Smashed screens, cracked casings and broken buttons: you can take out endless insurance policies on your smartphone, or you can opt for a tougher handset altogether. JCB knows a little about sturdy hardware, and the Toughphone Pro-Smart TP909 certainly looks the part even when it’s in the box. Oversized but still surprisingly affordable, it’s the first of JCB’s butch line-up to run a smartphone OS, in this case Android. Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
HTC needed to hit reset on its smartphone strategy. Lulled, perhaps, by several years of leading the Android device market, 2011 brought an incredibly strong push by Samsung and a growing mismatch between the agile software users desired and the bloated, over-stylized interface of HTC Sense. The HTC One X – and the One Series it leads – is the first of the company’s attempt to reclaim its former position, a Tegra 3 toting powerhouse with a big screen, boastful camera and slick design. Still with the specter of the Samsung Galaxy S III on the near horizon, not to mention Apple’s iPhone 5, the One X needs to do more than storm the spec sheet if it’s to make the impact HTC requires. Read on for the full SlashGear review.
Wearable displays are going to change the mobile market, not to mention gaming, and usher augmented reality into the mainstream. At least, they will if display specialists Lumus have anything to do with it: the company has already shown us its 720p twin-display wearable prototype back at CES 2012, and SlashGear caught up with the company again today to see arguably an even more impressive version, the OE-31. Lower resolution, true, but smaller, lower-power and easier to disguise in the average pair of glasses: this could be the way you consumer your Twitter, Facebook, email, GPS and more on the move in just a couple of years time. Read on for our first-impressions.
Toshiba has launched a new tablet in Italy that runs the Android operating system and uses a Freescale CPU inside. The tablet is called the LT170 and has a seven-inch screen supporting capacitive multitouch with a 1024 x 600 resolution. The tablet uses a Freescale i.MX53 CPU operating at 1 GHz as its brain. It also has 512 MB of RAM and 8 GB of internal flash storage.
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The Sony Xperia S is something of a smartphone stepchild: the first smartphone to bear Sony’s sole brand in recent years, but developed under the loving care of the Sony Ericsson partnership the Japanese company bought itself out of. It certainly ticks a lot of the right boxes – 720p HD display, high-resolution 12.1-megapixel camera and some reasonably distinctive design – but we’ve seen our fair share of Android handsets over-promise and under-deliver. So, hangover from the past or a sign of things to come? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
This week the folks at HTC have started off the show with the HTC One line, a line of devices that take the HTC line to the next level with elements that make this the true hero strategy for their brand. First up is HTC ImageSense, a full setup around the device's camera alone. Not only will the cameras in the HTC One line take a photo in .7 seconds, they've got a brand new HTC ImageChip dedicated to them for the super-fast shooting you need to capture images at the speed of life. From there, it's all beauty and power.
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It's time to get powerful with your Windows 8 tablet, developers, as manufacturers are today having the hardware requirements laid out for them for the tablets they're all starting to make for the seasons of love inside 2012. While we've seen a few Windows 8 tablets already, none of them have been consumer ready, so as Microsoft lays down the law here for future devices wanting to run Windows 8 officially, the races have begun. Five buttons, for starters, will need to physically appear on the device for it to be a true Windows 8 device.
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ZTE isn’t a name most smartphone shoppers would recognize, but the company has ambitions to change all that with the ZTE Tania. A 4.3-inch Windows Phone 7 device, the Tania aims to deliver not only all that Microsoft OS goodness you’ve come to love, but at a price that significantly undercuts rivals. The unit we’ve been using since last week is final hardware but non-final software, hence this being a preview and not a full review, but it’s still enough to get an early take on what ZTE hopes will be a smartphone game-changer in more ways than one.
Microsoft's hardware requirements for Windows 8 devices, including tablets and notebooks, have been detailed, including the rebirth of CTRL+ALT+DEL and how NFC touch-points should be highlighted. Outlined in the recently published Win8 device documentation, Microsoft mandates that tablet PCs and convertible PCs should have at least a screen resolution of 1366 x 768 and a digitizer supporting at least five-point multitouch. x86 machines, meanwhile, must resume in two seconds or less.
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Samsung seems to be pumping out new devices like there's no tomorrow, but here's something new to set a precedent: SM'ART Panels specifically designed for displaying fine art. In development for five years, the high resolution LCD panels surpass standard television sets in an attempt to be a truly digital canvas. The panels are designed to display the fine details that an artist wishes to come through, such as texture and the exact color envisioned.
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This week over at Dreamhack Winter in Jonkoping Sweden, the folks at SteelSeries have revealed two lovely black, white, and merigold (or orange, if you prefer) pieces of equipment, one limited edition Fnatic Sensei mouse and one 7H Fnatic limited edition headset. You'll find first of all that both of these devices have an interestingly unique look to them, then you'll find that their quality in attacking the gaming world is of course second to none. Inside the headset you'll find 50mm dynamic driver units and SNDBlock ear cushions for sound isolation. Inside the mouse you'll find a 32 bit ARM processor for its ExactTech settings and full customization abilities.
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Motorola’s DROID Pro made a play for the disloyal BlackBerry crowd, pairing Android with a QWERTY keyboard and touchscreen in a candybar form-factor. Blocky style and a low-res display did the Pro no favors, however, and so Motorola has returned with the Pro+, a smartphone targeting mobile professionals who don’t want to be entirely embarrassed by their – or their IT department’s – choice of handset. Read on for the full SlashGear review.
