to review).

Our lingering impression is that picking up a spare battery may well be a very good idea. Loaded up for typical use – with push email active; some use of maps, multimedia, and the camera; a few calls; and some messaging – the GALAXY S 4 ran for around 13-14 hours before needing a recharge. Longevity was particularly affected by what apps it was running, however. With instant-messenger LINE active, for instance, we saw runtimes drastically cut, even when the phone was in Airplane mode with no cellular data connection active. In contrast, LINE on the HTC One had minimal affect on power consumption.

Even if you’re draconian with your apps, that deliciously huge, bright display takes its toll on how long the GALAXY S 4 can run for. In fact it proved responsible for, on average, roughly 40-percent of the battery drain. Samsung does make some attempts at prolonging power, such as Smart Mode which remembers which locations you use WiFi and selectively switches it on and off when you get near, but even using WiFi we had mixed results. Unfortunately Samsung was unable to provide an LTE variant of the GALAXY S 4 for review, so battery testing while on 4G will have to wait.

As for calls, the GALAXY S 4 held its own. We experienced no drops, and the earpiece is loud at maximum volume. Interestingly, callers said they preferred the audio when we turned off Samsung’s adaptive DSP, which they told us made voices sound robotic and overly-processed. The main speaker can be cranked up suitably high, but it lacks the rich bottom end of HTC’s BoomSound system.

Samsung S View Cover

Samsung has a number of official accessories for the GALAXY S 4, but arguably the most interesting is the S View Cover. Like the flip cases the company has previously offered for the Galaxy S III and Note II, it flaps over to protect the display but adds minimal bulk, fixed to a replacement battery cover rather than fitting over the phone.

The difference, however, is the clear plastic window near the top of the cover, through which you can see a portion of the GALAXY S 4′s display. This takes advantage of one of the advantages of AMOLED compared to LCD: namely, that you can selectively power up a part of the display, but not the rest, and so consume less juice overall.

Here, Samsung uses that to put status information on the display, viewed through the window. You get the Android notification bar, with all of the usual icons including signal status and battery, as well as caller ID – and the controls to answer or reject calls – when someone rings. A cut-out above, matching with the earpiece, allows you to take the call without opening the cover. When you’re not taking calls, there’s room for a big clock and date display, as well as now-playing information for the music app.

It feels high-quality, and the concept works well. By only using a section of the AMOLED, rather than turning it all on every time you want to check for new messages, it helps cut down on the screen’s thirst for battery, and we quickly became used to pulling the phone out of our pocket just enough to glance at the status panel. At $59.99 it’s not the cheapest case, however, though Samsung does also offer a traditional Flip Cover – without the cut-out – for $20 less.

Wrap-Up

That the GALAXY S 4 will be a best-seller is pretty much a given at this stage. A combination of cutting-edge hardware, blanket advertising, and no small amount of headline-grabbing sparring with Apple has left the Galaxy series as the de-facto Android option for many, and that mindshare and marketing positions the new flagship to pick up the reins as soon as it hits stores.

That’s not to say that Samsung’s improvements aren’t impressive in places in their own right. The new Full HD AMOLED screen is a beauty, and there’s no shortage of power or storage for running the latest Android apps or, indeed, those likely to arrive in the coming months. As we’ve found before, some of Samsung’s software tweaks we used, and others we could happily leave; the exact mixture of which each user will come to rely on, though, will vary, and Samsung seems content to throw them all into the pot and let the individual decide. Video recording from both cameras is great too.

It’s probably the similarities in design that make the GALAXY S 4 feel evolutionary rather than revolutionary, though we’re left not entirely convinced that all of those developments are necessarily the best they could be. A 13-megapixel camera sounds great in theory, but it introduces compromises in low-light situations that HTC’s more imaginative system on the One doesn’t suffer from; Samsung’s big, bright screen may be beautiful, but it also takes its toll on the battery.

Samsung was once the challenger, spurred into action by Apple and the best-selling iPhone. Now, at the top of the charts in Android, it too has driven other manufacturers to take more risks and raise their game. The end result is a device like the HTC One, which in some ways feels more suited to how smartphone owners are actually using their phones. The GALAXY S 4 is a safe, capable, and solid option, and though Samsung’s flagship is perhaps no longer necessarily the best Android device on the market, it’s still a tremendously polished phone with plenty to satisfy the crowds eagerly awaiting it.

Sold alongside the GALAXY S 4 will be a number of official accessories, most interesting of which is the S View Flip Cover. That relies on the ability of AMOLED displays to selectively activate a sub-portion of the screen – with lower power consumption than if the whole display is being used – and shows a status window through a clear gap in the flip cover. Opening the cover will automatically turn on the phone.

The S View Flip Cover will be offered in “black mist” and “white frost” priced at $59.99 alongside matching colors of GALAXY S 4, with the phone coming with either 16GB or 32GB of onboard storage. Samsung will also offer a more traditional Flip Cover, with no status window but a broader array of colors – black, white, light blue, pink, green, orange, and yellow – for $39.99.

Meanwhile, there’s the Samsung Protective Cover+, available in white, navy, green, blue, and pink, and which gives the GALAXY S 4 more protection from knocks and falls. It slips over the chassis, ruggedizing the back and sides, and is priced at $29.99. Finally, a spare battery charger – which includes a 2,600 mAh battery, stand, and wall charger – will be priced at $49.99.

Samsung GALAXY S 4 hands-on:

The GALAXY S 4 will also work with Samsung’s existing range of smartphone accessories, including the same Smart Dock as was previously offered for the Galaxy Note II, priced at $99.99. Samsung’s AllShare Cast Wireless Hub ($99.99) for DLNA streaming to an HDMI display, and Universal Multimedia Desktop Dock ($49.99) which offers an audio-out port while charging your phone, will also work with the new flagship.

Exact pricing for the GALAXY S 4 itself will be decided by individual carriers, though some have already confirmed their on-contract numbers. AT&T, for instance, began taking preorders yesterday at $199.99 for the 16GB model, with a new, two-year agreement, along with US Cellular.

There’s more on the Samsung GALAXY S 4 in our full hands-on.

The Basics

Ostensibly the new JH16 Pro with Freqphase are the same as the original JH16 Pro. You still get eight drivers per ear – double dual lows, a single dual mid, and a single dual high – for a total of sixteen, plus an integrated 3-way crossover, all in a custom-made, hand-built unit.

That means you’ll need to have an ear-mold taken (a slightly uncomfortable process involving fast-setting foam being injected into your ears to set to their inner shape) and send those impressions off to JH Audio. After that – and after you’ve picked your custom color-scheme, with a huge range of translucent and solid hues to pick between, and the option of custom graphics such as a logo or name – it’s a 25-30 day turnaround before the hand-crafted IEMs arrive.

JH16 Pro versus JH16 Pro

The new and old earphones might share the same name, but inside things are very different. In fact, while the balanced armature drivers of our existing pair are carried forward, the internal layout, crossover system, and even the tubes that run from the drivers down the ear canal are redesigned. Efficiency is also down, thanks to the new crossover, though only by a couple of dB. The biggest change is the approach to sound that JH Audio has evolved to, and that’s called Freqphase.

Freqphase

There’s a little back-story to Freqphase, and the phase-coherence theory behind it, that you need to understand first. Traditionally, IEMs haven’t given much thought to managing the speed at which low, mid, and high frequencies go from driver to ear: that usually means that the high-end gets there first, while the bottom-end lags along last. If the delay involved gets too great, you end up with flabby, loose sound.

Now, the original JH16 Pro IEMs were never something we’d accuse of being imprecise, but Freqphase aims to tighten them up even more. By carefully positioning the drivers physically within each casing, and by adjusting the crossover, JH Audio has tuned the new versions to take the delays into account, meaning low, mid, and high frequencies arrive at the ear within 0.01ms of each other. It’s something sound engineers have been doing in live venues for a long time, but it’s all new for IEMs.

Performance

The first JH16 Pros were lauded – not just by us – for their accuracy and for the strength of their sound. They also had a reputation for being somewhat bass-heavy, emphasizing the low-end by virtue of the double dual low drivers, whereas the JH13 was known for being somewhat less expressive in that way, as it had a single dual low driver in each earphone.

It’s only when you switch between old and new that you really notice the difference JH Audio has achieved. The original IEMs are excellent, certainly, but the new ones feel incredibly cohesive: they also have a far broader soundstage, more like a great, focused speaker setup than earphones. Within that soundstage each part of the recording gets its own position, too, something you can differentiate during playback rather than have all of the sound merged into one.

Some of the edge has been shaved from the bass, though the JH16 Pros are still capable of making your ears throb with the right track. Perhaps more important than the power is how the balance of the bass overall has been tempered, with an immediacy that cuts out any suggestion of flabbiness, and an evenness that means all of the low-end sound sits together in balance, rather than being punched through in places in the frequency curve.

Moving up to the mids is a seamless affair, with clarity that doesn’t take away their warmth and complexity. Some IEMs we’ve tried neglect the midrange, relying instead on great slabs of bass and piping trebles to mask an uninspiring middle section, but that’s not an accusation we’d level at the Freqphase-blassed JH16 Pros. Instead, you get more of the differentiation between instruments and lower-end vocals that the bass driver displays, each part sitting together in the whole.

Then there’s the treble, which takes the stab and sparkle of the original IEMs and makes it tauter Vocals do particularly well, standing clear of the background music while still a part of it, though instrumental and classical music benefit too. You need a high-quality source file to get the most from it, of course.

Freqphase’s real magic isn’t so much in the balance of each part of the frequency curve, but in how the improved timing sets out the audio in a more natural, realistic way. This isn’t just sound spread around from left to right, but with real depth: you can tell how the orchestra was arranged in classical music, for instance, while live band recordings are more authentic.

Wrap-Up

With a starting price of $1,149 – more if you want to go further with your customization – the JH16 Pro IEMs remain a luxury for the audiophile. Not only are they expensive period, they’re also expensive in a world where low-cost custom earphones are becoming more widely available.

Nonetheless, there’s certainly a market for them, and indeed a good reason for their existence in the first place. Freqphase may have a somewhat gimmicky name, but the sound quality it delivers is no joke: suddenly, the JH16 Pros become a legitimate, no-compromise alternative to a high-end speaker system, with all the soundstage merits that would usually bring.

You need to treat your audio properly to get the most out of the JH16 Pro IEMs. Pair them with a decent media player, for a start, and sufficiently high-quality source audio – if that’s digital, then 320kbps at the least, but lossless would be preferable – to feed them, since IEMs of this quality are just as capable of highlighting the shortcomings of poor recordings as they are at drawing out the great parts of quality ones. It’s that expert treatment that the JH16 Pro and Freqphase brings that makes the earphones worthwhile, though, and what makes them the aspiration of any true music lover.

Hardware

HTC may put Facebook at the core of the First, but the hardware does remind us of another phone: the HTC One S. At 4.96 x 2.56 x 0.35 inches and 4.37 ounces it’s a little shorter, but slightly thicker and heavier, than the 2012 midrange handset, sacrificing some sleekness by virtue of its cheaper soft-touch plastic body rather than the One S’ more premium-feel metal. HTC will offer four color options: white, black, red, and pale blue.

The front is dominated by a 4.3-inch, 720p resolution Super LCD display. We’ve already praised HTC for compromising on the size/usability argument with the 4.7-inch One, which we prefer to 5-inch devices, and the 4.3-inch form-factor of the First makes for another nicely scaled phone. The curved edges of the matte-finish unibody casing nestle into the hand well, and while it may not be Full HD, the 341ppi of the display means it’s more pixel-dense than an iPhone 5.

It’s also bright and clear, with decent viewing angles. Underneath, there are three touch-sensitive keys – back, home, and menu – though no dedicated Facebook key, unlike HTC’s earlier Salsa and ChaCha handsets; in fact, the only physical controls are a volume rocker on the left edge and a power button on the top, along with the 3.5mm headphones jack. The microSIM tray and microUSB port are on the right edge, and there’s a small – and fairly weedy – speaker on the bottom.

The back (which has pleasing proportions that remind us of the original iPhone) has a 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash, while a 1.6-megapixel front-facing camera is included for your Facebook selfies. Both use backside-illuminated sensors and, in the case of the front camera, an ultrawide lens for including more people in-frame. However, there’s none of the UltraPixel cleverness that HTC has included on the HTC One.

Inside is where the $100 sticker price of the First begins to properly show. The processor is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 8930AA dualcore running at 1.4GHz, paired with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage; like other HTC handsets in recent months, there’s no microSD card slot to add to that, and nor do you get a removable battery. Instead, the 2,000 mAh Li-Poly pack is fixed.

Connectivity includes quad band HSPA+/GSM/EDGE and dualband LTE – AT&T has already confirmed it will be offering the First, complete with 4G support – as well as WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. There’s none of the 802.11ac WiFi support of the HTC One, but the First does get NFC, dual-microphones, GPS/GLONASS and a digital compass.

The most noticeable thing about the First is, perhaps ironically, just how inconspicuous it is. The barely-ornamented chassis – which includes relegating HTC’s logo, along with those of Facebook and AT&T, to discrete silk-screens at the bottom half of the back of the phone, with no branding on the front whatsoever – basically serves as a discrete frame for Facebook. It reminds us a little of HTC’s origins as a white-label designer, pumping out handsets for carriers to rebrand, and while the First is a sturdy little thing, it’s hardly memorable.

Software and Performance

We’ve reviewed Facebook Home separately, since the new launcher will be available not only on specific “experience” devices like the First, but also as a free download for certain existing Android handsets from the Play market. In short, it’s a replacement to the everyday user experience of an Android phone, as tightly integrated with Facebook services – and as exclusionary of others – as you’d expect.

Underneath, though, is pure Android 4.1, with none of the Sense customizations that have been the default for HTC over the past few years. In fact, you have to look back to the original Nexus One to find the last pure-Android HTC. The irony is, of course, that as of Sense 5 on the HTC One, we’ve actually come back around to liking the company’s customizations. There’s also still no guarantee that, as per a Nexus-series device, you’ll get more timely OS updates versus a Sense phone. One other hiccup was how the menu button was handled: some apps simply don’t seem to recognize it.

As for speed, we were pleasantly surprised with how smooth Facebook Home is on the First’s more humble specifications. Facebook told us that it has worked hard to make sure things like the physics engine behind the animations, and the way the launcher renders, are in keeping with the processing potential of the Snapdragon 400 chipset, and that has certainly paid off for a silky user-experience.

Of course, not everything happens in Home, and so we put the First through the usual benchmarking trials to see how it held up. In Quadrant, it scored 6,346, putting it comfortably ahead of last year’s One X, while a SunSpider browser test score of 1,567.8ms (lower is better) brings the First surprisingly close to where the One scored, with only around 400ms between them.

AnTuTu v3 saw the First manage 11,156, with the internal storage hitting 48.1MB/s reads and 20.7MB/s writes, while in Qualcomm’s own Vellamo tool it scored 2,185 in the HTML5 tests and 587 in the Metal tests. That puts it ahead of the Galaxy S III (on Android 4.0.4, at least) in HTML5 performance, but behind the One X for its Metal store.

Camera

With 5-megapixels to play with, HTC is aiming decidedly at the mid-range with the First’s camera. Unfortunately, while the megapixel count may be similar to that of the HTC One, the pixel technology isn’t, and so the Facebook phone suffers from mediocre low-light performance, among other shortcomings.

As with all phone cameras, give the First ample natural light and it can produce some reasonable stills. Unfortunately, as soon as you step away from those ideal conditions, things get shaky. We saw more noise from the First’s camera than we’d like to, with muted colors and trouble focusing at times, Video suffers in much the same way, with the resolution being less of an issue than the noise and lackluster colors.

Whether most users will care about all that is questionable. Just as the First – and Facebook Home itself – is designed for consuming Facebook media, perhaps its camera will only ever be expected to create basic snapshots for sharing on the social site. Nonetheless, having seen what UltraPixel can do for low-light settings, such as the parties, concerts, and other dimly-lit venues of fun that are commonly documented on Facebook, it’s a shame that those are the type of images that will fare the worst on the First.

Battery

The First will last for up to 14.3hrs of talk time or up to 18.2 days of standby, AT&T says, though that’s likely to be heavily dependent on how socially active you are, and whether it’s over LTE or not. In practice, with the combination of the mid-range specifications and Facebook’s own software refinement, we saw some impressive longevity out of the First. With mixed use, we saw the gage drop by only around 20-percent over the course of more than 14hrs, for instance.

What you don’t have manual control over is how much often Facebook Home refreshes. Facebook has adjusted the default behavior depending on whether you’re connected to WiFi or cellular data, but there’s no manual override, and as such you’re at the mercy of what Facebook and HTC believe to be the most sensible settings. You do get three tiers of data use/image quality settings – high, medium, and low – though no more granular control than that.

Wrap-Up

You could argue that the HTC First is in a category on its own, the first and so-far only dedicated Facebook Home device. That’s certainly how HTC and AT&T would like you to see it. However, there are plenty of ways to do social aggregation – HTC’s own BlinkFeed for instance, on the One, pulls in Facebook updates among other things – and viewed in the grander scheme of things, the First simply doesn’t feel like a $100 device. We’d certainly argue strongly in favor of spending the extra $100 upfront and going for the more refined build quality, better camera, and generally more impressive hardware and software experience of the HTC One, for instance.

We also noticed that, for all the First is meant to be a great social phone, we quickly grew frustrated by its social immersion. Part of that is because we’re not fully committed to any one single service, and Facebook Home does its level best to bury others, like Twitter and Google+, beneath the surface.

More critically, there’s not enough control over what gets included in Cover Feed and what doesn’t. The First is a window into your entire Facebook experience, whereas most of the time we wanted a more pared-back glimpse into the subset of people we’re particularly interested in. That could be addressed with support for Facebook’s existing Groups, and we’d not be surprised if it’s high on the company’s to-do list, but right now it’s a hit & miss affair as to whether you’ll turn on your phone and be faced with something you actually care about, from a friend you’re actually close to. Ironically, Facebook Home is perhaps the best argument for pruning your friends list that we’ve seen in some time.

If the HTC First was a $99.99 device on prepay, we’d be a lot more comfortable recommending it. With a two-year agreement involved, and the relatively small step up to a device like the HTC One, which we rate so strongly, it’s not just Facebook Home’s beta-style performance that gives us pause for thought. The First is not a bad handset, but it’s a generally nondescript one, and Facebook Home is not the “killer launcher” that would make it a must-buy.

It’s social, stupid

Home is a launcher and a partial skin, and it takes advantage of the flexibility baked into Android for third-party modification. Unlike iOS and Windows Phone, which have tight controls on UI, Android is set up to allow for different launchers: when you download it, you can choose to have it load just the once, or set it as your default, in which case it’ll show up every time you hit the home button.

Arguably the easiest way to get Facebook Home will be to buy a handset with the launcher preloaded. Initially, that means just one device – the HTC First, which we’ve reviewed in full here – and one US network, AT&T, with the mid-tier First coming in at $100 with a new, two year agreement. Further partnerships with device manufacturers are in the pipeline, including Samsung and Sony among others.

A Facebook Home Program phone won’t be the only way to get hold of the new launcher, however. In fact, those users are more than likely to be the minority; for those with a compatible existing phone, Facebook Home will be available as a free download through the Google Play market. The first crop of supported handsets includes the Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy S 4, and Note II, as well as the HTC One X, One X+, and One. Broader support will follow on in time, Facebook says.

Cover Feed

Facebook certainly gets its money’s worth from Cover Feed: the social stream is both the lock screen and the homescreen for your device. At the bottom, in the center, is a single control – your profile photo in a small, circular bubble – which, if dragged, can be pulled across to launch the messenger, open the app launcher, or bring back your last-used app.

The bulk of the screen, though, is devoted to your Facebook friends. It’s an edge-to-edge view of their latest status updates, photos, links, and Open Graph entries, cycling through the recent content with a splash of mild animation to keep things visually pleasing. Individual photos pan across the screen, behind the status text, name, date it was posted, and location, while there are also small buttons in the lower left corner for immediately liking the post or reading/adding comments.

Double-tapping a status update “Likes” it, while single-tapping opens the comments. Small text in the lower right shows how many likes and comments there are, together with a preview of who made them. Alternatively you can long-press on the photo, and it will zoom so that you can see the whole picture in one go.

It certainly looks impressive, as long as you have some photo-addicted friends. On the flip side, Facebook adjusts the resolution and number of new photos you see depending on whether you’re using a mobile data or WiFi connection, to try to avoid hammering through your data allowance (you can also choose whether you want to see low, medium, or high image quality). Cover Feed is basically defined by who you’re friends with and how exciting their lives are; if they post text-only status updates, all you’ll see is an enlargement of their profile photo in the background.

Notifications

It also pays to have quite a few friends – though if you’re considering a Facebook Home phone or even just the launcher, perhaps that’s a given – since Home is quite an insular place. Too few and your Cover Feed will be relatively empty; on the flip side, however, with no way to filter out which groups of people feed the timeline, there’s a frustrating lack of control over what you see day to day. This is particularly the case with notifications: on the HTC First, you get alerts for all apps and services, but if you’re using Home on an existing handset, only Facebook notifications come through.

Either way, notifications bubble in as simple grey bars, with profile photos if they’re of new status updates, messages, or Facebook check-ins, or app icons – such as email, phone or Instagram – if they’re from elsewhere on your handset. You can tap them to open them, or swipe them away off the screen; long-pressing on one notification allows you to lasso multiple notifications and dismiss them simultaneously.

If you’ve got rid of them, though, you can call them back using the standard Android Jelly Bean notification bar, though it’s hidden by default. A tap at the top of the Cover Feed screen makes it briefly visible – complete with the usual clock, network signal, battery status, and any notification icons – and then dragging it down opens it completely.

Again, as with Cover Feed, it all works well in the context of Facebook. Using Home on a device other than the First, however, hides a lot of Android’s other glitz and features, not least any support for homescreen widgets. In fact, they’re completely absent from Home.

Chat Heads and Messenger

Passively consuming photos and links isn’t the only aspect of Facebook Home: instant messaging is also heavily integrated into not only the launch, but the Android system as a whole. New messages pop up as circular bubbles showing either the user’s profile photo or, in the case of group messages, a collage of those photos. By default, they bubble into view in the upper right corner, clustering across the screen as they stack up, but each can be dragged around (or, with a long-press and a lasso gesture, multiple Chat Heads can be grabbed) and either pushed to other areas of the screen or dismissed altogether.

That’s important, as Chat Heads permeate all through the OS, appearing on top of whatever app you’re using – Facebook or otherwise. It soon becomes second nature to snatch one up with your thumb and either open it or flick it away; however, you can also flick it to the side of the screen, where – after a little bounce – it will cling.

Tap to open it, and you get the usual Facebook messenger window on top of whatever you were looking at before, whether that be the Cover Feed homescreen, the Android browser, a game, or something else. You can also call up a Chat Head yourself, by long-pressing a person in the regular messenger list, and choosing to pop them out as a bubble.

Chat Heads works well, though again there’s a walled garden effect that will frustrate anybody who isn’t entirely committed to Facebook for their messaging needs. The latest iteration of the Facebook messenger app pulls in SMS text messages, but it doesn’t support Google Talk or other IM systems, and so the overall usefulness of Chat Heads is diluted.

App Launcher (and everything else)

Facebook Home may be all about Facebook, but the social company does at least recognize that Android users are likely to want to access other apps. For that, there’s the app launcher, a quick-launch hub from which you can jump to your most commonly used software.

Drag the profile picture on the homescreen up, and the app launcher pane loads, a 4×4 grid of shortcuts that can be dragged and reorganized at will. Above it, there are buttons to post a new Facebook status message, a photo, or to check-in at your current location. Multiple pages of apps are supported, and you can drag new icons in by swiping to the left to open up the full app drawer and then bring them over to the main launcher pane.

The app drawer also has a Google search bar at the top of the screen, but that’s the only widget-style action you’ll get. There’s no support for any native Android or third-party widgets, and no way of accessing the regular Android homescreen, since Facebook Home replaces it completely. You do still get Google Now access, however, with a long-press on the home button calling it up; a double-tap opens the Android app switcher.

Wrap-Up

On the one hand, you can see the argument for Facebook Home. The social network is hugely popular, and there’s no shortage of people who check in on the latest updates multiple times a day. It’s become a way for old school friends to rediscover each other, family members to share the latest events in their lives, and for colleagues to collaborate more casually with services like messenger.

Nonetheless, in its first iteration, Facebook Home doesn’t quite hit the spot. It feels like it should have been a beta; indeed, Facebook was keen to point out at its launch event that it’s definitely a work-in-progress. The problem is, Facebook hasn’t taken baby steps: it wants to be your new Android homescreen, and anything from third-parties is basically lost or hidden in the process.

Factor in things like the complete lack of support for widgets and the inability to tailor who gets included in Cover Feed, and Facebook Home stumbles out of the gate. As a result, it’s difficult to recommend it to anybody other than those solely committed to Facebook (and even those most fervent users of the site were mixed when we showed them Facebook Home and explained what it offered), and if you’re also a Twitter user, or a Google+ user, or rely on other messaging apps like WhatsApp, LINE, or others, for every advantage Facebook Home provides, there’s a compromise to be made elsewhere.

Design, Performance, and Usability

We’ve already comprehensively covered the core proposition of the HTC One in our original review. Suffice to say, the appeal of the matte-finish metal handset hasn’t waned since then. Build quality keeps it at the top of the pile of Android devices in recent memory, for a start, and having weighed the One against the Galaxy S 4 at the Samsung phone’s launch, it’s clear that HTC has the edge in design and quality. One mild concern is the tendency of the white polycarbonate inset strip running the edge of the phone to pick up color smudges when we kept it in our jeans pocket, though these usually rubbed off.

Some of the details stand out after a longer period with the phone. BoomSound has a ridiculous name, but we can’t argue with the audio performance: we’ve found ourselves showing off more video, as well as reaching for the One in preference to other devices when it comes to consuming multimedia from services like Netflix, simply because the front-facing stereo speakers are simply that good. The power from the speakers is also incredibly useful when using the One as a navigation device in the car, while the screen they flank is no slouch either, with a combination of 1080p Full HD resolution and a color balance that’s refreshingly level rather than skewed to over-saturation.

HTC One walkthrough:

Sense 5 and the BlinkFeed homescreen – which pulls together news, Facebook, Twitter, calendar, and tips from the phone – continues to draw our attention, even with the gloss of newness taken off it. With its Flipboard-style feed of headlines and images, BlinkFeed makes for a great distraction, though we can’t help but wish HTC would hurry up and add offline caching of articles, the ability to add your own RSS feeds, and Google+/Google Now integration. The latter would arguably make the biggest difference; we like the low-noise way the One slots your upcoming appointments into the first page of BlinkFeed tiles each day, and it would make a perfect fit for Google Now suggestions.

Overall, Sense 5 combined with Android 4.1 performs well, and with the exception of Photosphere we’ve not really missed anything from the very latest version of Jelly Bean. AT&T’s version of the One includes a customized browser, but despite our initial concerns, performance actually improved over the stock phone. In SunSpider, the test of JavaScript performance, the European One scored 1,118.9ms versus the 1,035.1ms of the AT&T version (in SunSpider, faster is better). Overall, we had no issues with the One’s quadcore 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 processor pulling its weight running apps, and even AT&T’s preloaded software – which includes DriveMode, Family Map, Locker, Navigator, Ready2Go, Messages, myAT&T, Smart Wi-Fi, YPmobile, and Device Help – are neatly clustered into a folder rather than scattershot across the app launcher.

It’s not all perfect, though. A lingering frustration is the black menu bar that often appears in third-party apps, where HTC has followed Android guidelines and dropped a dedicated menu key, but apps aren’t yet putting the three-dot softkey where it should be, tucked out of the way in the corner. That means you lose a stripe of your 4.7-inch screen to a single control (the functionality of which varies widely) but, more annoyingly, the on-screen keyboard shifts up to accommodate it.

That has at times played havoc with our typing, our thumbs not extending sufficiently to avoid the menu key and thus interrupting text entry. Admittedly, it’s not HTC’s fault, but it’s an ongoing annoyance that apps not adhering to the latest Android UI guidelines continue to hit the Play store.

Camera and Multimedia

HTC’s UltraPixel strategy has proved divisive, with the company chasing more light instead of more megapixels. We’ve covered how the One uses its 4-megapixels extensively in our review, but we also gave the smartphone its chance to shine out in the wild, taking it to the New York Auto Show last month.

Your average tradeshow is tough going on a camera, whether it’s a DSLR, a point-and-shoot, or on a smartphone. The lighting ranges from ridiculously bright, meaning you get masses of reflections and glare, to moodily dark, making details difficult to pick out and the threat of noise a constant. In-between, there’s all manner of colored lights that can confuse a camera’s sensor.

The NY Auto Show was no different, but the HTC One held its own for the most part. All of the photos and video from our coverage of the new Chevrolet Camaro Z28 and the Corvette Stingray was taken using the One, for example, with us also using the Zoe “highlight” feature that creates summary videos based on 3.6s snippets of video and burst-stills.

For the photos, despite the mixed lighting conditions, the quality was surprisingly high. Blur is noticeably absent, the One being able to stick to faster shutter-speeds and lower ISOs thanks to its greater appetite for light, and photos which combine well-lit areas alongside much darker ones are impressively balanced. The phone is fast, too: back-to-back shots are roughly as swift as you can repeatedly tap the on-screen button.

Video, meanwhile, looks great at 1080p Full HD resolution, with the same impressive low-light and mixed-lighting performance as for stills. However, the noisy show floor proved a challenge for the One’s stereo microphones at times, however: you can certainly make out speech compared to background noise, but it lacks the pinpoint clarity you’d get with a directional microphone or a dedicated clip-on mic.

Nonetheless, for immediacy and convenience, the One certainly held its own. At full resolution and in perfect lighting, HTC’s choice of big pixels rather than lots of them struggles somewhat, but in more everyday situations the convenience of being able to take low-light situations in your stride wins out.

The downside with the One – and, specifically, with Zoe photography, which simultaneously grabs 20 stills and 3.6s of Full HD video – remains how multimedia is managed, particularly off the phone. We’ve already highlighted how poorly that plays with auto-upload services, such as those offered by Dropbox, Google+, and Facebook, which basically fill your cloud storage with dozens of nearly-identical shots. The AT&T version is no different in that respect, and HTC desperately needs to step up and address offloading media with its HTC Sync Manager app.

While it’s at it, we wouldn’t argue with more themes and flexibility for the Zoe highlights system: the One’s automatically curated showreels, which come complete with transitions, filters, and background music. We’re still impressed by how neatly the One knits these together, but the option for longer clips (currently it’s 30 seconds only) and the ability to use your own music would make the feature considerably more useful. We’ve found people are much more willing to watch our photos and video when they’re stitched into a highlight reel, and so a greater number of presets (out of the box there are six to choose between) would make it all the more engaging.

HTC Sense, Zoe, and Highlights demo:

One advantage those looking to AT&T for their One will have is capacity. The carrier has the US exclusive on the 64GB version, other networks making do with the 32GB model, and given the amount of data Zoe photography creates, and that there’s no microSD storage option, that makes a big difference. It’s not a cheap way to boost capacity, though: AT&T is asking $199.99 for the 32GB One, or $100 more to double the memory.

