Hardware

Porsche Design starts as it means to go on, with an oversized box first presenting the P’9981 and its desk-stand in one dense foam layer, before revealing different chargers for near-global use, USB cable and headphones, various documentation and your exclusive technical support card, complete with PIN, to access freephone assistance. It’s not quite Vertu’s Concierge, mind; the team will help you set up your P’9981 and figure out its quirks, but not book you theater tickets.

The smartphone itself is certainly distinctive. RIM basically handed over the key parts of its Bold 9900 flagship, and Porsche Design dressed them up in a Dynasty-era suit, shoulderpads and all. It’s a resolutely aggressive, blunt design, all sharp edges and squared-off corners, with plenty of metal and metal-effect plastic, and it’s heavy too, feeling twice its actual 155g weight in the hand.

Porsche Design itself gets top billing, its name engraved into the brushed stainless-steel bar above the display; RIM’s BlackBerry logo is relegated to just below the earpiece, above the 2.8-inch 640 x 480 touchscreen. The display is bright and crisp, though lacks the color saturation of an AMOLED, while the touch response is good. The metal bar continues around the edge of the P’9981 – though with a polished mirror finish, rather than brushed – though the keyboard itself is plastic.

Porsche Design P’9981 hands-on:

BlackBerry devices are famed for their keyboards, in fact you could construct a reasonable argument that it’s QWERTY text-entry that has kept the company afloat the past few years. Porsche Design does away with the 9900′s ‘board – one, we decided, of the best on the market – and replaces it with a heavily-stylized version with pronounced ridges. It’s not a bad keyboard – the spacing is good, as it spreads across the entire 67mm width of the phone, and the keys are clicky and responsive – but it’s definitely a step back from what the donor BlackBerry offers.

It’s also unevenly illuminated, with the backlighting focused in two patches that leave the center column of letters dimmer than the rest. No great functional issue, and you can still see them in low-light conditions, but it’s a noticeable flaw and one – since the backlighting is often active when the P’9981 is docked in its charger-cradle – you’re presented with all the time.

Sandwiched in-between the keyboard and the touchscreen is the usual row of call, menu and navigation buttons. They’re large and plasticky, and rock somewhat unnervingly under your finger. In their midst is the optical trackpad, which doubles as a select button, and is swiftly responsive. The left edge of the phone offers the 3.5mm headphones socket and a microUSB port, while the right has volume keys flanking a mute button (that doubles as a play/pause button in the media app) and a camera shortcut (that can be reprogrammed). On the top there’s a lock button.

If the front of the P’9981 is Terminator sturdy, the back is oddly unreassuring. An ingot of metal bears the 5-megapixel camera – which supports 720p but uses EDoF fixed-focus rather than auto-focus – and single LED flash, but the rest is a plastic panel that, despite being covered with leather, feels unduly cheap in comparison to the rest of the phone. There’s a little flex around the camera section, and the panel itself doesn’t click reassuringly into place as we might’ve hoped.

Peel it off, and you can see the antenna stuck to the back – connected with two discrete pins just above the Porsche Design branded 1,230 mAh battery – as well as the microSD card slot to augment the 8GB of internal memory. You’ll need to pull out the battery to swap the SIM card. This European unit has dualband 3G/UMTS (for up to 14.4 Mbps downloads and up to 5.76 Mbps uploads, network depending), quadband GSM/EDGE, WiFI a/b/g/n (with 2.4/5GHz support), Bluetooth and NFC, along with GPS, a digital compass, accelerometer and twin microphones for noise cancellation. Like the Bold 9900, the Porsche Design P’9981 runs BlackBerry 7 on a single-core Qualcomm MSM8655 1.2GHz processor, paired with 768MB of RAM.

Software

RIM has hung its long-term hopes on BlackBerry 10, the QNX-based OS for phones and tablets expected to debut by the end of this year. Unfortunately, that leaves the P’9981 running BlackBerry 7, just as on the Bold 9900, and it’s a platform that’s seriously showing its age compared to iOS and Android.

Porsche Design, as the name might predict, makes no modifications to the software itself beyond an ill-advised icon redesign. The paired down iconography is certainly in keeping with the rest of the P’9981, but it also leaves app menus confusing: you have to make a conscious effort to tell the difference between each icon. It’s something you’ll no doubt get more adroit at handling, the longer you live with the handset, or indeed you can change the skin altogether.

Beyond that, our primary frustration with BlackBerry 7 is its general sense of being a patchwork platform: some aspects feel relatively fresh, but other areas feel like they’ve been dragged over from RIM’s OS several years back. The text-based elements of the UI are generally the swiftest but also the points that feel most dated in comparison to rival software; in contrast, BlackBerry App World is sluggish and the BlackBerry Maps app is a lesson in frustration compared to Google Maps or Nokia Maps.

RIM has worked hard on the internet experience in BlackBerry 7, and it’s certainly improved from earlier iterations. You still get a throwback mouse cursor, though we came to appreciate it more after finding how much finger-navigation obscures the touchscreen. Pinch-zooming in the browser works, but that compact display also makes it feel clumsy.

As always, the email experience is the primary reason for using a BlackBerry, though it’s at its best if you’re an enterprise customer with a BlackBerry Exchange Server. If you’re on the Gmail train then you’ll have to use IMAP – Google discontinued its Gmail for BlackBerry app late last year – though there’s the Enhanced Google Mail Plug-in from RIM itself that adds spam and archive support, integrates Gmail inbox searches with BlackBerry 7′s universal search, and imports your contacts. Still, the best Gmail experience continues to be on Android in our opinion, with iOS following behind that.

We’ve covered BlackBerry 7 more in our Bold 9900 review, but the long and short of it is that the OS feels dated and is well overdue a replacement. BlackBerry 10 can’t come soon enough.

Camera

5-megapixels is midrange but acceptable for a smartphone, particularly one with business aspirations like the P’9981, but the fixed-focus is a disappointment. Not a surprising one – the Bold 9900 used EDoF after all – but still another black mark against the Porsche phone.

It means you’re limited in how close you can get with your macro shots, and in general images lack crispness in comparison to auto-focus cameras. Color balance is solid, and there’s a nice amount of detail in shots from the P’9981, but unlike, say, the iPhone 4S or Galaxy S II, you wouldn’t want to rely on the BlackBerry for all of your photography needs.

As for video, 720p is your high-definition maximum but the ensuing clips are good. Colors are accurate, if a little muted, and the digital image stabilization is neither ineffectual nor over-aggressive and helps smooth out a shaky hand. We found the sheer heft of the P’9981 also helped on that front too. Recorded clips can be sent via Bluetooth or WhatsApp, or uploaded to YouTube, though not emailed directly from the camcorder app.

Porsche Design P’9981 720p HD Video Sample:

Phone and Battery

Just behind email performance in the Big BlackBerry Book of Achievements is traditionally voice call quality and battery life: on this, the P’9981 drops one of the balls. Calling quality is great, with a loud earpiece and speaker for hands-free use, crisp – but not overly-processed – background noise reduction, and tenacious grip on a mobile signal. We also like how both your mobile network and current WiFi SSID are shown in the status bar.

Unfortunately, whereas at one time BlackBerry devices could be expected to run for days, the P’9981 follows in the Bold 9900′s metaphorical footsteps and tarnishes the family tradition. The 1,230 mAh battery may be Porsche Design branded but it’s otherwise exactly the same powerpack as the 9900 uses, and it’s simply not up to the challenge of the 1.2GHz processor.

RIM does its best to hide that fact, underclocking the chip most of the time so that you’re running on a fraction of those cycles, but step beyond simple email and you’ll find calls, web browsing, photography and third-party apps all take their toll. Left to its own devices and the P’9981 will run for a couple of days, even with email updating in the background, but actually use it as you might a rival smartphone and you’ll struggle to finish a day. The desk charger cradle does at least make topping up the juice more straightforward.

Wrap-Up

It’s hard to imagine the Porsche Design P’9981 convincing the everyman: its severe styling is too divisive, BlackBerry 7 OS questionable, and general specifications uncompetitive in places. Then again, the everyman isn’t the limited edition BlackBerry’s target audience. Like Vertu and “luxury” editions of other manufacturers’ phones, the appeal of the P’9981 is more about who hasn’t got it than who wants it.

$2,350 is a ridiculous amount of money for a smartphone. A quarter of that gets you an iPhone 4S or a Galaxy Nexus, either of which outclass the P’9981 on functionality, usability and – many would argue – style. However, just as Porsche Design borrowed the Dynasty shoulderpads, the P’9981 is the cellular equivalent of Alexis Carrington: brash and unforgivingly blunt, an unapologetic backhanded slap to the face of anybody who thinks their mainstream handset makes them special.

The rest of us will continue to buy iPhones, and Android phones, perhaps even some Windows Phones, and wait to see whether RIM can relaunch itself in Q4 with BlackBerry 10. The biggest problem with the P’9981 isn’t its love-it-or-hate-it design, or its mediocre camera, or even its insane price tag: it’s the fact that it highlights just how tired BlackBerry 7 is. In the end, even $2,350-worth of metal and leather and Porsche branding can’t hide that.

You’ll download the app, open it up, snap a couple photos, and poof! They’ll be uploaded do your Dropbox. You’ll need a Dropbox account of course, and you’ll need to hook it up to your QuickShot with Dropbox app one single time in a rather simple manner, but that’s it! From there it’s just you approving or disapproving of the media the app collects through your iPhone’s camera. You can take front or back-facing photos or video, you’ve got the ability to use your flash, touch to focus, and that’s it!

So really the biggest drawback in this app is your inability to do anything really strange or above average with the photos you’re taking. In that case, if you’re worried about such a thing, you can upload photos from your gallery taken with other cameras. You can do this through QuickShot with Dropbox and it will upload all photos and video in, again, the background. Have a peek at the hands-on video with this app we’ve got here, then download it instantly from the iTunes App Store for a mere $1.99 – it’s worth it!

Also note that we’re using the iPhone 4S for this review, and that if you’ve got any app on the market that you’re interested in us reviewing, give a hollar!

What you’ve got to do in this game – available for both the iPad 1/2 and the iPhone – note that we’re reviewing it on an iPhone 4S here – is keep yourself in the game. In the hands-on video I compare this game to the greatest schoolyard game you might never have played: Spread the Eagle. This game from your middle-school days was one in which you didn’t necessarily have to do anything at all in order to stay in the game, but because you want to have fun, you go nuts with action. The same is true here, to a degree, as the monsters surrounding your building want to have a great time, and if you give them condos to eat, they most certainly will!

If you give them the wrong color condos to eat – you’ll notice they’re color-coded – you’ll find that they are prone to getting angry. There are so many symbols and markers, graphics that’ll blow your mind, and animations that you’ll be surprised are sitting pretty here on a game that costs less than a buck, and it’s all controlled with one of two actions: swipe left, or swipe right!

Feed the right colors to the right monsters, then try to match up three of the same color condo to switch your monsters out and drum up additional points. There are several modes of play, but the game concept remains the same through the whole of them: keep the monsters happy, and keep your tower straight. This game is a must-buy for those of you wishing to see the full graphics capabilities of your iPad or iPhone – but don’t let your grandmother play it, she’ll likely freak out. Monsters Ate My Condo is available on the iTunes App Store right this minute for $0.99 cheap!

This device is made to fit in your adult-sized pocket at 2.5-inches wide and 5-inches long. It’s made to work with both microSDHC and microSD (which you’ll see in the hands-on video shortly). You can plug it in to any device with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and the battery that’s built-in to the guts, you’ll be getting sounds blasting for hours on end. Have a peek at the hands-on video here and see for yourself the simplicity:

This unit has not yet powered down and we’ve been using it for a couple days. Not without pause, of course, but still – bring this to your workplace and jam on the tunes for a full 8 hours without any trouble whatsoever. You won’t need to charge this device each night – maybe every other night. That being if you’re using the microSD card or the line-in, though we’re to understand that the line-in will bring you more hours than the card alone. You can also plug it in to the wall via your own miniUSB line for as much up time as you like – whatever you want!

That’s the way you power up the internal battery, too, through the miniUSB port in the side of the device, right next to the line-in. This device provides lovely loud sound good enough for the office or your local skate park, but I’d bring a bigger blaster for a house party. Get an OK idea of how quality the sound is in the hands-on video, or just take my word for it: well worth the price. This device will cost you a cool $29.99 in Satechi’s online store right this minute – available now!

Those of you looking for protection for the back of your iPhone, you’re certainly going to find it here. This is a plate, meaning its flat and does not wrap around the edges of your device in any way. These plates are not made specifically for protection, nor do they interfere with any other accessory you might have for the device (to a degree – it’s not invisible, after all,) and will not cut down on your reception in any way at all. These plates are made to make your iPhone into a “sculptured work of art” – and they certainly have no trouble doing that.

Have a look at the application video here and see how simple it is to get one of these mothers on to the back of your iPhone. Here we’re using the iPhone 4S from Verizon, but know this: these plates work perfectly fine for all iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 models. The only complaint I’ve had about the plate I have here (it being the Etched Great Wave Steel) is that I get worried that the metal will scratch the OTHER devices I’ve got in my pocket. If you’re not the sort of person who carries around more than one smartphone at a time in one pocket, you’ll be just fine.

At the moment the folks at SkinIt have five different designs for their Etched Metal series: Flourish, Sudden Blush, Millipede, Circles, and Great Wave, and each design has its own set of color options. Each design has Black, Steel, Berry, and Lime color options, while the Wave has Blue instead of Lime, and the metal is actually a different color if you choose steel over any of the other colors. the colors come in behind the metal in a surface that lie between the adhesive and the metal – so you wont be seeing your iPhone’s back color with these plates.

The best part about this whole situation is that all colors and designs are a mere $24.99 each – pick up a batch! These plates are all in stock right this second over at SkinIt’s own online store.

Hardware

The display here is a massive 540 x 960 pixels on 4-inches of space, putting this device at 275 pixels per inch. That’s quite impressive when it comes down to it, it being not quite as rich with pixels as the Galaxy Nexus (at 316 ppi) but certainly ready to contend with the DROID RAZR whose same resolution sits on a slightly larger display, putting it at just 256 ppi. At this close range you wont notice the difference unless you’re holding these devices up next to one another, but the difference is there.

