Last April we described the original DROID Incredible as an “excellent” device, buoyed above the then-competition by virtue of its 8-megapixel camera and user-friendly HTC Sense interface. Since then, Android phones have grown second processor cores and even bigger displays, and the smartphone market in general has become a far more competitive place. Can the Verizon DROID Incredible 2 pick up where its predecessor left off? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
Qualcomm and BSQUARE have just announced the Mobile Development Platform (MDP), the latest developer smartphone with the Snapdragon MSM8660 1.5GHz asynchronous dual-core CPU and Adreno 220, and SlashGear has one to give away! It’s a developer device worth $1,350, and could help change the fortunes of any Android coder looking to polish his apps for the Android Market. Find out how you can win after the cut…
Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon CPU has found its way into the BSQUARE Mobile Development Platform (MDP), a device targeted at developers looking to test and optimize their apps on Qualcomm’s new 1.5GHz dual-core MSM8660 chipset – as found in the HTC EVO 3D – and Adreno 220 GPU. The MDP runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread on a 3.61-inch WVGA touchscreen, and has a 13-megapixel rear camera, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and various preloaded monitoring apps.
There’s something mighty familiar about Verizon’s DROID Incredible 2 by HTC. True, it’s the follow-up to the original Incredible, but it also bears more than a passing resemblance to the European HTC Incredible S we reviewed last month. Back then we praised the smartphone’s distinctive industrial design, decent sized 4-inch Super-LCD WVGA display and all-day battery life, though weren’t too keen on the Android 2.2 OS. Question is, will Verizon’s CDMA version suffer the same fate?
It’s pretty good timing for Verizon’s DROID Charge by Samsung to arrive today, just when our Samsung Galaxy S II review goes live. Both smartphones share a couple of important features, most notably the 4.3-inch WVGA Super AMOLED Plus display. Unlike the previous AMOLED and Super AMOLED technology, the new Super AMOLED Plus allows you to see the display much better out in sunlight thanks to 50-percent more sub-pixels (this means twelve sub-pixels instead of eight). Looking at the display makes us want to weep like a 12-year old boy on Christmas morning. The Droid Charge has LTE to differentiate it, the second 4G smartphone to Verizon’s line-up. Read on for our first-impressions.
T-Mobile and LG haven’t just been working on a tablet: there’s also a dual-core smartphone on offer as well. The T-Mobile G2x doesn’t bother with the docking accessories of AT&T’s ATRIX 4G (review), instead expecting its own dual-core potential to stand on its own feet. Is this the best of a new breed of Android devices, or just a fast phone that still falls short? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
Until today, the consumer tablet market has been defined by the battle between iPad and Android. Apple’s best-selling slate has set expectations for mobile utility and usability, managing to persuade users that – despite years of Microsoft Tablet PC promotion – the company pretty much invented the tablet segment. Google’s Honeycomb (review) has launched its offensive against the iPad titan, and now it’s the turn of RIM and the BlackBerry PlayBook. Initially billed as the enterprise-focused slate a BlackBerry phone toting business person would covet, the PlayBook’s scope has gradually grown to encompass the consumer market too. Has that spreading focus left RIM with the jack of all trades or the master of none? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
2011 may be the year of the tablet, but so far only one Android 3.0 Honeycomb (review) example has managed to reach the market. Motorola’s XOOM was criticized for launching perhaps before Honeycomb was quite ready; now the T-Mobile G-Slate by LG is making its own play, with the dual hope that 3D photography and an 8.9-inch screen will be enough to carve a niche against the iPad 2. Is Honeycomb’s second hurrah the cry of victory or a dying gasp? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut to find out.
The T-Mobile G2x may be brand new on virtual shelves yesterday, but we’re not exactly unfamiliar with the Android smartphone. Announced officially back at CTIA 2011 last month, and launched as the LG Optimus 2X a couple of months before that (for the European market), the dual-core handset has already built itself something of a following. The T-Mobile G2x variant has landed on the SlashGear test bench: read on for our first-impressions.
It’s hard to argue with the fact that the iPad 2 sent Samsung rushing back to the lab to try to squeeze some bulk out of the Galaxy Tab 10.1, but then it’s also clear that both the 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 8.9 slates are appealing hardware in their own right. Each slimmer and lighter than the second-gen Apple, they’re as close to Star Trek style sci-fi tablets as we’ve seen so far, making Motorola’s XOOM look fat in comparison.
The HTC ThunderBolt is a first but not a first: the only 4G smartphone on Verizon’s LTE network, but certainly not the first 4G smartphone we’ve seen and following a hardware pattern that dates back nine months or so to the HTC EVO 4G on Sprint and takes in AT&T’s Inspire 4G on the way. With various different interpretations of what exactly 4G is, however, there’s more to this than labels and branding. Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
J.D. Power has released its latest batch of mobile phone rankings, and Apple grabs first place among smartphones ahead of HTC and Motorola. Interestingly, the researchers found that those who use social networking services - such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - on their handsets were more satisfied overall; given how much regular checking can suck down juice, it's useful that, among smartphone owners, battery longevity scores only 8-percent in overall satisfaction.
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