Phone, LTE, and Battery

HTC’s BoomSound speaker technology means the One has no problems pushing out in-call audio, and happily performance on AT&T’s network matched up with that. We had no problems keeping a signal, even though HTC squeezes the One’s antennas into the tiny polycarbonate notches in the unibody case, and hardly a dropped call, even in areas where coverage was patchy.

We tested LTE performance in multiple locations where AT&T currently offers service, including New York City, Denver, Wichita, and San Francisco. Speeds ranged from as much as 39Mbps downloads and nearly 19Mbps uploads, location depending, though averaged out at 15.95Mbps down and 7.06Mbps up. In contrast, we saw peeks of 37Mbps down and nearly 11Mbps up on an iPhone 5 using Verizon’s LTE network.

LTE has a reputation for being power hungry, and while the One’s 2,300 mAh battery isn’t small, the fact that it can’t be removed – unlike, say, the battery in Samsung’s Galaxy S 4 – has left some wary of the quadcore smartphone. In practice, we’ve found the One has sufficient legs to last through the day, particularly if its power management systems are turned on. These put data to sleep after periods of extended inactivity, waking them only occasionally to check for new messages and other updates, as well as reducing screen brightness and enabling other frugal systems.

Over the course of a sixteen hour day, then, with a mixture of cellular and WiFi connectivity, we saw roughly 30-percent of the battery left. More patchy use of WiFi saw LTE take a greater toll, with 20-percent left after just over twelve hours. However, even when we forgot to plug the charger in overnight, the One proved frugal, only dropping a few percentage points thanks to the data throttling.

Wrap-Up

Nothing about AT&T’s version of the HTC One has changed our positive impression of the smartphone. In fact, native LTE support for the US has only improved our takeaway opinion: the One is beautifully constructed, slickly designed, fast, has thoughtful software tweaks – a few third-party app UI glitches aside – and a great, flexible camera.

The road ahead for HTC isn’t going to be an easy one. Samsung’s Galaxy S 4 is the specter on the near horizon, and for however much it may offer an evolutionary step up from its Galaxy S III predecessor, it comes with the might of the South Korean company’s prodigious marketing machine (and its equally massive budget). In contrast, the One sees HTC take a far greater risk than it has in recent years – in investment in construction, camera strategy, and software – and, for the most part, that pays off in the quality of the overall device.

The Samsung Galaxy S 4 is, if last year’s model is anything to go by, likely to be the default choice for Android buyers in 2013. However, the HTC One is arguably the more thoughtful choice. In AT&T form, it’s our favorite Android handset of the moment.

Facebook describes it as designing a phone around people, not apps, and the focus is the very first places you see when you turn on your device. “The homescreen is really the soul of your phone” Mark Zuckerberg said during the presentation, and Home works as that replacement launcher, with Cover Feed to make those friends your core menu, and Chat Heads to streamline talking to them.

Loading Home is like any other Android app, though it does have one extra hook into the OS. Since it’s designed as a replacement launcher, to be used instead of the regular Android one rather than alongside it, you can choose to have it open by default whenever you hit the home button on your device. At that point, consider your phone Facebookafied.

Alternatively, you can grab the HTC First, which has Home preloaded by default. Either way, the lockscreen and homescreen are swapped for Coverfeed: full-screen, chromeless pictures pulled from your friends’ updates, with discrete icons at the bottom showing “Likes” and comments. Double-tapping the image automatically likes it. Meanwhile, pulling up the bubble near the bottom of the screen – which shows your own Facebook profile picture – gives you a choice of three options: Facebook, the app launcher, and jumping back into your last-used app.

The app launcher is basically a pared-down tray of apps, where Facebook expects you to keep your most-commonly used titles. At the top, meanwhile, there are shortcuts to add Facebook status updates or photos. A side-swipe pulls over the full app drawer from the left, from which you can drag over icons to the quick launcher tray. No widgets beyond Facebook’s own Coverfeed, however.

The other big introduction with Facebook Home is Chat Heads, a new integrated messaging system that’s designed to discretely pervade the whole device. Get a new message – whether it’s a Facebook Chat or an SMS – and a small circular bubble pops up in the upper right hand corner. You can drag it around (useful, since it’ll show up on top of any app you’re currently using it, including full-screen games) and tap it to open it, at which point a conversation view opens up floating on top of whatever you were doing.

Whether it’s a Facebook conversation or a text message one is shown by the color of the voice bubble boxes themselves, and you can have multiple conversations open at once, switching between them with the row of circles along the top. Facebook group messages are also supported, with a thumbnail of the group icons clustered in the circle. Similarly swipeable notifications include missed calls and calendar alerts.

It’s certainly slick, as long as you live your social – and, by extension, mobile – life in Facebook. The complexity of a regular phone is hidden away under full-screen images, and the familiar iconography should prove welcoming for Facebook-addicts. Those who divide their time between multiple networks – such as Google+, or Twitter – might find those edged out, however, as Facebook Home’s notifications system is designed to cater for its own alerts, not those of others.

It certainly seems to make the most sense on a device that has been designed with Home in mind, the first of which – though Samsung, Huawei and others have committed to join in – is the HTC First. The phone itself is a slim, simple slice of soft-touch plastic, fronted with a glass 4.3-inch touchscreen above three touch-sensitive buttons for back, home, and menu. It’s also worth noting that the First does indeed support displaying all Android notifications, not just Facebook ones, and will come preloaded with Instagram.

The slightly out-of-date OS is also likely to be less of a big deal: the First hides Android 4.1 Jelly Bean under Home, running on a dualcore Snapdragon 400 processor and paired with multimode 3G/4G for roaming LTE use. AT&T will have the first taste of the First, at $99.99 with a new, two-year agreement from April 12, though it’ll also be coming to the UK and Europe on EE and Orange later in the year.

Facebook’s strategy – focusing on its software for many devices, not software and hardware for just one – does make some sense. Dedicating yourself to a single device doesn’t make sense when you want to appeal to every Facebook user who has an Android phone, after all. What remains to be seen is whether even those who are totally devoted to Facebook will be willing to immerse themselves so entirely in the experience.

Zuckerberg’s stats suggest Facebook mobile use is by far the most common thing smartphone owners are doing with their handsets. We’re not quite so convinced, and while the garden isn’t entirely walled – you can obviously get to other Android apps, they’re just not placed front and center like Facebook is – we’ve seen things like HTC’s own BlinkFeed on the HTC One giving immersive Facebook updates without also ousting every other news feed, Twitter, and other notifications. Meanwhile, the Facebook Home Program seems unlikely to take off until prepaid devices arrive; $99.99 with agreement gets you a decent smartphone these days, after all, and one which isn’t dominated by a single service, however sociable that might be.

We’re no strangers to GM’s in-car tech. The company announced earlier this year that it would be equipping all of its models with in-car LTE, and promptly showed off a demo of what you could do when your 4G connection is actually baked into the car’s electronics, rather than just a dumb mobile hotspot in the glovebox. We also played extensively with Cadillac CUE, the infotainment system built into the 2013 ATS, last year.

GM isn’t a late entrant to the infotainment market, however, and gambles like baking expensive LTE radios into every single model aren’t exactly new. “If you look at our history, we’ve long had OnStar as an asset” GM President Mark Reuss told us. “So I think bringing that demonstrates the commitment we’ve made. There were a lot of tough times at the company when we looked at the equipment that we put in to do that, and generally did not price for. So that’s generally a long-term financial commitment to what we think we’re now being able to look at: an amazing opportunity for us for 4G, the expansion of that pipe we’ve invested in.”

In fact, Reuss argues, car connectivity and the functionality that enables could well end up being the 21st century’s equivalent of extreme customization. “If you look at how people use their cars, if you look at the changing demographics, new people coming into the car-buying market, most of those people have sort of an “ultimate customization” available, they see all the different devices available today” he pointed out. “That’s a reflection of who you are, that’s a reflection of how you live … it’s almost like hot-rodding used to be, right, sort of like that type of creativity that you have. It’s very low-cost, it’s very fun.”

Examples of that flexibility GM has already demonstrated range from remotely setting LED color schemes and cabin temperature, monitoring fuel levels and economy from across the country, and turning your car into a Skype video conferencing suite. However, Reuss says, the key is minimizing the stress involved in owning a car.

“That attention and care is now delivered through the pipe of the car, because the car is now bringing that information back to both the dealer, our engineers, and us as an OEM, and that’s really important data to us from a safety standpoint, and it’s important to the customer” Reuss says. “It takes the challenge of thinking about “when’s my oil going to be changed?” and “when are my tires going to be rotated?”; it takes that away from your busy life. And these are big, big things because the world is not getting less complex, and these type of tools in fact can make your daily life less complex.”

Still, it’s a big investment to web-enable every car you produce, especially when only part of your audience might walk into the showroom with an understanding of cutting-edge informatics. According to Reuss, GM has tackled that in how it markets each system across each of its brands, picking out the key functionality it knows potential drivers are going to be most interested in, as well as able to afford.

At the budget end, for instance, there are models like the Chevy Spark, aimed at younger drivers who are particularly smartphone-savvy. “You see widely different approaches in GM in how we’re doing this” Reuss points out. “The reason for purchase in a Spark of the screen we have in the car, the bring-your-own-media, don’t underestimate that. This is a car that’s under $13,000 … so that car in that price point is one approach to connectivity and bring-your-own-media, that replicates basically what you have on your phone in a very simple way, a fun way.”

On the other end of the spectrum is Cadillac’s CUE, which doesn’t assume the driver will necessarily be coming to the car with a pocket or bag full of the latest phones and slates. Instead, Reuss says, “the CUE system embeds more of that technology into the car, into the center stack of the car.”

For Cadillac drivers, the appeal of a system like CUE might not be its streaming media capabilities but how it unlocks new safety and convenience features: tech that builds on the same underlying informatics hooked into the car, but delivers that access and data in differently focused ways. “The price point is wildly different,” Reuss concedes, “but that type of information, integration, safety systems, crash avoidance, automatic cruise-control, radar-detected cruise control: that data and that format in the car you’ll see on the most expensive models in the range. And it replicates a lot of the function of what a tablet, or a smartphone, would do for you on a use-basis.”

The next example of that growing technological focus inside and outside of the car comes in the shape of the new 2014 Cadillac CTS, the company’s latest sports sedan. Set to hit the road later this year, the CTS builds on the excellent example of last year’s Cadillac ATS, borrowing the expansive all-digital driver instrumentation from the more expensive XTS, and cladding it in a sharp suit with echoes of the eye-catching 2014 Corvette Stingray.

On the outside, that design language expresses itself in features like the daytime running lights, extending down from the main lamp cluster and under the bumper. Like on the new Corvette, GM has worked hard to diffuse the LEDs so that they illuminate as two solid strakes of light; that, director of Cadillac exterior design Bob Bonaface tells us, gives the whole family a recognizable face, and one which you can spot no matter whether it’s day or night.

It’s arguably on the inside that the technological and materials focus is most obvious. Just as the Corvette team strove to be “authentic” in their choice of finishes – opting for real carbon-fiber, real metal, real leather rather than cheaper lookalike alternatives – so the new CTS dresses its cabin in premium materials. Eight interior finishes will be offered, ranging from the more traditional black, tan, and brown leather, through to more eye-catching shades like blue, each with optional contrast stitching. Real carbon-fiber and aluminum also show up again, joined by open-pore and natural finish wood.

The center stack has the same zero-profile touch sensitive buttons, topped by an 8-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen with anti-gloss and oleophobic coatings, as we saw in the Cadillac ATS last year. However, the ATS’s LCD sub display in the driver’s binnacle has been replaced with a huge, 12-inch 1280 x 480 cluster display, capable of showing multiple instrument layouts and even 3D graphics of the car which can be scrolled through using wheel-mounted controls. It’s all driven by a tri-core ARM11 processor running Cadillac’s proprietary Linux OS.

The only visible sign of that underlying tech that GM wants drivers to see, though, is a smooth and responsive interface. It’s still a work-in-progress, Reuss tells us, but it’s one the car company is committed to: making its car’s controls just as tactile and efficient as analog would be, while also having the flexibility benefits being digital brings. “Things we’re working on to make them perfect is the feedback and latency of something so simple as a volume control,” he says, “so we’ll work to perfect that, but the use and layout of it is spot-on, so we’re committed to that.”

If the proof of the pudding is in the eating (or, in this case, how many drivers aren’t punching their dashboards in confusion), the GM President says the response – even from those who might traditionally be considered more tech-averse – has been positive. “While the demographic for Cadillac may not be the very youngest car-buying population, our population is currently changed by the use of those devices no matter what your generation is” he argues. “You immediately understand what [CUE] is and how to use it, so we’ve had very little feedback that that’s a problem; very little from the CUE system in both the XTS and ATS.”

Next up is third party developers wading in, as GM throws open its In-Vehicle APIs and invites coders to cook up new functionality and features based on having core access to the infotainment stack. Alongside that, there’s an official plan for “agility and capability” over the next decade, Reuss says, though he also points out that consumer demands more than anything might well shape what car dashboards look like and deliver in tomorrow’s models.

“I don’t know how it’s going to evolve, and that’s exciting to me” Reuss concluded. “It’s sort of an open world of possibilities for it, and our job is to provide those open world of possibilities enabling people’s lives to be easier, to provide new advantages to buy a GM car, and to provide a user-interface that’s extremely safe, and easy to use, and very consistent.”

The core advice for winter driving hasn’t changed much over the years, but more than a few people ignore suggestions to switch regular tires to their deep tread counterparts, and wouldn’t have a clue what to do with snow chains. Thankfully cars themselves have got smarter along the way, with a growing number of electronic driving aids that can work around the limitations of both the road and the driver.

Ford’s chosen test ground would be an icy nightmare for most drivers, a range of different conditions including loose and impacted snow, treacherous ice, and the sort of gritty combinations that make many backroads so dangerous when it gets cold. As for the technology, Ford starts with all-wheel-drive (AWD) on many cars, but its front-driven models also get a boost courtesy of electronic magic like Curve Control and Torque Vectoring Control.

Introduced first on the 2012 Focus, Torque Vectoring Control monitors grip levels on each wheel and can dynamically shift the torque – the rotational force produced by the engine – to whichever side of the car has the best grip. Ford claims it can “virtually eliminate” understeer in regular driving, while in more wintery conditions it can counteract patches of ice or snow which rob the car of grip, without significantly reducing the speed of the vehicle.

There’s dangerous roads, and there’s mis-reading the road conditions and tackling them incorrectly. That’s where Curve Control steps in, a cornering technology Ford debuted back in 2010, and which it intends to have on the majority of its range by 2015. Enter a corner too quickly – Ford’s sensors track that 100 times per second – and Curve Control can shed 10mph from your speed in the space of a single second, by adjusting the four brakes and trimming engine torque.

Curve Control works in the dry, but it’s far more impressive when you’re trying to navigate a car round a suddenly icy corner. Ford’s system works by comparing how much the driver is turning the wheel with how much the car is actually turning, kicking in when the understeer becomes too great.

These are more than just blinking lights in the instrument binnacle, too: you can feel Curve Control and Torque Vectoring Control doing their work. Pushing the Escape SUV too hard through the icy corners of Ford’s test course, for instance, and the power shifting between the wheels to guide it back onto the line was noticeable through the seat and the wheel. You can feel the car correcting itself; when we turned off the traction control altogether, the difference was clear, with corners instantly turning into slides at speeds where, with the electronic brains in place, we’d previously sailed serenely round.

The technology works on Ford’s FWD cars, but it’s even more impressive in the AWD models. In a FWD Fusion, for instance, the car will automatically prioritize two-wheel drive in regular conditions, for the best fuel economy, but instantly switch in the all-wheel drive when grip starts to disappear. Corners on the ice track which we ended up going sideways on with traction control turned off, we were able to comfortably take at 40-50mph with Curve Control and Torque Vectoring Control switched on.

Step into the Explorer, meanwhile, and there’s even more control possible over the safety and stability systems. The seven-seater SUV exclusively gets Ford’s Terrain Management System, a knob in the center console which allows the driver to switch between four road conditions: normal, sand, mud/rut, and snow. The mood of the car changes noticeably when you do, the Explorer feeling calmer and more considered in the snow mode as the electronics ramp up their role. It’s not the mode for eager drivers, certainly, with the safety systems particularly intrusive, but it makes a huge difference in how confidently you can take on treacherous roads.

That’s not to say the Ford technology is anathema to fun. Just as it the various traction systems show their worth in getting you safely round in snow and ice at real-world speeds, at a more eager pace – and on the safety of a closed course rather than public roads, of course – you can start to have some real fun, relying on enough grip to get around corners while also letting the tail of the car swing out. As Ford told us, the electronics mean “you can take an unskilled driver, and turn them into a skilled driver.” When you’re on ice we struggled to walk on, it feels more like magic.

Ford currently offers eight models with AWD, while eleven offer Torque Vectoring Control. So far, the C-MAX Energi and Hybrid variants, the Escape, the Explorer, the Flex, and the Taurus offer Curve Control.

From the outside it’s clearly a Corvette at first glance, but take a longer look and the evolution of the design becomes clear. The 2014 car is 4mm lower than before, as well as being wider and 15mm longer; the wheelbase has increased by an inch, pushing the front wheels forward and giving the car a better footprint and handling, in addition to making it look more composed and aggressive. New lights front and rear, as well as a new collection of vents, perforate the bodywork, which has a new blend of creases and sweep-lines.

Importantly, the design elements aren’t done solely for the sake of appearance, but also invariably serve a performance element too. “You want a compelling design, you want a strong aesthetic” GM’s Kirk Bennion, Exterior Design Manager for Corvette, told us. “We try to do things where, okay, this gives us a new look that we like, we think it’s attractive, but if we can also benefit with some functionality then it’s a double win. We like to do that with Corvette especially.”

So, the front grill and the hood vents aren’t just for show, but sit at either end of a new, ducted extractor that feeds cool air across the radiator. That itself has taken on a whole new angle: where Corvette radiators of old went from upright to leaning back, Bennion explained, the 2014 model actually tips its radiator forward, into the flow of air. Each of the grill blades in the hood sits at its own, specific angle for the best flow.

That’s not the only trick ducting. The 2014 Stingray sees the return of intakes on top of the rear arches, sitting on the long swathe line that runs from the back of the car, down the shoulder-line, and blends in interesting angles with the hood and arch creases. They’re not for cooling the brakes, but instead are the rear trans and diff coolers, which are just visible through the upright outlet vents at the back of the car. They also saw GM’s engineers take on the challenge of delivering a huge eight cubic meters of air per minute through each intake, while simultaneously avoiding debris. Side vents – finished in carbon-fiber – are also fully-functional, delivering a reduction in drag as well as cooling benefits.

Like many other recent cars, the 2014 Corvette Stingray makes ample use of LED lighting; however, GM has taken a few new approaches in how it implements those lamps. Up front, there’s a new single, bi-functional headlamp with daytime running lights replacing separate fog lamps. That’s something we’ve seen on models from Audi and others, but GM has played with the positioning and angles of the LEDs to make the lighting more consistent.

“We wanted to avoid ‘carnival light’ spacing” Bannion told us, referring to the tendency for LED lamps to look like a string of individual bulbs rather than a solid bar of light. “We really worked hard to keep the LEDs close together, to diffuse the light.” To do that, the LEDs are actually downward-firing, into a diffuser lens that smooths out the individual brightness of each into a consistent whole. They’re set next to a stack of amber LEDs for the turn signals, which also blend together into a solid lozenge of light, and everything is embedded into a black stainless steel assembly which creates interesting reflections depending on the angle from which you’re looking at the car.

That same attention to detail is continued at the rear of the car. GM has stuck with the dual-element tail lamps that have been a feature of Corvettes since 1961, but it has used the same downward-firing LED technology as on the headlamps for some extra visual flourish. “The technology here again is indirect LEDs, so the LEDs are horizontal, they’re throwing the light down into the cavity, for even-lit appearance. They kinda avoid having the spottiness” Bannion explained. “Also, with the lamps being three-dimensional, is very new for the car as well.”

The result is a car that treads the line between classic and contemporary, just as GM expects a Corvette Stingray buyer to demand. “They’re still dual-almond shape, but we really felt we needed to break tradition, have a car that’s more distinctive, more unique at night” Bannion pointed out. “There’s a lot going on with lighting technology right now, and you can see manufacturers are doing more and more to have their cars be seen, or be seen as exclusive with the night-time signature.”

It’s when you’re inside that the changes are most obvious, however, particularly if you’ve ever found yourself behind the wheel of a previous-gen Corvette. The dashboard and seats are less of an afterthought compared to the exterior, Helen Emsley, Interior Design Director for Performance Cars at GM, told us. So, the 2014 dash is more like a jet-fighter cockpit, surrounding the driver in an arc of controls and gages. Those gages have been redesigned for the new Corvette Stingray, with a choice of digital and analog views in the 8-inch instrument binnacle, and variations according to which of the three driving modes – touring, sport, and track – the car is currently set to.

Just as the exterior design has sought to make aesthetic details serve a functional purpose, so part of Emsley’s focus with the new Corvette has been to make the interior more authentic. “This is a Corvette. If it’s metal, if it’s aluminum, it should be real – it is real aluminum. If it’s carbon fiber, it’s real carbon fiber,” she explained to us. “It was very important to us that we show real, authentic materials.”

That approach has continued over to the passenger seat, with Emsley saying that GM wanted to make the 2014 Corvette Stingray just as much of an experience for the person not driving. So, the “co-driver” gets a separate interior, in Emsley’s words, a second cockpit arch with their own speed gage and heating controls. Materials all round have taken a step up in quality, with hard surfaces replaced by soft-finish plastics and contrast-stitched leather. In fact, GM has even cooked up two new, exclusive leather colors for the Corvette: black may well be the most popular, Emsley concedes, but the new beige and new red finishes are expected to draw some buyer attention, along with the existing black & grey and black & dark brown options.

Everywhere you look there are thoughtful design decisions, showing just how much consideration the GM team has put into the interior of the new car. Recognizing that many Corvette buyers want to replace the standard seats with more sports-focused alternatives, Emsley points out, GM will offer a choice of two styles with the 2014 model: either the normal touring seats, or special sports seats as a cost-option. More mundane – but no less important – considerations like storage have been addressed in clever ways, too, like a sizeable storage cubby hidden behind an 8-inch motorized drop-down infotainment display.

The Stingray convertible – which made its North American debut at the New York show – is certainly beautiful, but those who opt for the coupe also get a choice of roofs. Three targa tops are on offer: the standard, carbon-fiber roof which is painted to match the body; a premium version which is left in exposed carbon; and a polycarbonate version which is translucent, allowing more light into the cockpit. There’ll also be various body/performance packages, such as the Z51 with its tall rear spoiler – helping reduce lift – and larger wheels.

All in, it’s a suitably considered approach to what’s undoubtedly a muscle-car icon. “When you think of the opportunity, every time you get to do a new next-generation Corvette, you realize that there has to be certain calculated moves in order for it to be seen as the next-generation, and that’s why we felt we needed to make some of these changes” exterior design chief Bannion told us. Throw in a new LT1 6.2L V8 engine capable of 450 HP and 450 kb-ft of torque, and you’ve got performance that matches the great looks, too. The new 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray will go on sale this fall, in both coupe and convertible versions.

From the outset, it’s clear that Samsung hasn’t strayed too far from the formula that made the Galaxy S III so successful. The new phone follows in the family style footsteps, though while the dimensions are similar to before – the same 136.6mm length, slightly wider at 69.8mm, and slightly thinner at 7.9mm – Samsung has managed to squeeze in a larger display. The new Super AMOLED HD screen measures in at 5-inches, versus the 4.7- of the older phone, and now runs at a crisp 1080p resolution for 441ppi pixel density.

Even just accommodating a screen of that size without a significant change in size is impressive, but the panel itself is a good one too. It’s still PenTile, which is likely to make some display purists groan, but it keeps the great contrast and rich colors we’re familiar with from AMOLED. We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that the similarly 1080p (though slightly smaller) HTC One’s LCD3 screen is a little more natural and pleasing to our eyes, though.

If HTC has focused its software efforts on BlinkFeed and Zoe, Samsung has cast its net wide, basically throwing everything at the wall in the expectation that at least something will stick for most users. The 13-megapixel main camera (paired with a 2-megapixel front camera) gets a new suite of features, such as the ability to take two photos or videos simultaneously from the front and rear cameras and combine them into one, Samsung Dual Shot, and being able to append up to nine seconds of audio to a still, to give it some context when you later review it. Samsung calls that Sound-in-Shot, though while it’s clever, we’re not quite as impressed as we were by HTC Zoe.

There’s also no shortage of signs that Samsung has its eye on what’s currently fashionable in mobile. So, there’s Cinema Photo, which basically creates a cinemagram-style animated photo without demanding a third-party app, and Drama Shot, which builds a single frame out of multiple burst-photography stills. You can easily share a group of images about, say, a recent holiday in a Story Album, complete with facts from Trip Advisor; that can later be printed courtesy of a tie-in with Blurb.

The Galaxy S III introduced eye-recognition for keeping its display active, and the GALAXY S 4 builds on that with Smart Pause and Smart Scroll. When you look away from the screen during video playback, the phone automatically pauses it until you look back; similarly, if you’re looking at the S 4 and reading a longer list, then simply tilting the phone scrolls through it. The GALAXY S 4 is pretty obsessed by where your fingers are, too: the Galaxy Note II, for instance, could track whether its S Pen nib was hovering over the screen but not touching, but now the S 4 can do the same only recognizing your fingertips.

That means you can peep inside folders and galleries, or at the content of unopened messages, simply by floating your fingertips over the top of them; Samsung has also brought in some third-party app support, with titles like Flipboard also supporting the Hover feature to preview new stories. It’s not the only way the GALAXY S 4 is watching you. Air Browse, Air Jump, and Air Call Accept all track hand movements, allowing you to wave and gesture your way through menus, answering calls – which we could see being particularly usefully when you’re driving – and controlling music playback.

When you can pretty much count on your phone selling in the millions, you can start to look at how different units interact, as Samsung has with the GALAXY S 4. There’s Group Play for audio, video, and gaming playback, creating ad-hoc local networks of multiple handsets all running the same content synchronized, for instance, with support for games like Asphalt 7 and Gun Bros 2 working with the feature. There’s also S Translator in the latest version of ChatON, the messaging app, and the email app, usefully switching between languages rather than forcing you to copy and paste into something like Google Translate.

Samsung has really gone to town on added-extras – in fact the number of times you might have to dig into Google Play for a third-party solution is shrinking all the time. There’s a business card scanner – which also usefully gets S Translator baked-in, to pick out and convert foreign addresses and job titles – and an IR blaster which, with the new Samsung WatchON app, turns the phone into a remote control complete with EPG and on-demand access.

The rest of the hardware basically backs up that software flourish with the power the Galaxy S4 needs to deliver on its promises. Different geographies will get different processors, depending on the combination of LTE and other factors, with Samsung choosing between the quadcore Snapdragon 1.9Ghz and its own eight-core 1.6Ghz Exynos 5. . No matter the chip, there’ll be 2GB of memory to accompany it, and the usual 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of internal capacity. Samsung has also stuck with expandable memory and a removable battery, something neither the HTC One nor the iPhone 5 offer, features which remain popular among power-users and business customers.

Image and sound processing also get worked over, with Samsung Adapt Sound and Adapt Display. We’ve seen such DSP used to good effect by Sony and others, and the Galaxy S4 benefits too, though when it comes to sound it’s clear that nothing can replace big drivers. The HTC One’s custom speaker system and Beats Audio processing still has the edge, to our ears.

Samsung didn’t stint on accessories for the Galaxy S III – at a time when, while iPhone had a thriving ecosystem of third-party add-ons, Android devices still lacked anything so cohesive – and the company hasn’t slowed down with the Galaxy S4. There’s a new S View Cover, like a flip-cover only with a window cut through that allows a small part of the smartphone’s display to remain powered-up and show battery, signal status, music playlists, and incoming call details. That’s courtesy of AMOLED’s capability to only power a small subset of an overall display, and sip battery while it does so.

Then there are the new add-ons to go with S Health. Samsung did have some health & fitness tech for the previous Galaxy, but the S4 steps it up a notch, timely given the focus on wearables and monitoring right now. Software-only, S Health will work as a pedometer as well as tracking temperature and humidity, in addition to allowing users to log their food (with a huge database in the background of nutritional information). However, there’s also Samsung S Band, a Bluetooth-enabled tracker in the manner of a Jawbone UP, which logs data even if the GALAXY S 4 isn’t nearby, and then synchronizes with it once they’re back in range. Samsung also has a Bluetooth-enabled body scale and heart-rate monitor, which also feed their recordings into the phone.

Expectations for the GALAXY S 4 have been high, but Samsung has taken the evolutionary rather than revolutionary path for its new phone. Then again, it didn’t have to: sales of the Galaxy S III remain brisk, and the company has the marketing budget to hammer home its latest message. It also avoids frustrating existing owners too greatly: they’ll be getting software updates which add many of the new Samsung-exclusive additions, and haven’t been left too far behind with the hardware.

That said, should Galaxy S III users upgrade to the GALAXY S 4? If you insist on being on the very latest hardware, and you’re wedded to Samsung, then perhaps it’s a no-brainer. However, it’s not the vast step-up we saw from, say, the Galaxy S II to its successor. In fact, while the hardware is cutting-edge, it’s clear that Samsung’s efforts this time around have really been focused on software enhancements. Some won’t care about things like the IR blaster or Group Play, but will lap up the S Health system and Air Gestures, or vice-versa, but either way there’s a sense that there’s something for everybody.

On the one hand, that’s liberating – after all, why should everyone use the same device in the same way? – but on the other it can get overwhelming and confusing. The appeal of the HTC One is not only that it’s built so well (leagues ahead, we must say, than the in-hand-feel of the GALAXY S 4) but that it focuses on doing a couple of things particularly well, in ways that make a significant difference to the user over and above the standard Android OS.

We’ll confess to a certain sense of unease, then, about how the GALAXY S 4 will find its place in the smartphone market today. Samsung has done what it needed to – in the manner of Apple and the transition between the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S – to bring its flagship up to speed. Promotion and advertising will take care of the rest. If that overshadows phones like the HTC One, however, devices which really do take a more revolutionary approach, then we’d be mightily disappointed.

The Samsung GALAXY S 4 will sell by the bucket-load. Everybody knows that. But in a way we’re still more thankful for its predecessor and how that forced every other Android OEM to raise its game for 2013. That’s better for consumers, and more interesting for us. We’ll have to wait until we can review the Galaxy S4 before we can tell whether it’s actually the best Android device of the lot, however.

Design and Interior

It’s not quite a Twizy, but the i-MiEV is certainly no wall-flower when it comes to Mitsubishi’s aesthetic. The tall, narrow body was intended for snapping down cramped Tokyo side-streets, but it makes for a car that catches more than its fair share of glances while you’re driving. Whether they’re admiring or bemused is unclear.