Other than that you’ve got what’s actually a slightly larger device than the DROID 3, this bulk coming from the additional plastic around the edges, seeming to have been added here for stylistic purposes instead of necessity. The device is almost exactly the same height as the previous DROID QWERTY and the keyboard is similar, but quite a bit nicer when you’ve used it for a bit. While the older DROID keyboards did seem excellent when they were first brought forth on the first couple of units, the age started to show harshly on the DROID 3. Here there’s a new amount of space and a sensor-activated light surrounding the keys.

The processor is the same one that’s in the DROID RAZR and several devices that’ve been released in the past few months, that being the Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 dual-core 1.2GHz SoC. This chip will get you where you need to go and will allow you to play essentially any game you’re hankering for on the Android Market without a hitch. Consider these Quadrant Advanced results – Total 2747, CPU: 6957, Memory: 2586, I/O: 3046, 2D: 283, 3D: 862, and note the comparatively powerful results when you consider the rest of the Android devices released with this same OMAP processor very recently – looking quite similar.

Software

Inside you’ve got your regular suite of Motorola, Google, and Verizon apps, no real surprises in the mix, and all of it comes complete with Webtop. Motorola devices released inside the last year have all had their proprietary desktop-like software installed aboard, this working through your HDMI-connected display with the device itself acting as an intermediary. If you’ve got any of the suggested docks you can turn your DROID 4 into a standalone computer with your HDTV as your monitor and a USB-connected mouse and keyboard as your controllers. Alternatively you can use the DROID 4 as a trackpad to control your cursor on the display. Check out a demonstration of how this all works in our review of the Motorola Lapdock 100.

Motorola devices are connected with a series of basic cloud-connected services such as My Music which connects you to your computer at home via the web. This and the rest of the cloud suite on the DROID 4 are connected via MotoCast, a service which connects all of your Motorola devices via an interface you download for your desktop machine at MyMotoCast.com. Also prominent in the apps drawer is an instant link to your MOTOACTV, a device which acts as both a music player and a fitness tracker which you can attach to your arm, your wrist, or wherever else you’d like to carry it.

Camera

Motorola is back to having a decent beast of a camera here with 8 megapixels on the back along with 1080p video capabilities. Though it’s not the most perfect setup we’ve seen with such specifications, it certainly out-does its predecessor. Have a peek at some demonstrations of the DROID 4′s back-facing camera here and behold the loveliness.

Phone and Battery

The battery on this beast is a full 1785 mAh placing it right beside the original DROID RAZR in battery rating and capturing just about as much time in the wild as well. When you’re using this device for streaming video you’ll get a few hours out of it – enough time for about a full movie and a half. If you’re using it heavily throughout the day, you’ll get something like 6-8 hours. If you’re using it lightly, for email and web browsing exclusively that is, you’ll be getting 10 hours or more no problem. One charge a night should be good for most users.

Wrap-Up

The DROID 4 is the bulkiest device on the Verizon network here at its launch, yet at the same time it’s got the nicest keyboard Motorola has ever offered on a smartphone. If you’re so in love with the basic QWERTY DROID line that you’ve sworn off all other smartphones, it’s time to upgrade to this model. If you’re looking for the best Motorola device on Verizon, I’d recommend the RAZR MAXX. It doesn’t have a QWERTY keyboard, but it does have a battery that’ll last you until kingdom come, and you’re working with essentially the same innards as this device otherwise.

This device certainly deserves to have a spot amongst the high-end line of Android devices at its release, but will be forgettable within a few months at the dawn of the quad-core smartphone and the start of the Ice Cream Sandwich having Androids being released in bulk closer to the middle of the year. You’ve got the option of grabbing the Galaxy Nexus from Samsung on Verizon right now as well if you want the newest Android software – DROID 4 is still stuck on Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread – but that would require you to leave your beloved Motorola and go Samsung’s way, a very different beast indeed.

Hardware

While the key components of the Web Cube may be the same as your average, pocket-sized mobile hotspot, the device as a whole is much bigger. Almost a 10cm cube (it’s 9.5cm high) it’s a distinctive addition to your desktop, with white base and top plates sandwiching a frosted midsection that reveals a fluted inner pillar. An array of blue LEDs cause the whole thing to glow when a device is connected via WiFi.

Physical controls are limited to a single button on the top, which doubles as a WPS pairing key and, with a longer press, a power button to shut the Web Cube down. Three of the top edges have tiny hatches, one sliding out for the SIM card, another hiding a reset button and external antenna port, and the last a microUSB port used for firmware updates. Unfortunately you can’t plug an external drive into the USB connection and share its data across the network.

Inside the Huawei-made device there’s a HSPA+ radio supporting up to 21.6 Mbit/s downloads and up to 5.76 Mbit/s uploads, network depending, along with a WiFi b/g/n router supporting up to five WiFi connections at any one time. 3G signal strength is shown via blue LEDs on the top panel.

Setup

Three is aiming for plug and play simplicity with the Web Cube, and the most confusing part is probably going to be loading the SIM. The quick-start guide shows where to slot it in, though hopefully in-store sales staff will do that for most users; then it’s just a case of plugging in the mains power lead and watching the Web Cube load up automatically.

Both the SSID and WPA2 encryption key are preconfigured, each printed on the base of the Web Cube as well as on the back of the quick-start guide. We were connected and surfing in sixty seconds from plugging the modem in, in fact.

As with most routers, there’s a browser-based control panel for checking status and accessing more complex settings. The home view shows data connection, upload/download speeds and a data counter, along with icons for signal status and how many WiFi clients are connected; you can also turn off the main body light. There’s also text message support, including incoming and outgoing messages; it’s worth noting that any WiFi user can access this and send SMS billed to your account. While you can’t turn off text messaging or lock it down with a passport, you can put in an incorrect service center number and block the functionality that way.

Log into the admin pages, and the Web Cube’s true router abilities become visible. It may look toylike but there’s most of the advanced settings and options that you’d expect from any wireless hardware: a DHCP server, static routing, MAC filtering and optional WiFi bridging, a firewall (sensibly on by default) and IP filtering, virtual server support and a DMZ. If you want to lock down the Web Cube to only support visiting certain sites, you can do it.

Performance

Mobile broadband download speeds are obviously dependent on carrier coverage, and the Web Cube’s 110cm cable doesn’t give you a huge amount of flexibility to move the modem around. Still, the integrated signal strength meter does make positioning easier, though we’d recommend doing some online speed tests just to see where the best results can be had.

Shifting the Web Cube one meter closer to the window saw download rates double (to 4.06 Mbps) and upload rates more than quintuple (to 1.72 Mbps), for instance, so there are significant benefits to be had in experimenting. At least, unlike most wired home broadband connections, you can take your pick of locations, as long as they’re near enough to a power socket. Moving to the other side of the building saw download rates jump to 5.89 Mbps and upload rates to 2.74 Mbps.

As for WiFi strength, we had no problems keeping a connection even with three walls (one external brick) and solid wooden doors between us and the Web Cube. In fact, our test computer was still showing full signal strength at the time. This could be the Web Cube’s biggest advantage over traditional mobile hotspots, which generally suffer from relatively short range WiFi radios.

Pricing

Three offers two options for Web Cube data packages. If you’re willing to commit, you can get 15GB of data per month on a two year £15.99 agreement, and pay nothing upfront for the modem itself. Those feeling more flighty can opt for a £15 month-to-month package, getting them 10GB of data instead; they’ll also have to pay £59.99 for the Web Cube.

There’s no unlimited data option, however, and Three tells us the target audience wouldn’t really want it, though we’re not so sure that’s actually the case.

Wrap-Up

It’s easy to be dismissive of the Web Cube, at least at first glance. Three’s HSPA+ can deliver reasonably speedy burst rates but still lags behind top-tier wired broadband connections, while you also miss out on the battery-powered portability of a traditional mobile hotspot. Unlike the carrier’s own WiFi Hub – which shares a USB modem’s connection over WiFi – you don’t get wired ethernet either, and the Web Cube is even larger.

Where the Web Cube begins to show merit is in its ease of setup and WiFi performance. Ignore the advanced settings – as most users will – and you can be up and running moments after plugging in. It’s portable enough that you can take it on holiday with you, and the data plans, while missing an unlimited option, are probably enough for casual users. The dramatically stronger WiFi range than a battery-powered hotspot singles the Web Cube out for semi-fixed usage too.

Definitely a niche gadget, then, but if you fit the target demographic then there’s plenty of appeal. We can see the Web Cube being ideal for broadband-shy grandparents or catering to a temporary office; it’d make a good backup option if your home broadband goes down. More advanced users will undoubtedly be able to find cheaper ways to share out a 3G connection, but if simplicity is your guiding star then the Web Cube will take some beating.

Hardware

For those of you wondering, this device goes by the code S3-951-6432. You’ll find that the display has a perfectly bright and sharp widescreen view for your gaming, processing, and video viewing needs, but beware the glossiness of the display if you’re planning on using this laptop outdoors. Of course you’re not the type of person to go galavanting around the park with a laptop, so you’ll only be worried about your ability to have a great experience on the run. This notebook is made for your ability to both carry it around all day and provide you the power you need to use it for all of your daily activities be you a student, a journalist, or a graphic designer, all the same.

The keyboard is one made for typing rather than gaming, and you’ll find that using the return key and the arrow keys will be a bit of a learning activity at first as they’re connected in space and not separated by the surrounding base of the notebook. On the back of the device you’ll find two USB 2.0 ports, a full-sized HDMI port, and your power port. On the right you’ll find a full-sized SD card port (that also has the ability to read MultiMediaCard (MMC) units) and on the left you’ll find a headphone jack. On the bottom left and right near the front of the laptop are speakers, each of them part of the Dolby-optimized speaker system which together create a surprisingly nice sounding experience for movie-watching especially.

On the other hand, don’t expect to watch a movie with a group of too many folks to you left or two your right as the viewing angles aren’t too fantastically great here. Watch the hands-on video to see a basic view of how far you’ll be able to see, but note that it’s certainly not more than 60 degrees in any direction from straight on. Straight on though, and inside everywhere 60 degrees looks just as bright and sharp as a Core i7 processor under the hood would suggest. I’ve heard reviewers speaking on how the color accuracy isn’t perfect, and I agree, but the difference between this display and a perfectly tuned display for graphic designers and photography majors is so small that I doubt anyone in the field will have a big issue. Those of you in the photography business should take note though – perfection is needed!

Inside you’ve got Bluetooth 4.0, the multi-gesture touchpad is precise and makes for an easy to control experience all around, and the webcam is alright – good enough for video chat certainly. You’ve got 3.86 GB DDR3 SDRAM at 666MHz controlled by your HD 3000 graphics control unit, and a partridge in a pear tree. And that’s just the hardware. The whole thing looks rather nice too, if you don’t mind the similarities to the rest of the ultra-thin super-powered notebook competition out there. Take a peek at this tower of laptops to see the difference between the units your humble narrator has been using lately – up top you’ve got an 11-inch MacBook Air, next the Acer Aspire S3, a MacBook Pro 15-inch, and a gigantic mother of an Alienware gaming notebook M17xR3 complete with lots o’ lights – each of these units has a different purpose, and the size shows their power here, as it were – note that the MacBook air is from a few years ago so isn’t as pumped up as the line is today, and you can check the Alienware machine in action back at Arkham City.

Software

You’ve got Windows 7 Home Premium right out of the box and Clear.fi for all your personal cloud needs. This machine is set to bring you a personal experience for, again, the student or the everyday average user – with the i7 under the hood you’ve got the ability to play some higher powered software if you wish, but for what the machine comes with – not one whole heck of a lot – you’ll be more than prepared to run the heck out of all of it. Take a peek at this hands-on with the machine and get a glimpse of how quick the machine starts up from being off completely, how the display looks, and the basic software set you’ll get with Windows 7 Home Premium.

Performance

You’re certainly going to see the S3 knocking out the benchmarks as any i7-toting machine should, and as far as the instant-on feature goes: it really truly does make the machine seem much higher class than previous models with a much slower wake-up time. This machine is speedy, hasn’t had a real rough time working with any of the built-in apps or functions it’s got out of the box, and is OK for some random gaming here and there. Again, this machine is by no means built for hardcore gamers, but if you’re just looking to play a racing game here and there, you’ll be set.

Battery

One of the most awesome bits in this machine’s bag of tricks is the Instant-On technology Acer is employing, this allowing you to pop your machine open and have it up and running in 2 seconds. The real magic here is when you close the notebook though, as once you’ve closed the machine it goes to one level of sleep, then after 8 hours it goes into a much deeper sleep which will preserve the battery for a total of 50 days — we’ve not had the machine for quite that long, so I’ll report in on that once the battery dies. Thus far we’ve seen this machine play video for 4 hours straight before dying, and with basic functions like typing and web browsing we’re seeing closer to 6.

Wrap-up

This machine is a great example of what the Ultrabook line is meant to be: relatively light, thin, and powerful enough to knock the netbook name out of the realm of reality. With the price on this particular setup being a bit more than the standard build, you’ll need to think about what you’re planning on using the machine for – if it’s home use for the internet and simple games exclusively, you’ll want the more basic Core i5 build. If you’re attempting to run some more impressive games and maybe a bit of the ol’ video processing, this i7 build is the one you want. Toss it in your backpack and be surprised at how little it ads to your daily weight, break it out at the coffee shop and impress the denizens of the generally Apple-heavy world of public browsing. Acer has come through with a winner here, folks, make no mistake about it.

Once you sign in, you’ll see your Twitter feed on the leftmost tab, your mentions next, messages, then two custom tabs. In these tabs you’ll have a selection of Favorites, Lists, Retweets, Mute Filters, Search, and your Profile. These two buttons have all of these options but will not repeat the same option twice. It’s kind of magical like that. Your interface gives you all the options you get on the desktop web browser version of Twitter and more – connections!

When you double-tap on a users profile, you’ll be taken to their profile on Favstar. If you double-tap on the direct messages tab, you get the option of marking all of your DMs as read at once. There’s even a triple-tap for each tweet, your options being several including replying or starring that tweet as a favorite. To access a Tweet’s entire conversation, you’ve only to swipe to the right. If you want to see any replies that a single tweet has gotten, swipe left.

This entire app also has a lovely set of sound effects for each action, each of them a simple foosh, tic, or bamp, making the whole set of interactions fun to initiate. This application is currently on the market for both iPhone and iPad and you can pick up the iPhone version for a cool $2.99 – go grab it!