You still get four doors, however, and four seats inside – the rear seats fold down individually, boosting the trunk’s compact 13.2 cubic feet of storage to a more useful 50.4 cubit feet – with room for adults front and back. It’s an upright ride with plenty of headroom, though the limited width can mean those in the back sit closer together than usual. Despite the price, the only leather you’ll find inside is wrapping the steering wheel and shifter knob; the seats are sturdy fabric, instead, and adjusted manually not electrically.

Mitsubishi i-MiEV walkthrough:

Given the ostentatious exterior, we’d half expected the sort of swooping, LED-encrusted dashboard that would make a concept car jealous. In fact, the i-MiEV’s interior is surprisingly sober. The plastic top dash panels match the purplish-brown seat fabric for color, with a bulbous central stack topped with a sizeable LCD display above the HVAC controls and finally the gear shifter at the bottom. The latter looks like it could’ve been pulled from any automatic car, with the usual park, neutral, drive, and reverse options, as well as an “Eco” mode a notch away.

In the minimalistic driver’s instrument binnacle the view is dominated by a center gage with a digital speedo in the middle, flanked by a simple indicator which shows how economical or profligate you are with your current driving style. A smaller display on the left shows battery level and current gear; range in miles is shown in another screen on the other side. Jabbing at a small plastic button in the binnacle flips over to distance traveled since your last charge.

It’s functional, for the most part. The plastics in general are somewhat flimsy to the touch, though you at least get air-con, power windows and mirrors, and remote central locking as standard. There’s also a heated seat, on the driver’s side only, which Mitsubishi recommends using instead of cranking up the HVAC on a cold morning, since it’s more power-frugal; alternatively, you can turn on the HVAC (to the last used settings) remotely from the keyfob while the i-MiEV is still plugged into the mains. The touchscreen audio system, complete with Bluetooth streaming/hands-free, a reversing camera, and navigation is comprehensive, though not the easiest to use.

Engine and Performance

The i-MiEV’s motor pushes out 66HP through the rear wheels via a single-speed gearbox, and manages 145 lb-ft of torque. It’s good for a top speed of 81mph, and though Mitsubishi isn’t especially keen to talk performance figures (0-60mph is a 13s affair), the combination of the 1.3 ton curb weight., low center of gravity, and immediacy of electric motors means acceleration is surprisingly eager. The i-MiEV is certainly at its best around town, where the combination of pep off the starting line and regenerative power topping up the battery show their worth, but that’s not to say it can’t handle the highway.

Mitsubishi i-MiEV driving:

At highway speeds, there’s a fair amount of wind noise, and while you don’t get the familiar thrum of a gas engine, you have the whine of the electric motor instead. Side-winds can lead to some uncomfortable buffeting, too. The suspension – taut, given the batteries the i-MiEV must lug – is firm but not unduly so.

Battery and Range

As with all EVs, the big question mark hanging over the i-MiEV is range. Mitsubishi quotes an EPA MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent) of 126 for city driving, 99 for highway driving, and 112 combined; total EPA range is 62 miles.

That’s assuming ideal circumstances, of course. In practice, you tend to drive with one eye fixed to the range indicator, alert to how your driving style affects how many miles you’ll be able to do. We found the estimates to be reasonably accurate, though weather more than anything is the big decider. Setting out for town on a particularly cold day and, by the time we’d reached our first stop, the gage had dropped considerably more miles than we’d actually traveled. Mitsubishi does include a single out-of-energy rescue per year for the first three years.

Extremes of temperature are known issues for battery performance, and the i-MiEV tackles one of them as standard. All i-MiEV versions have a cooling fan that counteracts the effect of hot days, but its counterpart battery warmer is only standard on the SE “Premium Package” – $2,790 – or as a $175 add-on.

Charging generally depends on how much juice you have to spare. The i-MiEV can power up from either a 120V domestic supply or, if you have access to it, a 240V supply. A 120V portable charging cable is included to satisfy impromptu recharges while on the move, something which we found takes roughly 20- to 22hrs. A “Level 2″ 240V charger cuts that to seven hours, or if you have access to a “Level 3″ public quick-charger you can take the i-MiEV to 80-percent in 30 minutes.

Mitsubishi includes a total of three warranties with the i-MiEV, covering different aspects of the car. Shortest is the 3-year/36,000 mile New Vehicle warranty, followed by a specific 5-year/60,000 mile powertrain warranty. Finally, there’s 8-year/100,000 mile cover for the Li-Ion batteries, which unlike other car companies Mitsubishi sells rather than leases to drivers. Nonetheless, some degree of battery degradation is to be expected (and isn’t covered by the warranty): you should expect to have 80-percent of total capacity left after 5yrs, falling to 70-percent after 10yrs.

Wrap-Up

Most of the issues affecting the i-MiEV are applicable to every all-electric car. The preoccupation with range, balance of equipment versus saving as much power for actually moving, and the lifespan of Li-Ion batteries are to modern EVs what gas consumption, engine oil, and emissions are to traditional cars.

Where the i-MiEV succeeds is in helping make electric travel more affordable. Thanks to federal tax incentives you can have the Mitsubishi for under $22k (before destination and handling); considering only a couple of years ago you’d be looking at twice that for an EV, it shows how far we’ve come in eco-friendly motoring. The i-MiEV is certainly a second car, unless you’re a resolute city dweller, but for low-cost trips around town and room for four in a small footprint, it’s a perky addition to your garage.

Design

Stunning. The HTC One makes a compelling argument for being the best-made Android phone we can recall, a design that both looks and feels premium (though photos don’t tend to do it justice, making it look flat and overly simplistic). Last year’s One X was a solid device, with its polycarbonate plastic casing, but the One is leagues ahead. HTC went back to basics – CNC-intensive manufacturing processes; clever rethinking of how to finesse the most out of minimal antennas – with its industrial design, and the end result is a phone that’s creak-free and somehow timeless in the same way that Apple’s MacBook Pro design has gracefully evolved.

On the front, HTC’s favorite micro-drilling process has spread from the earpiece to the slip of metal under the display, while the company continues to insist that Google’s on-screen buttons are a waste of valuable display space, and so includes touch-sensitive keys. We’re down to just two of them, however – Back and Home – flanking an HTC logo that doesn’t do anything if you tap it. We can’t help but wish the logo was the home button, since we kept stabbing at it out of habit.

A thin band of white polycarbonate runs the chamfered edge of the One, enclosing the power key (which doubles as an IR blaster) and headphone socket on the top edge, and the microUSB port on the bottom. A volume rocker is on the side, flush with the casing. On the back, the gently bowed metal has been carefully shot through with narrow strips of plastic which allow the antennas to do their magic; there’s a neat stylistic flourish with the upper band dipping to encircle the camera lens, but we could do without the Beats Audio logo which looks a little garish in comparison to the discretely metallic HTC branding.

All that metal and sturdiness comes with a compromise, and that’s the battery. HTC has opted for a non-removable Li-Poly pack, a healthy 2,300 mAh, which is fixed inside. Exactly how many people ever actually swap out their batteries is unclear, but it could prove an early deal-breaker for some. Similarly, there’s no microSD card slot, HTC unable to accommodate it in the 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3 mm, 143g frame.

Hardware and Performance

HTC has thrown the works at the One, and pretty much all but wireless charging has stuck. So, you get a fast processor – Qualcomm’s 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 quadcore, to be exact – and 2GB of memory, along with a 4.7-inch Full HD display (more on which later). Connectivity includes LTE, HSPA/WCDMA, and GSM/EDGE, along with WiFi a/b/g/n/ac, MHL-HDMI with the right adapter, Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX audio support, NFC, and Miracast wireless display, while there’s also a digital compass, GPS, GLONASS, gyroscope, accelerometer, and proximity/ambient light sensors.

Without a microSD card slot, internal storage becomes all the more important. HTC has sensibly bypassed the 16GB point and instead opted for 32GB and 64GB versions, though the latter will be only available in certain, limited locations. Our 32GB review unit had 25.49GB free out of the box. There’s a free 25GB chunk of Dropbox storage, too, though we’d still rather see expandable local memory if given the option.

It’s particularly topical since the One does so well with multimedia. For once, the Beats Audio doesn’t feel like a cynical marketing mention: the One really does exceed what other phones can do, both when it comes to recording and playing back sound. For the former, it’s down to two dual-membrane microphones, which HTC calls Sense Voice: in short, one half of each microphone handles high signal-to-noise ratio sound, such as regular speech, up to around the 75dB point, while above that there’s a high sound pressure level membrane that can cope with the more boisterous sounds you’d encounter at a concert or club.

Sample recording from a concert

Together they’re designed to handle every audio situation the phone might find itself in, whether that’s doing speakerphone duty in a quiet office, recording your kids on the swings at the park, or in the front row of a gig. Best of all, it actually works: the stereo pick-up is excellent in normal conditions, but as soon as things get loud and you’d expect a regular phone to get overwhelmed, the One just bulldozes ahead. We kept trying to identify the point where the membranes hand over, but in fact it’s more of a seamless blend; you simply can’t tell what the One is doing, which is really as it should be.

On the flip side are the speakers, which HTC is equally proud of. The One brings them up-front, flanking the display, and gives them significantly larger chambers to resonate in. Look beyond the awkward BoomSound branding and the result is impressive: loud but without distortion, and with bass that belies the fact you’re listening to a phone. The speakers get their own Beats Audio branded amplifier, too, with a second powering the headphone socket. Interestingly, HTC isn’t bundling any Beats Audio headphones in the box this time around, only a regular wired hands-free kit, though the One worked well with every aftermarket set we tried.

We can’t complain about the One’s overall performance, the Snapdragon 600 putting in a convincing show both in everyday use and in benchmarks. In Quadrant, the HTC scored 12,127, a huge step up from the 7,400 of the One X+, while in AnTuTu it managed 24,283, up from the 16,245 of the One X+. In Qualcomm’s Vellamo test, it scored 2,398 in the HTML5 category and 779 in the Metal category. In SunSpider, the browser test of JavaScript performance, the One scored 1118.9ms (faster is better. Overall, then, it’s clear that the One can handle anything you could throw at it today, and is likely to remain that way for the foreseeable future.

Display

Point-three of an inch shouldn’t make a difference, but it does. HTC’s decision to go with a 4.7-inch screen, against the 5-inch panel of the DROID DNA and Butterfly J, is a welcome one: you still get the rich, creamy Full HD resolution, but that slightly condensed 1080p adds up to both 468ppi pixel density and a handset that’s easier to hold.

HTC has stuck with LCD rather than looking to AMOLED, and the result is a panel that’s beautifully balanced. Accurate colors, rich blacks, and viewing angles that are so broad as to look pasted on. It could arguably do with being a little brighter at its maximum setting – we’ve been spoiled with recent high-nit panels from LG and others, which do better at battling sunlight – but it’s a great all-rounder nonetheless.

Software

HTC Sense

HTC Sense has had a long and at-times tortured journey. What started as HTC’s attempt to tame the wild-west of raw Android back in the v1.5 days gradually became heavier, slower, and arguably less necessary as Google tightened up its own software. What were once HTC-exclusive features gradually became baked into Android-proper, and – despite a few little-developed additions, like OnLive gaming and HTC Watch – HTC seemed more interested in simply visually differentiating its phones than actually delivering a legitimately more usable UI.

That doesn’t fly in 2013, when pure Android has an increasing number of fans, and rivals like Samsung have gone tweak and enhancement crazy with their own software modifications. Happily HTC has taken a clean-slate approach with Sense 5.0 on the One, and much of its new strategy works.

For a start, the swollen icons and cartoony feel has been pared back dramatically, keeping little more than wire-frame outlines of HTC’s weather icons (some things, like zombies, refuse to die). Instead, you get some welcome use of Google’s Roboto font – in its condensed form, which makes it look both familiar and distinctive – and a crisper, more simplistic layout with flatter icons and a black/white/blue color scheme that’s reminiscent of Windows Phone in places.

The familiar homescreen is still present, though now limited to four panes of icons or widgets – HTC says its research indicates the vast majority of users settle on a screen or two of icons, and then never bother changing them – while the app launcher comes with several apps already organized away into folders, part of HTC’s encouragement to keep the layout (either 3×4 or 4×5) tidy. Our units direct from HTC have little in the way of bloatware preinstalled, and we know the company is working with carriers to try to minimize how many “added extras” get thrown in, with the goal being to have them at least corralled into a folder from the start.

Interestingly, you can treat the app launcher as a homescreen; jump from it into an app and then hit the Home key, and you’ll go straight back to the launcher rather than the traditional desktop. However, HTC has another part of its homescreen that it hopes will become your default.

HTC BlinkFeed

BlinkFeed is HTC’s latest try at pulling together social, something it started several years back in FriendFeed. However, the new system is far more comprehensive, featuring not only Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Flickr content, but news from multiple online sources. Outwardly similar in appearance and functionality to newsreading-app Flipboard, BlinkFeed sits to a side-swipe of the desktop and fills the screen with page after page of mixed content from news and social.

In its first generation, you can only choose from HTC’s selection of news sources – future iterations will support general RSS feeds being added, HTC tells us – but it’s a pretty comprehensive selection from the outset, and tailored depending on your location. Those in the US will see sources like USA Today and the WSJ, while those in the UK will get the BBC and the Guardian, for instance. Subscriptions can be added on a category basis – technology, for instance, or sport – or from a specific provider. If you’re on a WiFi connection then the list is updated automatically every couple of hours by default, whereas out of the box it’s manual-only refreshes on a cellular data connection. A quick pull down on the BlinkFeed list triggers a check for new articles (as well as showing the options menu for managing subscriptions).

We’re generally wary of news reader apps, especially those preloaded by manufacturers, since they’re usually subpar compared to third-party options like Flipboard. BlinkFeed, though, is surprisingly capable. HTC describes its purpose as serving up “snackable” content, the sort of glanceable tidbit that might catch your attention when you instinctively reach for your phone in a moment of distraction, and in that respect it operates as a gateway rather than trying to be the be-all and end-all of news consumption.

Tap an article – small icons and text at the bottom of each thumbnail show whether its come from a news site or been shared from Twitter, Facebook, or another social source, along with who shared it – and it opens in the regular browser. Tweets open in the official Twitter app, Facebook links in the Facebook app; not some HTC version the company has cooked up. In the future, you’ll be able to choose alternative apps – so, for instance, you could use your third-party Twitter software of choice rather than the microblogging company’s own app – but that’s not supported at launch. If the flow of news gets too much for you, you can shut it off and use BlinkFeed solely as a social feed, or vice-versa. Other apps will also periodically inject their content into BlinkFeed too, so for instance the gallery might remind you of an old photo taken if you revisit a location, or HTC might slide in a pane with tips about an under-utilized feature. Sadly, despite its cards arguably making the most sense for inclusion, there’s currently no Google Now integration.

Despite our skepticism, we quickly grew to like BlinkFeed. Part of that’s down to speed: there’s very little lag in scrolling through the list – HTC has wisely kept the animations to a minimum, with just a small amount of tile-tilt when you flick through each page – and stories open up quickly. HTC’s content partner does a fair amount of server-side processing to keep data transfer time and overall traffic to a minimum: the One gets the headline and an image (news sources with photos get priority over text-only stories) and then only accesses a specially formatted article when you actually tap on it. There’s also a push to show the full article rather than just an excerpt, as sometimes find on Flipboard, though you can always open up the page on the original site, or share it via any of the usual Android methods. It’s perfect for the casual grazing smartphone addicts do in every moment of downtime.

BlinkFeed is obviously a first-generation product, but HTC has ambitious plans for its development. Our advice has always been to buy a device for what it does today, not what it might be updated to do tomorrow, though HTC has at least made changes to Sense in v.5 to address a key complaint: that software updates are frustratingly infrequent. Typically, that’s because a new firmware version demands considerable interaction between manufacturer and the carriers, and often only comes when Google pushes out a new version of Android.

To address that, HTC has divorced the update process for its own apps from the underlying OS. Rather than being forced to wait for a significant firmware change before it can tweak, patch, and generally improve BlinkFeed and other homegrown software, HTC will be able to update them piecemeal. So, when BlinkFeed finally gets third-party app support, or RSS subscription support, HTC will be able to deliver that functionality in the same manner as an app downloaded from the Google Play store can.

We’ve heard promises of more timely upgrades before, so the proof of HTC’s ambitious new system will be in the delivery. However, if it can do it, it will go a long way to drawing some of the venom many feel about OEM skins like Sense. That’s not to say HTC has turned over a new leaf entirely: the One launches running Android 4.1.2, rather than 4.2, with the company promising an update soon.

HTC Get Started

Once upon a time, HTC offered a web-based counterpart to Sense on its phones, with mobile content access, backup, find-my-phone security, and remote locking. That was quietly retired in early 2012, however, with HTC promising bright new things in its place. Those bright new things have taken until now, and the HTC One, to arrive.

HTC Get Started is, the company tells us, in part a reaction to the growing number of online sales of phones: now, buyers will be able to jump straight into their new phone experience, even while they’re waiting for the One to be physically delivered. In short, it’s a simple way to set up a new device. After choosing your model (and carrier variant), you can personalize the applications, sounds, bookmarks, wallpapers, lock screen options, and even the feeds in BlinkFeed, all via a web interface on the desktop.

You can start from a blank slate, or pick from seven presets – family, games, music, photos, social, sports, or travel – which each populate the One with a set of feeds, apps, bookmarks, sounds, and other settings. So, if you opt for the games preset, you get Temple Run and Angry Birds Space automatically installed, along with gaming and sports content for BlinkFeed, and some of the popular gaming news and reviews sites bookmarked in the browser. Every choice is previewed on a mock-up of the One shown alongside.

If you’d rather craft your own setup, you can step through each content stage, picking ringtones, notifications, and alarms – or uploading your own audio to snip a sound from it – then choosing from either preloaded bookmarks or add your own, as well as from HTC’s wallpapers or one of your own images uploaded specially. All of the apps you choose come direct from the Google Play store, which means they update just as if you loaded them manually on the phone itself.

It’s the accounts section of Get Started that’s the most useful, however. Rather than punch in your email and Dropbox credentials during the on-device setup wizard – something which can be frustrating, pecking in passwords on a soft keyboard – you can register them in the browser interface. The whole thing is then finished off with either the creation of an HTC account or, alternatively, by logging in with your Facebook or Weibo username and password. When you start up the phone, you can punch those credentials in, and the One gets automagically set up just as you arranged it online.

Given how much time we spend setting up new devices, we’re unsurprisingly fans of HTC Get Started. You don’t have to be a phone reviewer to appreciate its simplicity, however; one of the most frustrating issues new smartphone owners can face is not being quite sure what to actually do with their powerful new gadget, and so HTC’s smorgasbord of curated apps is a great launching point. Unfortunately there’s no way, at present, to synchronize Sense in the other direction – you can’t back-up your exact phone layout to Get Started, edit it online, and then later restore that to the device – but HTC does at least offer a backup system that preserves most of the layout and settings of your handset.

TV

HTC’s clever integration of an IR blaster into the One’s power button gets a purpose right out of the box, with the company’s simply-named TV app. Built on Peel technology – which powers the universal remote system included on some Galaxy Tab tablets, for instance – the app basically replaces your usual home entertainment remotes and throws in a channel guide too.

First-time setup involves telling the app where you live and what content providers you have – cable, satellite, free-to-air digital, etc. – then selecting your TV model and any other A/V kit you might have. HTC has a long list of manufacturers to choose from, and we were up and running with our TVs simply by choosing the brand; testing basically involves firing off a power signal, and making sure the TV turns on as expected. Multiple devices can be set up and switched between, and if you’ve something not on the list then you can teach the TV app how to use it: the IR blaster also works as a remote reader, and so by pointing the controller for your mystery device at the One, you can step through all of the key controls. That way, we were able to set up an Apple TV, a preset for which was missing from HTC’s list.

When you open TV, you find a screen of currently-playing shows based on the channels you receive. Each gets a preview and a bar running along the bottom showing how far through the show is; tapping it automatically changes the channel, or you can open up an information page with an episode summary, a list of actors, and other details. It’s there you can also favorite shows: from that point, those you’ve favorited will show up higher in the “now playing” list, as well as have reminders of new episodes pushed into your BlinkFeed. A side-swipe from the main screen shows what’s coming up next, as well as allowing you to dig into the future schedule or break your planning down channel-by-channel. It’s also possible to permanently hide channels you’re not interested in.

Exit the TV app and a shortcut automatically appears in the notification bar, complete with quick access to the power, to the full remote page, and details of what you’re currently watching. Set the phone down with TV running and, if it goes to sleep, it’ll wake up automatically when you pick it up. You can pull the app up even if the phone is PIN-locked, too, though for security users won’t be able to jump from the TV app to other content on your phone if you’ve left it on the coffee table. It’s worth noting that the app only knows what’s on if you’ve been using it exclusively; if you switch between the One and your regular remote, there’s no way for the phone to figure out what channel is currently playing.

The other aspect of TV is streaming content, though here HTC’s provision is slightly less developed. You can stream video directly from the phone to a TV – it’s incredibly straightforward, too, as long as it supports DLNA or Miracast, and is basically a matter of choosing the screen of choice and then watching the content show up – or from third-party services like Netflix and Hulu Plus. Eventually, HTC aims to have the TV app control the native streaming apps on smart TVs, but for now it works best if you have HTC’s own MediaLink HD box plugged into your set via HDMI.

As with BlinkFeed, HTC has more in store for the TV app. Right now, it’s responsive but not predictive: it’ll remind you of an upcoming show if you’ve favorited it before, but it won’t make suggestions based on what it thinks you might like. That’s in the pipeline, though, and HTC will be able to iterate more regularly thanks to its streamlined update system. Meanwhile, HTC is pitching an API for the IR blaster around A/V app developers, hoping for broader adoption there, too. For the moment, it’s a handy system if you’re laden with remotes or often lose them, though it’s perhaps too early to be a must-have feature.

Kid Mode

Handing your offspring your phone – especially if it’s logged into an app or multimedia store, complete with a credit card registered – can be a recipe for disaster. To fix that, HTC equips the One with Kid Mode, powered by Zoodles, which offers a captive selection of games, age-appropriate multimedia, storybooks, and more, all with a child-friendly interface.

There’s support for time limits on how long games and the web are accessible, as well as ad-blocking and site whitelisting for controlling what kids will come across online. Each child has their own “Playground” user-account, with management from a centralized dashboard. It’s worth noting that Zoodles is already available for Android devices in general, in addition to Mac, PC, iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

Camera

The One’s camera is probably HTC’s biggest risk with its new flagship, a concerted decision to step off the megapixel bandwagon and instead reconsider smartphone photography from the perspective of how owners really use their phones. So, the One has a “mere” 4-megapixel camera – less than a third of the 13-megapixels Sony has equipped the Xperia Z with, for instance, or LG on the Optimus G Pro – but it’s a specially designed sensor exclusively for HTC’s use.

The key is light. HTC’s research suggests most users take photos indoors or in subpar lighting conditions, rather than outdoors where most phone cameras do their best work. Although ramping up the megapixels increases detail, it also makes each pixel smaller – assuming you want to keep a pocket-friendly phone unlike, say, Nokia with the capable but bloated sensor of the 808 PureView – and that means each gets less light and so the final image gets more noise and other glitches.

HTC’s approach is to use huge pixels – capable of grabbing over 300x the light of some rival cameras – so that, even though the final image may not be as large as from an 8- or 13-megapixel device, its overall quality is higher. More light means faster shutter speeds are possible, which helps cut down on phone shake; HTC also adds in two-axis optical image stabilization to assist with that. The resulting data is fed straight into the latest version of HTC’s ImageChip processing, which finesses things based on the RAW data rather than, as other phones tend to, on the converted JPEG.

Sample shots

The difference is quite literally night and day when it comes to low-light images. Scenes that, on a Galaxy S III or an iPhone 5 are so murky as to be all but useless, come out with significant amounts of detail on the One. The One has an LED flash – which will automatically choose between five degrees of brightness, depending on the distance between the phone and the subject – but you can comfortably leave it off more often than not. As well as greater detail, the One can do less post-processing to remove blur, since the bigger pixels allow for faster shutter speeds.

In more ideal conditions, the One’s shots suffer if you blow them up and compare them side-by-side with higher-megapixel images. The 4-megapixel sensor simply lacks the resolution to compete on that level. Nonetheless, at more typical levels of crop, we’re left impressed by the standard of stills from the One. Colors are accurate and there’s admirably little noise, HTC’s favored 28mm f/2.0 lens making its presence known once more.

Up front, meanwhile, there’s a 2.1-megapixel camera which also has an f/2.0 lens, and HTC has borrowed the One X+’s wide-angle optics so that you can fit more people in-frame at any one time. It’ll shoot 1080p Full HD video, too (though not Zoe shots; more on which in a moment), plus HDR stills, and there’s a useful timer which means you can tap the screen and still have time to post before the frame is captured.

As for video, the One can capture 1080p footage at 30fps, or 720p footage at 60fps; there’s support for HDR video, as well as simultaneously capturing a full-resolution still image while you’re recording video. The results for video are as impressive as those for still images, with excellent colors, balance, and brightness levels, and minimal judder or noise. The low-light performance isn’t quite as convincing as for still shots, though the One handles scenes with mixed high- and low-brightness well: in footage of a show, for instance, with bright lights on-stage and darkness elsewhere, both areas were cleanly visible.

HTC Zoe

If HTC has its way, though, we’ll not be taking just photos or video, but a hybrid of the two. Called Zoe, it’s HTC’s vision of the future of mobile photography: a 0.6s pre-capture of video, from before you hit the on-screen button, then three seconds of video along with twenty stills. There’s no quality compromise involved – stills are at full resolution, and video is at 1080p complete with audio.

Each cluster of content can then be used in interesting ways. At the most basic, it brings the gallery alive: as you look at albums and thumbnails, the 3.6s video clips cycle through as if you’re looking at a magical Harry Potter newspaper. However, open up a Zoe and you can scroll through the clip with a timeline bar, picking out individual frames to keep. HTC has baked in some editing features too, so you can pick out faces from different frames and combine them into one, ensuring everyone has their eyes open and are smiling, or remove objects from the picture. The One can identify faces, too, and allow per-face tweaks like eye-whitening, anime-style enlarging, and skin smoothing.

Each event – a group of recent Zoe clusters, either automatically created by the One or manually merged or split off – gets a thirty second “highlight reel” that the phone produces itself. That sits at the top of the event view, and is basically an automatically curated overview of the themed content. There are six themes to choose from – ranging from “Eifel” with its quirky Parisian style, to the more hipster “Vega” with fast chops and cool color tones – and you can switch between them at will, the reel changing on-the-fly. Hit the remix button, meanwhile, and you instantly get another edit, the speed at which it’s created a testament to HTC’s processing power.

The technology behind the highlight reel is surprisingly complex, too. The cuts aren’t solely random; instead, the One is analyzing each clip and photo for the most interesting parts, such as those which include action, or faces, or even how often you’ve looked at specific photos in the gallery. What you can’t do is manually tweak the reels – only have the phone cook up a new remix itself – or use your own music; HTC tells us the latter is likely to come in a future update, as well as more themes to choose from, but for now you’re limited to the six preloaded.

We’ll admit, it seemed like a gimmick at first. Yet after a short while – and the fact that shooting a Zoe basically has no downside compared to a photo; there’s no processing lag after it finishes, for instance, you simple tap the button and watch the little red highlight slide across the icon – we found ourselves sticking in Zoe mode altogether. Being able to step back through the array of stills, even to before the point we actually took the photo, and pick out the best frame was useful for portrait and action shots, while the highlight reel is the perfect length for Facebook sharing (without boring friends and family with minute after minute of the same mundane thing).

That sharing can be done directly to YouTube, Facebook, or something similar, with the reel exported as an MP4. However, there’s also Zoe Share, HTC’s own social system. A free online gallery, it allows you to choose a reel and an accompanying ten photos or Zoes to upload to a special gallery, with the One automatically pinging you a link in the notification bar which can then be shared via email, Twitter, Facebook, or somewhere else.

Zoe Share isn’t ideal, however. For a start there’s a time limit on how long HTC will host the collections – currently three months – after which they get deleted. Individual stills can be downloaded from Zoe Share, but not individual Zoe clips nor the thirty second highlight reel. Links are entirely public, too; you can’t have a private Zoe Share, with a password in case someone forwards the URL, for instance. There’s also no way to change the video resolution – it defaults to 1080p – which can mean slow uploads unless you’re lucky enough to have a decent connection.

Again, HTC tells us it’s working on a more comprehensive export system – perhaps integrated into the HTC Sync Manager app, which is used to synchronize audio and other content from your PC or Mac to the phone and back, as well as doing file browsing duties – but there’s no timescale for when it might arrive. Meanwhile, if you use an auto-upload service, whether Dropbox (as is prompted during the initial One setup) or something like Google+, every one of the twenty Zoe frames gets automatically uploaded, and there’s no way (aside from manually deleting the shots) to have it only upload one or two of them. Storage – whether on-device or cloud – could quickly become an issue, with each cluster of Zoe content coming in at around 32MB (the 30s video along is 4MB).

That said, we still think it’s a great feature. Zoe injects the fun back into being a mobile shutterbug, producing multimedia that others would actually want to look at. In fact, the biggest drawback of the One isn’t its photo quality, or its overall usability, but trying to educate potential buyers as to what makes the camera special. HTC does itself few favors by turning the full force of its branding machine on the One’s camera system, with confusing results. Instead of megapixels you get UltraPixels; the video/snapshot clusters are called Zoe; but there are also Zoe Highlights, the longer videos that pull in content from multiple Zoes for the ad-hoc, curated 30 second clip complete with music and filters. It’s enough to confuse even the professionals, and that doesn’t bode well for how easy a sale it might be.

Phone and Battery

Given the quality of the HTC One’s music playback performance, we had high hopes for in-call audio. Interestingly, though, the phone was pretty average: the earpiece has a somewhat hollow sound to it, with callers certainly audible but not quite as clear as on some other devices. We had no complaints about microphone performance, though, with the One’s noise cancellation doing a capable job, and the speakerphone was suitably loud.

HTC quotes up to 18hrs 3G talktime (27hrs 2G) from the One, or 500hrs 3G standby (479hrs 2G); that’s based on our European-spec review units, since US-spec versions aren’t available yet. Given the size of the display (and the amount we’ve been playing with the One, particularly the camera) it comes as little surprise that it falls in line with other recent smartphones in terms of real-world longevity.

With all of the usual accounts doing their work in the background – push email, Facebook and/or Google+ multimedia uploads, periodic checking of social networks, etc. – and with regular use, we took the phone down from 88-percent to around 20-percent in the space of just over 7.5hrs. That’s predominantly on WiFi, though with some AT&T HSPA+ use. From a full charge to flat, then, with heavy use you could expect in excess of nine hours of runtime.

Unsurprisingly, once you notch back on some of the background activity, things start to improve significantly, and in fact HTC offers a Power Saver option – readily accessed from the notifications pull-down – which optionally throttles the CPU, lowers screen brightness, turns off vibration alerts, and shuts off off data when the phone is locked. Unfortunately there’s no way to prioritize certain apps to maintain their connection with Power Saver is turned on, which means you won’t get the benefits of push-email and similar. Instead, the One wakes the radio periodically to check what’s new, with no user control over how frequently that happens.