Hardware

Aesthetics are secondary for a standard desktop, but as they go, the AM3970 is decent. A steel chassis is surrounded by glossy black panels on the front and top, with only two subtle blue LEDs for power and drive status – a plus in my book. The power button is placed oddly on the upper left corner of the right side, making seeing and using it tricky if you place your computer on the floor or to the right of your monitor. On the floor is certainly where it’s intended to be, with four USB ports plus a headphone jack and line in on the top of the computer. The eject button is also on the right side, implying that the computer is intended to be beside or below the user’s desk and to the left, and leaving little choice otherwise. Once placed there, using the SD/MicroSD/Compact Flash/XD/Memory Stick card reader becomes a chore, thanks to the black-on-black inlaid slots.

Move around to the backplate and you’ll find all the standards, with a generous helping of USB ports. The four ports on the top are paired to ten (count ‘em, ten) on the back, leaving all but the most compulsive of plug-and-players well covered. Two of these ports use the new USB 3.0 standard – a nice touch. A pair of standard PS/2 ports are present for all you old-school Model M and Intellimouse enthusiasts. Our review configuration (AM3970-UR11p) came with discrete graphics and the on-board integrated VGA and HDMI ports disabled, with a DVI port and another HDMI taking their place on the expansion slot. Just below that you get a WiFi PCI adapter to compliment the gigabit Ethernet port, complete with detachable antenna.

Moving on to internals, the AM3970 comes with a 3.0Ghz Core i5 2320 CPU, 8GB of DDR3 memory (2×4 DIMMs) and a 1TB traditional hard drive. When compared to similarly priced desktop models from Dell and HP, Acer gives you identical components with an extra 2GB of memory. Along for the ride are a standard DVD-RW drive and a discrete AMD Radeon HD 6450 graphics card. Popping the access panel off requires a screwdriver (no thumbscrews) and while pre-built desktops like this one aren’t often made with expansion in mind, a reinforced back panel and a decent amount of room inside should make that easy enough for those who want to upgrade components later on.

A mouse and keyboard are included, naturally. It’s hard to mess up an optical mouse, but the keyboard deserves special attention – and not in a good way. Long travel on the keys combined with a glossy backing will make cleaning a nightmare, and the mushy feedback had me reaching for my spare Microsoft model almost immediately. This is rather disappointing, especially when compared to the quite respectable keyboards Dell tends to include.

Software

Acer includes the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium, the better to take advantage of that 8GB of RAM. Bloatware on basic desktops can be a problem, but on the AM3970 it’s better than I’ve seen elsewhere. Acer seems to be favoring static and easily deleted desktop shortcuts for a little promotional cash, which is fine by me. You still get a few extras that aren’t strictly called for, including the obligatory Microsoft Office trial and Bing bar, Norton Backup, Nook and New York Times readers, Evernote and Skype. With all that in there it would have been nice to see Chrome or Firefox, saving me a download.

With the exception of McAffee’s nagging reminders, auto-starting software is blessedly limited and mostly silent. The rather superfluous MyWinLocker encryption software, Norton Backup and Acer’s Clear.fi sharing service are the only other hangers-on in the Startup tab. All things considered, it shouldn’t take much for even intermediate Windows users to get the AM3970 running exactly as they want it, with a minimum of tinkering – though I note without surprise that neither an OS install disc or or restore disc is included.

Performance

The combination of a Core processor and plenty of RAM makes standard tasks basically effortless on any modern machine, and such is the case here. But thanks to a little extra memory and the discrete Radeon HD 6450 card, the AM3970 is slightly more capable than its competitors who lack one or both. It should handle processor-intensive talks up to and including some light video editing with ease, and HD video playback is smooth in both local and online playback.

That Radeon 6470 won’t get you very far with the latest PC games, unfortunately, and the combination of a single DVI and HDMI jack means you’ll have to get creative with cables and/or adapters if you want have more than one monitor. That said, less demanding games like Team Fortress 2 and such should function just fine.

Wrap Up

While there’s not much demand for the product category, the AM3970 definitely stands out in its limited field. Generous memory and discrete (if only just) graphics give it a performance boost that will satisfy most, and a ton of USB ports and a roomy interior make it suitable for hardware enthusiasts looking to expand. Software load is relatively light, and Windows regulars will feel right at home and unusually unburdened. The odd ergonomics of the case and downright awful keyboard are an issue, but should be easy enough to adjust to (or in the case of the keyboard, replace). All in all the Acer is a solid choice for those needing desktop-class power without breaking the bank.

This case is 11 inches tall, 9 inches wide, and 1 inch deep, it weighing in at 1.25 points on its own, so it’s not exactly the most tiny case in the land. It’s not made for your briefcase, it’s not made to be used with your day to day school backpack (everyone knows that’s already full to the brim with textbooks anyway, right?) Instead you’ll be tossing any sort of 10-inch tablet you’ve got in here, be it your Samsung Galaxy Tab, your Acer Iconia Tab A500, your HP TouchPad, or even your Motorola XOOM, and bringing it mountain climbing.

Have a peek at what this case actually looks like in the hands-on video above, then feel free to check out the most impressive of all the many ultra-amazing drops that this case has gone through below. This video shows the case carrying an iPad and being dropped from 100,000 feet above the earth. Can you guess what happens when it hits the ground?

As with all G-Form products, this case is not a guarantee that you device will go completely unharmed. Instead what’s included in your limited warrantee is a guarantee that the case itself will hold up (this basically implying that the contents will hold up too, but still.) So when you do have this case, it’s probably better not to try to skewer your pad with a spike or anything like that. Have fun, but don’t go completely crazy. As G-Form notes:

Please Note: We’re happy that some of our customers’ electronics have survived their testing of our Extreme products, but we don’t encourage or recommend intentionally dangerous stunts, and although we are confident that G-Form provides the best protection available, we can’t guarantee your electronics from damage from any specific drop or impact in our Extreme products whether accidental or intentional.  The terms of our limited warranty and liability disclaimer can be found here, and as you can see it covers your portfolio but not your personal property/electronics whether inside or outside!

So our final judgement is this: truly this case is a sight to behold, and we’d bet that there’s nothing we could do to destroy the iPad held within. That said, we’re not going to go out and toss it under a semi-truck just to prove G-Form wrong, so the real test is this: is there any real function to this case other than ultra-protection? Sure! You could use this when traveling to ensure your pad doesn’t get damaged in a bag of rocks, or you could, as I mention above, take this case mountain climbing or biking, or you could potentially use it when you’re camping. The outer bits of the case are rather squishy and feel nice when pressed against your face – why not use it as a pillow?

Other than that, the sheer bulk included here takes out the possibility that you’ll be using this on a regular day-to-day basis. If you work as a gladiator, on the other hand, you’ll be golden! You can purchase this case from G-Form right this second in their online shop for $89.95.

Hardware

For a “budget” minded device, the MOTOLUXE actually has some of the most successful industrial design we’ve seen from Motorola for a while now. There’s none of the clamorous title-chasing of the look-how-thin-I-am DROID RAZR, just a soft-touch monoblock which feels sturdy and creak-free. It’s a nice compromise on scale, too – the 4-inch display makes for a phone good for web-browsing and multimedia playback, but not so large as to monopolize your hand, pocket or purse. It’s important to note that this is a pre-final device – hence the preview, rather than a full review.

Motorola MOTOLUXE hands-on:

Motorola’s budget has some obvious consequences, though; the screen is 854 x 480 resolution, rather than qHD or 720p, and the processor is an 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7227A paired with just 512MB of RAM and 1GB of ROM. Still, you get an 8-megapixel camera with autofocus and an LED flash, though only a VGA resolution front camera, while the HSDPA radio is limited to 7.2Mbps download rates (network depending) rather than faster HSPA+ speeds.

There’s also WiFi b/g/n, FM radio, Bluetooth 3.0 and GPS, though no NFC; a 3.5mm headphone socket and microUSB 2.0 port, through no MHL HDMI output. The most striking element of the 117.7 x 60.5 x 9.85 mm handset is the broad LED indicator strip in the lower left corner of the fascia – with a cutaway strip underneath – that lights up according to charging status, new alerts and when the battery is running low. It looks great, though it can be distracting if you’re the sort of person who charges their phone overnight with it on the nightstand.

Software

Motorola loads the MOTOLUXE with Android 2.3.7 complete with some Moto Switch 2.0 customizations, though since this is a non-final device we won’t be benchmarking it or passing any lasting judgements. We’d obviously prefer to see Ice Cream Sandwich in play, and Motorola’s tweaked iconography is somewhat underwhelming. Perhaps we’re just reluctant to change, but the graphics aren’t as instantly obvious as Android’s native icon set, leading to hunting when you’re chasing down a specific app.

Stand-out elements in Moto Switch 2.0 are the lockscreen shortcuts, which takes a leaf out of HTC Sense’s book and offers quick access to apps from the lockscreen itself. Motorola outplays HTC by offering six shortcuts rather than its rival’s four, though. Meanwhile there are favorite-apps and favorite-contacts cluster widgets on the seven-pane homescreen, which can either display your most  frequently run/contacted software and people automatically, or show those you manually pin to the group. Unfortunately there’s no way to have a halfway house of both, pinning some shortcuts while allowing the others to dynamically change.

Camera

8-megapixels is healthy for a low-cost device, though there’s obviously more to good photography than raw pixel count. The MOTOLUXE does a reasonable job, though it’s very much dependent on getting sufficient natural light. Colors tend to be muted and there’s noticeable noise around indoor shots. Remember, though, that this could change with final software.

Phone and Battery

In-call audio was solid and the MOTOLUXE’s size made it comfortable to hold for extended conversations. Motorola rates the battery life of the smartphone at up to 6.5 hours of 2G talktime (4.5hrs 3G) and 400 hours of 2G standby (450 hours 3G); we found the MOTOLUXE was easily able to last a day of average use.

Wrap-Up

Motorola has a reasonably wide remit for the MOTOLUXE, targeting it at developing markets in addition to low-cost contract and pre-pay customers elsewhere. If you’re buying a phone with an agreement – and thus a subsidy – there’s a solid argument to be made that upfront cost is relatively insignificant: we’d always recommend going for the best device around, even if it’s more expensive, since the difference in what you pay on day one is marginal in the context of the average two-year agreement.

Still, for pre-pay customers or those wanting an affordable SIM-free device, there’s a lot to like about the MOTOLUXE. The screen offers a solid compromise over size and usability, and the build construction – though not a true “rugged” phone – is high enough to make the smartphone feel surprisingly premium. The camera is only passable and Moto Switch 2.0 is underwhelming, but the sticker price reflects that. Compared to other budget options on the market, the MOTOLUXE has plenty in its favor.

Thanks to Clove for the loan of the MOTOLUXE unit. The handset is available to order now, priced at £215 plus tax.

The video you’re about to see shows both the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the ASUS Transformer Prime, each of them running Android 4.x Ice Cream Sandwich, each of them running this first public release of Chrome Beta. You’ll find the experiences to be very similar with slight changes in icons and text locations due to size of display, and the same ability to see other devices as well as pre-fetch data from webpages before they’re needed. Notice though the slight differences – the ability to use the voice recognition engine on the tablet and the same option not appearing on the phone.

You’ll find that the nicest looking (or perhaps just the most visually striking) feature is the tabs browser. As you hit the number next to your URL bar – or “Omnibox” as Google has taken to calling it – you’ll see several cards appear. These cards are you tabs, and they can be accessed by tapping, destroyed by swiping, and pushed apart or together – the coolness of this increased by your ability to turn on Tilt Scrolling. This appears to use gravity but actually uses your accelerometer in your device to make the cards appear to move on their own when you tilt your device.

Link Previewing is a feature that Google speaks about in their trailer for the browser but we’ve not encountered a use for thus far. It’s supposed to have links popping up in balloons, essentially, when they’d otherwise be hard to tap. Using these previews has been so off-and-on for us that we’ll wait to show it off in any real manner. Signing in works far better, it allowing you, again, to access the tabs you’ve been using on other machines with Chrome on the fly. Your Chrome iterations also learn from one another for smart URL completion, but watch out if you’re using your Transformer Prime and expect to be able to select one of these pre-typed selections with your arrow keys – that’s not yet integrated.

Another point of interest when comparing the two different sized versions here: Tilt Scrolling is an option for both, but there’s no card tabs in the tablet-based Chrome like there is in the smartphone-based Chrome. You can still push your tabs back and forth in a similar manner above your browser window, but they don’t slide exactly like the smartphone-based card tabs.

Bookmark syncing works between devices, and the whole experience is appearing already to be a much faster and more pleasing experience than the stock Android browser as it stands today. Check the gallery below for some benchmark results as we grab them, and don’t forget to download the browser for yourself. Chrome Beta is available on the Android Market right this minute for free, [download it instantly] for your Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and above device.

What you’re going to see here is the application process for both iterations of Spigen’s glass-based screen protector solution, one thick, one not quite as thick, both powerful in their protection and overall excellence. The Ultimate Class uses a kind of material called GP73 which allows it to be twice as thick as your favorite screen protector and will fit perfectly on your iPhone 4 or 4S display. This pane has a hole for the speaker, the home button, and the front-facing camera on your iPhone.

The GLAS.t is Spigen’s newest solution, this one made out of real Oleophobic Coated Chemically Treated Glass, another formula made for perfect protection of your device. This pane has just two holes, one for the speaker and one for the home button, and will not affect your camera’s vision in a perceivable way because of its transparency. The installation process on the GLAS.t is a bit more difficult because the pane is much more rigid than the Ultimate Class, but as you can see here in my first attempt, it’s certainly not impossible.

The thickness on the Ultimate Class is 0.2mm while the GLAS.t is twice as thick at 0.4mm, making the protection twice as great as well. Take a peek at the difference in thickness here, and feel the power!

I’ve used both panes now and can confidently say I’ve got no worries that any damage to the front of my iPhone will result in damage of the display – one good crack with a hammer might do it in, but then we’ll just need a new GLAS.t, and at these prices – why not?

You can pick up the GLAS.t for a grand total of $27.99 before shipping, and the ship date is currently set for the 24th of February. The Ultimate Class is currently out of stock, but is also set at $27.99 when it was available last. Now you’ve just got to go through the billion and a half backside covers for the iPhone and find one that rocks enough to utilize and you’ll be set!

This pair of earbuds is one of several created in collaboration between thinksound CEO and acclaimed Audio Engineer Aaron Fournier and a set of musicians all aiming to create a pair of earbuds with nothing less than a full range of sound and acoustics worthy of their end price. At $99.99 a pop, we’d expect nothing less than the best for our ears constantly bombarded by the evil of lesser sound-blasters. That’s just what thinksound delivers, thankfully, and in the video you’re about to see you’ll hear just that.

What you’re listening to in the back half of the video there is a new single from Jack White, a fellow you might recognize from the White Stripes, this music played from the audio jack of an iPhone 4S through the ms01 phones and the camera I’m using here: a Lumix GF1. So what you’re hearing isn’t exactly what you’ll hear in the end, but you’ll get an OK idea of how lovely the sound does hum. That said, you’ll only really know how excellent these buds sound once you’ve got them on yourself.

These 8mm drivers inside the phones are working at 18Hz to 20kHz frequency response, and when the buds are in your ears you’ve got passive noise isolation working for you so the sound you want to hear is basically all you’ll hear. The first time I tried the ms01 buds out, the music I’d been listening to for months before came through in a while new way, at a whole new level of warmth and depth. These buds are without a doubt the finest set of in-ear earphones I’ve experienced thus far. I’ve not had this quality sound since I first set up my own pair of gigantic speakers to a record player from the 1980′s – there’s just something there that you can’t get anywhere else.

As far as the actual hardware in the buds besides the buds themselves, the whole setup is lightweight, the cords are PVC-free and “tangle resistant,” and you get a pair of Active Lifestyle Ear Hooks to keep these phones in your ears if you’re the type to have your head jamming around on a regular basis. If you’re in the gym quite often, you’ll also be glad to know that these buds are sweat-resistant.

The plug is 3.5mm large and gold-plated, while the buds have four different sets of flexible silicon ear inserts for all your different kinds of holes. You get a cord clip and a cotton carrying pouch as well as a 1 year warranty to keep your brain at ease. As with all thinksound phones, these buds are made with a tiny eco-footprint and “green” in mind, the phones made of real wood taken from renewable sources, the packaging is made of recycled materials, and the packaging is completely bleach-free. There’s no plastic bubbles, PVC, or gigantic packaging here.

You can pick your own pair of these beasts up right now at the thinksound shop online at store.thinksound.com and check out the rest of their products while you’re at it. You’ll be dropping $99.99 for this set, then you’ve got the option to get extra buds and accessories along with them for a few extra bucks as well. Have at them!

Intoxicase doesn’t just represent itself with a case or two, no way, it’s got a whole app dedicated to it as well! What you’re going to do here is to download the very free app, get it prepared to pop open bottles of what you plan on drinking, and get to unlidding! Of course the app contains sharing capabilities, a counter to see how many brews you downed, and a massive library of beers so you can select the exact brand you love most – or if it isn’t there, enter it in yourself! The app also works as a standalone adventure if you’re just thinking about getting a case – hit the tap and pretend you popped the bottle with your phone: you’ll be converted in no time.

The actual cases are ultra high quality. Both the original and the Plus model have been made to work with your iPhone and not just protect it, having a hole for the camera and its lens, a spot for all of your buttons and ports to show through, and some light decoration so you know you’re not just in it for the beers. The video you’re going to see with the case and the app has the Intoxicase Plus attached to the iPhone 4S – enjoy the loveliness of the whole combo. Then pick up everything you need over at Intoxicase.com, and get to drinking – it’s Thirsty Thursday for crying out loud, and after noon!

BONUS the application itself contains two services you’re going to CERTAINLY take advantage of should you download it: taxi listings and a tap-to-park service so you can find the place you last left your car. Convenient, the both of them!

What we’ve got running here is an iPad 2 and an iPhone 4S to show you the differences between interfaces here in tablet and smartphone. They aren’t many, but they are there, and you can see instantly that this app really works better on the bigger display. That said, it works just as fast to use it on your phone whatever that phone may be. You get access to all of the pages you’d normally get in your newspaper, including advertisements and the funnies, all in this new digital format.

If you’re really feeling like you want to dip into the future, you could refrain from cutting your newspaper up each time you see an article your relation has been named in and simply take a screenshot here instead – save the earth! Trees will be thanking you, thanking you around the earth. The application here itself is free on iOS for iPad and iPhone as well as free on Android for smartphones and tablets – and will work fine in the future for Ice Cream Sandwich without and differentiation between the two.

Once you’re in, you’ll get seven issues of a few popular newspapers for free, and subscriptions will cost you $9.99 a month. You can also pick up individual titles for $0.99 a copy – a deal you cannot possibly pass up – right? Think about that one.

Hardware

Dropcam’s is rightly proud of the HD: its first-gen hardware, the Echo, was designed externally, but the company brought development in-house for this new model. The end result is something that looks far more consumer-friendly than the blocky white Echo. The Dropcam HD itself is a small glossy black puck that slots into a detachable metal stand with a posable base: together, they’re 4.5-inches high and about 3.15-inches across.

The hinged base is stiff enough to stay at whatever angle you set it to, and you can tilt the Dropcam HD itself in the stand to fine-tune things. Power is courtesy of a compact AC brick with a long microUSB cable up to the camera itself; unlike the previous Dropcam models, there’s no ethernet option, only WiFi b/g/n, though that’s no great loss for the consumer market. A rubber foot for the stand has a clip to keep the power cable in place.

Setup requires plugging the Dropcam HD into your computer via USB, creating an account through Dropcam’s site and punching in your WiFi network credentials. After that, it automatically logs on overtime it’s powered up. There’s a 12-LED infrared light array around the lens, for nighttime use, along with a speaker and a microphone.

Service

Part of the easy setup of the Dropcam Echo is the absence of any local software to install: everything is accessed – and stored – in the cloud. The company offer several tiers of service: the free “Basic” package allows you to log in and view live streaming video, either through the regular browser or the iOS app, but no recording functionality. There are also email and mobile (iPhone-only) alerts triggered by the sound and motion sensors. For $9.95 per month and the “Plus” package you get live streaming together with seven days of archive access (and the ability to download select clips or photos to your own computer).

Finally, the “Pro” plan offers 30 days of online recording for $29.95. It’s worth noting that the subscription fees increase per camera you add: $4.95 per extra for the Plus plan or $14.95 per month for the Pro plan. If you have, say, three cameras and want a month’s historic access to the footage each records, you’re looking at almost $60 per month. The Android and iPhone apps themselves are free and work with all tiers of service, though there’s no iPad-specific version. If you have a device with Flash support in the browser, you can log into the Dropcam site and stream video that way instead.

Performance

Where the original Dropcam was limited to QVGA 320 x 240 resolution video, and only offered streaming two-way audio on a more expensive model, the Dropcam HD promises both 720p HD footage and sound as standard.

Unfortunately video quality is only average, suffering particularly in low-light, though it’s reasonably smooth thanks to the 30fps refresh rate. Audio quality is fair, and the microphone is actually quite sensitive, though we noticed a significant amount of crackling both through the desktop UI and the mobile apps. The speaker – used for two-way audio – is small and subsequently suffers very low volume, and there’s no audio output for plugging in a more vocal system. With observed a roughly 2-3 second delay on audio.

Desktop

iPhone 4S

Galaxy Nexus

Motion and audio detection are both very sensitive, and lack controls to adjust exactly what they’ll respond to. Each will mark the online timeline (in the Plus and Pro subscription packages) to indicate when noise or movement was spotted; both packages, plus the Free plan, can optionally send out an alert to let you know something has happened. Their effectiveness is generally down to where the camera is positioned, and if you have pets you can expect plenty of false alarms.

Still, the automatic flagging makes reviewing footage a lot more straightforward than scrubbing through the entire timeline, and you can request a download clip of any section that comes through in MP4 format with audio.

Wrap-Up

Setup, convenience and – if you opt for a subscription – functionality can’t be criticized in the Dropcam HD. The camera is compact, discrete and easy to place, especially if you use only the puck central section, which blends reasonably well into the shadows, and the desktop UI and mobile apps are straightforward to use.

Although the subscription-free option is welcome, we can’t really recommend it for any but the most casual of users. Even with the real-time movement alerts, you’ll probably struggle to access the webcam feed quickly enough to see what has been happening; that’s when the online DVR feature comes in most useful.

That said, the $149 starting price for the Dropcam HD is just that: a starting figure after which you have to take into account subscription fees. Dropcam offers a year’s access to the Plus plan for $99.95 if you pay upfront; still, scale up to a few cameras spread about the house, as many home surveillance enthusiasts would prefer, and you’re looking at a few hundred dollars each year. Contrast that with Logitech’s Alert camera system, which offers local DVR-style storage on your home network (and premium remote access to recordings for $80 per year, per system).

The Dropcam service is certainly easy to use, and there are handy sharing features, which allow you to send clips and images to others – great for showing grandparents what the baby is up to – but it’s an expensive way of doing things. In the end, you pay for the privilege of Dropcam’s simplicity.
-dropcam HD

The hardware thats being used here is the bit we’re going to focus on, the software being part of a 3rd party: KRINK if you’d like to know is what we’re using for this example – downloadable in the iTunes Appstore now for both iPad and iPhone. The hardware being used here on the pens consists of smooth plastic* for the shaft, and extendable back bit incase your hands aren’t suited to crayon-length pens, and a pen tip made with high polymer abrasion-resistant coated silicon.

*The plastic is just the coating, and we can only assume it’s something like plastic as the innards are actually made of brass, this offering you an ultra light weight pen in the end with a smooth grip. The Strap Plug they tell you on the package should not be used to hang your pen from your device, only then made to keep the cap in place while you’re writing, but between you and me, you don’t have to tell anyone you’re doing it. Know this though: if you get the tip stuck in there then while doing something you’re not supposed to do, you’re on your own! I should also note that though I use these pens on the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S in the demo video, they work with all manner of mobile devices be they Galaxy Tabs, LG smartphones, Windows Phones by HTC, or the ASUS Transformer Prime – basically anything you can think of along those lines will work, smartphones and tablets galore.

That said, the H12 pen has very similar specifications, with a full-length pen on your hands instead of an extendable bit, and it’s here in classy white if you’d like to know. Both of these pens are available in the Spigen SGP store right this second. The Kuel H10 comes in yellow, pink, red, black, and white and will run you a cool $12.99, while the Kuel H12 will cost you just a bit more at $19.99 but comes in several classy colors and a lovely form factor as well: black, gray, or white.

Hardware

While LG does still have one of my favorite devices ever in the G2X released last year, this device feels a bit large for the average citizen. Certainly consider whether you need all the extra space in this gigantic four and half inch display before you go purchasing it, especially since your thumb wont be able to reach the other end of your screen without assistance of your other hand. When playing games and watching video though, this display is top of class. The camera also has us dazzled and is certainly up there in the top 10 cameras thus produced on a smartphone.

The onboard speaker system is fairly excellent, though still pointing out the back of the device as too many smartphones and tablets these days are, still working perfectly well if you’ve got it up against a wall from whens it can reflect. Plug in some headphones and you’ll have a great time all around. This device has a slightly odd look to it with the three button selection below the display, but therein proves its readiness for Ice Cream Sandwich – that’s not a menu button, it’s a multitasking button.

Software

LG has chosen to continue to use their slightly unintuitive user interface over Android 2.3 Gingerbread here, showing how little it trusts in the original build of Android especially in the apps drawer with row after row of titles for app collections. While it all may appear clunky in comparison to the basic build of Android, it does all move super slick, and even offers a selection of themes at the bottom of the home screen with which you can make profiles for yourself. These aren’t the sort of themes like you get with an HTC device with color changes and backgrounds and all that – instead you can set up which apps you need where for Work, then make another for Home, and etcetera. Functionality here is what’s being pushed, made for people with a need for different environments for their smartphone indeed.

Camera

I can’t say enough about how nice the camera in this device is. Though the interface isn’t my favorite in the world (I’m much preferring the stock Ice Cream Sandwich interface at the moment), this skinned version of the Gingerbread shooter certainly gets the job done right. LG has reminded us why it’s 8 megapixels, not a speedy 5 megapixels, that does it best on Android. Have a peek at some photo and video examples here and in the gallery below to get a good idea of what we’re dealing with.

Phone and Battery

The phone quality is perfectly legitimate, like most smartphones these days running on Verizon’s network coming in and sending out clear voice anywhere I roam inside the Twin Cities here in Minnesota. The battery is surprisingly powerful, lasting at LEAST one day with medium to heavy usage and two days (as you can see here) with light usage. Play some streaming video with your built-in Netflix app and you’ll see considerably degrading excellence at something like 6 hours total.

Wrap-up

This is certainly one of the top five LG smartphones ever to be released, and definitely beats out the LG Revolution released last year with LTE as the best LG device on Verizon right this minute. It’s relatively sleek, light, and has a fabulous camera, all this aside from the fact that if you live in an LTE area, it’s very, very fast data-wise. The decision you must make now is whether you want to sacrifice Ice Cream Sandwich as found on the Galaxy Nexus in exchange for the nicer camera on this device – if that’s not a great tradeoff for you, stick with the former.

There’s one massive list of strange customers that wear the original LP model customized to their liking – Paris Hilton, Gio Conzales, NERVO, and Lindsay Lohan to name a few. And though celebrity names like Kobe Bryant wont do one whole heck of a lot for audiophiles when it comes to actual audio quality, you can bet that this team of manufacturers isnt going anywhere any time soon. And I’m here to tell you right now: if it’s good enough for Paul Oakenfold, it’s good enough for me.

Unboxing

So we’ve got a pair of $199 headphones here in a box that you’ve got to cut a ribbon to get into. The box itself is impressive enough what with cardboard around it that’s thicker than the jacket of a hardcover book, then the top has a button hinge and a snakeskin strap (fake, we hope) that keeps the contents beyond safe in their travels to the specialty shops. Inside you’ll find padding around a monster shell which contains the headphones and the mass of cords and plugs that come with it.

Package Contents

Inside the shell are the headphones themselves, two detachable cables with 24k gold-plated plugs: both of them fabric, 3.5mm jacks, and universally compatible with all headphone jack-having devices. One is is a classic cable with no added features along it, the other has a 3-button remote control able to work with Apple products including iPhone, iPad, and MacBook. Also inside is a converter plug for plugging these same cables into your larger amplifier, and all of these items are held down with a couple of strap-heavy removable panels that you can use (or not use) inside your shell – one also has a belt clip so you can attach your goods to your side when the shell is too big to bring with you on the go.