Display and camera are the biggest battery hogs, really. The impact of the screen isn’t much of a shock, since it’s a common culprit, but camera users might be surprised by how much in the way of resources significant use of Zoe photography can cause. After all, the One is constantly buffering video and photos whenever Zoe mode is active in the camera app.

There are two ways of looking at the One’s battery showing – and bear in mind we’ll be running ongoing battery testing over the coming days, including on LTE networks. You could be disappointed, frustrated by the fact that big screens and lots of data use take their toll on a battery, even if it’s a reasonably sized 2,300 mAh pack; you could also decry HTC’s decision to chase solid form over replaceable battery flexibility. Or, you might accept the regular recharging as a fact of life with any modern smartphone; we’re yet to find one – barring perhaps the DROID RAZR MAXX and Galaxy Note II, each of which have simply huge batteries and the oversized form-factors to accommodate them – which doesn’t demand such compromises.

Wrap-up

It doesn’t take genius to realize that the One is HTC’s best phone in a long time. The build quality and crisp, minimalistic design is a step above any other Android phone, and comfortably sits alongside the iPhone 5 for premium feel in the hand. The display is beautiful, the UltraPixel camera technology and Zoe system both ambitious but capable of hugely engaging results, and the performance superlative. Meanwhile, HTC Sense has finally rediscovered its roots, and evolved with BlinkFeed into a legitimately useful and compelling interface – one which didn’t instantly leave us pining for unmodified Android.

Nor is the One perfect, however. The battery life is merely average, and while the UltraPixel system pays dividends in low-light performance, it’s not the solution to every photographic need that HTC might have billed it as. HTC may not be the first to eschew removable storage and a replaceable battery, but we still don’t like it when they’re omitted.

Nonetheless, there’s a sense that HTC’s challenge isn’t in the device – after all, it had good phones in 2012 – but in the market. Samsung’s risen star in the Android ecosystem has left little room for rivals, and HTC simply lacks the marketing heft to build the same brand-recognition that “Galaxy” has achieved. That’s notwithstanding the fact that HTC’s phone looks better, is built better, takes generally better photos, and has arguably better software than the Galaxy S III; we’ll have to wait and see how it holds up to the new Galaxy, but Samsung will need to pull out all the stops if it hopes to even get close to rivalling the One for its perfect quality feel.

Just as it took becoming the underdog to force Nokia to adopt an innovative “challenger” attitude, so its taken a rough year to provoke HTC into raising its game. The end result is a phone that’s beautiful, solid, and cleverly, thoughtfully equipped – one which makes bold challenges to our expectations of hardware specifications and software. Now, HTC has to find a way to educate consumers as to why they should care about it.

Chris Davies contributed to this review

This isn’t the first huge multitouch screen we’ve seen – 3M had an 84-incher at CES, for instance – but it’s one of the first with a price tag attached. MyMultitouch tells us the display will retail for around €33,000, making this a $43k plaything.

If you simply have to have a vast screen that’s finger-friendly, though, the Alvaro GIANT certainly delivers. We first navigated through Windows 8, tapping, swiping and pinching through the usual Metro-style interface as we would on a far smaller tablet; since the display can run off of any HDMI input (as well as DVI, RGB, AV, and DisplayPort; MyMultitouch also offers an optional integrated PC for standalone use) you could hook up basically any Windows 8 PC to it and suddenly have a vast worksurface to operate from.

That showed its merit when we flipped over to Android, running off a simple “thumbdrive” sized stick computer. The 4K resolution was downscaled to suit Android’s display limitations, but Angry Birds and the regular Android UI looked great spread across 84-inches.

It probably comes as little surprise, but home users wanting more room to throw birds at pigs isn’t MyMultitouch’s target audience. Instead, the Alvaro GIANT is positioned as a tool for retail, display, and industrial implementation: the top glass layer is toughened, and the system recognizes up to 32-points of contact simultaneously. It’s also capable of differentiating between different hand positions, such as whether a fist is in contact or a hand with spread fingers. It’ll track users even if they’re wearing gloves, too.

$43k might be a whole lot of money on the face of it, but the Alvaro GIANT finds itself in good Ultra HD company. Samsung’s 85-inch Ultra HD TV announced at CES back in January is a cool $38,000 after all, and if you try touching that all you’ll get are greasy finger-smudges.

Canon is implemented true mediated reality with its headset, using stereoscopic cameras on the front of the HM-A1 HMD to take a view of the real world and then overlaying computer graphics, which are then fed to the twin displays inside. They run at 1280 x 960 resolution, higher than many cheaper HMDs we’ve seen, and use a specially created free-form prism display system that Canon claims means less distortion and fewer optical aberrations around the periphery.

Capturing and displaying graphics is only part of the overall system, however. The MREAL setup also requires tracking data, to know where the user is looking and what they’re interacting with, and of course a software platform that hooks into whatever 3D environment you’re exploring. On the sensor side, there’s a combination of visual markers and an optional gyroscopic sensor, the latter of which tracks the orientation of the headset in space per frame of video.

It’s the markers, though, that are more commonly relied upon. MREAL can work with optical and magnetic sensors, including third-party brands, but the most obvious are a series of QR-like glyphs which can be used to mark the sides of a physical mock-up. By tracking those glyphs, MREAL can map the movement of the virtual object against the user’s manipulation of its physical counterpart.

So, a basic model of a car, or a camera, or the control surface in the plane could be marked out with a few MREAL glyphs, and then Canon’s system will overlay whatever proposed controls or components are intended. The wearer can interact with those controls as if they were real, able to “look around” the environment with the physical perfectly matched to the digital representation.

On the software side, Canon’s MR Platform has been designed to hook into the most common CAD and 3D visualization packages, with an MR Platform SDK to make integrating existing graphic design software with MREAL straightforward. RTT, the makers of 3D visualization software RTT DeltaGen, has already confirmed it will be combining the package with MREAL; existing customers include Audi, BMW, GM, Ferrari, and Porsche, as well as Adidas and Electrolux.

It’s not just prototyping and industrial design that Canon sees as benefiting from MREAL, however. Another avenue the company is pushing is museum use, where visitors would be able to don an HM-A1 headset and have characters – whether famous faces from history, dinosaurs, wild animals, or fantasy constructions – appear in the real-world with them, interacting as if themselves real. Another possibility is retail, where designers of custom furniture, architects, and others could use MREAL to walk their customers through the design refinement process, tailoring the final product to them without costly iterative prototyping along the way.

Compared to the wearable displays we’ve seen on Google’s Glass and from others, Canon’s is obviously a league ahead. The blending of the digital graphics and what’s actually going on around you is surprisingly good, with the mapping of the two very accurate. You can see your hands – if the system decides they’re relevant to the environment – and after a little acclimatization, it really is like you’re handling a more complex object or coming face to face with a dinosaur.

Interactive Demo Gallery

We tried several demos with the MREAL system, tailored to different potential clients. In an educational-style environment, we were able to interact with a virtual dinosaur, walk around it and pet it, while still seeing other people in the vicinity not wearing a Canon HMD. In another setup, we were able to virtually “kick the tires” of a digital car, customizing colors and trim, exploring the dashboard, and generally seeing what we could expect to be driving despite the real-world object being far more basic in its design. A virtual earth-mover allowed us to experience the cabin and identify ergonomic flaws, such as controls that blocked access to the cup holder, and which might normally demand a physical prototype be built before the issue was identified. There’s more details in our hands-on videos.

Hands-on Demo Gallery

As Canon and its partners see it, the big difference between something like Glass and its MREAL system is the introduction of haptics. “We’re already overloading the eyes as it is” Simiosys’ Christopher Stapleton explained to us. “The question is what’s going through what channel, and how. So, this whole aspect of multitasking isn’t about the number of tasks, it’s about competition for attention.”

“You have all the senses, in all dimensions and all directions, all this impact, we’re overloading the eyes in proportion to the hearing, or the touch. The eyes have depth-perception to a certain extent, but the only interactive sense we have is touch, so the aspect of mixed-reality and haptics is a huge jump in how much we can do. What [Google] is doing is too much in one area.”

Meanwhile, the traditional idea of a GUI – whether text or icons – is quickly becoming overwhelmed by the complexity of what today’s systems can deliver. Instead, Stapleton argues, systems like MREAL can take what would be a very complex interface and make it more naturalistic. Today’s users aren’t looking for ever-increasing menus and toolbars, he says, but gesture response, social interaction, and a more human way of encountering the digital world.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, all this doesn’t come cheap. Canon will be selling the entire MREAL Mixed Reality System – the HM-A1 headset and the MR Platform software – for $125,000 from March 1, with a $25,000 annual maintenance fee on top. That might sound expensive, but Canon balances it against the existing costs companies face of producing a hardware prototype. That process – which can be relatively quickly and affordably mocked-up virtually using MREAL – is an even more expensive one, and it’s easy to see how MREAL could earn its keep over time.

Canon MREAL Mixed Reality Presentation Gallery

The test cars are all pre-production – the final car won’t be appearing in Cadillac showrooms until sometime in 2014, GM has said – but they give the company a valuable opportunity to see how the electronics hold up. The tires, steering, anti-lock brakes, and the traction and electronic-stability control systems are all under the microscope.

Meanwhile it’s also an opportunity to see how the ELR’s Continuous Damping Control system handles the more than four inches of fresh snow. That system dynamically adjusts the car’s damping every 2ms to suit the road conditions.

“During this latest test, the ELR continued to perform beyond our expectations” ELR chief engineer Chris Thomason said of the car’s trip, though GM is keeping quiet on full performance reports from the adverse weather testing.

However, with electric car abilities and practicality topical today, given Elon Musk’s critical response to recent Tesla Model S reviews, GM and others will probably come in for increased attention as their real-world usefulness is discussed. The ELR, for instance, isn’t a pure-EV but an “Extended Range Electric Vehicle” (EREV), using a gas engine to top up the onboard batteries, something GM claims makes for a more reliable experience without the usual “range anxiety.”

Hardware and Design

You could easily mistake the Surface Pro for the ARM-based Surface at first glance, given how aesthetically similar each tablet is. Look a little closer, though, and the key differences become apparent. Microsoft has used the same VaporMg treated magnesium alloy for the casing, and it still feels great in the hand: smooth and easy to hold, but still sturdy and scratch-resistant.

Surface Pro is a little bigger than the original Surface: at 10.81 x 6.81 x 0.53 inches, it’s slightly taller and noticeably thicker, a side-effect of accommodating PC-class components and a bigger capacity battery. That makes it heavier, too, a smudge under 2lbs versus the 1.5lbs of Surface. It’s still comfortable to hold, but for single-handed use we found ourselves cradling the slate in the crook of our arm, rather than gripping it by the bezel as we might do with an iPad. The fact that Windows still prefers landscape to portrait orientation emphasizes that too.

Microsoft’s approach to cooling is an interesting one. Rather than a patch of obvious grills for ventilation, there’s a slot that runs all the way around the edge of the Surface Pro, and from which warm air is pushed out while cool air is pulled in. Two fans, rather than one, have been used to dynamically adjust the airflow depending on what’s hottest and how you’re holding the tablet. Altogether, the design makes it difficult to figure out where, exactly, the tablet is venting from; plus, it helps mask the noise of the fans. In regular use, the Surface Pro is near silent, in fact.

On the back, there’s a kickstand to prop the Surface Pro up on your desk. It actually snaps out to a slightly different angle – a little further reclined – than the stand on the Surface RT, though whether you’ll notice the difference in day-to-day use is questionable. More interestingly, there’s a change in the selection of ports Microsoft spreads around the slate: you now get a full-sized USB 3.0, rather than USB 2.0, as well as a Mini DisplayPort instead of the Surface RT’s HD video output. Otherwise, there’s still a headphone jack and a microSDXC card slot, along with a magnetic cover port for attaching the same Touch Cover or Type Cover keyboard accessories as we’ve seen before.

Specifications

Where the Surface RT ran its pared-back Windows on NVIDIA’s Tegra 3, the Surface Pro has far more familiar fare inside. An Intel Core i5 3rd-gen processor is the tablet’s beating heart, with Intel HD Graphics 4000 driving the 10.6-inch display (more on which later). Memory is doubled, to 4GB, while two storage versions are offered: 64GB and 128GB.

Here, though, is the first of the issues the Surface Pro runs into. Windows is a notorious drive hog, and when coupled with the default applications and the mandatory recovery partition – provided in-lieu of recovery discs or, as Apple includes with its recent driveless notebooks, a USB stick with the OS – there’s a surprisingly small amount of space left for users themselves. On the 64GB version, in fact, only around 23GB of space is actually available, while the 128GB model does a little better with 83GB free.

Microsoft points out that owners wanting more capacity can throw in a memory card – a 64GB microSDXC can be had for around sixty bucks – but it’s still likely to be a surprise for those expecting closer to the number printed on the box. There’s also cloud storage, such as Microsoft’s own SkyDrive, which could help fill in the gaps, though without an integrated cellular modem you’d need to be within range of a WiFi network in order to actually access it. It’s possible to create your own bootable USB drive, and then delete the recovery partition manually, but we can’t help wishing Microsoft had done this for us.

In addition to the USB 3.0 port, the Surface Pro has WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. Inside, there’s an ambient light sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, and a digital compass, though no hardware GPS. Microsoft has found space for stereo speakers, as per the Surface RT, but only a single microphone against the RT version’s dual mic array. The pair of 720p HD cameras – one on the front, one on the back – remain.

Pen and Display

Microsoft had high hopes for its ClearType-blessed display on the original Surface, but we found the 1366 x 768 resolution to be underwhelming in comparison to better-than-HD panels on the iPad and Nexus 10. Happily, the Surface Pro brings with it a far better screen: still 10.6-inches and 16:9 widescreen, but running at 1920 x 1080 Full HD.

The difference is vast. Where once we had slightly fuzzy text, everything is now crisp. Viewing angles seem better too, and we’re impressed by the richness of the colors. It might not be the Retina-level resolution of the latest iPad, but it’s far more in keeping with what, at upwards of $899, is most definitely a premium tablet.

The Surface Pro’s talents don’t end at a great display, though. In addition to 10-finger multitouch – double what the Surface RT can recognize – there’s also pen support. Not the fake-finger capacitive styli offered for the iPad and other tablets, but a special pen that works with an active digitizer embedded in the screen.

Usually, the pen clings to the right side of the tablet, magnetically attached. It’s a firm grip – Microsoft says it purposefully increased the magnet strength from what holds the keyboard on – and should keep it in place even if you drop the whole thing into your bag. As the nib gets within a few millimeters of the display, the usual capacitive touch is shut off and everything is controlled via the pen instead: you can wave it above the surface of the screen to move the mouse pointer, and then tap to mimic a left mouse click. A button on the side does right mouse click duty.

On the opposite end to the nib is an “eraser” which, as long as the app recognizes it, allows you to rub out mistakes. Just as you’d expect, there’s palm-rejection that means you can lean your hand on the screen and not have it skew your digital ink. The pen is battery-free, too, getting its power from the digitizer layer in the Surface Pro itself.

Microsoft obviously intends for the pen to play a big role in the Surface Pro experience: it’s included as standard in the box, whereas the Touch Cover and Type Cover are both optional extras. Windows tablets aren’t exactly unfamiliar with stylus control, but in the early years of the iPad modern tablet use got associated with finger control, and the technology fell from favor. Since then Samsung has restarted interest in what can be done with a digital pen, with the Galaxy Note series, and the Surface Pro can wear its stylus with pride.

Windows 8

Special screen and VaporMg chassis aside, the Surface Pro is basically just another Windows PC. We’ve already comprehensively reviewed Windows 8, though it’s worth noting that the tile-based UI makes far more sense when you’re swiping and tapping through it with your fingers than it does when navigated using a mouse.

As you’d hope from a Core i5 processor and 4GB of memory, there are no noticeable slow-downs and the Surface Pro handled any app we threw at it. Capacity concerns aside, Microsoft’s use of flash storage also lends a welcome boost to software load times, while multitasking is instantaneous, flipping between apps without delay.

Slot on a Touch Cover or Type Cover, meanwhile – the same accessories for the Surface RT will work with the Pro – and you’ve got a workable ultrabook alternative. We still prefer the Type Cover for anything more than the basics of text-entry, mind; the zero-profile keys of the Touch Cover, while an improvement over on-screen typing, nonetheless lack the responsiveness that makes extended use comfortable.

An alternative to both is using the Surface as the hub of a desktop setup, something that’s easy to achieve if you opt for a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. The Surface Pro is more than capable of powering a large display over Mini DisplayPort, leaving the USB 3.0 port free for hooking up an external drive or other peripherals. Since this is full-fat Windows, there’s no making sure that your accessory of choice is on Microsoft’s “approved” list, as is the case with Windows RT.

When the Surface Pro really comes into its own is when the pen gets involved. Frustratingly, Microsoft hasn’t really done everything it can to demonstrate what benefits a stylus brings: the obvious showcase app would be OneNote, which was offering Evernote-style digital notetaking functionality long before Evernote sprouted in the cloud, but Surface Pro buyers will need to cough up $69.99 for a copy (or get it as part of Office 2013 or an Office 365 subscription).

It’s worth it, though, as is trying out a digital art app, such as the copies of Autodesk SketchBook Express Microsoft and Fresh Paint Microsoft had loaded onto our review device. The Wacom stylus can differentiate between 1024 different levels of pressure, automatically adjusting the thickness of the on-screen ink depending on how hard you press, for instance, and it’s a far more user-friendly way to sketch out ideas (even if your art skills fall short). Surface Pro also supports being turned into a graphics tablet of sorts: hook up an external display and you can tell Windows 8 to map your pen movements on the tablet to the external screen by default, mimicking a standalone Wacom tablet.

More patchy are plain Windows apps, which lack distinct touchscreen support and, as a result, can be a little more difficult to control with your fingers. Browsers are a good example: Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer gives the best touch experience, while others – Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc. – generally expect you to be using a mouse, and hence navigate by using the scroll bars on the side of the screen rather than flicking and pinch-zooming. In the traditional Windows desktop you can optionally enlarge the scroll bars to give yourself a bigger target, but it still lacks the immediacy of, say, the iPad’s Safari browser.

Where the Surface Pro’s internet experience does pull ahead is in speed. We expected strong browser performance from the grown-up processor and full OS, and sure enough the SunSpider results – the test of JavaScript performance, where faster results are better – delivered. In IE, the test was complete in 144ms, while Safari and Chrome took a little longer, at over 240ms apiece. Contrast all three results, though, with the 4th-gen iPad with Retina display, which took 879ms to complete the same test.

The Surface Pro’s integrated graphics – rather than a discrete GPU – preclude any serious gaming or video editing, unfortunately. Still, we were able to load up Photoshop and complete some of the more day-to-day tasks without the tablet stumbling to a halt.

It’s in day-to-day use that the Surface Pro arguably shows its full hand. The combination of the kickstand and the broad display viewing angles meant the tablet generally followed us around the home, stood up on whatever surface was nearby. The kitchen counter was a particular favorite, at which point the Windows 8 Live Tiles showed their merit. Surface Pro sits quietly updating, flagging up new messages and the like; however, it’s also a great at what we’d call “natural discovery,” where content you might have forgotten about or overlooked is brought to the fore.

A good example of that is the photo integration. Windows 8′s abilities to bring online galleries through to the Live Tiles and cycle through photos meant we rediscovered whole folders-worth of images, including those shared by friends. It’s an engaging way to interact with the Surface Pro, and helped by the fact that software in the Metro-style interface co-exists neatly with what’s running on the traditional desktop. So, we could have the full Spotify app playing music in the background, while using the more finger-friendly UI to browse the web and flick through galleries.

Battery

To say Microsoft is shy on making battery life predictions is an understatement: beyond the confirmation that it’s a 42Wh pack inside the Surface Pro – up from the 31.5Wh of the Surface RT – there’s little indication of what sort of runtime owners might expect. Still, with specifications akin to a mainstream ultrabook, it comes as little surprise that the Surface Pro manages roughly ultrabook-length longevity.

In a test with the display permanently on, and playing streaming media constantly, the Surface Pro lasted for between 4.5 and 5 hours. In a slightly more mixed test, with a combination of web browsing while listening to Spotify, as well as streaming via Netflix and YouTube, that rose to six hours.

Both of those scenarios are probably some of the biggest battery challenges the Surface Pro might be expected to take on. More typical daily use, then, could see the tablet run for a few hours more, especially if you’re predominantly web browsing, emailing, and using art apps.

Wrap-up

With a new 128GB iPad with Retina display on the scene, it’s easy to make comparisons between Apple’s tablet and the Surface Pro. In practice, however, they’re very different beasts. The iPad is focused resolutely on the mass market, and if you want one you have to be willing to concede to Apple’s Way: their decision about what apps are worthy of the App Store, their decision about what accessories can be used, their decision about what, exactly, you can do with the tablet you just spent more than a few hundred dollars on. In contrast, the Surface Pro is a paragon of freedom. If you have unusual requests of it, you can probably find the software and/or hardware to achieve them. It is, after all, a touchscreen ultrabook wearing a different costume.

If you actually need a full Windows PC that you can strum with your fingers is the question. Not being limited to pared-down versions of apps is a big bonus if there’s particular software you need access to; however, that flexibility comes with its fair share of compromises, such as the limitations on battery life compared to ARM-based slates, the increase in bulk, and the higher price.

The Surface Pro is slickly designed, its digital pen a joy to use – if you have the need of it – and it comes without the software niggles that dampened our enthusiasm about the Surface RT last year. Think of it as a touchscreen notebook with an optional keyboard and it makes the most sense. That may be semantics, but it also means the Surface Pro is more likely to cannibalize ultrabook sales than eat into Apple’s iPad market. Whether that’s the market Microsoft was aiming for, we’re not sure, but the Surface Pro makes considerable sense for the prosumer.

Hardware

The Drobo lineage is clear in the Mini, though unlike its siblings it spreads its drives horizontally rather than vertically. At 7.3 x 7.1 x 1.8 inches it’s a squat square of matte and glossy black plastic, tipping the scales at 2.2 pounds without drives; that also doesn’t include the power brick, which is compact though still something to consider if you’re planning to make the Drobo Mini a mobile storage solution.

Up front there’s a magnetically-attached front cover, which hides four 2.5-inch drive bays. By switching from the more common 3.5-inch drives, as in the rest of the Drobo range, the company has been able to reduce size, noise, and power consumption (though since you provide the HDDs yourself, that will in part depend on which models you pick). However, it also places new limits on capacity, since 2.5-inch drives aren’t available in the same huge sizes as their bigger brethren.

In fact, 1TB is basically the maximum per drive, though since the Drobo Mini uses the company’s BeyondRAID data redundancy system, you won’t actually get 4TB of total storage even if you slot a full terabyte into each bay. Drobo has a useful calculator to figure out exactly what you’ll get, but if you stick to the 1TB maximum and expect complete data safety even if one of the drives dies, you’ll have 930GB to use with two HDDs installed, 1.81TB with three installed, and 2.72TB with all four occupied.

It’s worth noting that you needn’t install four drives of the same size: you can mix and match, then take advantage of Drobo’s auto-rebuilding of the array by swapping out a smaller drive for a larger version. Another option is dual disk redundancy – where the Drobo Mini can handle up to two drives failing simultaneously with no data loss – but then, with four 1TB HDDs installed, you’ll only have 1.8TB to use.

Fitting the drives themselves is incredibly straightforward: no caddies, rails, or other attachments, simply push the HDD in port-first and, like clicking a pen, it slots into place. No tools required, and swapping out a drive is as simple as clicking it in and pulling it free; you can even do it with the Drobo Mini running, and rebuilding the array begins automatically. Four green LED strips around the corners of the fascia correspond to the status of each drive, while status lights and a useful capacity gauge run along the bottom, showing you roughly how much space you have left.

However, there’s also a fifth bay, on the underside of the Drobo Mini, which takes an mSATA solid-state drive. These flash drives, having gained in popularity thanks to ultrabooks, basically offer a chunk of speedy storage in a small footprint, and work with what Drobo calls “data-aware tiering technology”; offered until now only on the company’s enterprise-spec B1200i, that uses an SSD cache to speed up file access by storing frequently accessed data (such as thumbnails) in a dedicated area of faster capacity. Drobo offers a $169 60GB mSATA, though you can shop around for a better deal, and using the bay is optional.

The Drobo Mini’s other surprise is a battery. Non-removable (but expected to last the lifetime of the unit, Drobo says) it works as an emergency power supply rather than as a true mobility provision: basically, if you lose AC power, the Drobo Mini is designed to have sufficient internal power to make sure all the data in use is stored safely before the drive switches off.

Ports are all on the back, sandwiched between two non-user-removable variable speed fans, which spin with a noticeable hum. As well as a single USB 3.0 port there are two Thunderbolt ports, the second Thunderbolt intended for daisy-chaining drives and other peripherals. The obvious omission – as with most of Drobo’s earlier products – is a network port, with the Mini really intended for use with a single machine at any one time.

Performance

We fitted the Drobo Mini with four 750GB Seagate Momentus drives, as well as a 32GB mSATA flash drive in the Drobo Accelerator Bay on the underside. Drobo’s Dashboard app – available for Windows and Mac – automatically builds the BeyondRAID array and uses the mSATA for caching.

Hooked up via Thunderbolt to a 2012 MacBook Pro with Retina display, itself with a 256GB Apple-fit flash drive, we saw transfer rates from the computer to the Drobo Mini of 98.12 MB/s when dealing with 5GB files. In the opposite direction, from Drobo Mini to Mac, that increases slightly to 101.1 MB/s.

Drobo includes USB 3.0, of course, for broader compatibility, though you’ll pay a penalty in speed: almost half of the rates, in fact. Transferring to the same MacBook Pro with Retina display over USB 3.0, we saw 62.71 MB/s, and then 53.1 MB/s sending 5GB files back from the Mini to the Mac.

Pricing and Value

Drobo has never been the cheap option for data storage, and the Drobo Mini doesn’t break with tradition. At $649 with no drives, it’s clearly on the expensive side for a portable storage caddy (though you do get both a USB 3.0 and a Thunderbolt cable included in the box). Factor in four 1TB HDDs at $80 apiece, and you’re looking at $969 and still having an empty accelerator bay. A quick look online turns up 64GB mSATA drives for around $70 (you can find slightly cheaper, lower capacity alternatives, as we did, but then you’ll see less benefit from the data-aware tiering technology), bringing the fully-loaded price to $1,039.

Count on another $49 if you want the official carrying case, and expect to spend a small fortune if you want to use SSDs rather than HDDs. With solid-state drives currently sitting at the $180 point for around 240GB, you’re looking at $1,679 for roughly 680GB of space, albeit blisteringly-fast space.

There are cheaper ways to use 2.5-inch drives. We’re fans of Synology’s DiskStation DS411slim, which is $300 empty. You don’t get an mSATA bay or the backup battery, and it uses gigabit ethernet rather than USB or Thunderbolt (there’s an eSATA port and two USB 2.0 ports, but they’re for adding extra capacity not directly hooking up to a computer), so data transfers are inevitably slower, and making it more suited to backup than for storing files you’re working on currently.

If Thunderbolt is a must-have, then there’s LaCie’s Little Big Disk, which uses the high-speed port and two preinstalled drives (either HDD or SSD depending on the model). The good-looking external drive isn’t inexpensive, however. The HDD-based model has a street price of roughly $319 for 1TB, though that’s combining two 500GB drives with no data redundancy; opt for single drive redundancy, and you’ll only have 500GB with no room for expansion. The SSD version comes in 512GB or 1TB capacities (street price from around $665), though again you’re looking at half that space if you want single-drive redundancy. There’s also no other connectivity, unlike the Drobo Mini’s USB 3.0, which makes accessing data tricky if you’re using one of the (many) computers that lacks Thunderbolt.

Wrap-Up

The Drobo Mini is wasted on backup. There are far cheaper ways to keep a safe copy of your digital life, and far more convenient methods than taking a single Drobo unit around every computer in your home or office and backing them up one at a time. If we’ve learned anything about backup, it’s that even the slightest hurdle to the process and users simply won’t do it; a set-and-forget NAS handles such duties far more readily.

Where the Drobo Mini succeeds, then, is in day-to-day use: solid data access rates, and the flexibility and convenience of the BeyondRAID system. As we’ve found with Thunderbolt drives before, the Drobo Mini is sufficiently swift that you can effectively treat it as another internal drive, keeping project files – whether photo, music, or video editing, or something else – stored externally, rather than having to copy them onto your main drive and then archive them again afterwards.

That makes particular sense when you consider the shifts we’re seeing in computing, particularly from Apple (though arguably where the Mac goes, the PC tends to follow), with traditional HDDs phased out in favor of faster solid-state memory with generally smaller capacities. A $1k loaded Drobo Mini starts to look far more flexible in comparison to a factory-fit storage upgrade for a new Mac, and the external drive is sufficiently portable that you could drop it into your laptop bag alongside your MacBook Pro and set up a powerful studio wherever there’s an AC socket spare. That balance of performance, flexibility, and data security puts the Drobo Mini into a category of its own, and while not the cheapest external storage, you do get plenty for your money.

That has a standard USB plug on one end, and a magnetic plug on the other which clings to the side of the watch. That allows Pebble to avoid any unnecessary openings to the watch, ensuring it’ll keep working even if you wear it in the shower or drop it in your drink.

It’s actually water-resistant to 5ATM, which is enough for a little swimming though not diving. Whether you’d actually have your smartphone nearby – Pebble hooks up via Bluetooth to pull over notifications – is questionable, however.

Of course, while a proprietary cable solves one problem – how to make the watch water-resistant – it also opens up another, i.e. the fact that you’ll need to carry it around specifically if you want to recharge the smartwatch on the go. The lack of standard microUSB flexibility is offset by the lengthy battery life, however.

When it comes to specs, the Xperia Z ticks all the right boxes. Measuring in at 139 x 71 x 7.9 mm and 146g, it runs Jelly Bean on Qualcomm’s S4 Pro APQ8064+MDM9215 quadcore with Adreno 320 graphics and 2GB of RAM; Sony tells us that it’ll be Android 4.1 at launch, with a 4.2 upgrade “shortly after” that. Connectivity includes LTE and HSPA+, depending on local market, along with WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, MHL-HDMI, aGPS/GPS/GLONASS, and a microSD card slot for up to 32GB cards. Internal storage clocks in at 16GB.

Inside, there’s a 2,330 mAh non-removable battery good for up to 14hrs of UMTS talktime or up to 510hrs of LTE standby. However, Sony also adds a Battery STAMINA Mode option to the settings, which – when enabled – turns off any background data use while the screen is turned off. A whitelist allows select apps to remain active, but Sony says that with STAMINA turned on, runtime is extended up to fourfold. The system learns from your usage style and that of different apps, too, automatically adjusting its runtime estimate according to which apps are in the whitelist.

Sony Xperia Z overview:

As for the cameras, that’s a 13-megapixel sensor on the back and a 2-megapixel version on the front; the main camera uses Sony’s Exmor RS technology for better quality, and the interface features elements pulled from Sony’s CyberShot line. A “Superior Auto” mode adjusts the scene according to lighting, movement, and subject conditions, while a burst mode can continuously capture 10fps at 9-megapixels until your battery (or storage) expires. Sony is particularly proud of its HDR technology, which is used not only in still photos but in video capture too.