Military Grade Construction

The shell is a hard exoskeleton carrying case that’s black-on-black printed and ribbed on the outside surrounded by a red and black zipper and embroidered in red with the V-Moda logo at the top. Inside is a lovely bright red padded container custom molded for your V-MODA Limited Edition Crossfade LP2s. Great for tossing in your backpack for long trips on airplanes or short trips to the recording studio. Don’t worry too much about damage, on the other hand, because with these phones you’ve got an Immortal Life Program – this allowing you a 50% off lifetime discount if you’ve accidentally smashed the crap out of your phones and want to pick up a new pair – cheap!

For the phones themselves, you’ve got a business that’s ready and willing to help you get the best fit and feel the most awesome when you’re using your headset on the regular. Get a taste of trueHERTZ to see what I mean. As far as how hardcore the equipment is, Military-Grade durability should keep you sleeping at night:

The Crossfade LP2 is tested under strict MIL-STD-810G military testing and V-MODA’s even tougher VMQA guidelines:

• Kevlar® reinforced detachable cables and 45-degree plug strain relief can each bend over 1 million times, over 100x industry standards
• Survives 70+ drops on concrete from 6 feet, approximately 3x the industry standard
• Headband can bend 10+ times flat, not break and retain its memory and shape
• Virtually inaudible sound variances across the spectrum of less than 2dB from unit to unit versus 10-30dB+ of inferior products
• MIL-STD-810G environmental tests including high and low temperatures, humidity, salt spray and UV exposure

Sound

As for sound – and I know you’ve been waiting for this after all that talk about every other possible aspect of these phones – you’ve got what V-Moda calls Live Play Sound. It’s a patent-pending “biggest-in-class” set of 50mm Dual-Diaphragm Drivers and V-PORT 3D staging. This setup, they say, is able to recreate the sound of multiple drivers at the same time as it sticks to the consistency of a single quality driver. The Crossfade LP2 phones are fine-tuned with a 31-band EQ, this keeping your eardrums in tact whilst delivering a wide range of sounds with high quality power.

Wrap-Up

And indeed that is what they do. If you were looking for assurance from your humble narrator here that these headphones sound fabulous – they certainly attain that level of approval from me. These are without a doubt the finest set of over-ear headphones I’ve tested at this point for the price point they set at, and are currently my day-to-day go-to pair for everyday listening as well as listening out in the wild – read: at coffee shops and at the library.

For DJ situations, again, I’ll trust the tests of the masters listed above working with the model that came before this one, essentially the same in build and quality. What this set offers is a bump above the original LP model, and without a doubt they are worth the cash you toss down on them at $199. You can also grab yourself a pair of custom metal plate replacements if you really want to – go ahead! Treat yourself! These limited editions are available at V-Moda’s online shop while supplies last.

The build you’re seeing here is what you’ll get when you update your ASUS Transformer Prime to ICS, and the first thing you’ll see is that it’s not Vanilla. The way ASUS has worked with Android 4.0 is in a way that makes it NEARLY Vanilla, that is completely unmodified by the manufacturer, but they’ve done some cool changes themselves. They’ve not only done a good job in not taking too much out or adding too much back in in this build, and you’ll see right away that the system is slick as ever.

The icons for the basic built-in applications have been changed to Ice Cream Sandwich loveliness, and interfaces have been changed to several basic Google-built apps. None of the apps are all that different from what you’ve seen in our original Ice Cream Sandwich review save their size except for the camera app which has been modified to work with the tablet’s bigger form factor. Like Honeycomb you’ll see that both the lock when you wake the tablet up and the controls on the camera app are sitting on the far right, complete with circular controls for things like zooming in and out.

You wont find the same shutter speed you saw on the first ICS device out there, the Galaxy Nexus, simply because that’s a feature built into the device, not the software. Similarly you will not find the facial recognition screen unlock – we’re guessing this is because there’ve been so many problems surrounding the lock thus far that ASUS decided to hold off on it for now for their device here. The settings menu is updated to the full ICS experience, complete with “developer” controls – head to the Force GPU Rendering option for a lovely GPU treat.

Have a peek at the images above and below as well as the hands-on video to get a full look at this build, then feel free to ask any additional questions you’ve got about the system in the comments below. Additionally if there are any tests you’d like done on this tablet with this version of Android on it, ask and you shall receive!

Hardware

Nokia has presented the world with a Windows Phone that’s got the backing of a well-known manufacturer mixed now with a relatively new but recognizable brand for smartphones. What Nokia is bringing to the party here is a device with a fabulous feel and a high-quality build that will have purchasers of the more expensive Windows Phone devices on the market saying “wait, why did I pay all this money when that free Nokia phone is just as sweet?” It’s got a pretty excellent camera on the back (just 5 megapixels, but nice nonetheless, read more below), the front has a display that’s the perfect size for accessing it in its entirety with just one hand’s thumb, and the plastic is smooth and high-class feeling to the touch.

One of the reasons Nokia seems so cool to the rest of the world, USA citizens, is that it’s essentially ubiquitous, as the ringtone suggests. What Nokia has done here is to bring that feeling in to the USA with Windows Phone as its passenger, bringing two relatively great names together in hopes that they’ll finally get the recognition they feel they deserve here in the United States. With this type of build, they should have no problem. Now what they’ve got to worry about is pushing it all with the correct advertisements and backing from, for example, celebrities galore.

Software

You’re using Windows Phone Mango here, and with it comes all the bells and whistles you’ve come to expect from this version of Windows Phone. We’ve got a full review of this software from back when it was first released, and it’s not all the different now save for a few applications. What you get when you jump in to this device is a few bonuses that come only with a T-Mobile phone. One of these is the T-Mobile TV app, one where you can get all sorts of live television channels and pre-loaded episodes of TV shows for one monthly price: $9.99. It’s certainly a decent value proposition for those of you wanting to watch television on the bus or the train, and I would mention that you should be wary of your connection, but they’ve got a “download now” feature now to keep your shows for later, so it’s pretty neat. That and Netflix should have you drowning in video content until the sun comes up.

From there it’s all personalized tiles, color changes, and moving content galore. Included here as well is a fantastic Maps apps which, if you’ve never seen it before, will blow you away with how nicely it works for viewing your house from outer space and getting turn-by-turn directions. Tell that to the Samsunged people, why don’t you?

Camera

The camera is a surprising perk on this already relatively neat little device. In that it’s just 5 megapixels strong, it’s certainly not the greatest capturer of all time, but it’s quick! Take a peek at the hands-on video above to see how fabulously fast it is able to take photos, then check out these examples below. You’ll find the top-quality video and photos being shown here and in the gallery at the bottom of this post, each with different lighting and at different distances.

Phone and Battery

The battery has also been a surprise star, lasting at least one full day (right around 8 hours) with medium use throughout the day. Like any smartphone, you will want to charge this device up as often as you can, just incase you have some heavy usage in an odd spot. Watching streaming video when you’re in a traffic jam, for example. The phone quality for talk through T-Mobile’s network has been similarly excellent, with no dropped calls happening during our testing and just as clear a voice out as in throughout the week we’ve had the device.

Wrap-up

The T-Mobile carried Nokia Lumia 710 is a fine addition to the Windows Phone family. Nokia has played it safe here with a collection of hardware bits that not only fit the Microsoft set of parameters set out for devices running their mobile OS, but fit right inside what we’ve seen in the past for Nokia’s own line as well. It’s a convergence of minds here, ladies and gentlemen, and if Nokia can stay the course with Windows Phone here for a few more devices, I’d say they’re good to go for quite a few more years in smartphone manufacturing on the whole.

A free update for the iPad, iBook 2 adds a new section for Textbooks in among the existing categories. The download process is the usual couple of taps, and then navigating interactive textbooks uses all the gestures and multitouch we’re familiar with from other apps on iOS devices.

Something you notice from the start is how smooth the iBooks textbooks experience is. The opening video plays instantly, galleries slide and swoop with no lag, and the transitions between text and full-screen animation is pause-free. Apple is, unsurprisingly, demonstrating them on the iPad 2, so we’ll have to wait and see how the first-generation – and single core – iPad handles multimedia-heavy texts.

Individual books are anything from a CD’s worth to as much as 3GB, though that does mean that you don’t need a data connection while reading. Everything is stored locally, which increases speed and usability; after all, there’s no point having a digital textbook if you can’t access it from a non-wirelessly-enabled classroom.

In short, iBooks 2 is amazing, and I wish I was back in school. You can download it yourself from the App Store now.

Hardware

Not so long ago, HP was synonymous with cheap, bulky and entirely plastic machines that would crack and warp at the drop of the hat. But with the ENVY, EliteBook and now the Folio lines, they’re bucking the trend and bringing a little pride back to the old Hewlett Packard name. The Folio is neither the thinnest nor the lightest Ultrabook around, but when the difference is measured in millimeters and ounces, that doesn’t necessarily bother me. The screen lid and palmrest use a stylish brushed aluminum that looks good while keeping fingerprints mostly invisible, but the bezel and underside are soft-touch plastic, probably chosen to keep the weight down.

The Folio has a few touches that are nice to see on a notebook starting at just $900, particularly the backlit keyboard – a rare sight even in supposedly upmarket Ultrabooks. Since HP fancies this a business-class machine, that means comparing the keyboard to the best: Lenovo’s ThinkPads. While the short travel and slight flex of the keys don’t quite measure up to those lofty goals, it’s plenty comfortable even for extended typing, and the chicklet style makes it easy to care for. For those who place high importance on such a small detail (like yours truly) the Function key is to the right of the Control key, so you won’t have any trouble with the key combos stored in your muscle memory. The right shift key is also full-sized, unlike some Asus models.

The touchpad on the Folio deserves particular attention, because it’s the first all-in-one design I’ve seen that can hold a candle to the MacBook. While it’s not quite as easy to glide the cursor around due to a plastic construction, it’s still accurate and responsive. And, miracle of miracles, it’s the first PC touchpad with an integrated click that I’ve been able to reliably perform a triple-tap on, which defaults to the extremely useful middle-click command.

Ports on the Folio are a little lacking, but no more so than they are on competing models. On the left you get Ethernet, HDMI, USB 3.0 and an SD card slot, while on the right you get a spare USB 2.0 and a combined headphone/microphone port. Aside from that, the 13-inch 1366×768 screen and commendable Dolby speakers are the extent of the input/output options. Inside the base model features a Core i5 ULV processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory, Intel HD3000 integrated graphics and a 128GB solid state drive.

All of these are perfectly functional, and even pretty good values given the price – except for the screen. Ignoring for a moment that the only resolution option is the rather pedestrian 1366×768, the screen’s contrast is awful. Reading anything but black-on-white text it a chore, and I had to change the default Windows color scheme to something darker just to avoid straining my eyes. Considering the excellent LED screen on the ENVY 15, this is a major dissapointment. If the rest of the Folio’s charms lead you to consider a purchase, make sure and find one in a retail environment before laying down you cash, just to make sure you’re alright with the sub-par screen.

Software

The Folio 13 comes with Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, in line with the “business Ultrabook” moniker. The laptop is surprisingly free of bloatware, choosing instead to display a few easily-deleted links on the desktop. You still get HP’s suite of built-in detritus, including a movie and game store, plus Microsoft’s ubiquitous Bing bar and Office trial. Norton anti-virus and Evernote are some you might actually want to hold on to, but for those who prefer a stock experience, it shouldn’t take more than twenty minutes or so to remove all the unwanted software. This is a much better state of affairs than you’ll find on many equivalent laptops, even in the “premium” space.

Performance

After loading up some of my proffered programs like Chrome, getting around the familiar Windows interface was easy and without issue. Though the screen was a problem, it’s more than mitigated by the Folio’s excellent battery life – more on that later. The little Folio’s specifications are more than enough to handle basic browsing, office and media tasks, and should do just fine with more advanced fare like Photoshop editing in a pinch – just don’t expect it to get 30 frames per second in Skyrim. But then, you’d never play on company time, would you?

Media & Battery

While the Folio lacks the Beats audio found on the ENVY line, the Dolby speakers that run between the hinges are more than loud enough to enjoy a movie comfortably between three or four people. Hi-fi they’re not (even if the rather fetching grille implies as such) but for a laptop, and especially one so small, they’re more than serviceable. With relatively little storage space and no DVD drive, you’ll have to rely on web video for most of your visual entertainment, and I’m sorry to say that the combination of low-bitrate video and a low-contrast screen is not a pleasant one. The reflective plastic finish doesn’t help, but it’s far from the worst that I’ve seen.

And now we come to the area where the Folio 13 absolutely shines: the battery. HP has made a point of extolling its 9-hour life in advertising, so I made sure to put the little laptop through its paces. I’m pleased to report that it broke the 8-hour mark in two tests and made it all the way to 9:15 on a third before dying. That’s almost exactly as much as my ThinkPad T420 with an extended 9-cell battery – that’s it dwarfing the Folio in the photo above. While there’s no replaceable battery option, this should be more than enough for anything short of a cross-continental flight. I performed my tests with 60% brightness and medium-to-heavy web browsing, with some Flash video thrown in – if you spend all your time on Netflix or YouTube, expect that figure to dip a bit.

Wrap-up

The Folio 13 is a good showing for HP, combining solid value, admirable build quality and excellent longevity into a package that’s only slightly bigger than other Ultrabooks. If you’re looking for an ultrabook that won’t have you scrambling for a power outlet, this is pretty much your only option at the moment – for an afternoon outing you can even leave the AC power adapter behind. The screen is an unfortunate fly in the ointment, but it’s counter-balanced by the best all-in-one touchpad I’ve ever used on the PC side of things. If you’ve got a budget that won’t stretch beyond a thousand dollars and a desire for all-day computing in a light package, the Folio might be the best in a field of one. That said, with all the Ultrabooks shown at CES 2012 (including HP’s own stunning ENVY 14 Spectre) you might wait a couple of months before making your final decision.

For a look at all the nooks and crannies, have a gander at our hands-on video below:

Hardware

We can’t say ZTE’s styling has exactly blown us away. In fact, the Tania proved instantly reminiscent of another game-changer: 2008′s Touch HD by HTC. Comparisons of its new Windows Phone to an aging Windows Mobile device probably isn’t what ZTE had in mind, but the soft-touch but plain plastic back cover, along with the squared-off fascia suggest the company may have some way to go before its design chops match up to those of Apple, Samsung and others.

Still, it’s functional, and the 128.6 x 67.8 x 10.7 mm body feels sturdy in the hand. Inside there’s a 1GHz single-core Qualcomm MSM8255 processor paired with 512MB of RAM, triband GSM/EDGE and dualband UMTS/HSDPA 14.4Mbps connectivity, along with WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1. A-GPS, a digital compass, accelerometer, ambient light sensor and a proximity sensor are pretty much par for the course, however there’s only a mere 4GB of storage – just 2.51GB was showing up as user-accessible on our unit – and, since you don’t get a microSD card slot, there’s no way to add to it.

HTC Tania Preview:

Unfortunately, the 4.3-inch WVGA display is a let-down. We won’t knock ZTE for the resolution, since that’s a Windows Phone limit at the moment, but the panel itself is unimpressive in comparison to even regular LCDs, never mind AMOLED-based options as used by Samsung and Nokia. Viewing angles are shallow, and there’s noticeable bleed from the backlighting along the bottom edge. Even viewed dead-on, colors are more muted than we’d like to see. We can understand ZTE looking for the cheapest possible hardware for a budget device, but unless you’ve not used a smartphone for several years, you’ll probably be disappointed with the Tania’s panel.

Software

ZTE hasn’t finalized its Tania firmware yet, and so we didn’t look into benchmarking or rigorously testing the software side of the smartphone. Windows Phone 7.5 Mango is onboard, though no sign of any custom apps or pre-loads by ZTE itself.

As a starter smartphone platform, the sort ZTE’s target audience is likely looking for, Windows Phone has its obvious strengths. The “Live Tile” Start screen is simple but – if you set it up right – can be effective, and the integration with Xbox LIVE and Office is useful if you have the write kit and apps at home.

ZTE’s biggest challenge – and the biggest challenge it will present – is probably Nokia, which harbors its own plans to tackle the entry-level segment, though the Finns do have their exclusive Nokia Music and Nokia Drive apps, among others, to distinguish them from the crowd. In contrast, ZTE’s bundled services are conspicuous by their absence.

Camera

5-megapixels is fast being left behind at the top-end of the smartphone segment, but is still admirable at the entry-level, especially when many budget Android phones offer a mere 3.2-megapixels. Of course, there’s more to good photographs than how many pixels you have, and the Tania does a reasonable job all-round.

Given enough natural light, shots are clear and exposure is reasonable, though colors are muted. In low-light conditions, mind, that restraint dips into murkiness, with grain beginning to show. The LED flash is, like most examples of its ilk, only really effective in a narrow sweet-spot neither too close nor too distant from the phone.

Phone and Battery

The Tania comes equipped with a 1,400 mAh battery, which ZTE reckon is good for 200 hours of standby or four hours of talktime. Those estimates are on the low end for a modern device. Without final firmware we didn’t do any prolonged testing, though the phone did manage to run through the day with default settings on email sync and social network integration.

Audio quality was average, though the speakerphone proved sufficiently loud for a hands-free call across a decent-sized table.

Wrap-Up

Offered, say, the ZTE Tania or Nokia’s Lumia 800, and we’d have the Lumia in a flash. Still, even with Nokia and carriers’ best efforts, the Lumia 800 still isn’t a “bargain” Windows Phone. That’s where ZTE – and its experience crafting genuinely cheap devices – steps in.

ZTE is yet to confirm pricing, but we’re hearing whispers of – in the UK at least – a free handset on a roughly £10-15 per month contract ($15-$23). That’s potentially half the monthly cost of other Windows Phones in the UK; meanwhile unlocked and SIM-free versions are already being listed for £250 ($384) including tax. Mighty competitive, and while the Tania’s display may fall well short of the quality we’ve seen on Nokia and Samsung Windows Phones, pushing Microsoft’s platform further down the price range is a much-needed move.

In-use

The quality you’re getting here is top-notch, and since this isn’t the first version of these little beasts, you know good and well that V-Moda has once again further perfected the art. Your hearing will be protected by the Faders working to filter noise up to 12dB. They do not BLOCK the noise, they filter it – this meaning that your mids and your high-range audio is still there and still very clear, while the damaging low-end noises galore are plugged up. You can adjust the amount you filter by changing the bud size, also.

The versions you’ll get in the store come with a lovely little shell case, while these early versions show just the buds — you’ll know the 2012 versions from the older ones from the slight difference on the box face, the newer ones having a bright ORANGE splash around the “METAL” bit. The newest versions also come with detachable cords. Otherwise they’re the same fabulous sound-blocking masterpieces.

Verdict

These monsters are certainly worth what you pay for them. If you want throwaway plugs, go ahead and pick up a pack of them from your local grocery store. These plugs will stopper up the sound to the degree that you like and will do it in a fashionable way – so very lovely. Pick up the gunmetal versions (like we’ve got here) for ultimate anytime wearability.

These buds will be available SOON, and when they are, they’ll be $15 USD plus shipping unless you can grab them from your local audio-conscious record store. Grab em online sooner from V-Moda!

Quality

This bag is as nice as the TUMI bag I’d otherwise be toting, and has a discreet enough look that it could very well pass for any of the highest class packs on the market. At $179.99 it certainly better look nice, and with its built-in ability to hold embroidery, it’s all the better. What you’re seeing here is, on the left, Powerbag’s own example bag with embroidering, then on the right, our bag with stitching done by our own source. The quality is there, and it’s definitely done nothing but favors by the build of the bag.

Compartments

There are so many pockets on this bag that, if you’ve got more devices, books, writing utensils, and snacks than I did this week, I’ll simply suggest you carry less. This week I fit in 5 smartphones, three granola bars, three gatorades, a Lumix GF1 camera, several lenses, a monopod, camera lamp, MacBook cord (the long one), charging cords for three more USB devices, business cards box, MacBook Pro 15-inch, and MacBook Air 11-inch. All of this fits in this pack with room to spare. There’s even a little tiny pocket right at the top so you can put pocket change or, in my case, a pillbox sort of container where I store all my SD cards for the camera.

Battery

The battery hasn’t failed me yet. There’s nothing too fantastically magic about it, that making it all the more brilliant: one 6000 mAh battery you snap in to the plastic (covered up when not switching) compartment which then has a few built-in cords and a USB port for charging whatever else you want. You’ll be able to charge your iPhone/iPad and microUSB device at the same time, or instead of your microUSB device you can use the other end of the built-in cord to charge a mini-USB device. Made primarily for smartphones, certainly not for laptops, but nice to have!

Wrap-Up

The back flap where you’ve got the main bit folding down and another flat compartment in the back of that allows you to get through the airport in no time flat – I know, I guarantee it because I’ve done it, and the whole pack is made for not only travel, but day-to-day activities as well. The battery makes this bag not the lightest pack in the world, but having it is worth the added tiny bit of bulk. This bag is available at mypowerbag.com for the cool price of, again, $179.99, and if you order today, if I’m not mistaken, you get ground shipping free! Neato!

NOTICE also that this bag was given to your humble narrator to review, and a bunch more people at CES 2012 were given the same or similar bags to take a peek at as well. The deal was that we’d get the bag in exchange for heading down to the powerbag stand to get the battery – and it was well worth it. Friendly folks all around and the bag is, legitimately, pretty darn nice.

The recently announced P4 from AAXA is a big step up from previous models such as the AAXA P2, and many similar priced projectors from the competition. Offering extremely crisp colors, great brightness, and being fully portable with a built-in battery makes this a perfect companion for any business minded individual.

Hardware

While many competing projectors might have better battery life its the 80 lumens of brightness and array of options that sets the P4 apart from the pack. Being labeled the “worlds brightest pico projector” gives it some big shoes to fill — and it didn’t disappoint.

The AAXA P4 Pico Projector is powered by a 750 MHz Windows CE mobile processor, and is plenty bright too. It gets an 80 lumen high-contrast optical engine by way of Texas Instruments DLP. It features AAXA’s vibrant color technology and the LED should last for up to 20,000 hours. Some of the other specs that make the P4 special include: 2GB of built-in memory, 1280×800 VGA input, micro-SD slot for extra storage (up to 32GB), composite video input, 1-watt stereo speakers, 3.5mm headphone jack, and even 720p video support.

Included with the projector AAXA has provided a mini tripod as well as your usual charging and USB cables. The box also provides a mini to full-sized USB, VGA and AV input and more. The included remote (as seen in the video below) is a nice touch but is extremely cheap and gives off a bad impression.

The actual projector itself is very durable and feels great. It’s covered in a soft-coat matte black design and all the ports and buttons are extremely durable. Nothing feels cheap about this premium projector — and it shouldn’t for $399. The buttons on top make navigation easy and simple but the remote is a much better option. I would love to have a better included remote but that’s just me.

AAXA P4 Pico Projector unboxing

Software

Now the software side of things will be completely based on the buyers overall needs and usage. With Windows CE 6.0 on board we have plenty of options with mobile applications. With Office Mobile, Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, and tons of Windows CE based games the options are fairly open. With the P4 AAXA doesn’t recommend you enter Windows too much unless needed and has a basic overlay to keep things straightforward and simple.

Setup is basically non existent unless you need to use Windows CE apps. The standard media player for pictures, and video is simple to navigate — although is pretty bland. From the start screen you can stream any movies from internal or external storage within seconds, the input settings are easy to access and dead simple. Those needing to start presentations will need to launch Windows CE and that takes a bit longer with a warning you must agree to on every start-up seems extreme.

Performance

While I’ve only used a few cheaper and much dimmer projectors in the past, everything about this projector was impressive in terms of performance. The 80 lumen engine is extremely powerful and is by far the brightest portable projector I’ve seen to date. the 750 MHz processor churns out 720p video with ease and my demo shows some impressive output watching AVATAR on a good 40″ size. Fast forwarding through videos or presentations is extremely fluid and there seems to be zero stutter or lag. The only downside to the performance is only about 75 minutes of battery life. To make things worse there isn’t a notification or indicator and once the battery is up you get lights out — no warning.

I can explain performance but instead I’ll just let you all watch the hands-on video demonstration. I start off showing the basic UI in a fully lit room before turning out the lights. The 80 lumens keeps things bright enough that a dark room isn’t required — but sure makes it nice. You’ll be able to use in a lit room with zero problems should the situation present itself.

AAXA P4 video demonstration with light/dark room

As you can see from the video preview the output is extremely bright and impressive, even from a good 6 ft away from the wall. The manual focus makes things very easy for quick adjustments and changes. From the AVATAR scenes in the clip to my Modern Warfare 3 trailer screenshot below you can clearly see just how great the colors are. Thanks to AAXA’s vibrant color technology the colors are exactly that — vibrant.

Wrap-Up

I’ve seen this projector in action for over 2 weeks now. I used it to stream a few clips while visiting family for my extended holiday vacation and everyone was pleasantly surprised by the sound and image output. With 1 watt stereo sound its nothing special but gets the job done. You wouldn’t expect such an incredible bright and vivid picture from this small pocket-able unit — but it does impress.

Battery life is rated for 75 minutes of usage but while outputting 720p video that time dropped significantly and it lasted around 60 minutes for me. While that isn’t very long, completely battery powered is the key here. Being small and weighing under a pound, being fully portable and battery powered makes this perfect for business situations where a full fledged projector isn’t possible. To conduct a full presentation with this quality all on the go with no wires is what sets this apart from the others. For those needing a bigger, longer lasting device for those weekly earnings reports AAXA also has some larger micro projectors to suite all needs.

For a fun toy the pricing is a bit steep but for the on-the-go businessman or professional it should find a place easily in your laptop bag of gear.

The AAXA P4 Pico Projector runs for a pretty penny at around $399 but it’s currently on sale for $339 for a limited time. Get your own today by clicking here.

Hardware

The ENVY 15 shares a lot of design DNA with the rest of the line, and that means lots of metal and secondary utility as a blunt weapon. The typical high-class build quality is present in full force, with a new black-on-grey color scheme that’s accented with some red Beats trim. It would be almost impossible to forget the inspirations from Apple’s Macbook Pro line that defined the early ENVY models, but the latest seems to be finding a bit of its own identity. A depressed keyboard section and an analog audio dial inset into the body make for some unique and functional touches.

The laptop oozes quality and thoughtful touches almost everywhere. Beats-branded speakers above the keyboard and on the front edge are well-placed for music playback with the lid open or closed, and the backlit chicklet keyboard is large and solid enough to replicate desktop typing without any real difficulty. 3 USB ports and an SD card slot should be enough for most, but video out options are limited to HDMI and Display Port. That’s good for hooking up to a TV or brand-new monitors, but if you’ve got an older display you’re out of luck, since there’s no adapters included.

At 1.11 inches all the way through its metal frame, the laptop isn’t the smallest around, but it isn’t really trying to be. That large frame gets you a 2.4Ghz Core i5 processor, 6GB of RAM, a 1GB AMD Radeon 7690m graphics card and a 500GB traditional hard drive. That should be enough computing power to handle just about anything you can throw at it short of marathon HD encoding sessions. You’ll also get a slot-loading DVD drive, an increasingly rare commodity even in medium-sized laptops, and a user-accessible battery bay.

But the real showpiece for the ENVY 15 is the screen, an LED-backlit beauty at 1920×1080, showing a resolution usually reserved for 17-inch laptops into an economic glossy frame. That’s an extra $150 upgrade over the standard 1366×768 panel, and well worth it for anyone who wants a little breathing room fir Windows 7. Using the screen is an excellent experience even at low brightness, and makes text entry, games and video that much better. Colors pop and contrast is great, though those who tire of tiny text may need to fiddle with some settings to make reading more comfortable. The touchpad is decent, though HP still hasn’t got the hang of multi-touch gestures – it’s much easier to use a click-tap and manually drag a scroll bar than its two-finger equivalent.

Software

Our review unit came pre-loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, the better to take advantage of the 6GB of RAM. If you’re considering the ENVY 15, odds are pretty good that you’re familiar with Windows 7, or at least competent enough in Windows Vista, so I won’t bore you with any rehashing. Bloatware is an unfortunate reality on the PC side of the computer divide, but with the ENVY line at least, HP has exercised some restraint. You get the standard trial edition of Office, a handful of hardware managers that basically just skin Windows’ default controls, Microsoft’s Games For Windows Marketplace, HP MovieStore, Norton Internet Security and a Bing plugin for your browser. All in all it could be worse – I’m in the habit of installing Windows fresh with any new machine, and I heartily recommend it to others. But if you’re disinclined to do so (it isn’t easy, since no one includes OS discs these days) it’s easy enough to get the ENVY 15 close to stock.