Those videos look particularly good on the Xperia Z’s display. The new flagship features the latest iteration of screen processing software from Sony’s HDTV range, Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2, which does real-time processing to make video content more colorful and engaging. It looks fantastic on the 5-inch TFT LCD HD Reality Display, with bright colors and crisp edges that don’t look over-saturated in comparison to some AMOLED panels of the moment. On top is a layer of scratch-resistant, shatterproof glass.

There’s shatterproof glass on the back, too, and glass-like inserts in the subtly curved sides. However, rather than being prone to smashing, the Xperia Z meets IP55 and IP57 dust and water resistance specifications, and can survive being immersed in (clean) water for up to 30 minutes with no issues. Even the power button is special: Sony has milled it precisely from aluminum, after its research found that the average user presses the key 64 times a day.

Sony Xperia Z walkthrough:

As for NFC, Sony will be using that as the “enabler” for a push in distributed media sharing around the home. Alongside the Xperia Z there’s a new Stereo Bluetooth Headset SBH20 and Wireless Headset DR-BTN200M, both of which can be paired via NFC simply by holding the Xperia Z nearby. Sony also has a new five-strong range of Smart TVs for CES, which include NFC in the remote control for easily pairing the phone with the TV and then streaming video over WiFi Direct.

Certain markets and carriers will get the Sony Xperia ZL, a second variant on the Xperia Z. It shares almost all of the specifications as the regular Xperia Z, but in a shorter, slightly thicker housing; it’s also not waterproof.

Sony isn’t talking pricing at this stage, nor confirming exact US availability or which carrier(s) might have picked up the Xperia Z or Xperia ZL. Still, from everything we’ve seen here at CES, this is the most compelling Sony handset in some time.

Sony Xperia Z hands-on:

Design

Sony’s “monolithic design” tagline for the HX850 series isn’t exactly the catchiest of slogans, and it doesn’t really do the HDTV justice. It’s certainly pared back: a sheet of toughened Corning Gorilla Glass – ideal for those accidentally-hurled-Wiimote moments – with a few chromed highlights around the edge, but nothing that would distract you from the picture quality.

The default stand is a simple plastic affair, sturdy but uninspiring, though Sony also offers a premium stand which has integrated speakers and props the HX850 back at a slight angle. Alternatively, it can be wall-mounted, at which point the sleek lines begin to look even more appealing. Physical controls are limited to a single row of buttons hidden on the lower right side at the back: power, volume, channel, input, and menu.

Unlike Samsung’s twin remote bundle and advanced voice-control system, Sony’s remote control is an altogether more traditional affair. It’s on the compact side, though isn’t short on buttons, which means some of the keys are a little fiddly. They’re also not backlit, which is something else Samsung does right.

Features and Connectivity

In general, though, the HX850′s spec sheet leaves few boxes unticked. The edge-backlit LED display runs at 1080p resolution with a 240Hz refresh rate, and there’s active 3D support though oddly Sony doesn’t actually include any glasses in the box; instead you have to buy them yourself, from $49.99 apiece. Sony’s X-Reality Pro Engine technology is implemented, which promises to analyze each frame of the picture in real-time, and tweak it to remove noise, increase sharpness, and optimize the color and contrast. Then there’s Motionflow, which achieves that 240Hz refresh rate by calculating intermediary frames based on the likely color and movement of the source content frames either side of them.

Connectivity includes four HDMI ports – two on the side and two on the bottom), two composite video (one of which can double as component video) both on the rear, two USB 2.0 ports on the side, an RF antenna connection on the bottom, three analog audio inputs (two on the rear; one on the side), a PC input (D-Sub), and an ethernet port. There’s also an audio output on the side and a digital audio output on the bottom.

However, Sony has also equipped the HX850 with integrated WiFi b/g/n, meaning you can hook up to a network wirelessly and without having to plug in an external dongle as with some TVs. There’s also support for Skype, with an optional camera (RRP $149.99) plugging directly into the HX850 and allowing you to make and receive video calls. The camera wasn’t supplied for our review, however.

Smart TV

With both wireless and WiFi onboard, it comes as no surprise that the HX850 supports various streaming media features. If you have accounts with Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus, or Sony’s own Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited services, then you’ll be able to stream TV shows and movies directly to the HX850 with no need for a computer in-between.

Aside from Skype, there’s also YouTube, Picasa, Slacker Radio, Facebook, and Twitter support, together with various Yahoo apps and widgets thanks to Sony’s partnership with the company. It’s also possible to push video directly from a laptop or mobile device via WiFi Direct, or you can plug in a USB drive – only FAT, not NTFS, formatted drives are supported, mind – and play video, audio, and picture content stored on there. Currently, the HX850 supports MPEG1/2/4, AVCHD, WMV, MP3, WMA, JPG, and BMP files.

It all works, but it lacks the finessed UI we’ve seen on other smart TVs, particularly Samsung’s. While we could do without Samsung’s gimmicky gesture-navigation system and even its voice control, though the latter works surprisingly well, its interface in general is far slicker and more attractive than that of the HX850. Functional, then, but hardly inspirational.

Performance

Happily, the Sony dragon awakes when it comes to picture quality. There are various modes, including several variants of gaming, sports, cinema, photos, and an auto setting that attempts to already pick between them, though we found the two cinema modes did the best job for most of our viewing. Brightness, contrast, sharpness, color, color temperature, hue, and noise reduction are easily accessed, and you can dig into the more advanced settings like gamma, white balance, control over local dimming, contrast and black correction, and whiteness enhancer, in a sub-menu.

Lots to play with, then, but even with the default settings for Cinema 1 mode we were impressed by what the HX850 could do. A little calibration work, however, and the HX850′s true skills became clear. Blacks are deep and crisp, though not quite to the same level as the Samsugn UN55ES8000 we reviewed back in July (albeit a TV with a $1,250 higher RRP), but the colors are particularly impressive – even across a broad viewing angle – and even when we took advantage of the set’s ability to upscale standard-definition content, it proved pleasingly free of artifacts.

Motionflow did its job well, and we saw no ghosting or frame untidiness even in fast-moving scenes, such as action movies or sports games. Sony had supplied some active 3D glasses, and the effect is solid though with the occasional glimpse of crosstalk during busier moments onscreen. Sharp delineation of color or contrast caused the most problems.

Wrap-Up

Beautiful colors, superlative connectivity, and discretely handsome style. The Sony HX850 may not shout about its skills when you first look at it, but its LED display is among the best we’ve seen. Contrast levels and some hiccups in 3D performance would be our main complaints over image quality, though they’re minor and – if you spend a little time finessing the settings – can mostly be ironed out.

Otherwise, it’s only the add-ons that prove disappointing: the underwhelming remote that doesn’t feel like it belongs with a TV that has an RRP of $2,600; the lackluster smart TV menus; and having to pay another $150 for the Skype camera (where Samsung builds in its webcam). With street pricing edging just under $2,000, however, we can be a little more accommodating of those flaws.

In the end, it’s the screen quality that helps the HX850 stand out. Invest some time working around the contrast issue, and you’ll be rewarded with a set that’s great for movies and gaming.

Design and Hardware

Samsung has been gradually paring back the design of its sets over the past generations, with particular success when it comes to the bezel. For the ES9000, that’s a slim, curved border with a rose gold tinted finish, just 0.31-inches thick. The only distractions are the (retractable) webcam on the top edge, and a simple, narrow stand underneath. That can, obviously, be detached and the TV wall-mounted; at 1.4-inches deep (12.9-inches on the stand) it’s impressively thin.

Despite the dimensions, Samsung manages to fit in a fair amount of hardware. There are two 15W speakers, downward-firing, and integrated WiFi for hooking up the ES9000 to the internet wire-free. Other connections include three HDMI ports, three USB 2.0 ports, an ethernet port, component and composite inputs, a digital audio output (optical), a 3.5mm analog audio output, a DVI audio input, aerial port, and a serial port for Samsung’s EX-LINK inter-device communication (with it, and the right accessories, you can have the TV trigger a motorized wall-mount or other add-ons).

Samsung includes four pairs of 3D glasses in the box along with its Smart Touch Remote, which has a trackpad for navigation and also works as a remote microphone for voice control. There’s a standard remote in the box too, along with an IR blaster which allows for third-party A/V kit to be controlled via the Samsung’s remote. A Smart View app for Android phones and tablets turns them into remotes too. You don’t get the wireless keyboard (VG-KBD1500) which the TV is compatible with, however; that’s a $100 add-on, and as well as full QWERTY includes a trackpad and works, via Bluetooth, with Samsung’s recent Android phones and tablets.

There’s also support for Samsung’s Evolution Kit, due sometime in 2013. TV development may run at a slower pace than, say, for smartphones, but it’s still frustrating to think that today’s flagship TV will be superseded at some point in the not-too-distant future. The Evolution Kit will go some way to addressing that, a slot-in module that will update the ES9000 with a new, faster processor than the current dual-core, more content support, extra smart TV features, and other enhancements.

Samsung isn’t saying exactly what the Evolution Kit will comprise of – after all, it’s hard to tell what will be standard on new flagships next year – nor how much it will cost, but it’s a reassurance that other manufacturers don’t offer. Obviously it can’t upgrade the ES9000′s display to 4K, but we’re happy to see TV companies thinking beyond the very first out-of-box experience.

Picture Technology

The ES9000 isn’t short on picture technology: Samsung has basically packed everything it can into the TV’s slender chassis. The Full HD display offers, according to Samsung, 30-percent more sharpness and a matching improvement in black levels, as well as being 60-percent brighter. That’s thanks to a cavalcade of processing technology, including the Micro Dimming Ultimate technology we saw on the ES8000 (SlashGear review), and the Precision Black Local Dimming and Cinema Black features (known as “Smart LED” in the settings) which we haven’t seen since 2011′s D8000 flagship.

All that dimming tech dynamically adjusts the backlighting on the ES9000 so as to improve contrast. For instance, the TV automatically identifies the black letterboxing bars above and below movies, and lowers the backlight behind those sections. It also monitors the rest of the picture, split into zones, and adjusts the backlighting according to what’s on-screen at any one time. The ES9000 uses edge-lit active dimming, where clever use of LEDs around the sides of the display can selectively adjust the backlighting of different portions across it; it’s a more compact system than full-array active dimming, which is relatively rare on TVs today.

Finally, there’s active 3D: put on one of the four pairs of bundled 3D glasses, and as long as you’ve got 3D content to watch, you can view it in 1080p. The ES9000 supports 2D to 3D upscaling, just like the rest of Samsung’s 3D TV range.

Smart TV

Whether it’s the occasional Netflix movie of full-on cord cutting, shifting TV watching from the traditional cable connection to streaming media is gaining momentum, and the ES9000 is ready for much of it out of the box. Samsung’s smart TV interface is a familiar sight by now, and though the option-packed menus can be a little intimidating initially, the flexibility Samsung offers more than makes up for it.

Netflix, YouTube, Hulu Plus, and Vimeo apps are all preloaded (some services require a subscription, of course) meaning no need for a separate set-top box for streaming. There are also Facebook and Twitter apps, along with a Skype client which supports voice and video calls, thanks to the pop-up webcam.

Other apps give access to music streaming services like Pandora and MOG Music, or to news content like ESPN ScoreCenter and USA Today. There’s a full browser for those sources yet to jump on the Samsung smart TV bandwagon, though it’s obviously going to be easier to use if you’ve got the optional keyboard; still, we had good results using voice recognition as long as background noise was minimal (and the URL was a straightforward word). You can save lists of approved sites to limit which your kids can access.

Those with Samsung phones and tablets can not only use the free app to turn their mobile device into a remote, but stream content directly to the ES9000 using AllShare Play. We were able to quickly push playback of a video from a Samsung Galaxy S III to the TV when both were connected to the same WiFi network, with no problems streaming 1080p Full HD clips. Content can also be loaded from a USB drive (max 2TB, in FAT16/32 or NTFS format) attached to one of the ES9000′s ports. We’d love to see a communal playlists system added, since this would be a great party media hub; even if your friends don’t have Samsung devices, the ES9000 supports generic DLNA for streaming.

Voice control isn’t the only navigation option. The camera on the top of the ES9000 can track gestures, like previous high-end Samsung smart TVs, first learning to recognize the slow movements of an outstretched palm side to side, and then allowing you to swipe around the UI, “grab” icons and controls to activate them, and point to letters on an onscreen keyboard. It’s not quite Kinect, but it works neatly with casual games like Angry Birds, and handled differentiating between multiple viewers (only one of which was controlling at any one time) well.

Samsung Signature Services is a new addition to Samsung’s smart TVs this year, with a curated area of games, edutainment, and age-appropriate TV shows for kids, along with an integrated rewards system that lets them build up an album of stickers for doing chores and taking part of learning games. The Fitness section offers the services of a virtual personal trainer, meanwhile: tell the ES9000 your fitness goals and it pieces together an exercise plan, showing video tutorials of each stage, and tracking progress with individual user reports. The TV can even use its camera to show you interacting with your virtual personal trainer, so that you know you’re doing the exercises correctly.

Finally, Family Story turns the TV into a digital pinboard. Pulling in schedules, photos, and messages from smartphones and tablets running the free Family Story app, it supports reminders and alarms for doctors appointments and birthdays, in addition to messaging while simultaneously watching a TV show. Samsung uses the cloud to synchronize the photos and video you’ve taken on your phone or tablet with your Smart TV, as well as helping you access them while you’re out and about.

Performance

Ten grand is a significant amount to spend on a TV, and even with the UN75ES9000′s street price edging under the $9,000 mark, you need to be a serious home entertainment junkie to consider buying any set of this size and value. The recommendation is to have it professionally calibrated to suit your room, since without that you’re not getting the very best of what the TV has to offer.

That would be a real shame, too, since the ES9000 is capable of some incredible pictures. Beautifully vivid colors and crisp details are what first grab you, but it’s the boosted black levels that are a particular gain. Samsung’s Cinema Black and Smart LED technology does an excellent job of making sure dark areas really are dark – blacks are black, not murky grey – while low-light content, such as moody films like “The Dark Knight Rises”, don’t lose all their detail in the process. Color accuracy is also slightly improved over the ES8000, with less of the slight blue tint that can make some content looker cooler than expected.

Viewing angles are another success story, both sufficiently broad to accommodate a widely spread audience across the room, but also supporting a good vertical range so that whether you’re standing or sitting you’ll see the same thing. It holds true for 3D content as well, and we saw minimal crosstalk. The ES9000′s brightness levels mean 3D viewing is almost as bright as 2D, and there’s no mangling of the colors either.

Finally, there’s the surprisingly effective speaker system. We’ve grown used to mediocre audio from integrated TV speakers, but whether it’s the extra space the ES9000′s 75-inch panel allows, or the speakers themselves, the big Samsung does a great job. Midrange audio doesn’t sound weedy, and the high-end is piping and clear rather than shrill. Even the bass end does okay, though as always a standalone subwoofer makes a world of difference for getting immersed in a movie. It’s hard to imagine an ES9000 buyer not pairing the TV with a surround sound system, but its onboard audio is certainly good enough for those times you don’t want to turn it all on.

Wrap-up

Samsung has been carving a niche for itself in the high-end TV market for some years now, and the UN75ES9000 follows in the well-esteemed footsteps of the D8000 and ES8000 before it. Smart TV features, clever add-ons like the fitness apps, Skype support, and browser, and media streaming all work well, but they’re sensibly built on the solid grounding of great picture quality. Whether you’re viewing in 2D or 3D, the ES9000 looks fantastic.

The specter on the horizon is 4K, though we’re still several years out from mainstream content providers supporting that resolution. In the meantime, the combination of excellent display quality today and the Expansion Kit for adding upgraded features tomorrow mean it’s hard to miss 4K. The ES9000 does great things with the content we’ll have for the foreseeable future. Throw in support for digital streaming, a panel which handles fast-paced console gaming very well, the convenience of internet browsing and casual gaming built-in, and a range of control options to suit most ages, and the UN75ES9000 makes an excellent case for its place at the pinnacle of Samsung’s range. Visit Samsung Smart TV for more details.

Hardware

Vivint’s system is modular, so you can start off with the basics – the $699 touchscreen Go!Control panel and a few door/window sensors, for instance – and then add other components as your budget allows. The company also offers three pre-arranged packages, individually focusing on home security, energy management and home automation, though of course you can also piece together your own system that combines elements of each.

The Go!Control is the hub of most Vivint setups, a wall-mounted box with dedicated Home and Emergency buttons, a color touchscreen, integrated Z-Wave and a GSM radio. It supports two-way voice calls and has a backup battery good for 24hrs if the mains power goes out; it can also update automatically, as Vivint release new firmware. Basic remote control is via key fob ($60) with four buttons: arming the system, triggering the panic alarm, and opening a garage door or something else hooked up to a relay module.

Security components include wireless door/window sensors ($60) and recessed sensors ($60) for more permanent installation into the frame. Battery life is rated at up to five years for each. There’s also a glass-break sensor ($120), also with a 5yr battery, that resembles a compact, domed smoke alarm and can monitor multiple windows in a room as it’s mounted on the ceiling rather than on an individual window pane. Finally there are motion sensors ($120), with a 90-degree vertical and 110-degree horizontal detection angle, and a range of 30 x 50 feet. Both the glass and motion sensors are particularly sensitive, though you can also set the motion sensors to ignore pets between 33 and 55 pounds, a system that generally worked well.

Then there are the various alarms, the other side of the Vivint security system. The company included an internal siren ($99), as loud as you’d hope for – you certainly couldn’t sleep through it – and an external “Protected by Vivint” sign with a light ($19.95).

As for safety, there are smoke detectors ($120) and carbon monoxide detectors ($120) that also hook up wirelessly and include their own 85 dBa sirens. The smoke detector can monitor for both smoke and heat; the carbon monoxide alarm uses an electrochemical sensor with a life rated at five years. A medical pendant remote ($60) can be used to trigger a call for help, though wasn’t included in our setup.

Home automation includes electronic locks and HVAC control, with a smart thermostat ($99) that supports seven day programming, two thermostat inputs and Z-Wave. It will link up with the Go!Control panel to integrate HVAC into the local and remote apps (more on which in a moment) as well as offering its own basic touchscreen control over temperature.

There are also automatic door locks ($199) with motorized deadbolts and both key and PIN entry; they link wirelessly via Z-Wave to the Go!Control panel. Using the Go!Control you can unlock them, or log into the system remotely – via smartphone apps or any browser – and unlock them at a distance. Three incorrect PIN attempts triggers the alarm automatically. They’ve proved particularly useful with a young child in the house – no more worrying whether you’ve left the back door unlocked – as well as when having guests to visit over Thanksgiving; it’s useful to be able to remotely let family in while you’re still stuck in line at the store.

Two types of internal video camera are offered, a fixed model ($149) and a pan/tilt version ($199). Both record at up to 640 x 480 VGA resolution, and connect either via 10/100 ethernet or WiFi b/g to a Vivint wireless router; both can react to movement, with three adjustable monitoring windows with variable sensitivity.

There’s also a privacy button that temporarily shuts the feed off, useful if you don’t want to be watched exiting the shower or skinny-dipping in the pool. Vivint quotes 1 lux minimum light sensitivity on the pan/tilt camera and 0.4 lux on the fixed camera, though we found both only really worked with daytime lighting. Some IR LEDs would improve that.

Finally there’s the lighting and small appliance control box ($49), similar to an X10 appliance module, only using Z-Wave instead. They’re compatible with all Z-Wave systems, too, not just Vivint’s implementation, and have a socket into which you can plug lamps or small appliances such as coffee makers. Lamps can be set to cycle through 12 levels of brightness, or alternatively the control box can perform a binary on/off suitable for appliances. A second socket on the box acts as a regular outlet, but isn’t controlled remotely.

All in all, with the multiple elements Vivint fitted, it’s a system worth over $6,600, though you can obviously pare that back by being more conservative with your selection of components.

Control and Apps

Overly-complex controls can be the death of a home security or automation system: if they’re too difficult for everyone who lives there to understand, then the system doesn’t get used to its full capacity. With a little preparation – usually done by the Vivint installation technicians, who we found to be professional and swift – all of the various components can be properly named for display on the Go!Control panel.

Lighting has on/off buttons, as well as dimmer level controls, while binary devices like appliances have simple on/off controls. Similarly the HVAC side of things clearly shows current temperature and desired temperature, as well as an obvious indicator as to whether the system is heating or cooling the home.

There’s also “scene” or macro options, triggering multiple elements – such as turning on various lights or triggering electric curtains – which can be pieced together though wizards on the Go!Control panel. They can include HVAC control and be triggered by thermostat feedback, too, or by various security events: arming or disarming the system, for instance, or if the alarm is triggered or a fire/CO sensor goes off. Because Vivint uses generic Z-Wave, other manufacturers’ kit can be hooked up, or indeed the entire Go!Control panel set up as a secondary controller to your existing system.

Vivint offers free iPhone, Android and BlackBerry apps for remote access, or indeed you can log in via a mobile or desktop browser. Current system and sensor status is shown, and you can arm or disarm the alarm and access live and recorded video clips from the cameras. Quality is solid – and can be scaled down to HVGA if bandwidth is low – though obviously it depends on the speed of your connection. The BlackBerry app doesn’t support video access, however. You can read back through the past sixty days’ worth of events, seeing things like when the alarms were turned on or off, and when the garage door was opened, with records of who exactly did it (if they used their mobile app or registered key fob).

Above: iOS interface on iPhone, Below: Android interface.

Performance

No matter how complex or simple, an alarm will quickly fall from favor if it goes off falsely too many times. Our only false-alarms were self triggered, accidentally setting off the sirens by hitting the wrong button – such as using the instant-arm key on the keyfob while we were still in the house.

When the alarm does go off, the security team communicates through the main Go!Control panel, with two-way conversations supported. The same happens if the emergency button is triggered, either on the panel itself or on one of the pendants if present. They can arrange for the emergency services to attend or shut off the alarm if it’s been triggered accidentally.

Pricing and Value

Vivint offers three basic packages – Security, Energy Management and Home Automation – which each come with a monthly rental/service fee and a starter set of equipment. Extra kit can be added as per the out-of-package prices quoted earlier.

Security is the cheapest, at $49.99 per month, with the Go!Control panel, three door/window sensors, a single motion detector, one key fob and the yard sign. The Energy Management package builds on that with a smart thermostat, single lamp/alliance control and twelve energy efficient lightbulbs, for $57.99 per month.

Finally, the Home Automation package is $68.99, includes everything from the two cheaper packages, and throws in a video camera and automatic door lock. There’s an activation fee to be paid no matter which package you opt for, ranging from $99 for the Security package through to $199 for the Home Automation.

Those with any interest in home automation will know that there are plenty of DIY products around which offer remote control and security functionality. Remote light switches and appliance modules – either using ZigBee or another wireless standard, or cheaper proprietary links which we’ve had mixed results with on the cheaper options – are commonplace, and companies like Logitech and Dropcam offer streaming webcams that can push video to your smartphone.

Nest and Honeywell are pushing their “intelligent” thermostats for more intuitive and cost-effective HVAC control, though with prices around $249 they’re still at the premium end of the market. Meanwhile, low-cost modular security systems have sprung up, such as Lowe’s Iris, with starter kits from $299. While we haven’t tested Lowe’s system, customer feedback so far suggests patchy uptime could be an issue. It’s worth noting that Vivint offers a Takeover Module ($60) which bridges its system with components from other manufacturers, and that since the system supports standard Z-Wave you don’t have to limit yourself solely to the company’s own range.

The drawback to piecing together a system from multiple suppliers is complexity. Each part – whether you put together security, cameras, HVAC control, automation, or some subset of them – is usually designed to work in isolation: so, your streaming video is pushed to one app or website, while your security system has a different app/site, and the degree to which they can talk with each other – if at all – varies considerably.

Wrap-Up

There are cheaper ways to piece together security, HVAC and automation systems. Various X10, Z-Wave and ZigBee ranges exist that bypass the monthly service charge, for instance. On the flip-side, you’re pretty much left to your own devices when it comes to installation and maintenance: Vivint has 24/7 monitoring and next-day servicing. The geeks in the audience might sniff at that, but for those who prefer not to spend their time tinkering – or, perhaps, have family members who are more concerned with uptime than pure cost savings – the headache-free Vivint way has definite appeal.

Design

Visual sleight-of-hand and some impressive manufacturing innovation have helped Apple come up with a new design for the 2012 iMac, which from certain angles leaves it looking as slender as a MacBook lid. In fact, the heavily tapered aluminum rear narrows to just 5mm at the edge, though it bows out toward the middle to accommodate everything that needs to fit inside an all-in-one computer.

That accommodation and construction uses everything Apple has learned so far from unibody notebooks, scaled up to suit a 21.5-inch or bigger desktop. So, you get carefully stacked logic boards and custom speaker enclosures, along with a single central fan that pulls cool air from a row of holes under the front edge, and pushes it back out of vents behind the tilting stand. You also get minimal upgrade potential: the 21.5-inch iMac is an entirely closed box, with nothing intended to be user-accessible, while the 27-inch iMac has a small panel by the power socket that allows access to the memory but nothing else.

Apple’s production magic is friction-stir welding, more commonly used in the aerospace industry, and repurposed for the new iMac to bond the front and rear panels together. Traditional welding the seams wasn’t possible, thanks to the slimline build, and so a technique where the panels are pressed tightly together, heated, and fused was implemented. There’s a sizable reduction in weight, too, versus the old design – the 21.5-inch iMac is down 8 pounds to 12.5 pounds, while the 27-inch version is down 9.5 pounds to 21 pounds – which is useful if you’re moving the computer around.

Face-on, meanwhile, and you’d be forgiven for not realizing that you were looking at a new iMac. The black screen bezel and slim aluminum chin look just as they did before, and it’s only when you see things from the side that the new design stands out. The obvious loss from the blunt-edged last-gen model is the optical drive, with the 2012 iMac following the trend of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with Retina and focusing on digital distribution for apps and multimedia.

On the back, as before, there are the ports clustered to the left side and the power button on the right. No matter which size iMac you choose, you get the same connectivity: a 3.5mm headphone jack, an SDXC memory card reader, four USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt ports, and a gigabit ethernet port; inside, there’s WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. Up front, there’s a FaceTime HD camera above the display, together with a pair of digital microphones that can use beam-forming technology to isolate your voice from ambient noise.

The new iMac’s speakers deserve a little attention on their own, given that they’re nothing like as anaemic as we feared they could be given the 40-percent smaller chassis. In fact, Apple has been able to accommodate two 20W amplifiers, one driving each of the speakers, which themselves fire down from holes alongside the front-edge air intakes. Despite the unusual positioning, sounds feel like they’re coming directly from the display and quality is strong. These speakers are easily capable of being cranked up to uncomfortably loud levels, without encountering any distortion until you’re at the very top end of the scale.

Display

Finessing the iMac’s display is no small part of the redesign process for 2012, though there’s more to it than pure pixels. The LCD panels themselves are the same as in the previous-generation – either a 21.5-inch LED IPS screen running at 1920 x 1080, or a 27-inch LED IPS running at 2560 x 1440 – but the way they’ve been assembled has changed.

Called full lamination, it’s a technique where the cover glass is fused to the LCD panel rather than sandwiching them together with a gap in-between. Apple – and others – have already used it to good effect on phones and tablets, but the 2012 iMac is the first time it’s been implemented on such a large display. The upshot is a thinner panel overall, by around 5mm, and an improvement in picture quality.

Despite the LCDs themselves being the same as before, the combination of full lamination and a new anti-reflection coating process makes a real difference when you’re sat in front of the iMac. Colors are brighter and punchier, the screen is impressively bright with consistent backlighting, and viewing angles are broad, with no inversions or color mangling even when sat almost side-on to the display. Graphics appear as if they’re swimming right at the surface of the glass, rather than being slightly inset from the black bezel.

Apple quotes a 75-percent reduction in reflection, helped by the so-called plasma deposition system which coats the glass layers with more precise coatings of the same materials used to cut glare on camera lenses and fighter pilots’ helmets. It’s a tough thing to measure exactly in a real-world setting, though there’s an obvious cut in reflections (see image above where a flash from camera is minimized) when you set old and new next to each other. We spent far less time tweaking the degree of tilt of the new iMac versus the old to find a position where artificial lighting and the sun didn’t prove frustrating, and even once we’d set up both to our liking, text and graphics simply look better on the 2012 model.

Fusion Drive

Until now, the iMac has been offered with a choice of up to two different storage options: traditional hard-drives, for those who want the most capacity, and SSDs, for those who want the most speed. The 2012 iMac keeps both those options, with a 1TB HDD the default (5,400rpm on the 21.5-inch; 7,200 rpm on the 27-inch) upgradable to 3TB HDD on the 27-inch, along with a 768GB flash storage option on the 27-inch.

For 2012, however, Apple adds a third option: Fusion Drive. A hybrid of HDD and flash storage, Fusion Drive pairs 128GB of speedy solid-state memory with either 1TB or 3TB of HDD capacity, promising the best of both worlds. On the one hand, the flash storage is far faster than the typical spinning-platter drive, but Fusion Drive is also a fifth of the price of the SSD option.

We’ve seen hybrid HDD/SSD drives before, of course, but Apple takes a slightly different approach. Rather than the relatively small amount of flash memory other companies have used for caching a few frequently-accessed files on their models, Apple’s Fusion Drive has a full 128GB of flash which allows a far greater number of files to be kept in the faster part.

Chunks of the OS, the apps you use most frequently, and the media you commonly play are all prioritized automatically, while over time OS X learns which content is infrequently required and shunts that to the more capacious, but slower, HDD. A true SSD will inevitably be faster across the board, but for everyday use Fusion Drive is hard to argue with, as the benchmarks in the next section demonstrate.

Specifications

All new iMac models use Intel’s Core i5 quadcore Ivy Bridge chips by default, with the quadcore Core i7 processors available as options on the more expensive versions of each core configuration. The cheapest 21.5-inch iMac uses the 2.7GHz Core i5, supporting up to 3.2GHz Turbo Boost, while its more expensive configuration gets the 2.9GHz Core i5, with up to 3.6GHz Turbo Boost. The latter can be built-to-order with a 3.1GHz Core i7, with up to 3.9GHz Turbo Boost.

As for the 27-inch iMac, that starts out with the 2.9GHz Core i5, with the more expensive pre-build getting the 3.2GHz Core i5. The build-to-order on the latter is Intel’s 3.4GHz Core i7, with 3.9GHz Turbo Boost. All of the chips come with 6MB of L3 cache.

Memory is 8GB as standard across the range, comprising two 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 chips. The 21.5-inch iMac can be specified with up to 16GB, while the 27-inch iMac can go up to 32GB. However, only the 27-inch iMac has user-accessible memory slots: the four bays are accessed via a panel behind the stand, whereas the smaller iMac isn’t intended to be user-upgraded. In short, if you think you’ll ever want more than 8GB of memory on the 21.5-inch iMac, you should bite the bullet and upgrade at the point of purchase.