One thing you won’t want to remove is the Beats audio manager software, accessible by depressing the button built in to the analog dial. It instantly brings up an equalizer and other various settings, making a customized audio experience fast and easy, not to mention enjoyable with the supplied hardware. More on that later. Our review unit came with full versions of Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements. At the moment both of these programs are also free with the base model. That’s a great deal if you don’t already have an image and/or photo editor, and even if you don’t want them it’s hard to complain.

In general use, the additional software doesn’t interfere with my daily routine nearly as much as other laptops. The Norton Internet Security is enabled by default, but aside from the on-screen volume and brightness displays, it’s the only thing that’s visibly added to the system. All in all a commendable effort on HP’s part, though I add that any Windows computer should always come with a backup disc, which seems to be omitted here. I had a small issue with a lack of sound playback, which was solved quickly enough by installing the latest driver.

Performance

It’s a good time to be a hardware junkie. Even the cheapest Intel Core machine is leaps and bounds ahead of comparably priced equivalents from two or three years ago, and unless you’re doing massive amounts of compiling or rendering, you’ll never want for horepower on any new laptop. That said, here’s the scores for the ENVY 15.

Regular use, incluing some heavy Flash and Photoshop editing, showed no noticeable slowdown or degradation in performance. I popped in a copy of Batman: Arkham City just to try out the combination of the processor and AMD Radeon GPU. It’s a pretty game that takes advantage of all the latest graphical bells and whistles. When pumped up to full 1080p with all the settings maxed out, the in-game benchmark got around 12-14 frames per second. Dial it batch to 1600×900 with a few of the flashier settings disables, and you can get about 30 FPS. Drop the resolution to 1366×768 (which is all you’d get in similarly priced laptops) and you can get as much as 50 frames per second.

Based on this I’d say you can play just about any recent game comfortably without a problem, so long as you take it easy on the graphical flair. Older favorites like Team Fortress 2 or World of Warcraft should absolutely fly, and look great doing so.

Media & Battery

The ENVY 15 is built for media consumption. Those Beats logos aren’t just for show: the speakers are louder and clearer than any I’ve ever used, including the Macbooks that the ENVY wants to be so much when it grows up. The quick access to a physical volume dial and virtual equalizer combined with an extra headphone-out port make this a perfect laptop for listening to and sharing music. And with that lovely screen and DVD drive (sadly no Blu-ray option is offered) it’s a great movie machine as well.

Just don’t plan on watching the extended version of Lord of the Rings. Though HP claims up to a 9 hour battery life, I was never able to get more than 3 hours and 45 minutes while doing basic WiFi Internet browsing with the screen at about half brightness. The “power saver” mode seems to do a little better, and I dare say with conservative use and a few tricks (like disabling the petty Aero effects in Windows) you might stretch it as high as five. It’s a disappointing statistic in a laptop of this size and weight, and you’ll probably feel the need to stash the large AC adapter in your bag for anything more than coffee shop surfing session.

Wrap Up

Is the ENVY 15 as good as the 15-inch MacBook Pro? No. But considering that for the hardware that we tested you’d have to spend nearly $2000 on an Apple machine, it doesn’t have to be. If you find yourself spending most of your computer time within the reach of an AC outlet, it’s tough to beat for power and media capabilities. I wish it was a little lighter and lasted a little longer, but as a desktop replacement and media consumption/creation specialist, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything with these kinds of specs, fit and finish in this price range.

If you’re looking to replace an older mid-sized laptop with a solid machine that’ll fly through basic tasks and give some great music and video playback, it would be hard to find a better choice at $1250. Just don’t buy the ENVY 15 expecting a featherweight road warrior.

UPDATE: At the behest of some of the commenters, I investigated the switchable graphics with respect to battery life. This necessitated going into the BIOS and setting the graphics to a manual switch, since the option doesn’t appear in any of the ENVY’s standard settings menus. (it might be possible to set this with a newer version of Catalyst Control Center, but it wasn’t accessible from the stock software.) Under the default Dynamic setting, it’s supposed to automatically switch to the Intel integrated graphics when the high-powered Radeon isn’t necessary - apparently the software wasn’t activating correctly. When the Intel integrated graphics were activated manually, I got 5 hours and 14 minutes out of the ENVY 15 running the same test. That’s not a marathon machine by any means, but it opens up a lot more options for extended portable use.

For a better look at the HP ENVY 15′s hardware, check out our unboxing video below:

Hardware

A 14 x 14 x 2.5 cm white plastic box, the goLITE BLU is fronted by a pair of panels: a sizable blue LED array on top, and a smaller, blue-backlit touchscreen underneath showing time, light settings and battery status. The only physical control is a power button on the right side; on the left is a socket for the included AC power adapter. Philips also throws in a set of international plug adapters.

A notch on the lower rear panel holds a metal rod, which can be slotted into a hole to prop the goLITE BLU up. Magnets keep the rod in place in both, and there’s a faux-leather slip case for transporting the whole thing. Unfortunately there’s only one possible angle at which you can stand the light unit at, rather than an adjustable base.

Setup is straightforward. Tapping the bell button sets the alarm, using the plus and minus buttons to adjust the time; the stopwatch icon sets the length of time the light is on for. Alarms can be either an audible tone or the LED lights, or a combination of both, while anything from 1 minute to an hour – in minute increments – can be set as the duration.

As well as waking up to light, you can trigger an impromptu session manually. Pressing the power button once turns on the touchscreen, and a second press turns on the LEDs; you can adjust the intensity – in 25-percent increments – and the length of time the goLITE BLU is on for. A temporary pause in a session can be added by pressing the power button briefly, or turning the intensity down to zero, though if you leave it paused and running on battery power for over five minutes, the goLITE BLU will automatically power off.

Performance

Philips recommends 15 to 30 minutes of time in front of the light each day, initially starting off at 50-percent brightness and increasing if you don’t notice a difference after a week. Rather than sitting directly in front of the LEDs, basking in their glow as you might a tanning lamp, Philips advises putting it off to one side so that it shines tangentially onto your face. That, along with the limited angle options from the stand, can make finding the best position tricky, though it’s easier if you’re working at a desk at the time.

Instant results aren’t promised, but the idea is that if you invest several weeks you can gain more energy, alleviate your mood or even help bypass jetlag. Using the goLITE BLU in the morning, when you first wake up, is supposed to make it easier to get out of bed, while a quick session in the middle of the day can, so Philips says, top up your energy levels when you more normally might be flagging.

By using the goLITE BLU for a few days before you travel, you can help your body clock reset itself to the new timezone at your destination: a few morning sessions when traveling east, or a few evening sessions when going west. Normally, though, Philips doesn’t recommend using light therapy in the evening, because of its body-clock tweaking tendencies.

Does it work? That’s a tricky one to judge: unlike, say, a smartphone battery test or laptop benchmarking, there’s no way to conclusively say whether the goLITE BLU is working or not. All we can go on is my personal experience with the light.

After a week or so of use – running the Philips light for 15 minutes in the mid-morning each day – I felt more alert and found myself working continuously for longer periods without realizing it. It’s not like the jolt of energy you get after a strong cup of coffee: instead, I simply felt more balanced and less aware of time passing. Following a 7-10 days of use, I could scale down to using the goLITE BLU every other day, and still feel suitably perky.

Philips rates the goLITE BLU’s battery as good for between three and five sessions. In practice, at 15 minutes each time, I found it was capable of as many as eight.

Wrap-Up

With street pricing at around $132/£190, the Philips goLITE BLU is an expensive buy if you find it doesn’t work for you. Philips does offer a 30-day guarantee just in case, mind, and has plenty of research to say it will have an impact.

Waking up with the goLITE BLU proved somewhat jarring – imagine throwing open the curtains as soon as your alarm goes off, on an incredibly bright day – but as a daily top-up to your energy levels I had a good experience. You pay for the convenience of an alarm, portable form-factor and a rechargeable battery, though.

Hardware

This isn’t your regular router: at 93 x 70 x 25 mm it’s a palm-sized glossy black plastic box sitting on four grippy rubber feet. Bigger than a regular mobile hotspot, but the upshot is connectivity: as well as sharing out your USB modem’s connection with up to five WiFi devices, it has a pair of 10/100 ethernet ports on the back for wired devices too. That’s useful if you’re trying to share your connection in a WiFi-saturated environment, where wireless links can often become unstable.

On top is a rotating USB port for your modem, as well as four indicator LEDs for power, WLAN, PPP and WPS status. The back offers two buttons – WPS for easy connections with Windows-based computers, along with power – the two ethernet ports, each with activity LEDs, and a DC power input.

Unfortunately there’s no internal battery for true portable use, so you’ll have to find space in your bag for the included AC adapter. That’s frustratingly bulkier than the Hub itself; ZTE really needs to learn a lesson from the ultra-compact wall warts supplied with recent handsets from Nokia, HTC and Apple.

Software

Unlike USB modems, which generally require an app be installed on your laptop, it’s possible to use the WiFi Hub without any software bother whatsoever. Once your modem is in place and the connection has stabilized, it’s a simple matter of searching for the preset SSID on your tablet/laptop/phone/console and punching in the PIN, both of which are printed on the bottom of the Hub itself. Wired connections are even easier: just plug in your ethernet cable.

ZTE ships the Hub preconfigured to use WEP security, the weakest option but the one with the broadest compatibility. Most users will want to step up to WPA or, preferably, WPA2, (though a fully open WiFi connection is also possible) and that requires logging into the browser-based settings page. That’s found at 192.168.1.1 and logging in with the default username and password (which can be easily changed).

There’s actually a fair range of options available, if you’re of the tinkering mindset. The basics – SSID and security – can be altered, as well as the APN settings for the USB modem, DHCP settings for automatically assigning IP addresses, MAC and IP filtering, URL filtering to limit which sites can be connected to, and port forwarding. There’s also a firewall, with optional DMZ bypass.

Obviously it’s up to the user how deeply they dig through the settings; it’s possible to treat the WiFi Hub as plug-and-play, or get pretty granular with your control.

Performance

We saw no difference in download speeds from Three’s normal performance when using the WiFi Hub, though being able to position the modem near a window meant we could hunt down the best signal at any one time. WiFi range proved sufficient to cover our (admittedly bijou) London flat, with two solid wood doors in-between, with maximum strength showing in OS X.

Unfortunately, our attempts to get the WiFi Hub working with USB modems from other providers than Three failed, even when the modem was unlocked. The settings page refused to recognize that a modem was plugged in, and no connection was automatically made. Three tells us that other operators’ modems should work, but obviously won’t help you out if – like us – you can’t get the Hub to recognize them. It would also be useful if you could plug a wired WAN connection, such as in a hotel room, into one of the ethernet ports, and share it with the Hub.

Wrap-Up

There’s no denying the Three WiFi Hub works, nor that it’s useful. The wireless connection is solid, and the two ethernet ports are a particular bonus over regular mobile hotspots. Ease of use – with a Three USB modem – is another strength, though we wish ZTE had opted for better security with WPA2 by default.

Unfortunately the absence of a battery – even to just power wireless use – significantly limits the usefulness of the WiFi Hub when on the move. Forget dropping it onto the table at your nearest coffee shop or in an airport lounge and getting online in seconds: you need to make sure there’s a power point nearby. For hotel rooms or spur-of-the-moment meeting room connections that shouldn’t be too great a drawback, however.

That power limitation, compounded by the unnecessarily chunky AC adapter, are our main criticisms of the Three WiFi Hub. Those with modems from other providers should also be wary, as compatibility isn’t assured and you’re on your own to figure out any problems. Still, at £39.99, if you’re a Three data modem user who blanches at hotel and conference wireless fees and has enough bag space for the power adapter, the WiFi Hub makes an inexpensive way to get multiple people online.

Hardware

With an RRP of $269/£190 (street price closer to $213/£156) the TL-SC4171G is certainly not the cheapest IP camera around. Still, you do get a few extras: integrated WiFi b/g for a start, alongside the regular 10/100 ethernet, as well as pan/tilt support for remotely controlling the view. 4.4-inches tall, the lens assembly resembles a glossy white plastic tennis ball; TP-LINK throw a wall mounting kit in the box, or you can simply stand the camera on a window-ledge.

Aside from networking, connectivity includes a 3.5mm input for an external microphone or line-in audio, a 3.5mm output for external audio, and a terminal block for wiring up an optional alarm input and an optional output. The 0.3-megapixel (640 x 480) f2.0 CMOS sensor has a 48-degree horizontal, 36-degree vertical lens and is surrounded by a ring of twelve infrared LEDs that automatically turn on in low-light situations. There’s also an integrated microphone.

As for the pan/tilt base, the TL-SC4171G can rotate 354-degrees and tilt 125-degrees. There’s no optical zoom, but a 10x digital zoom is supported in the browser-based viewer; still, when you’re dealing with 640 x 480 resolution to begin with, blowing that picture up has an obvious loss of detail.

Performance

Setup is straightforward: plug in the AC adapter and the supplied ethernet cable to your router. PowerLine networking would be a neat addition, but WiFi is probably of more use to most. TP-LINK supplies an “Intelligent IP Installer” app on CD to locate the camera on the network, but you can also check what IP address your router has assigned and punch that into a browser instead. The web-based settings page isn’t exactly the height of UI design, but it’s functional: getting WiFi working is a simple matter of scanning for your network and then punching in the access code.

From then on, accessing the webcam from within your home network is straightforward. You can set up user accounts or simply use the main admin account, and your first view in the browser is a live feed from the camera. Unfortunately not all browsers support audio, in fact you’ll likely need Internet Explorer which leaves Mac users in the cold. The bundled Windows IP camera surveillance software can bypass that restriction, however, and supports views from up to 16 cameras.

Motion control is via a cluster of directional buttons; you can also set a default view that’s automatically returned to with a click of the center button. Multiple preset views can also be set, as well as a “patrol” pattern, where the camera sweeps its gaze through a preconfigured route. There are also various warning options, including automatic video recording either on a set schedule or when movement is observed, and can fire off an email to a preset address when that happens.