Then there’s the graphics. Space constraints mean that Apple opts for mobile GPUs rather than desktop chips, though they’re the same Kepler-based NVIDIA GeForce examples that we’ve seen in the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina. On the 21.5-inch iMac, the entry-level model gets the GT 640M with 512MB of dedicated GDDR5 memory, with the more expensive model stepping up to the same GT 650M as in the Retina MBP, only with 512MB of memory (rather than 1GB).

On the 27-inch iMac, the entry-level GPU is the GeForce GTX 660M with 512MB, while the most expensive pre-configuration gets the GTX 675MX with 1GB of GDDR5. The latter is also the only 2012 iMac that supports a graphics upgrade, with the GeForce GTX 680MX with 2GB of GDDR5 memory a $150 addition.

Performance

Apple provided us with a 3.4GHz Core i7 iMac with 8GB of memory, the top-spec GTX 680M GPU, and the 1TB Fusion Drive; all together, it’s a configuration priced at $2,599. We kicked off with Geekbench, a synthetic test of processor and memory performance, and the iMac scored a whopping 14,064, around 50-percent more than the 2011 model could manage. It’s worth noting that Apple’s portables have narrowed the gap between mobile and desktop, however; the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display scored 12,970 in Geekbench.

In the SunSpider test of browser performance, the new iMac completed in 133.3ms (faster is better); the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro scored 179.5ms in the same test. Cinebench, a test of processor and graphics performance, saw the new iMac score 42.72fps in the OpenGL category, and 7.32 points in the CPU category. Again, in contrast, the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro scored 34.40fps and 5.74 points in those categories respectively, with its 2.6GHz quadcore Core i7 and 8GB of memory.

FusionDrive certainly doesn’t hurt. In the Blackmagic test of disk performance, the iMac managed read speeds of 409.6 MB/s and write speeds of 318.7 MB/s using the flash/HDD hybrid. Given the flash storage is prioritized until capacity becomes an issue, it comes as little surprise to see those rates up around where recent all-flash models from Apple have performed. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, for instance, came in at 431.7 MB/s read and 382.7 MB/s write with its 500GB solid-state drive.

The difference is particularly clear when compared to a 2012 iMac without FusionDrive. We also tested a 21.5-inch entry-level iMac, with Intel’s Core i5 quadcore 2.7GHz, 8GB of RAM, and the standard 1TB 5,400rpm hard-drive. In Geekbench, the iMac scored 9164, but the big change is in drive speeds: without the hybrid technology we saw 90.7 MB/s read rates and 107.2 MB/s write rates.

All those numbers add up to a machine – when equipped with FusionDrive, at least – that simply flies in day-to-day use. Apps generally load in under 2-3 seconds, and while the iMac might use mobile versions of graphics chips, it’s still eminently capable of photo and video editing, and conversion; iMovie and Aperture run with no lag. Gaming is also more than possible, though we wish that – as on some all-on-one computers we’ve seen – there was a video input to use the great display with an external console. However, it’s possible to drive a second external display; up to a 2560 x 1600 panel, in fact, as well as the iMac’s own screen.

Value

The new iMac range kicks off at $1,299 for the base-spec 21.5-inch model, while the 27-inch iMac starts at $1,799. It’s worth noting that of the two 21.5-inch configurations, only the higher-spec can be outfitted with a FusionDrive, which means $1,499 plus $250 for the drive upgrade; there’s also a good argument to be made for maxing out the memory on the smaller iMac, since it can’t be upgraded later, which is another $200.

All versions come with an Apple Wireless Keyboard (a wired keyboard with numeric keypad is a no-cost option) and a choice of Apple’s Magic Mouse, the Magic Trackpad, or the wired Apple Mouse; for $69 you can have both the Magic Mouse and the Magic Trackpad. Those who simply must have an optical drive can pay $79 for the USB SuperDrive, though any external DVD burner should work.

The all-in-one computing market is small, but it’s not non-existent, and the new iMac does have a few rivals. Dell’s XPS One 27 runs at the same 2560 x 1440 resolution as the 27-inch iMac, and starts at $1,400 for the non-touch variant. That, however, uses Intel HD integrated graphics; if you want a discrete GPU, you’re looking at upwards of $2,100 and NVIDIA’s GeForce GT 640M, a weaker graphics chip than Apple’s entry-level 27-inch model. It does support multitouch, should that be a buying decision.

Vizio offers 24- and 27-inch All-in-One PCs, though they both run at 1920 x 1080 resolution, and the GPU – only discrete on the 27-inch – maxes out at the GeForce GT 640M LE. The range of processors is more humble too, with only the top-end 27-inch model getting a quadcore Core i5, though the maximum price of $1,539 makes them competitive for budget buyers.

HP’s Spectre ONE is a 23-inch, $1,300 option, meanwhile, kicking off with the same 2.9GHz quadcore Core i5 processor, but less RAM and a lesser GPU. Several of these all-in-ones offer a secondary flash caching drive, though typically around 32GB in capacity, and as such are less practical than FusionDrive.

Of course, the big difference between the iMac and these other all-in-ones is the OS: if you want Apple’s OS X, then the only way to get it is to buy a Mac. All of the alternatives come with Windows 8, and while that’s a capable platform, it’s not Mountain Lion, and thus a deal-breaker for many users.

Wrap-Up

The new iMac is a beautiful piece of hardware, that’s clear to see. Apple’s clever construction techniques have enabled a stylish, distinctive all-in-one, but more importantly they’ve legitimately improved the user-experience, too. The full lamination process takes the same display pixels as from the previous generation iMac and makes them work harder and look better; you’ll appreciate the many pounds dropped from the overall weight of each system from the moment you lift it out of the box.

With style comes a handful of compromises. As with Apple’s recent notebooks, there’s less room for user-upgrades: adding memory is basically the only thing that you can do, and even then that’s only an option on the 27-inch model. With both, then, it’s a case of digging deep when first ordering, particularly since having experienced the speeds on offer from FusionDrive, we’d seriously recommend that every buyer tick that option box.

DIY enthusiasts may miss the upgrade possibilities, but everyone else will be enjoying an incredibly capable computer. With strong performance the 2012 iMac proves that beauty needn’t be merely skin-deep, and that all-in-one needn’t mean conceding speed. That, and Apple’s creative use of components and design, makes it our pick of the all-in-ones.

We’ve thoroughly reviewed the iPad mini in its WiFi-only form, so we won’t re-tread old ground. Suffice to say, embedded cellular data makes far more sense on a smaller tablet; all too often the 10-inch-scale slates end up only being used around the home or office. Being able to get online, check email, use navigation apps, and stream media without worrying about if there’s a WiFi hotspot nearby really does step up the usefulness of the iPad mini.

The obvious omissions of the WiFi-only model remain, chief among them being the absence of a Retina display. That’s presumably down to component availability and price (though we’d be surprised if it wasn’t present on the iPad mini 2) but, while it’s clearly grainier when viewed side-by-side with the fourth-gen iPad with Retina, the fact remains that in running all of the existing iPad apps out of the box, the iPad mini hits the marketplace running.

One of the most useful elements of the iPad mini is the mobile hotspot functionality, allowing us to ditch a standalone data card. Convergence often comes with compromise; yes, most modern smartphones can be turned into mobile hotspots, but usually at the sacrifice of most of your day’s battery life. Surprisingly, the iPad mini far out-performs the average standalone mobile hotspot for runtime, especially if you leave the display off.

With realistic usage – a mixture of browsing, video playback, emailing, messaging, music playback (both streamed and local), ebook reading, and some FaceTime – on a combination of WiFi and LTE, the iPad mini reached an incredible 19.5 hours (of active usage; 3 days, 3 hours standby) with 35-percent still on the gage. With the display off and mobile hotspot mode in use, we exceeded twenty hours, far in excess of the roughly 3-4 hours a typical hotspot would give you.

If you’re a frequent traveller, then those numbers are probably looking very appealing. Quickly sharing your LTE connection with a laptop (or indeed another tablet; you can have up to five WiFi clients connected at any one time) can be a lifesaver when you’re on the move, and the knowledge that you’re doing so without sacrificing overall runtime is incredible. Throw in the fact that the cellular iPad mini also has true GPS (which the WiFi-only model does without) and – with the right combination of apps – it turns into a serviceable navigation device too.

There’s a not-inconsiderable premium to be paid for the cellular version: starting at $459, it’s $130 more than the comparable WiFi-only model. Then there’s data costs on top: AT&T offers 250MB for $14.99 per month, 3GB for $30, or 5GB for $50, while Verizon’s tiers come in at 1GB for $20, 2GB for $30, or 5GB for $50. Alternatively, both carriers allow the iPad mini to be added to their shared-data plans (“Mobile Share” on AT&T or “Share Everything” on Verizon), which allows the tablet and your smartphone to dip into the same data pool. AT&T also offers a two-year agreement option, with a $100 subsidy in return for the commitment.

More expensive, then, but with LTE the iPad mini feels like it’s how the tablet was meant to be used. Flexible and long lasting, there’s none of the compromise that usually comes with 4G (barring cost) and all of the features that we appreciated from the iPad mini WiFi. If you’re often on the move, it would be the iPad mini WiFi + Cellular that we recommended for your bag.

There’s a mixture of engineering and design magic that goes into making the 2012 iMac look so much slimmer than its predecessors. While the last-gen model had blunt edges, Apple has taken a leaf from the MacBook aesthetic and pared the edges down to a narrow taper of only 5mm: although the back actually bows out to accommodate the electronics, a casual glance makes it look like a significantly narrower computer than before.

There’s a downside to that design decision, however, which is that you lose the integrated optical drive. Given Apple’s trajectory with regards optical media as a whole – ditching DVD burners from the MacBook Pro and pushing digital media hard on the iPhone and iPad, with no interest in Blu-ray as a stopgap – that’s no great surprise, but we can see it being more of a frustration to desktop users than their mobile counterparts. It’s particularly annoying if you’d got into the habit of using your iMac as an all-in-one DVD player, since the sizable displays make for excellent kitchen, bedroom, or study sets. That being said, Apple does offers a USB SuperDrive for $79 should you need it.

Still, what Apple has accommodated is probably of more interest to most users, and the 2012 iMac doesn’t demand a sacrifice in performance for the design. The basic processor in the 21.5-inch is a 2.7GHz quadcore Core i5, with a 2.9GHz Core i5 and a 3.1GHz Core i7 both options; the larger, 27-inch iMac which will arrive in December starts off with the 2.9GHz Core i5, with a 3.2GHz Core i5 and 3.4GHz Core i7 optional. 8GB of DDR3 memory is standard across the board, though it’s only on the 27-inch model that you can upgrade it yourself; if you want the maximum 16GB in the smaller iMac you’ll need to pay Apple to install it for you (the 27-inch can be specified with up to 32GB).

All-in-one computing used to mean average graphics performance, but Apple has opted for a range of NVIDIA GeForce chips to keep things moving on-screen. The entry-level 21.5-inch gets the GT 640M with 512MB of dedicated GDDR5 memory, with the more expensive spec version stepping up to the GT 650M. Keeping the 27-inch ticking over is the GTX 660M, with 512MB, while the GTX 675MX with 1GB and the GTX 680MX with 2GB, are the higher-spec options. It’s early days, but the performance we’ve seen from both CPU and GPU has been silky smooth.

There were some hopes for Retina-class graphics on the 2012 iMac, but instead things stick with the same 1920 x 1080 (21.5-inch) and 2560 x 1440 (27-inch) resolutions of before. The panels themselves are different, however, using the same innovative full optical lamination as seen on the iPhone and iPad though boosted up to desktop scale. In short, Apple takes a thinner LCD and bonds it directly to the cover glass, doing away with the traditional 2mm gap in-between (which Apple says reduces glare and reflections up to 75-percent, though if you’re working with the sun directly over your shoulder, it can still get a little annoying) for a picture that looks almost like it’s swimming on the very surface of the display.

In short, this is a long-anticipated update that promises to run as fast on the outside as it looks slick on the outside. We’ll be putting the new 2012 iMac through its paces in time for the full SlashGear review, but until then enjoy our full hands-on gallery.

Just as college is a time of BYOB (bring your own beer), the 2013 Sonic is Bring Your Own Siri (BYOS). Bluetooth hooks up the in-dash entertainment system – which focuses on a large touchscreen in the center console – with your iOS 6 device, whether iPhone or iPad, and, once they’re paired, you get all the usual media streaming and hands-free calling. That’s hardly new, but the Sonic is the first to borrow Siri to take responsibility for road use.

Hit the button on the steering wheel and Siri fires up as normal: you can access almost all of the features you’d use regularly, so you get speech-triggered calling of people in your phone book, the ability to listen to and respond to messages, and ask what’s on the calendar for today. However, Chevrolet has sensibly left out anything that would require too much attention being paid to the iPhone’s display, so that the driver can keep their eyes on the road.

The system is called “Eyes Free” and it basically leaves the iPhone or iPad’s display turned off. It makes no difference to Siri’s usability, but it does mean that the sort of queries that would normally trigger a web search don’t work when you ask them via MyLink. Otherwise, all the prompts are fed through the car’s speakers, and a microphone suspended above the driver proved capable of picking up our voice even with background noise.

With a starting price of $12,995 (including destination fees) the 2013 Spark is hardly going to be a Corvette – it’s not even Impala level, the 2014 model year of which will debut Chevy’s next-gen MyLink system in the spring of 2013 – in fact, it’s really just a container for mobile Siri use. By offloading the more advanced functionality to a smartphone (which many buyers will already have) it helps keep the Spark’s price down by not needlessly replicating features; it also means there’s no need to sync your phone with the car to have your contacts on both, and since we generally upgrade our phone more frequently than we do our car, it’ll be easier for Chevrolet to tweak MyLink to support whatever new Siri functionality Apple has in the pipeline.

Hardware

Jawbone’s minimal outward changes mean you might not realize you have a new UP at first glance, most of the differences between the first- and second-generation models being behind the scenes. It’s still a twist of rubbery plastic that stretches out to wrap around your wrist – your non-dominant hand is recommended, for best accuracy – only now Jawbone says it has refined both the water-resistance and the resilience to flexing, both key flaws in the original.

The circuit board running down the middle is designed to be twisted, but it turned out owners did a whole lot more twisting (and in unexpected ways) than Jawbone had initially predicted. As for water, the “wear it anywhere” message of the original UP meant that owners took it into the shower or while doing the washing up, and the seals proved to be susceptible to soaps and other factors that the original water-resistance standards – and thus Jawbone’s testing – simply didn’t envisage.

The few external changes you only really notice after a period of wearing the new UP. The material is slightly difference, and we found it rubbed against our skin in a little less of an aggravating way than before, while the cap – that pulls off to reveal a 3.5mm headphone plug – clips on more securely. That means it takes a little extra force to remove when you actually want to sync with your phone, but it also reduces the number of lost caps that frustrated original owners.

Inside, it’s the same combination of sensors (and glaring omissions) as before, though worked in different ways thanks to the circuit board redesign. The primary magic happens in the interplay between the motion sensor and the algorithms Jawbone uses to interpret them: figuring out whether you’re walking, jogging, or running, and then calculating distance, calories burned, how long you were active, and other results.

Our lingering frustration is around the way in which the UP synchronizes. Despite being best known for its Bluetooth devices, Jawbone persists with a more low-tech system for the UP: a headphone jack. Unlike Nike’s Fuelband, to get your data off the UP you have to remove it, pull off the cap, and plug it into the headphone jack on your iPhone or iPad; there’s no way to do it wirelessly.

Jawbone says that’s a compromise based on battery life: by eschewing wireless radios, the UP is rated for as much as ten days use between charges. That’s in contrast to the Fuelband’s “up to four days” estimate, though our own testing suggested that NIke’s predictions were over-ambitious and assumed minimal use of the display and the Bluetooth connectivity. Still, it’s worth remembering that it’s not just synchronizing exercise data that requires the UP be plugged in: if you want to change the alarm time (which vibrates to wake you) you’ll need to plug in too.

Software

The UP wristband itself isn’t the only thing to get a significant reworking since the first-gen model: Jawbone has also spruced up its companion app. The new software works with the original UP (though not the original UP on the iPhone 5) or the new model, though you’ll need an iOS device, since Jawbone says the Android version is still a work-in-progress.

In comparison to the bare-bones original app, the new software is far more comprehensive in the data it collects and how it utilizes that data. There’s a new system for logging your diet, and more social features that allow you to compare and share your activity to other members of your “Team.” Meanwhile, if you sync data from the old band to the new app, it will apply its new analysis to the old data.

The app does a good job in balancing what information it shows you – and there’s a lot to choose from – without being too overwhelming. The basics are activity through the day, shown on a bar chart, with a count of steps and distance traveled, how many calories you’ve burned (broken down into active and resting burn), your longest period of activity and idle time, and your total activity as well as how close you came to your “Move goal” that day. On the flip side, there are stats for sleep (the UP is meant to be worn day and night) with total time sleeping broken down into deep and light phases, how long it took you to drop off, how many times you woke up and for how long, and how close you came to your “Sleep goal” that night.

Both elements have a few extras to round out their usability. On the active side, there’s a Stopwatch Mode which allows you to manually mark the beginning and end of periods of exercise, with that section later being flagged up for specific analysis in the app. An Idle Alert buzzes the UP band after a preset period of inactivity, useful if you’re a desk-worker. Smart Alarm uses sleep tracking to figure out the best point to wake you in the morning, gaging sleep schedules rather than sticking to a single point in time as per traditional alarms, while Power Nap does something similar but for a much shorter burst of resting (Jawbone says it’s in the region of 26.5 minutes, but will vary).

The original app allowed for basic diet logging, but it was a chore to enter meals. Jawbone has addressed that with a new nutrition database that works with a barcode scanner, meaning you can simply zap the ‘code on what you’re eating to automatically log it. There’s manual search in case you don’t have a barcode to scan, or you can get particularly detailed and file each ingredient. Integration with the camera supports attaching snapshots of your meals to each entry.

Performance

The original UP was comfortable to wear, and the new model is no different: although you notice the rubberized band initially, after a few days it becomes commonplace on your wrist. It’s flexible enough to not get in the way while sleeping, but sufficiently springy to hold on and not slip around as you move. We saw battery life in the region of 6-8 days. We also feel it’s important to note that one person who tried the UP on complained of a mild rash after a period of wearing it; Jawbone says the band is made of medical-grade, hypoallergenic TPU rubber, and only one person who tried it encountered a problem.

Compared to a Nike+ Fuelband, the UP appeared to be more sensitive to movement: we logged more steps with the Jawbone than we did with Nike’s tracker. There’s more immediacy to the Fuelband, thanks to its integrated display and wireless connection with the companion app; with the UP we found ourselves synching 2-3 times a day and reviewing our activity, whereas with the Fuelband we checked progress more frequently, often in the midst of activity.

Like most if not all of the trackers on the market, the UP struggles to capture non-step based activity. However, using the manual logging system – double-tapping and holding the button built into the end of the band until a light flashes – you can flag up those periods where you’re doing other forms of exercise. The same button puts the UP into Sleep mode, which you need to do if you want the Jawbone app to work out the length and quality of your sleep.

Unfortunately, on more than one occasion we forgot to press the button, and the UP assumed we were having a long day with little activity. The band will automatically switch from Sleep to Active mode, depending on your movement, which also means you can see interruptions in the sleep-mode logging if, say, you’re a parent with a young child who gets you up a few times during the night. We’d like to see a user-configurable sleep schedule system, where we could log a “usual range” of sleeping times just in case we forgot to manually trigger the correct mode.

When in the correct mode, the UP produces stats that are easy to understand and makes suggestions on how to improve. It can prompt you to get more sleep if you’ve been short-changing your duvet time, or remind you of recommended salt and fat allowances if you’ve been indulging. Keeping a food diary is straightforward thanks to the new system, though not essential for health tracking overall.

We had mixed results with Power Nap and the Smart Alarm, primarily because the vibration alert sometimes proved too subtle to wake us. After a couple of mornings to habituate to it, we found could sleep straight through. Others who tried the system didn’t encounter the same problem, however, so some sort of adjustable intensity would be a useful addition.

It’s the social features that might be the best new addition to UP, however. You can now set up groups of people – Jawbone calls them “Teams” – who can see your fitness scores, and with whom you can either compete or encourage. There’s the option to limit certain UP status updates selectively, too, so if you’ve had a lazy day or a particularly indulgent meal, you don’t have to confess to it.

The Competition

The marketplace for fitness monitoring technology has grown dramatically in the time between this second UP attempt and the first model. Nike’s Fuelband has the edge in connectivity but lacks the breadth of data logging: it’s great for general fitness, but misses out on the sleep tracking and the food database. Fitbit’s range of trackers are more discrete and can hook up to the company’s WiFi-enabled scales for more personal data, but there’s something about having a device wrapped around your wrist to simply make you more aware of how active you are. Still, Fitbit has added Bluetooth for easier synchronization.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of apps for smartphones that promise to track your activity. Endomondo and Runtastic keep a log of movement, for a matter of dollars on your phone rather than the $129.99 of the Jawbone UP; other apps can keep a food log. Even Google Now, in its latest iteration, quietly adds up your steps and gives you a running total of distance traveled each month.

Wrap-Up

The shine quickly rubbed off the original UP, but all signs point to Jawbone having learned its lesson. The new hardware feels sturdier than before, and the more stringent tolerances mean we now have no qualms about wearing UP in the shower or pool. Meanwhile, the software has improved considerably and the UP app is now something you would readily open up even when you’re not synchronizing the band, for its mixture of diet logging and health tips.

As with any of these activity trackers, wearing them consistently is the key to their usefulness. All too often we’d pick up our Fuelband only to discover it was flat; the longer battery life of the UP meant that was far less common an experience. Being able to annotate your activity and your meals also encourages you to think about what you’re doing and what you’re consuming: it makes healthier living something you’re more consciously aware of.

We’d like to see more flexibility in the settings options and a little more intelligence in how the Sleep mode is handled, and the $130 price tag means you have to be taking health seriously in order to consider the UP worthwhile. Nonetheless, even if you’re only really approaching UP from the stance of a competitive game player, the social elements help maintain your interest. In the end, it’s a solid mixture of life-logging tools and a good example of how wearables can cross over from the stuff of science-fiction to everyday life, but approachable enough for the mass market.

There’s also a new Eyes Free mode, which keeps the iPhone’s screen turned off and relies solely on voice feedback from Siri, so that the driver can stay focused on the road ahead. That also means that the sort of complex queries which would usually trigger a web search won’t prompt to look online.

In order for it to work, the iPhone or iPad must be running iOS 6.0 or above; then it’s a case of pairing it via Bluetooth with the MyLink system. The steering wheel “Voice” button triggers Siri from that point on.

Chevrolet Spark iPhone Siri integration demo:

However, there’s a more complex Chevrolet MyLink system incoming the following year, and which will debut in the new Impala. The next-gen system has a choice of four menu themes – contemporary, edge, velocity, and main street – for its standard 4.2-inch display or optional 8-inch touchscreen, and can hook up to ten external devices, use its own natural voice recognition system for calls, navigation, media, and more.

There’s a 60 station favorites system which spans AM/FM/XM radio, contacts, destinations, music, and other media, and support for both Bluetooth and USB smartphones. Connected versions will add city-level weather reports, and OnStar will spread from the traditional blue button to an on-screen dialog too; six months of premium Directions and Connections will be included. A microphone is suspended above the driver to avoid confusion from road or engine noise.

Chevrolet 2014 Impala with next-gen MyLink demo:

The Chevrolet 2013 Spark with Siri will go on sale early in the new year, priced from $12,995, while the 2014 Impala is due in the spring, priced from $27,535. The next-gen MyLink system will also be available in other 2014 model year Chevys, including full-sized trucks, SUVs, and the Corvette.

Hardware

You won’t mistake the Galaxy Camera for anything other than a camera: while phones like Nokia’s Lumia 920 are making a play for being taken seriously as photography tools, the Samsung shooter approaches the space from the other direction, adding mobile smarts to a camera housing. In fact, it’s based roughly on Samsung’s existing WB850F Smart Camera, though the interface and controls are very different by virtue of the Android OS.

The 21x optical zoom dictates most of the bulk, and while the body of the camera is – aside from the bulge of the grip – reasonably slim at 19mm, the non-removable lens means the Samsung is hardly pocket-friendly. It’s also quite slippery, and while there’s some texturing to the grip, the large expanse of glass touchscreen and the otherwise smooth plastic body don’t exactly make grabbing the Galaxy Camera an entirely reassuring experience.

It does feel sturdy, though, with decent plastics thankfully taking after Samsung’s camera line, not the more glossy, cheaper-feeling materials of the Galaxy smartphone range. Physical controls fall under the fingers, though they’re sparse beyond the point of minimalism: a recessed power button on the top, a trigger for the pop-up Xenon flash on the side, and the shutter release button surrounded by a zoom-control ring. Everything else is controlled via the touchscreen (or your voice, more on which in a moment).

And what a touchscreen it is. Nearly the entire rear of the camera is covered by a 4.8-inch 1280 x 720 display, the same size and resolution as on Samsung’s best-selling Galaxy S III phone. It’s not the same display technology, however; the Galaxy Camera uses an HD Super Clear LCD TFT panel, rather than the AMOLED-based panel of its cellular cousin. It’s incredibly bright and super-detailed, and usable even in direct sunlight just as you’d hope for a camera. Touch responsiveness is brisk, and there’s plenty of room for a sizable onscreen keyboard, even when in portrait orientation (as some Android apps demand).

Inside, components fall either under the “camera” or the “phone” heading. For the former, there’s a 16.3-megapixel 1/2.3-inch backside-illuminated CMOS sensor, with optical image stabilization, ISO 100-3200, and a 21x optical zoom. It’s capable of Full HD 1080p video recording.

For the latter, there’s a quadcore 1.4GHz Exynos 4412 processor, 1GB of RAM, and 3.87GB of onboard storage, in addition to a microSD card slot (compatible with up to 64GB SDXC cards); that internal memory can be a life saver, as we discovered on one outing with the Galaxy Camera when we realized we’d forgotten all of our memory cards. Connectivity includes 4G on the AT&T Galaxy Camera offered in the US and Europe gets quadband HSPA+ as well; both include WiFi a/b/g/n (2.4/5GHz) and Bluetooth.

There’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack and, under a flap, a microUSB port on one edge, while a microHDMI port is found when you open the battery door on the bottom (which sits alongside a tripod mount) though you can also prize open a small “sub door” to expose just that video output. It’s also where the microSIM card is slotted in, and where the 1,650 mAh battery is inserted.

Samsung has made some mildly interesting decisions in the specs. The Galaxy Camera can’t be used as a phone for voice calls, though since Android offers various VoIP apps like Skype, there’s a microphone and earpiece speaker; however, you don’t get an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust the backlighting of the screen, which seems an odd omission given a mixture of indoor and outdoor use is likely. GPS/GLONASS, an accelerometer, gyroscope, and a digital compass are all present, just as you’d find in a phone.

Software

With Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the Galaxy Camera is running a newer version of Google’s smartphone software than some recent phones we’ve seen; it’s also several versions ahead of alternative Android-based cameras from Polaroid and Nikon. Turn the camera on, and the interface is instantly familiar if you’ve used any of Samsung’s recent TouchWiz smartphones, albeit in landscape orientation by default.

So, you get the Android homescreen with widgets and user-customizable wallpaper, access to the Play market to download third-party apps, all the cloud-integration and sharing tools you’d expect, and the usual gamut of Gmail, IM, messaging, and other communication apps. The only icon missing, in fact, is for the phone. Samsung pins the camera app shortcut to the bottom left corner of the homescreen, or you can simply press the shutter button to wake the app and power up the lens. The Galaxy Camera can go from idle to ready to fire off a shot in a couple of seconds, on a par with regular point-and-shoots.

The bulk of the apps are as you’d expect from an Android phone, though Samsung has modified the camera app to suit the greater flexibility the Galaxy Camera allows. There are three modes – Auto, Smart, and Expert – stepping up through the range of manual options; Auto mode takes all of the decisions upon itself, while Smart mode has fifteen presets to suit different shooting styles, environments, and desired effects.

So, you get Landscape, Waterfall, Sunset, Night, and Fireworks for the more typical scenes, along with Panorama, Action Freeze, and Silhouette for more specific situations. There’s also Rich Tone, for enhancing the colors, and Light Trace for the smeared-light patterns that look particularly good when you’re taking photos of moving cars. Finally, there’s Beauty Face, which softens skin tones, Continuous Shot, Best Face to combine different faces from group scenes, Best Photo which fires off multiple images in one go and allows you to pick your favorite, and Macro for close-ups.

Finally, there’s Expert mode, which half-fills the touchscreen with concentric dials for the various manual settings. Options are selected roughly speaking from the right edge inward: first the overall mode, whether P/A/S/M priority or camcorder, and then granular control over ISO, shutter speed, exposure, and aperture (depending on which priority mode you’re in). It works, but it’s not the most ergonomic of arrangements, and we wish there was a way to save user-presets (we’d even allow Samsung to blunt some of its minimalism and add a few dedicated preset keys along the top).

Of course, since this is all based on Android, you’re not limited to Samsung’s interpretation of the camera app. The Galaxy Camera can also run third-party camera software downloaded from the Play store, such as Instagram, Paper Camera, or any of the hundreds of options out there. Not all take full advantage of the hardware, however; outside of Samsung’s own app, the zoom control is recognized as a volume rocker instead. Still, we were able to quickly get up and running with Instagram.

Since it’s Samsung, there’s no shortage of tweaks and gimmicks, some more successful than others. As on the company’s phones, there’s AllShare Play for wirelessly streaming your media to a nearby smart TV, or alternatively you can use WiFi Direct and beam images directly to a compatible phone, tablet, or computer. Of mixed use is Voice Control, which allows you to not only fire off a shot by shouting at the Galaxy Camera – potentially useful if you yourself are the subject – but control zooming and the timer. It works, most of the time, as long as background noise is minimal, but without a swiveling screen it’s tough to know exactly what you’re taking a picture of in the first place.

Point-and-shoot cameras claiming any degree of flexibility have had onboard editing tools for some time now, and the Galaxy Camera comes equipped with a number of options. More basic edits can be done in Photo Wizard, such as crops and rotation, while Paper Artist plays up the effects side, with filters, textures, frames, and layers, as well as the ability to add text or handwritten notes directly to the frame. There’s also a video editor, carried over from Samsung’s phones, which permits basic cuts, music backing to be added, some titling, and combining clips into longer videos.

None of them, it must be said, are especially successful, and what Android needs is a true iMovie and iPhoto alternative now that devices are powerful enough to run – and capable of producing sufficiently good photos and video to warrant – capable editing apps. As it stands, we would struggle to put together a video at, say, a tech event, or watermark hands-on photos, all on the camera itself, but it’s not hard to imagine being able to do so with the right app.

Samsung is making a big deal of the sharing potential of the Galaxy Camera, and since you’re paying no small premium for the integrated wireless connectivity, that comes as little surprise. All of Android’s regular sharing options are present, so you can quickly fire off a photo via email, but since it’s Android any app with a sharing facility – such as Box, DropBox, Facebook, and other social networks – is added to the list for easy access. That’s before you get to auto uploads, either offered by third-party services such as Google+ – automatically shuttling off your photos and video to a (private by default) online gallery – or, when it launches in time, Samsung’s own cloud-based alternative.

Camera

All the flexibility and the connectivity would be for nothing if the Galaxy Camera produced poor quality photos and video, of course. The reality is mixed, and depends considerably on your expectations from a camera. If, for instance, you like the instant sharing options of your smartphone’s camera, but want a step up in image quality, then the Galaxy Camera will undoubtedly be an improvement on what you’re used to.

Above: Click image for full-sized version.

However, the added complexity of the quadcore processor, 4G radio, and other components means the hardware cost of the Galaxy Camera overall is disproportionately high when compared to point-and-shoots in its class. For instance, the Samsung WB850F it shares its key photography components with has an RRP of $380 (and a street price $120 less than that). $499.99 for the AT&T Galaxy Camera, meanwhile (with a month-to-month data plan, rather than a two-year agreement), puts it alongside a Micro Four Thirds camera from Panasonic, Olympus, or others, or a Sony NEX-5N, or even one of Samsung’s NX-series models.

Unsurprisingly, you’ll get better results with a dedicated interchangeable lens camera from that list. The Galaxy Camera does well in good lighting, but noise increasingly becomes an issue as the ISO climbs; the camera tops out at 3200, but you really don’t want to get anywhere near that in practice. There’s a tendency toward over-saturation of colors and a blunt approach to contrast in low-light, meanwhile, which leaves shots looking vivid at first glance but, with closer examination, sacrifices accuracy for artificial warmth.

Step out of Auto and take the time to tweak the Smart mode to suit your situation, and the results improve. The Galaxy Camera still buts up against the limits of its CMOS size, but fast-moving subjects such as running water really are caught well in, say, Waterfall mode, and the creative options do a good job of distilling some of the more popular photo effects into something that’s user-friendly.

Video, meanwhile, benefits considerably over smartphone cameras by virtue of the optical zoom and image stabilization. There’s some focus hunting as you reach maximum zoom, but the level of detail and the absence of blur in panning shots is impressive; the optical image stabilization belies the reach of the lens, too. Colors are generally accurate, if somewhat on the cool side, and low-light performance is considerably better than what a smartphone could achieve. It’s also worth noting that video playback looks particularly good on the 4.8-inch display, certainly not something that could be said about all compact cameras.

Battery

Samsung quotes up to 168 hours of 4G standby (280hrs for 3G) from the 1,650 mAh battery, or up to 4.5 hours of “in-use” time. It’s a gray area in a sense, since traditionally cameras would be measured in shots-per-charge but Samsung is obviously expecting Galaxy Camera owners to spend more time editing, sharing, and generally being social.

In practice, after roughly an hour of photography, with auto-upload to either Dropbox or Facebook, and video to YouTube, the Galaxy Camera’s battery gage dropped to 70-percent. That suggests just over three hours of practical use, though you could obviously extend it if you were more selective with your uploads.

Wrap-Up

Is the Galaxy Camera a game-changer? Yes, and no. In itself, it’s the best of the Android-based cameras, though that’s hardly a well-stocked category. Judged purely on its photography abilities it struggles, falling short of what similarly-priced rivals can produce while costing significantly more than the point-and-shoots it’s quality is on a par with. Taken into context as an all-in-one photography, editing, and social sharing studio, however, and it’s a different matter, occupying a niche sweet spot between the flexibility (but underwhelming photos) of a smartphone, and the quality (but cumbersome sharing options) of a camera.

Then there’s price. AT&T offers the Galaxy Camera for $499.99 with a month-to-month plan, not the usual two-year agreement, and if you’re an existing smartphone customer you can add the Samsung to Mobile Share data plan for an extra $10 per month. Alternatively, you can get it a data plan of its own, starting at $14.99 for 250MB per month, or $30 for 3GB, or finally $50 for 5GB. Given the increasing number of users with mobile hotspot functionality on their phones, or willing to simply take advantage of WiFi hotspots, we can see plenty opting out of a cellular data connection altogether, which does somewhat undermine the Galaxy Camera’s abilities.

Far more interesting, perhaps, is the potential for Samsung to build upon the Galaxy Camera with a range of Android-based smart-cameras. Going from the Galaxy Camera’s intuitive Android interface to a regular camera feels like a step back in time: we quickly got used to being able to offload new shots in an instant, whether that involved social sharing or simply pushing them to our computer for editing. Not having to mess with cables or memory card readers has a big impact on workflow, and we’d love to see that added to a more capable interchangeable lens camera.

The Samsung Galaxy Camera is a first-generation product, and they inevitably carry a compromise. In this case, it’s a case of price and expectations: do you spend your money on a great camera, or on a good camera with the added benefit of social options we simply haven’t seen offered on a point-and-shoot before? It’s undoubtedly a niche product, but the convenience and flexibility is addictive, and we’re left hoping Samsung sticks with the concept for at least a second-generation to broach the mass market.

Hardware

HTC hasn’t strayed too far from its recent design language with the DROID DNA, and unlike its brightly-colored Windows Phones, the new Android flagship sticks with sober black for its chassis, lightened only with some splashes of red and fine detailing. That’s not to say it’s an ugly phone, nor a badly constructed one. It’s plastic, but HTC’s polycarbonate feels far more impressive than Samsung’s comparatively flimsy materials.

The 141 x 70.5 x 9.73 mm casing is surprisingly compact, given the size of the screen, a perception helped by the taper to the rubberized-finish rear panel and the bevel of the edges. The micro-perforated red grilles running down those edges are, HTC tells us, meant to be reminiscent of a Lamborghini, though they work more as a simple visual cue pulling together the slice of red at the earpiece and the matching camera lens trim on the back.

Less successful are the physical buttons, the centered, recessed power key being tricky to find with your finger on the top edge, and the volume rocker being on the right side rather than the left, as is more usual. We’re close to forgiving HTC for that, though, since it included not one but two notification LEDs, the first hidden behind the earpiece grille on the front, and then a second on the back of the phone, so that there’s more chance of you spotting when an alert comes in.

Obviously the DROID DNA’s pride and joy is its display, which we’ll cover specifically in the next section. The rest of the phone is no slouch, however. At its heart is Qualcomm’s quadcore 1.5GHz APQ8064 Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, paired with 2GB of RAM; it’s the same chip as in the LG Nexus 4, but we’re told that HTC and Qualcomm worked together on refining the firmware so as to eke out even greater performance.

Elsewhere, just about every shiny and appealing part from the other devices in HTC’s line-up has been squeezed into the DROID DNA. The 8-megapixel main camera has the f/2.0 aperture, 28mm lens and 1080p Full HD video recording we’ve seen on the HTC One X+, along with HTC’s dedicated ImageChip processing that optimizes photos in their RAW state rather than after they’ve been converted to JPEGs. HTC says that’s better for final quality, and the front-facing 2.1-megapixel camera – which gets the 88-degree wide angle lens, for fitting more people into group shots even when the DNA is held at arm’s length, as on the Windows Phone 8X by HTC – also routes its shots through the standalone processing.

Beats Audio makes an appearance, as per most mid- to high-end HTC phones of late, but the DROID DNA also gets the twin amplifiers of the One X+, one each dedicated to the headphone socket and the internal speaker. According to HTC, it makes for a device that can comfortably drive more powerful headphones, and without distortion. We had no problems turning the volume up to painful levels when listening to music via headphones, and the DROID DNA’s speaker is similarly capable of loud playback, with admirably little hiss or grumble until you reach the very top end of the scale.

Wireless connectivity ticks all of the expected boxes. You get LTE for Verizon’s 4G network, as well as CDMA EVDO Rev.A for when you’re outside of 4G range; the DROID DNA is also a global phone, with quadband (850/900/1900/2100) UMTS/HSPA and quadband GSM/EDGE for use when you’re outside of the US. Verizon preloads a microSIM for when you’re roaming.

You also get WiFi a/b/g/n (2.4/5GHz) and Bluetooth 4.0, along with NFC and wireless charging. All of the standard sensors are including, such as GPS, a digital compass, accelerometer, and an ambient light sensor, and you can turn the DROID DNA into a mobile hotspot, sharing its 4G/3G connection with up to ten WiFi-tethered devices (though Verizon may charge you for the privilege, depending on which plan you’re on). A microUSB port – hidden under an unnecessary flap – does duty for traditional charging, swapping data with your computer, and as an MHL HDMI output with the appropriate adapter, though there’s also DLNA streaming support.

In fact, the only real blip on the spec sheet is storage. HTC has outfitted the DROID DNA with 16GB of internal storage, roughly 11GB of which is available to the user; beyond that, there’s no way to augment the memory since the phone has no microSD slot. There’s also no sign of a 32GB or 64GB version.

Unsurprisingly, that fact hasn’t gone down well with potential users. Neither HTC nor Verizon will say on the record why the decision around a 16GB maximum was made, though since the HTC J Butterfly – Japan’s DROID DNA counterpart – makes room for a microSD slot, it seems obvious that it’s something other than physical constraints forcing HTC’s hand. Were we conspiracists, we might wonder whether it was carrier-led, so as to maximize LTE traffic by users regularly accessing data stored in the cloud.

Display

HTC breaks new ground in the US market with the DROID DNA’s display, a 5-inch 1080p Super LCD 3 panel delivering twice the resolution of big-screen rivals such as Samsung’s Galaxy S III or LG’s Nexus 4. It’s not physically the biggest smartphone screen on the market – the Galaxy Note II, for instance, measures in at 5.5-inches – but by delivering 1920 x 1080 it simply blows rivals away.

Pixel density has become the obsession of smartphone and tablet manufacturers in recent years, after Apple made pixels per inch (ppi) a selling point of the iPhone 4. Today, the iPhone 5 has a pixel density of 326ppi, still competitive despite larger Android handsets with greater screen sizes, but the DROID DNA’s 440ppi count puts it in another league entirely. Even when you get up close – far closer than the distance from which you’d normally view a smartphone display – text and graphics are silky smooth, and it’s enough to make 720p panels look crunchy and unrefined in comparison.

It’s not only how many pixels the HTC is packing, though, it’s their quality. LCD displays tend to avoid the over-saturation of colors that AMOLED can sometimes deliver, and indeed the DROID DNA has a cooler image than, say, the Galaxy Note II. Not lacking in brightness, though, and highly accurate, while viewing angles are sufficiently broad so as to look at the phone entirely askew and still not suffer any distortion.

HTC has sensibly protected its flagship feature with a slice of toughened Gorilla Glass 2, but has also made sure the bezels around the display are as narrow as possible. That pays dividends in the hand and in the pocket, with the DROID DNA feeling less comically oversized than the Note II. In fact, despite offering a larger screen, the HTC is less than 5mm longer than the Galaxy S III and even a fraction narrower, though Samsung’s phone is still thinner.

Of course, just as a bigger display demands more power, so does driving a higher resolution panel, and the Full HD of the DROID DNA will inevitably make demands on the smartphone’s battery and GPU. Still, 1080p videos look incredible, with accurate colors and good brightness, while ebook text was particularly easy to read thanks to the smoothness of the fonts and the excellent contrast.

Software

HTC missed getting the DROID DNA out of the door with the latest version of Android, Google’s relentless release schedule meaning the new Verizon flagship ships with 4.1 Jelly Bean rather than the very newest 4.2. That means you miss out on the lockscreen widgets and Photo Sphere camera functionality, though updating to the latest version of Google Search on the DROID DNA brings the more advanced Google Now functionality as well as offline voice typing.

Of course, HTC hides the regular Android interface under its own, with the DROID DNA packing HTC Sense 4+ as is the “house style.” Custom reskins generally meet with mixed reactions, some users appreciating manufacturer efforts to simplify or refine the core UI, while others would far prefer the raw Android dialogs, not least on the assumption that subsequent OS updates will come through in a more timely fashion.

DROID DNA vs Others

For manufacturers like HTC, though, skins such as Sense are an opportunity to further brand the user-experience, and they don’t look to be going anywhere soon. In its latest iteration, Sense 4+ supports Evernote synchronization with the onboard Notes app (for text, photos, and audio) and Audible for ebooks, while the new Gallery pulls in content from the DROID DNA’s own storage, as well as your Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, and Dropbox accounts.

HTC also persists with dedicated touch-sensitive buttons on its phones, despite Google’s attempts to lead by example on the Nexus range and switch to on-screen keys. The back, home, and app-switcher buttons are, by virtue of the pared-down bezel, quite close to the bottom of the handset, which can make one-handed use tricky at times. Long-pressing the home button triggers Google Now, while HTC has reskinned the app-switcher, showing larger thumbnails than Google’s default, in an animated carousel.

Unfortunately, Verizon has its way with the DROID DNA, and the phone comes preloaded with numerous apps from the carrier. There’s My Verizon Mobile for checking your account, along with VZ Navigator if for some reason Google’s excellent Maps app isn’t satisfying your navigation needs. NFL Mobile, Viewdini, American Express Serve, and Verizon Tunes all seem of comparatively little use, and while the IMDb, Slacker Radio, Kindle, and Facebook apps are probably more to the tastes of everyday owners, we’d still prefer to have their presence optional rather than see them forced on us by default. Given the limited onboard storage, not being able to uninstall the preloaded apps makes their presence even more infuriating.

Overall, Sense 4+ does the job, but we can’t escape the feeling that, in its more recent versions, Android is already sufficiently approachable to make skinning it less valuable to the end-user. We’re a long way from the rough and ready early days of Android, and the compromises in update timeliness are simply less acceptable than they perhaps once were. The third-party modding community will undoubtedly flock to the DROID DNA, but regular users may find themselves forced to wait longer for newer versions of the core OS, with not a huge amount to show for it in return.

Performance

With Qualcomm’s current flagship processor inside, we had high expectations from the DROID DNA, and the reality didn’t disappoint. In day to day use there was little we could throw at the phone to slow it down: apps load instantly, and Full HD video plays back jerk, judder, and lag free, whether you’re watching it on the HTC’s own display or pushing it out to your big-screen TV.

That experience is weighed out by some of the most impressive benchmarking scores we’ve seen. In Quadrant, the DROID DNA scored a whopping 7,879 – comfortably besting the LG Optimus G (7,306) and Nexus 4 (4,961) which each use the same CPU – while its 14,486 score in AnTuTu was more than 3,000 points higher than the Optimus G.

Qualcomm’s own Vellamo test perhaps unsurprisingly saw the DROID DNA at the top of the chart, scoring 1,778 in HTML5 tests and 616 in Metal tests. Smartbench 2012 saw a particularly strong showing in the Productivity category, at 4,764, though slightly less impressive in Gaming, at 2,478. Finally, the SunSpider 0.9.1 test of browser JavaScript performance came in at 1,210.7 ms (lower is better), nearly half the time it took the Nexus 4 to complete the same test.

As for LTE performance, we saw stronger download performance than upload, on average. Side by side with an iPhone 5, the DROID DNA pulled in on average 7.97 Mbps, versus 6.84 Mbps on Apple handset for downloads, and 2.05 Mbps versus 1.51 Mbps for uploads. That pays dividends when you’re using the DROID DNA as a mobile hotspot, though we did encounter a frustrating intermittent issue whereby our connection to the hotspot would periodically drop. Obviously, LTE performance is very much network and location dependent, and your experience of speeds will vary.

Camera

The DROID DNA’s cameras aren’t unfamiliar to us: HTC used the same 8-megapixel/2.1-megapixel combination on the One X+. The phone is capable of Full HD video recording front and back, and Sense 4+ has various tweaks to improve usability. Self-portrait shots using the front-facing camera now support an optional timer countdown, helping reduce phone-shake when you tap the button, while if you leave the camera app active when you lock the phone, it bypasses the lock screen when you next hit the power button so that you don’t miss your shot.

Those shots turn out to be very good, with plenty of detail albeit with colors slightly more subdued than on other phones we’ve tested of late. Low light performance can’t hold up to the PureView technology on Nokia’s Lumia 920 – you do get an LED flash, though it’s as mediocre as all of its ilk – but daylight shots are solid, and the extra detail we spotted in frames in comparison to what Samsung’s Galaxy S III produced is welcome, especially if you’re subsequently cropping.

The front-facing camera, meanwhile, suffers some from its lower resolution, and pictures can tend toward the grainy. HTC’s vaunted wide-angle lens does what it promises, however, and there’s comfortably room for three people to fit in-frame with the DROID DNA at arm’s length; four people if you’re closely packed in.

As for video, it has the same balance of extra detail though slightly less saturated colors as we’ve seen in the HTC’s stills, but is watchably smooth and the twin microphones are sensitive. Both video and still capture buttons are on-screen throughout, meaning you can grab a still shot without interrupting video recording.

Phone

Tenacious with a signal, the DROID DNA gave us no problems with making and receiving voice calls, though the earpiece has a hollowness to it – particularly at high volumes – that means it’s not the very best for phone duties. Still, the twin microphones do well at noise cancellation, and callers found it easy to hear and understand us, even when background noise levels were higher.

Battery

With a 2,020 mAh battery and no option to swap it out for a second pack, we were concerned that the DROID DNA wouldn’t hold up to daily use. In practice, the huge screen resolution and the LTE connectivity do mean there are decisions – and compromises – to be made that significantly impact how long you can be away from the charger, and they have a lot to do with how HTC and Verizon expect you to use the phone.

The cloud plays a huge role in the ownership experience of modern smartphones, and for the DROID DNA it’s even more central. Photos and video that are automatically uploaded to Google+, or Facebook, or Dropbox, or other gallery services; streamed music and video from online stores; the usual gamut of push services like email, messaging, Twitter, Facebook chat, and the rest. Use the DROID DNA as it’s arguably “meant” to be used, and we saw it go from charged to flat in under seven hours.

That’s not to say it’s impossible to stretch the runtime out. Be more sensible with auto-uploads, temper the brightness of the display, and resist the urge to spend all day watching 1080p video, and you can get a day’s use from it. Power management tweaking is basically a default chore for Android devices, at least those which push the envelope on the spec sheet, and there are plenty of people willing to go the extra mile in setting up their phone to achieve the best balance for them.

Wireless charging does help that – as we’ve found with other devices that support it, you generally drop your phone on the charging mat when it’s idle, thus giving it a minor top-up that helps extend its runtime – but HTC and Verizon opt not to include the mat in the box. Though you could argue that, since the DROID DNA is compatible with any Qi-standard charging mats, that doesn’t penalize those existing owners, wireless charging is in itself such a fledgling market that it’s far more likely to just frustrate new owners who have to stump up $59.99 extra for the accessory.

Price and Value

At $199.99 with a new, two year agreement, you’re getting a lot of specifications for your money. The DROID DNA is priced on a par with the Galaxy S III and iPhone 5 (all in 16GB form, though only the Samsung allows you to expand on that), a minor surprise given we would not have been too shocked to see Verizon opt for $249.99 or even $299.99 for the new handset.

Verizon requires a Share Everything plan, priced from $40 per month for unlimited calls and messaging, with the DROID DNA, though that only gets you 300MB of data. Stepping up to 1GB is $50 per month, doubling that allowance costs ten bucks more. If you’d prefer to go month-to-month, Verizon will charge you a not-inconsiderable $599.99 (and offer you the same monthly plan pricing).

The big comparison at this level is LG’s Nexus 4. Although T-Mobile USA is offering it subsidized, Google is plainly expecting most people to buy it unlocked, starting from an impressive $299. You need to step up to the 16GB version to more closely match the DROID DNA’s specifications, and you don’t get LTE, but even then the $349 off-contract price is very impressive.

Both phones have the same processor, but the HTC offers the better display while the LG promises more timely Android updates. In short, if budget is the primary concern, then there are better deals to be had with the Nexus 4, but power users or multimedia addicts will miss the Full HD of the DROID DNA.

Wrap-Up

We’ve criticized HTC in the past for taking what has felt like the safer route through the mobile landscape, and its decisions have seen it struggle to stand out while rivals like Samsung dominate Android device sales. The DROID DNA, though, is a return to the trail-blazing form of HTC’s earlier days in Android: those times when the company had the best screens, and the fastest processors, and were legitimately “the phone to have” if you were a power user.

Chasing the cutting edge demands some compromises, however, and the DROID DNA has two significant ones. The first is storage, with the 11GB of usable capacity being simply too little for a modern flagship when there’s no microSD support; we’re tempted to blame Verizon rather than HTC for that decision, but whoever is at fault, it’s the user that loses out in the end. Expect to go through your monthly data allowance more quickly if you rely on the cloud to make up the difference.

More worrying, though, is battery life. Superlative display and processor performance needs a power source to match, and the DROID DNA’s 2,020 mAh, non-removable battery is a compromise that’s likely to cause owners headaches. Yes, you can tweak better runtime out of it, but it’s frustrating to have a powerhouse of a phone that can’t be run at its best all the time unless you’re willing to charge it up twice a day.

And yet, it’s hard not to fall for the DROID DNA’s charms. It’s better put together than Samsung’s high-end devices, and the screen is the best around; we can’t wait to see what mobile game developers do to take advantage of the S4 Pro’s potency. It’s a win for Verizon, then, but a crying shame that it’s not available on other carriers in the US: HTC needs to follow Samsung’s lead in that respect, and make sure everyone who finds the DNA appealing has the chance to pick one up, no matter their carrier of preference.

Big, bold, and beautiful. The DROID DNA is a return to what we’ve loved about HTC before, and while it’s not perfect, it’s a significant improvement in the manufacturer’s range and a compelling option in Verizon’s line-up. The Galaxy S III and iPhone 5 just got some real competition.

440ppi on a mobile device display is just plain crazy, but it’s the sort of crazy we could fast get used to. The DROID DNA’s 1920 x 1080 screen is not only incredibly smooth, crisp, and bright, but has incredibly broad viewing angles and minimal bezel. That helps keep the DNA relatively compact, though of course with a 5-inch panel it’s hardly going to be a small device. Still, the curved edges help blend the front with the sides, and mask some of the bulk. The “microgrill” edges are meant to remind you of a Lamborghini grille, but more importantly they’re easily gripped, as is the soft-touch rubberized back.

Under the hood there’s the 1.5GHz quadcore Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 processor and 2GB of RAM, just as we saw on the HTC J Butterfly in Japan. Android 4.1 moves incredibly smoothly, with no lag evident, and while we’ll be waiting on benchmarks, we’ve a feeling the HTC will be near the top of its game. HTC also equips the DROID DNA with a 2,020 mAh battery, though with a Full HD display we’re not entirely sure how long that will last, despite HTC and Verizon’s confidence.

All of the headline stuff from HTC’s latest devices gets wrapped up in the DNA. There’s a wide-angle front facing camera which, thanks to an 88-degree lens, means more people can fit in frame at once, perfect for those at-arms-length shots. Not one but two Beats Audio amplifiers are included – separately powering the headphone jack and the DNA’s speaker – and there’s simultaneous video and photo capture too. New to the DROID line is wireless charging (though the wireless charging plate itself is optional, at $59.99), which should help keep the DNA’s battery topped up while it’s sitting idle on your desk.

It’s not a clean sweep, however. As with other recent handsets, both Android and Windows Phone, HTC has opted for fixed internal storage only: there’s no microSD card slot to expand it. That means you’re stuck with the 16GB HTC deems sufficient, and which – after apps and the rest – there’s only 11GB free for the user. Yes, the cloud is increasingly delivering our media and sweeping the content we create off our phones and into the ether, but it’s still a short-sighted decision considering the segment positioning. HTC tells us there’s no current plan for a 32GB model or larger.

Whether HTC Sense 4+ is a positive or a negative depends on your comfort level with the company’s customized interface. It’s certainly cohesive in its well-matured state, and it pulls the DROID DNA in line with HTC’s other phones, but there are plenty of people who prefer pure Android (and the timely updates that usually promises).

HTC has had a tough few quarters, struggling to raise itself above the mass of Samsung Android devices and Apple’s perpetually popular iPhone, and the company needs a stand-out product that it can legitimately describe as a flagship. It certainly has that in the DROID DNA, with hardware that has beaten Samsung’s AMOLEDs to the Full HD punch, and wrapped up in a sleek, high-quality design.

What HTC needs to convince us is that the aftersales support is just as impressive as the out-of-the-box experience. If it insists on using Sense, then it has an obligation to deliver timely Android updates rather than let existing users languish on older versions as it struggles to balance the custom interface with the pace of Google’s innovation.

Still, there’s plenty to like about the DROID DNA, and we’ll be putting the new Verizon smartphone through its paces for the full SlashGear review. The DROID DNA itself will go on sale at $200 with a new, two-year agreement on November 21.

Hardware

While ASUS and Google made some brutal decisions to bring the Nexus 7 down to its sub-$200 price point, the Nexus 10 demands far fewer compromises. In fact, Samsung has delivered a few “firsts” in its new tablet, most notably the 10.1-inch 2560 x 1600 WQXGA display (more on which in a moment). The Nexus 10 also gets a dual-core 1.7GHz Exynos 5250 A15 processor with Mail T604 graphics and 2GB of RAM, and a choice of 16GB or 32GB versions. Like the Nexus 4 smartphone, though, there’s no memory card slot for adding your own storage; Google would rather you opted for its Drive cloud.

Recent Samsung tablets have generally been lightweight plastic, but while the Nexus 10 sticks with plastics rather than metal, it feels far higher quality despite keeping things low on the scales. In fact, the tablet weighs 603g and measures a curved 263.9 x 177.6 x 8.9 mm, finished in a pleasant and grippy soft-touch material that’s easy to hold even single-handed. It’s reminiscent of the original Motorola XOOM Android tablet, though also reminds us of HP’s TouchPad, albeit considerably thinner.

On the front, there’s a 1.9-megapixel camera for video calls, with a 5-megapixel main camera on the back with autofocus and an LED flash. Ports include microUSB and micro HDMI, and in a welcome change the Nexus 10 charges from microUSB rather than using a proprietary connector; there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack and Pogo pins for use with a dock. Inside there’s WiFi b/g/n (with MIMO support for faster connections and better range) and Bluetooth 4.0, together with not one but two NFC chips – one on the front, one on the back – for use with Android Beam.

All of the usual sensors are present, including an accelerometer, digital compass, ambient light, gyroscope, barometer, microphone, and GPS, while the battery is a sizable 9,000 mAh Li-Poly pack which Google says is likely good for up to nine hours of HD video playback.

Accessories haven’t been fully detailed yet, but we’d expect to see a docking station eventually, and Google will offer a flip-cover the hinge of which swaps out with a panel on the back of the Nexus 10. It will automatically power on the tablet when opened, much as Apple’s Smart Cover does on the iPad.

Overall, despite being plastic not metal, the combination of the soft-touch materials and light weight makes for a very easy tablet to hold, and one that doesn’t add much to your bag. The matte finish does gather fingerprints and greasy smudges with great ease, however.

Display

Samsung calls its display a “True RGB Real Stripe PLS” panel; we just call it incredible. At 10.1-inches it’s slightly larger than Apple’s 9.7-inch iPad with Retina, but its 2560 x 1600 resolution – for a pixel density of 300ppi – means it packs in more dots than the iOS tablet’s 2048 x 1536 (264ppi).

Of course, the idea of “Retina” resolutions, as Apple would have it, is that at a typical usage distance the individual pixels are indistinguishable from each other; you could argue that once you pass that point a greater number of dots is unnecessary. Samsung’s panel does have obvious advantages for some of the uses Google expects most users to have for the Nexus 10, though, with its 16:9 aspect ratio screen and more-than-Full-HD resolution making it ideal for widescreen video playback without black framing bars.

In general use, it’s tough to find anywhere to complain about Samsung’s screen. Viewing angles are broad and colors vivid, and brightness is consistent across the display. Text is crisp, photos look fantastic, and video is smear and lag free. Happily there’s a slab of Gorilla Glass 2 across the top to protect the excellent panel.

Android 4.2 Jelly Bean

Google’s incremental update to Android doesn’t even warrant a new confectionary-themed name, but there are a couple of improvements that make particular sense for tablets. Unfortunately, they’re also the features that won’t go live until the final build hits the Nexus 10 when it ships on November 13, which means we were unable to test out the new multiple user support and lock-screen widgets.

Still, from what Google has shown us, the ability to set up multiple user accounts answers a complaint that has been aimed at most tablets – not just those running Android – for some time now. While it’s usual for individuals to have their own smartphone, a tablet is more often a communal device, and there are times when you don’t necessarily want others in the household to access your data. That could be email or calendar entries, or bookmarks in the browser, or indeed apps or multimedia you’ve downloaded, that may not be suitable for younger children.

Google calls it Multi Screen, and it allows each user to have their own homescreen settings, wallpaper, widgets, apps, and games (including high score achievements and save points). When you download new apps, they’re limited to your account by default; however, if another user wants the same software, Jelly Bean 4.2 is sufficiently clever to know not to download it again, but instead just copy over a fresh version from the other user account. It should alleviate a huge pain-point for families with a shared tablet.

As for the new lock screen functionality, that will show various widgets for email, calendar entries, and information from other apps without having to unlock the Nexus 10. Just as they can with homescreen widgets, third-party developers will be able to create lock screen widgets for their apps.

Android 4.2′s other changes include a new version of Google Now with a greater number of “cards” – now including nearby events and concerts, imminent hotel and flight reservations, places known for being photography hot-spots, and what movies are opening in nearby theaters – which v4.1 users can already try by updating the Google Search app on their device.

It also updates voice search, which can now be used to create appointments as well as search for upcoming meetings, together with launching apps, all by spoken command. As we’ve found before, voice control can be hit or miss, and you need to make sure you’re speaking clearly with minimal background noise if you want to be understood first time.

Those not wanting to talk to their tablet can use the new Gesture Type keyboard, which borrows swipe-style text entry from apps like Swype and pairs it with new auto-prediction of words. Google has moved the prediction box from above the keyboard, where you need to glance up from the keys to see it, to hovering just above your fingertip, too. Even with fast swiping between letters, that box – and the prediction – kept pace without lagging behind or stumbling.

If the Nexus 10′s excellent display isn’t quite large enough for you, and you haven’t an HDMI cable to hand, Android 4.2 now supports wireless displays. At the touch of a button you can push the content over to a nearby, compatible monitor or TV, and be watching a video or browsing the web on the big screen. It also works well for gaming, with the Nexus 10′s accelerometer used for navigating around race tracks, for instance.

Google’s Play store offers movies and TV shows, streamed from the cloud rather than occupying your limited onboard storage, though it does mean you need an internet connection in order to watch them. It also works well with Google+ Hangouts, which makes for a useful impromptu video conferencing setup.

Otherwise it’s a general polish to what, by Jelly Bean’s first iteration, was already a solid platform. The Gmail app – hands-down the best mobile experience of Google’s email service – finally adds zoom support and introduces new gestures for triaging messages, while the notifications system has been made more useful in how alerts can be handled. An alarm, for instance, can be snoozed directly from the notifications drop-down, for instance, or a new email to attendees at a meeting opened straight from the reminder.

Performance

With a dual core 1.7GHz processor under the hood, we had high expectations for performance from the Nexus 10. In practice, day to day use and raw benchmarks told a slightly different story, with the tablet doing better at the former than it did the latter.

In terms of benchmarks, the Nexus 10 scored 9,123 in AnTuTu, falling short of the Galaxy Note II and HTC One X+; it also fell behind those smartphones in Quadrant, scoring 4,704. Smartbench 2012 gives two sets of results, for productivity and gaming, with the Nexus 10 scoring 3,423 and 2,741 respectively. That was better in gaming than other recent Android tablets, but was still bested by Android phones.

In CF-Bench, the Nexus 10 managed a total score of 10,814 (17,377 native; 6,439 Java), while finally we looked at browser JavaScript performance, with SunSpider coming back with 1,419.9ms (faster is better). It’s worth noting that the 4th-gen iPad with Retina display scored 879.2ms in SunSpider.

While the raw numbers weren’t necessarily the most impressive we’ve seen, in general use the Nexus 10 held up to all we threw at it. Full HD video played back without lag, and webpages rendered swiftly; the gaming we tried suffered no stuttering, either.

Camera

Android 4.2 also introduces new camera features, most notably Photo Sphere. This, like Photosynth on Windows Phone, allows you to create 360-degree images by panning the Nexus 10 around the scene. Clever software stitches them together, and they can then be shared as flat stills or even added to Google Maps. With the latter, the same Street View panning can be used to look around the picture, as if you’re stood in the middle of it.

Photo Sphere works, though not every time. Some images come out particularly well – landscapes and other expansive scenes seem particularly well suited, just as is the case with traditional panorama modes – but interior shots seem to introduce more problems with stitching the sections together. It’s a gimmick, really, but when it works it’s an impressive one.

Unfortunately, neither of the Nexus 10′s cameras are particularly worth shouting about. The ergonomics of taking photos with full-sized tablets has always been questionable, but the shots that the new Samsung tablet produces aren’t in the same league as what, say, its recent smartphones can achieve. The front-facer is sufficient for video calls, but the 5-megapixel main camera produces stills that are only average. Still, the new camera app UI – which puts quick settings for things like the flash just a quick swipe away – is clean and a usable improvement over what Android offered before.

Battery

9,000 mAh is a big battery, but it has a powerful processor and lots of pixels to satisfy. Google’s prediction of up to 7hrs web browsing or up to 9hrs HD video playback actually turned out to be over-cautious, however, when faced with more typical mixed use. Browsing, streaming Full HD movies from Google Play, reading digital magazines, and doing some emailing and photography, and the Nexus 10 managed 11hrs, which is particularly impressive.

Pricing and Value

Google demonstrated how ambitious it could be with hardware pricing with the Nexus 7, bringing the 7-inch tablet in at under the $199 price point and making other Android slates look over-priced at the same time. The obvious rival to the Nexus 10, however, is Apple’s full-sized iPad, and Google undercuts it by $100. $399 gets you the 16GB version, while $499 hooks the 32GB model.

The hardware, then, is more competitively priced, but there’s more to value than upfront cost. Google has renewed its call for Android tablet apps, but the range of titles available still pales in comparison to what Apple’s App Store offers for the iPad. That’s been our criticism of Android slates since they first arrived in early 2011, and it’s a sticky situation Google has yet to conclusively address. Many apps are simply oversized versions of their phone equivalent, and while that might be just about acceptable on the Nexus 7′s smaller display, it squanders the capabilities of the Samsung tablet’s pixel-rich panel.

Wrap-up

There’s no denying that Samsung and Google have put together an impressively specified tablet in the Nexus 10. The incredibly high-resolution display is wrapped up with a very capable processor, and while the Nexus 7 feels like it makes some compromises in order to hit its price point, there’s less of a sense that the 10-inch version was built to a budget.

That, and Jelly Bean 4.2′s software improvements, only serve to highlight the lingering drawback to Android tablets: the shortage of good applications. Android phone users have a significant number of titles to choose from, but too many expect tablet users to make do with magnified versions of the same on their bigger screens. When you’re talking about a panel as pixel-dense as the Nexus 10, that’s a travesty.

Of course, developers will only begin coding for slates when there’s a sufficient market for their apps. Google can’t make every app that Android tablet owners might ever want to use: it needs to motivate third-party developers to wade in. Compelling hardware such as the Nexus 10, undercutting well-known alternatives in price, is the best way of doing that. For browsing and multimedia playback, the Samsung tablet is ideal, but early-adopters will have to wait for it to work its magic on developers before the Play store begins to catch up with apps worthy of the Nexus 10′s abilities.

Hardware

If you’ve been keeping up to date with recent Android devices, the Nexus 4 should come as little surprise. Like Samsung before it, LG has looked to a recent flagship to build from, and the Nexus 4 is a not-too-distant cousin to the LG Optimus G.

That’s not a bad place to start, however. The Optimus passes over its 4.7-inch 1280 x 768 resolution HD IPS+ display – mustering 320ppi, versus the 326ppi of the iPhone 5, but in practical terms equally smooth in appearance – and while LCD is a first for the previously all-AMOLED Nexus line-up, it’s a beautiful panel. Blacks are deep and rich, while colors are bright but not over-saturated as can sometimes be the case with AMOLED. LG’s integration of the touch-layer and the top glass means graphics swim right underneath your fingertip.

The Nexus 4 also gets Qualcomm’s 1.5GHz quadcore Snapdragon S4 Pro with Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB of RAM. As per the Galaxy Nexus, there’s no room for a microSD card: instead, you’re stuck with either 8GB or 16GB of internal storage, and relying on Google Drive if you need any more.

It’s not the only compromise, either. Unlike the Optimus G, the Nexus 4 lacks LTE, topping out instead at pentaband HSPA+ 42Mbps with support for both AT&T and T-Mobile USA’s networks. That, Google has said, is because of the cost and complexity of outfitting phones with LTE radios to suit each carrier, particularly when you’re aiming – as the search giant is – to sell more devices unlocked and SIM-free than you are subsidized through carriers. Other connectivity isn’t quite so disappointing, with dual band WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC for Android Beam, and microUSB.

The usual array of sensors are present – accelerometer, digital compass, ambient light, proximity, gyroscope, barometer, and GPS – and the 2,100 mAh battery can be charged either via microUSB as normal, or using a wireless charger. Google has opted for the Qi standard, which means any compatible wireless charger – including those Nokia will offer alongside its new Lumia Windows Phone 8 range – will work to juice up your Nexus.

On the back there’s an 8-megapixel camera and an LED flash, while the front-facing camera offers 1.3-megapixel resolution. The 139g body itself – which measures in at 133.9 x 68.7 x 9.1 mm – is made of a combination of plastic and glass, and feels considerably better in the hand than it looks in pictures. The edges of the Gorilla Glass 2 fascia curve slightly along the longer sides, meaning your thumb never encounters a blunt line when you’re swiping, and the glass back panel is a cool, crisp touch. The soft-touch sides are easily gripped, and while opinions have been mixed here about the sparkly finish LG has given the rear, it’s at least better than mock carbon-fiber.

Performance

With a final software update yet to come – more on that in the next section on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean – it’s possible that Google could coax some extra performance out of the Nexus 4. As it stands, our benchmarking describes a phone that falls behind what the near-identically specified Optimus G achieved. In AnTuTu, the Nexus 4 scored 8,903, behind the scores of the HTC One X+, Note II, and Galaxy S III; in the same test, the Optimus G managed a huge 11,278.

In Smartbench 2012, the Nexus 4 scored 2961 in the productivity category and 2954 in gaming, while in Quadrant it edged ahead of the original HTC One X with a score of 4961. SunSpider, the test of browser JavaScript performance, the new Nexus scored 2170.4ms (lower is better).

What’s interesting is that the difference in raw numbers doesn’t add up to a phone that feels sluggish in use. No matter the app or the complexity of the webpage, the Nexus 4 whipped through with zero lag or delay. It’s fast and responsive, and a great playing ground for the new version of Jelly Bean.

Android 4.2 Jelly Bean

Google’s new version of Android is a minor refresh, as the unchanged name suggests, but there are a few key improvements which the Nexus 4 (and the Nexus 10 tablet) debut. Ostensibly it looks the same as Jelly Bean as we’ve seen it before, with the most visible difference promising to be the new lock screen, which will show widgets for calendar, email, and other apps. Third-party developers will be able to add their own lock screen widgets to apps available from the Play marketplace. Unfortunately, the new lock screen tech wasn’t ready in time for our review, and will go live when the final ROM hits the Nexus 4 in time for its November 13 release.

What we could try is the new Google Now, which introduces fresh cards highlighting nearby events and concerts, upcoming hotel and flight reservations, places known for being photography hot-spots, and what movies are showing in nearby theaters. Voice search gets an update too, and can now be used – if you speak sufficiently clearly, and have a data connection – to set and search appointments along with open up apps. It’s worth noting, though, that Jelly Bean 4.1 users can already try the new features by updating the Google Search app on their device.

Android’s flexibility with third-party keyboards has seen a number of alternative input options arise, though Google may well be putting some of them out of business with its new Gesture Type ‘board. Like Swype, it allows text entry by sliding a finger between letters, rather than the usual hunt and tap, with a new word prediction system floating a box above your fingertip for easier review. It makes a real difference with one-handed typing, Google’s new system keeping up with faster swiping and proving capable of picking out the most likely word we were typing, as well as gradually learning from our most frequently used words.

Wireless displays, with Miracast, are now supported natively, though you’ll of course need a smart TV or monitor that can handle the standard. Alternatively, there are various third-party set-top boxes that can bring an existing screen up to speed. It works particularly well when watching streaming video, whether rented from Google Play and streamed from the cloud, or stored locally on the Nexus 4 itself.

Jelly Bean was already a solid, capable OS, and this 4.2 version only polishes that. There are a few useful tweaks to the Gmail app with new gestures to shift messages from the inbox to the archive, along with zoom support. Finally, the pull-down notifications menu offers options to respond to an alert, not just open or dismiss it. You can snooze a ringing alarm, for instance, or fire off an email to meeting attendees from a reminder about an upcoming appointment.

Camera

The Nexus 4′s main camera uses an 8-megapixel BSI sensor with f/2.4 lens, and is capable of 1080p Full HD video; unlike some variants of the Optimus G, it misses out on the 13-megapixel sensor. Up front is a 1.3-megapixel camera with 720p video recording.

Previous Nexus phones haven’t been known for their incredible camera quality, but the Nexus 4 delivers a noticeable step up. It’s not the best camera we’ve seen on a recent phone – Samsung’s Galaxy S III produces more colorful stills, to our eyes, for instance – but it’s a huge improvement over the Googlephones that came before.

Video, unsurprisingly, is much in line with what we saw from the Optimus G. Colors are accurate, if a little muted, and the continuous autofocus makes it easy to piece together a more impressive clip than the usual point-and-shoot.

(Click for expanded view)

Of course, it’s Photo Sphere that has been getting the most attention, a new addition to Android devices. It pieces together different frames into an overall 360-degree image, which can then be shared as stills or uploaded to Google Maps for use with the Street View viewer. In practice, while some impressive images can be coaxed out of Photo Sphere, it’s also capable of some pretty underwhelming pictures. Indoors, with busy scenes, we had problems with badly-blended joins; outdoor panoramas proved far more successful.

Phone and Battery

Voice calls with the Nexus 4 were in line with what we experienced from the Optimus G, clear and with no issues with drops or static; the dual microphones help there. Google quotes up to 10hrs of talktime from the 2,100 mAh battery, or up to 7hrs web browsing, though in our experience it was heavily dependent on how bright we had the screen set. LG’s HD IPS+ technology is certainly capable of some impressive brightness levels, but it also chews through battery life at the same time. Set to a more moderate level, we got through a full day before needing a recharge.

Of course, Google would like you to be setting the Nexus 4 down on a wireless charger when you’re not using it, though one isn’t included in the box. The switch to Qi technology from previous types of dock means you don’t get Pogo pins on the Nexus 4, though the number of products that actually use them is so slim that for most people it’s unlikely to make a difference.

Pricing and Value

Google’s first Nexus was not only a spur to smartphone manufacturers, but the company’s attempt to claw back some autonomy in mobile from carriers. That failed to transpire, but Google hasn’t given up on its strategy of marginalizing them to “dumb pipes.” The Nexus 4 will be offered via T-Mobile USA, priced at $199 for the 16GB model with a new, two-year agreement, but the real deal is when you go SIM-free.

Google is offering the Nexus 4 via the Play store, priced at $299 for the 8GB or $349 for the 16GB, unlocked and SIM-free. That means you can simply drop in your choice of AT&T or T-Mobile SIM – or, indeed, a SIM from an international provider – and get going, whether it’s a post-pay or a pre-pay card.

The deals available when you’re not wanting a subsidized device are generally significantly better, and so those willing to piece together a phone and plan separately are at an advantage. Considering the specifications, the Nexus 4 makes other Android phones – not to mention recently-announced Windows Phone 8 devices and the iPhone – start to look expensive.

Wrap-up

The LG Nexus 4 and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean are a very strong combination. LG’s flagship hardware is capable of a smoothness we’ve only really seen hinted at with the effects of Project Butter until now; on the S4 Pro chipset it simply flies. Meanwhile, the gradual refinement of Android itself is more than welcome, and though Photo Sphere is undoubtedly a gimmick, features like Gesture Type make a noticeable difference to the usability of the phone.

That makes it all the more frustrating that so few people will have access to Android 4.2. With so few devices updated to even the previous version of Jelly Bean, the saga of Android fragmentation shows little sign of ending. Google’s strategy to address that appears to be more affordable hardware, though it remains to be seen whether the company can make unlocked devices popular in a way that it failed to manage at the start of the Nexus project.

None of that takes away from how capable the LG Nexus 4 is, however, and how keenly priced. Nexus devices are already appealing, being as they are at the front of the line for new Android updates, but until now there’s always been a compromise somewhere along the way. With the Nexus 4, the compromise is as small as its ever been, and the fact that it’s so very affordable makes it strongly recommended for those wanting the best of Android today.

Hardware

You have to look closely to spot the differences between the third-generation iPad and this new fourth-generation model. In fact, from all angles but the very bottom, it’s the same as before: the only outward difference is that the old, 30-pin Dock Connector has been replaced with the new Lightning port as on the iPhone 5 and latest iPods. 

That means compatibility with new accessories moving forward, but not with any old docks or gizmos you might have already bought for previous iOS devices. iPad docks are less common than those for iPhone or iPod touch, though there are still some out there, but Apple is shifting to prioritize AirPlay for streaming audio and video and you’ll need a $29 adapter if you want to use your old, 30-pin add-ons.

Inside, though, it’s a different matter. Apple has thrown out the A5X chipset and replaced it with a new, A6X version, which the company says is it’s fastest yet. On paper, it’s up to twice as fast as the A5X, in both graphics and CPU, as well as including updated image processing technology for better results from the iPad’s 5-megapixel camera. 

That’s the same camera as before, but the front facing iSight gets an HD update, stepping up from VGA resolution to 1.2-megapixels and now capable of 720p video. The Wi-Fi also gets a polish, supporting dual-band 802.11n (2.4GHz and 5GHz) for better range and speed with compatible wireless routers. 

Overall, though, it’s the same slick tablet we’ve seen before. You still get the beautifully crisp, bright, and responsive Retina display, sturdy construction with glass and aluminum sandwiched together neatly, and the same three options for storage: 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. 

Software and Performance

With iOS 6 being pushed out this summer to update the third-gen iPad, it’s no surprise that the iPad with Retina Display runs the same. That means you get all of the usual apps and services – Safari, Apple Maps, Messages, Game Center, the App Store, Siri, and more – it’s just that they’re running on a faster processor. 

Day to day, there’s not a significant difference in usability. By its third generation, the iPad was already smooth and showed little in the way of lag, and that same polish is evident here on the A6X powered model. There isn’t the obvious swell in performance that we’ve seen before in, say, stepping from the first-gen iPad to the second, however. 

That doesn’t mean the power isn’t there, of course. In Geekbench, which benchmarks processor and memory performance, the 1.4GHz A6X iPad scored 1,768, more than double the A5X iPad’s score of 751. By way of comparison, the iPhone 5 – with its A6 chip – scored 1,616, while the iPad mini, which uses the same A5 chip as in the iPad 2, scores 757.

One place you do get a useful boost is in the browser. We turned to the SunSpider test of JavaScript performance, and were mighty impressed by the iPad 4th-gen’s score of 879.2ms (faster is better); that’s near desktop browser level (286.1ms on MacBoook Pro 13” Retina core i5), and a significant leap ahead of the iPad 3rd-gen’s score of 1,688.9ms.

We then looked to iMovie HD video processing, which is a solid test of CPU and GPU performance. Apple has gradually massaged the video crunching workflow with each generation of iPad, to balance speed and video quality, and the output from the latest model is the best – to our eyes – so far. 

In terms of raw speed, the iPad 4th-gen crunched through a 1 minute 720p video in 48.1 seconds and a 1 minute 1080p video in 51.3 seconds. In contrast, the iPad 3rd-gen managed a 1 minute 720p video in 45.0 seconds and a 1 minute 1080p video in 48.2 seconds. 

The updated processing abilities became something of an advantage for the iPad 4th-gen when dealing with longer videos, however: a 5 minute 720p clip processed in 3 minutes 57 seconds and a 1080p version in 4 minutes 17 seconds. The iPad 3rd-gen did its 5-minute 720p video in 3 minutes 40 seconds, and its 1080p version in 4 minutes 56 seconds.

With the iPad with Retina, there’s the sense that you’re paying for potential. The current level of apps simply don’t take advantage of the improved chipset – save, perhaps, the browser – but you’re getting the newest connector and the reassurance that your tablet will keep up with whatever App Store developers throw at it over the coming months. 

Battery

Apple promises the same 10hrs of browsing, media playback, or music over Wi-Fi from the newest iPad with Retina display, or up to nine hours if you’re doing that over a cellular data connection. In practice, we saw no difference from our iPad 3: that is, in excess of 10hrs of general use from a full charge, suggesting there’s no real penalty for opting for the A6X chipset.

Wrap-up

The third-generation iPad arguably didn’t need refreshing; in fact, if Apple hadn’t opted to change to Lightning, it could realistically have held off changing its largest tablet until early 2013, as per its typical yearly refresh cycle. That makes for a reasonably straightforward upgrade decision if you’re a 3rd-gen iPad owner. Unless you’re desperate for Lightning – perhaps you’ve also got an iPhone 5, and want to use all the same accessories rather than buy the adapter dongle – then we’re yet to see apps that really demand the potent A6X chipset.

On the other hand, it widens the distance between the iPad 2 – which remains on sale as the “budget” full-sized iPad – and the iPad with Retina display. Tomorrow’s battle is the decision between the speed and glorious graphics of the iPad with Retina display, or the portability and convenience of the iPad mini. The incredible, high-resolution screen was already enough to justify the $100 premium over the iPad 2 to our mind; the future-proofing of the speed increase (and the new iPad mini, undercutting the iPad 2 by $70) is simply the coup de grâce.

Hardware

At first glance, the iPad mini’s familial resemblance is obvious. Available in white and black finishes – with matching aluminum rear shells, unlike the full-sized iPad with Retina display, which only changes bezel color – it’s considerably reduced in size, down 23-percent in thickness at 0.28-inches deep, and down 53-percent in weight, at 0.68-pounds for the Wi-Fi-only model. 

It’s the width and length which are most notable, however. Held in portrait orientation, the 5.3-inch frame is easy to grip in a single hand, your fingers tucked around the edges without feeling stretched. It makes the iPad mini a legitimate alternative to a Kindle or other, similarly-sized e-reader, light enough and scaled the right way to grip for extended periods in bed. The 7.87-inch length, meanwhile, makes for a tablet that’s great for thumb-typing when held in landscape orientation, the iPad mini cradled in your hands. 

Inside, there’s a dual-core 1GHz processor, the same Apple A5 dualcore as in the iPad 2, along with a choice of 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of storage. All versions have the same Wi-Fi a/b/g/n – with dual-band 802.11n support, for improved range and speeds with compatible routers – and Bluetooth 4.0, while Apple also offers Wi-Fi + Cellular models that support LTE on select networks (and HSPA+/DC-HSDPA on others). The cellular iPad mini also has true GPS and GLONASS, while the Wi-Fi-only makes do with assisted-GPS. 

Both variants use Apple’s new Lightning connector, and have a mono speaker and a stereo headset jack that, with a wired hands-free kit such as comes with the iPhone 5, can be used for voice calls such as over Skype. The cameras are carried over from the full-sized iPad, with a 1.2-megapixel front-facer above the display that supports 720p HD video recording as well as FaceTime calls over both Wi-Fi and cellular connections. 

On the back, there’s a 5-megapixel camera with a backside-illuminated sensor, five-element lens, hybrid IR filter, and autofocus; the size of the iPad mini makes it a far more comfortable device to actually use to take photos with, unlike the 9.7-inch iPad which can feel somewhat unwieldy and seems more suited to the occasional, impromptu shot when your smartphone isn’t immediately to hand. Panoramic shots benefit from the smaller size of the iPad mini, which makes it easier to hold still and steadily pan across the scene. 

Display

Given Steve Jobs’ well-known attitude toward 7-inch tablets, Apple was never going to launch an iPad of quite that size. Instead, the company opted for a 7.9-inch screen for the iPad mini; while that 0.9-inch extra on the diagonal may not sound like much, it actually makes for a panel that’s 35-percent larger than a 7-inch screen on, say, Google’s Nexus 7. In total, you get 29.6 square inches of display, versus the 21.9 square inches of a 7-inch panel.

The screen itself is an LCD IPS panel running at the same 1024 x 768 resolution as the iPad 2. It’s bright and clear, with great viewing angles no matter which way round you’re holding the tablet; as with the larger iPad, the iPad mini’s UI will flip to suit any of the four orientations. What you don’t get is “Retina” resolution, Apple’s shorthand for a display where the pixel density is so great that, at a typical operating distance, the average human eye can’t differentiate the individual dots.

Higher-resolution displays of a similar size to that of the iPad mini are available; Apple’s compromise, however, is to maintain compatibility. By sticking to one of the two established resolutions – either 1024 x 768. or 2048 x 1536 as on the iPad with Retina display – it means all of the applications intended for existing iPads will fit properly on the iPad mini. 

Had Apple opted for a halfway measure with the ambition of increasing the pixel density from its current 163 ppi – picking a display somewhere between the resolution of the iPad 2 and the Retina version – it would have delivered smoother visuals but at the cost of simple compatibility. Developers would have to update their apps to suit a third resolution; as it stands, even though it’s a different size, the iPad mini has access to the near-300,000 iPad-friendly App Store apps out of the box. 

To accommodate that particular 4:3 aspect ratio panel, and achieve that all-important fit in the hand, Apple has dramatically shaved away the bezels on the longer edges. It can leave the iPad mini looking a little unusually proportioned at first glance, compared to the thicker frame of the full-sized 9.7-inch iPad, but it’s a decision that makes sense after a little time with the tablet. As for whether the 1024 x 768 resolution itself has an impact on usability, while it’s lower than 720p HD, video playback still looks solid. Webpages at minimum magnification in the browser inevitably require at least a little zooming in order to make the text a comfortable size for reading, though that’s more down to the sheer size of the text on a display of this scale, than it is the resolution it’s rendered at. 

One of the little-recognized reasons for the 9.7-inch iPad’s wider bezel is that it helps keep your thumbs away from the edges of the display when holding it. That avoids mis-touches or swipes, which can be particularly frustrating when they change page in an e-reader app like iBooks or Kindle for iOS. For the iPad mini, Apple has replaced the physical grip-space with software cleverness: the thumb-rejection system promises to differentiate between the touch of a typical grip on the body of the tablet, and a specific point of contact when selecting an app or control. 

Not all apps support thumb-rejection, at least initially, and we noticed around 10- to 15-percent of the time it didn’t work as expected. However, the remainder of the time it’s surprisingly effective: you can hold the iPad mini with the edge of your thumb resting along the border of the display, without it being recognized as a touch or swipe. Apple says the number of compatible apps will increase in time, as well.

Apple offers both AirPlay Video for streaming up to 1080p Full HD to an Apple TV, or an optional video output dongle. The Lightning to Digital AV Adapter is compatible with the HDMI port found on most current TVs, while the Lightning to VGA Adapter hooks the iPad mini up to a computer display.

Software and Performance

iOS 6 on the iPad mini may be smaller than we’ve seen it on an Apple tablet before, but it’s a familiar platform and we were quickly up to speed despite the diminished scale. All of Apple’s regular apps are present – Safari, Mail, FaceTime, iTunes, Game Center, Maps, and more – along with Siri, which expanded to the iPad line over the summer. iBooks isn’t preloaded but is available free from the App Store, and now supports auto-scroll for touchless reading; again, it underscores the iPad mini’s suitability as an e-reader alternative. 

The iPad mini may not have the A6X processor of the new flagship fourth-gen iPad, but the A5 is sufficient to keep things moving smoothly without making a huge dent in battery life. Navigation around iOS shows no real lag or delay, and apps load quickly; the A5 doesn’t have to drive all the pixels involved in a Retina display, after all, and so it’s overall a satisfactory experience. For those particularly curious about raw benchmarks, the iPad mini scored 757 (higher is better; the iPad with Retina display scored 1,768 in comparison) in Geekbench and completed the SunSpider test of browser JavaScript performance in 1,698.9ms (lower is better; the iPad with Retina display managed an impressive 879.2ms).

One of the more taxing challenges Apple’s tablet faces is video editing, and with its 5-megapixel camera and Full HD video capture, iMovie performance is an important metric. We tested the smaller tablet with both 1 minute and 5 minute video clips, each at both 720p and 1080p resolution. It processed the 720p short clip in 56.8 seconds, and the 1080p short clip in 1 minute 2 seconds. As for the 5-minute clip, that took 4 minutes 31 seconds for the 720p version and 4 minutes 56 seconds for the 1080p. 

They’re unsurprisingly slower than the iPad with Retina display managed, but not outlandishly so, flattering to the iPad mini’s potential. Video clips can also be imported using the Lightning to SD Card Adapter or Lightning to USB Camera Adapter, making the whole thing a competent portable movie studio. Opt for a 4G version and you could shoot, edit, process, and upload your entire movie while on the move, without ever having to plug the iPad mini – or your camera – into a computer. Compatibility with Bluetooth keyboards, meanwhile, means entering text is more straightforward, in effect turning the iPad mini into a tiny workstation. 

Battery

Apple quotes up to 10hrs of wireless browsing over Wi-Fi for the iPad mini, or up to 9hrs if you’re using the tablet’s cellular connection. In practice, with a mixture of browsing, some video playback, games, music – both locally-stored and streaming – and messaging, we comfortably exceeded Apple’s estimate. In fact, we exceeded 11hrs of use before encountering a battery warning.

Accessories

With the same Lightning connector as on the iPhone 5 and the iPad with Retina display, the iPad mini has access to the same range of accessories as elsewhere in Apple’s range. In addition to the external display adapters for HDMI and VGA, and the SD Card and USB Camera import cables, there’s also a new iPad mini Smart Cover. 

The premise is the same as the existing Smart Cover Apple has been offering for its full-sized iPads: a flexible, rollable screen protector that both covers the display when not in use and wakes the tablet from sleep when opened. It can be folded into a stand to prop the iPad mini up at angles suited either for typing or for watching video, and attaches to the side of the slate magnetically. 

Unlike the metal bar hinge of the larger Smart Cover, the iPad mini gets a new, fabric-covered design, which is sleeker and doesn’t make the tablet bulky. On the inside there’s a microfiber lining, gentle to the touchscreen, while the outside is available in a choice of six colors: dark gray, light gray, blue, green, pink, and (PRODUCT) RED.

iPad Mini vs Nexus 7

Wrap-up

As the pre-launch rumors proliferated, some questioned whether Apple really needed a product that slotted in-between the 4-inch iPhone and iPod touch, and the 9.7-inch iPad. Others questioned what sort of price bands Apple would target: whether the iPad mini would be a budget option to directly take on the spray of low-cost Android tablets. 

Instead, the iPad mini is a product that’s resolutely “Apple”: it distills the essentials of the 9.7-inch iPad – iOS app compatibility, multimedia functionality, premium build quality, and comprehensive connectivity – without diluting them to unnecessarily meet a budget price point the company has no real interest in achieving. The iPad mini isn’t a cheap tablet in comparison to $199 Android-powered options, but it feels better in the hand, has a huge number of applications specifically intended for tablet use, and delivers what it promises to in a cohesive and predictable way. 

What it also means is that the iPad mini isn’t the iPad you buy simply because you can’t necessarily afford the larger iPad with Retina display. There are legitimate arguments for the smaller model, not undermined by flimsy construction or compromised capabilities. If you spend much of your time mobile, the iPad mini is easier to transport; if you’re a keen reader, the iPad mini is easier to hold and navigate through. If you’re addicted to the internet and don’t want to view it through the 4-inch window of the iPhone 5 or iPod touch, Safari on the iPad mini delivers more size at a scale that’s still bag or purse-friendly.

In the end, it’s about an overall package, an experience which Apple is offering. Not the fastest tablet, nor the cheapest, nor the one that prioritizes the most pixel-dense display, but the one with the lion’s share of tablet applications, the integration with the iOS/iTunes ecosystem, the familiarity of usability and, yes, the brand cachet. That’s a compelling metric by which to judge a new product, and it’s a set of abilities that single the iPad mini out in the marketplace. If the iPad with Retina display is the flagship of Apple’s tablet range, then the iPad mini is the everyman model, and it’s one that will deservedly sell very well. 

It’s the display that obviously catches your attention. Samsung calls its panel True RGB Real Stripe PLS but the only takeaway you need is that it’s incredibly bright, has vast viewing angles – you can basically look at it askance and still see everything, without any color inversion or distortion – and graphics appear painted onto the Gorilla Glass 2.

We’re not sure if it’s wariness around Apple’s design patents, or a specific design direction for Google and Samsung, but the curvy Nexus 10 has echoes of the first, albeit not-officially-Nexus Android tablet, Motorola’s XOOM. The soft-touch plastics are creak-free but lack the premium feel of metal, though they do make for a grippy slate and a lightweight one, with the Nexus 10 tipping the scales at 603g. It’s also slim, at 8.9mm thick.

The dualcore ARM Cortex A15 chipset isn’t the only magic going on inside: there’s also WiFi a/b/g/n (with MIMO), Bluetooth 4.0, twin NFC, a 9,000 mAh battery to keep up with all those pixels, and twin cameras: 5-megapixels on the back, working with the new Photo Sphere feature of Android 4.2, and 1.9-megapixels up front for video calls. We’ll be particularly interested to see how Google’s battery life predictions hold up in regular use, with the company promising 9-10hrs of runtime on a single charge, despite the power-hungry specifications.

Android 4.2 also debuts one much-requested tablet feature, the ability to set up multiple profiles for different users. With so many tablets – particularly those that live on the coffee table and seldom leave the house – being shared by all family members, it’s a welcome addition. We’ll see how it shapes up in practice for our full review.

Kicking off at $399 there’s certainly plenty to the Nexus 10 on paper, and our first impressions are similarly positive. We’ll be putting it through its paces to see if it can truly deliver; until then, enjoy our hands-on gallery and demo video!