Setting up remote access proved trickier, requiring some tweaking with our router and the IP and port settings in the camera itself. Once we’d managed that, however, we could log in from our smartphone remotely and stream audio and video across a 3G connection. Smoothness obviously depends on the speed of your connection, but we had no problems. Alternatively there are various third-party IP camera apps available for most big smartphone platforms.

Image quality is limited to VGA because of the sensor, using either MPEG4 30fps or H.264 15fps codecs. Still, reasonable detail if you avoid using the digital zoom. Colors are muted in natural lighting. The IR array can be set to automatically turn on in low-light conditions or triggered manually: TP-LINK say it has a 10m range, though we found the usable range was more like half that. There’s also an audible click as the low-light system turns on, which can be distracting if you’re near the camera.

Wrap-Up

Webcams are cheap, and so it’s easy to dismiss the TP-LINK TL-SC4171G as too expensive. For a wirelessly-enabled, motorized IP camera, however, it’s something of a bargain. The low resolution means this isn’t the webcam you’d choose to stream your next video webcast, but the range of monitoring tools, motion alerts, remote access and other surveillance-centric abilities make it a capable addition to a home or office security setup.

Hardware

In the Galaxy Nexus we’ve got Samsung’s newest effort, and depending on who you’re talking to, their greatest effort in a handset yet. You’ll find benchmark tests winning out on Galaxy S II devices over the Nexus here, but no device on the market anywhere has such a brilliant display. Comparatively, you’ve got essentially the same device here in the Verizon version as you do in the international edition, it’s just a tiny bit thicker — the difference is so small you’d have to hold them both to see the difference, basically. The materials are the same, the display is the same, the camera bits are all the same. There’s also an increase in battery size, which depending on who you ask, you’ll be needing down the road. Check the battery section of this review for more info in that regard.

“While LTE is amazing, just make sure to have three batteries, one in your Galaxy Nexus, one in the external charger and the third one with you in your wallet.” – Vincent Nguyen

Compared to the Galaxy S II, the obvious improvements can be seen instantly: there’s a bit more curve in the design for those of you who found the Galaxy S II to be a bit flat, the display is one step up in resolution over the Galaxy S II (original and AT&T versions, that is,) and there’s a notification LED on the front face! The software differences are essentially like night and day inside the Android world, but not all THAT different when considering the rest of the non-Android software choices out there. The Verizon Galaxy Nexus is also notably heavier than the Galaxy S II (again, original and AT&T versions we’re talking about here,) but much lighter than the rest of the LTE-laden devices on Verizon.

There is no comparison to any other device on Verizon’s LTE network in the hardware department except to the Motorola DROID RAZR, a device that’s recently fallen on some hard favor because of the rabid Android hoards out there driven nearly mad by waiting for the Galaxy Nexus to be released while the RAZR sat on the shelves laughing. Now there’s two versions of the RAZR on the shelves (original and “white”), and the Galaxy Nexus is the bottom-heavy warrior who only has that one hardware-similar device out there, and if you ask me: the RAZR has suddenly found itself beaten. While I did at one time call the DROID RAZR the ideal smartphone for our mobile environment, it would seem that purely on a hardware level, the Galaxy Nexus simply feels better to handle. There are other elements that could be mentioned such as the vast superiority of Ice Cream Sandwich over the RAZR’s current Gingerbread-based Motorola user interface, but those should be a given.

The Galaxy Nexus here on Verizon is the version of the device you’ll be able to get the fastest connection speeds on in the most places here in the United States. The reason this version of the device is going to be more significant than past Nexus release devices is that should a person want to use a version of this handset here in the USA that’s not Verizon, they’ll have to order internationally and pay a hefty sum. Verizon has Android developers in their grasp right at this very moment – because of its exclusivity and Samsung’s hardware, there’s certainly a lot of cash about to be exchanged in the coming weeks between Android lovers and the big V.

This device has a size that will make you strain your adult male thumb just a tiny bit if you’re going to want to reach the whole space of the display with only on hand, and the vast majority of your phone’s functions can be activated relatively easily with that one hand by itself. The volume button (up and down) sits in the upper left-hand side of the device while the power button sits opposite and above three metal circles which will allow you to connect to the Galaxy Nexus drop-in dock. Note here that you’ve also got plenty of options for accessories you can pick up, including but not limited to an extended battery, screen protectors, and a battery charging unit — check this collection out here:

The outer rim of this device is a hard plastic not unlike what you’ll find in most Galaxy S II units in stores today, with a battery cover that’s an interesting piece of flexible textured plastic. You’ve got one microphone at the top right of your battery cover (a tiny hole), and another at the bottom of the device on the right. The bottom of the device also houses the microUSB port and headphone jack, while the back bottom is the location of the main external speaker for speakerphone, games, videos, music and etcetera. The battery cover you’ll find has SAMSUNG near the bottom and Verizon 4G LTE near the bottom, right below the capsule-looking camera setup which includes a higher quality than average 5-megapixel camera and a single LED flash below it.

The entire front of the device, save for the earphone grille, is a single sheet of fortified glass. Like I mentioned before and will mention again, the display is the most magnificent interface you’ll encounter on smartphone today, and the LED notification light is like a secret firework, or one that fires off much later than the main set as if to accent their loveliness. This device is not perfect for one-handed use, but for those of you willing to pull out both sets of fingers, you’ll find that this is amongst the most comfortable devices to use on the market as well.

Software

While there are several hardware elements that make this device a full package, it’s not without Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich that this equation becomes complete. We’ve got a full review of Ice Cream Sandwich from when Vince had a look at the international edition of the Galaxy Nexus, if you’d like to take a look, or follow along here for a slightly more basic vision of the same set of applications and settings, down to the processor and up to the font.

“Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is a platform that continues to deliver interesting tidbits each time you use it. A lot of the appeal is in the animations, such as when you tap the new on-screen home/menu/back buttons or swipe between panes, and which help to make the OS feel more consistent and thorough.” – Chris Davies

In this Verizon version of the Galaxy Nexus, you’ve got TWO different applications in place that aren’t in place on any other version. These apps are Verizon apps and, contrary to those who would cry witch at the situation, they’re both pretty helpful and I’d even go so far as to say necessary for a Verizon-based device. Don’t forget to check your data or you’ll be ringing the bill bell.

Then there’s applications that you’ll find changed relatively significantly such as Gmail and the basic Email app, both of them showing off such Ice Cream Sandwich gems as the vertical three dots that signify the button that’ll lead you to your settings, or at least a list of shortcuts that includes your settings for the specific app you’re in. Have a peek at the Email app and the Gmail app here, and make sure your speakers aren’t too loud.

Then there’s the phone app which again will let you in on the cool nature of the blue/cyan lines that make Ice Cream Sandwich exciting and, again, aesthetically smooth. The actual functionality inside the Phone app hasn’t changed all that much compared to the Gingerbread version of the Phone app, but integration with the lovely update to your People (Contacts) app. All of this of course connects with your Gmail contacts and your Google+ contacts and your Facebook contacts and whatever other lists you want in the world. All of it gets cut down to this simple interface in your Phone:

For the rest of the Ice Cream Sandwich interface, you’ve got a couple of choices: you can look at our full review of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as it exists on the international version of the Galaxy Nexus. Again the only difference between that version and the one you’ve got here on the Verizon version is the hardware working with 4G LTE and the addition of those two Verizon apps. You can also take at our big Verizon Galaxy Nexus hands-on review supplement which just so happens to be right here:

As for connection speeds over LTE, you’ll find them to be fairly adequate, but depending on what side of the argument you’re on, you might be seeing slower speeds than you’re getting on other relatively new LTE-capable smart devices. For now what I can offer you is the speeds I’ve gotten here in the heart of the Twin Cities in Minnesota: Minneapolis and Saint Paul, these speeds looking pretty darn good. I’ve not had the connection problems others have been speaking about since the release of this device.

Benchmarks and Gaming

This device is meant to be a place for developers to run wild with the testing of apps in the most pure version of Ice Cream Sandwich. This tied with the Texas Instruments OMAP4 dual-core processor, one that’s found quite a bit of popularity here at the tail end of 2011, you’ll find yourself in a really smooth environment, flipping through screens and starting up applications without an extended wait in any regard. Tied to a display as massive in its pixels as this, though, you’ll find the benchmarks to be less intense than similar devices:

When your display is Super AMOLED HD with 720 x 1280 pixel resolution over 4.65 inches of screen, things like this are bound to happen. What you should be looking at in addition to the numbers above is a couple of games running on the device. First have a look at the jetski racing game Riptide GP:

Then have a glance at the third person shooter ShadowGun and see how nice it is to have that additional screen real-estate so your thumbs have somewhere to go:

Look rather nice, or seem terrible to you? Compare this to the iPad 2 with its dual-core Apple A5 processor running Apple’s newest mobile operating system iOS 5 as well as the ASUS Transformer Prime tablet running Android 3.0 Honeycomb, it also running the world’s most powerful mobile processor in the Tegra 3 quad-core superchip. You’ll certainly see some interesting results as well as a bunch of eye-candy for your efforts.

Camera

The camera has been promoted primarily as an extension of the abilities of Ice Cream Sandwich, and certainly that is where most of its power lies, but note also that this camera hardware isn’t half bad either. Have a look first here at a few photos of various objects to get a general idea of what you’ll be able to shoot. Note also that your software/hardware combination here allows you to take photos one after another almost instantaneously: see this speed in the hands-on video below.

This can lead to blurry photos if you’re not in a position where you’re actually holding the device still and tapping the shutter to capture something ELSE that is moving, something other than the device itself. There’s also a panorama mode for photos in this build, this aside from photo mode and video mode — in other words, Google is promoting the idea that yes, it’s good enough to need its own category in this case. Head to the gallery at the end of this post to see some examples of panorama photos big enough to see their inconsistencies.

“The final results can be great, but it’s not a home run. With sufficient light, images look natural and exposure is handled well, though colors are more muted than other recent Samsung Android phones we’ve used. Indoors, the Galaxy Nexus generally held up well in terms of avoiding too much noise, though occasionally the reduced shutter-lag technology actually proved something of a hindrance rather than a boon, with slight blurring showing up in the final shots.” – Vincent Nguyen

Above you’ll see the camera application in action and below you’ll see some fabulous examples of photos and a video showing everything.

Then there’s the video, which paired with the most advanced facial recognition software Google has at the moment, allows you to create some strange things right out of the box. What you’re about to look at is a video both shot and edited on the Galaxy Nexus itself, using the basic video camera and Movie Studio, an app that also comes with the smartphone right out of the box. The first part of the video shows the quality of the camera with a plain 1080p pan, then there are a few effects shots as they appear immediately after shooting, then some odd effects added in post in Movie Studio for the last few seconds or so. Titles also added in Movie Studio:

Battery

There’s definitely been some mixed reports on the battery life here, even amongst the staff here at SlashGear, so heed this: like all devices, it depends on what your “real world” use schedule is like. If you’re a person who when not playing high-needs video games is using their LTE connectivity to download hundreds of songs all day, you won’t get more than 6 or so hours out of your device. If on the other hand you have a knack for saving batteries though turning your display brightness down and your data connection off when you’re not using your device, you’ll have a fine full 10 hours of time on your hands. Get really creative and get more than that!

I should mention here that right out of the gate there have been some problems reported with battery time by early purchasers of the Galaxy Nexus, likely owing to a software glitch of some type or another. Your humble narrator saw no such glitch, but it was (and possibly still is) there. What seemed to be happening with these users was that their device remained “on” even when their display was turned off, this resulting in, believe it or not, low battery life. The problem will probably not exist by the time you pick up your device.

Wrap-Up

With thunderstorms of anticipation surrounding this device and a stack of specifications that didn’t seem to be all that much of a jump from the current top tier of smartphone devices in the market already, I was skeptical that this Nexus would impress my day to day mobile life the way the Nexus S did. I’ve also got the greatest smartphone I’ve ever used sitting here, that being the Galaxy S II, also made by Samsung, so how on earth could a device with a lower-clocked processor and what appeared at first to be a facia that’s slightly too big for my hand have any chance of being the new best?

The culmination of the display, the comfort in using the device with two hands (especially in gaming situations), and the undeniably smooth and high-powered software experience have convinced me. This is the new hero for Google and Samsung, and not just because it’s running Ice Cream Sandwich. It’s worth the cash you’re going to pay for it hardware-wise, it’ll get updates to its software first when it comes time for Google to update, and the whole Android development underground will have their fingers busier on this device than on any other for the coming year or so – or between now and the next Nexus from Google running Jellybean, that is.

On the other hand, if you’re the sort of person that wants to be absolutely sure that all the applications you’ve already got working on Android are able to work here right out of the box, buyer beware. While the biggest of the big and the most basic apps are working already, there are quite a few apps that won’t be compatible with this device until some months into the future. Now that the Galaxy Nexus is released here in the USA, development for most of these apps will be quicker than its been already, but the fact remains: I can’t play Grand Theft Auto III yet.

Other than that, you’ll find this to be the best Android smartphone on the market today. The power of the software is backed up by the loveliness of the hardware and this is as close as you’re going to get to a single Android device with a community following the same way iPhone commands the hoards of iOS users and developers. You probably wont see any diamond-encrusted cases or custom hand-cut wood battery covers, but the guts will be sufficiently messed with to fulfill any mobile device lovers desires.

Hardware

Pogoplug used to be known for its bright pink “internet devices”; now the company has matured into a far subtler black box with a discrete blue logo that doubles as an indicator light. It’s considerably smaller than the original design, though you pay for that in connectivity: just one USB 2.0 port instead of five. You still get a gigabit ethernet port, but whereas the AC adapter was integrated previously there’s now a wall-wart plug instead.

What you do get differently is a full-sized SD card slot on the side, meaning digital photographers can instantly get their pictures and videos onto the network. Those who have more external drives can step up to the Pogoplug Series 4, $20 more than the $79.95 Pogoplug Mobile, which adds a pair of USB 3.0 ports and a SATA/USM connection. The original Pogoplug v2 – now known as the Classic – remains on sale at $49.95.

Setup is indecently straightforward: plug in the power, hook the Pogoplug Mobile to your router via the included ethernet cable, and then open up the company’s site to register a free account. That also gets you 5GB of free online storage, which is handy for offsite backups of your most important files. Pogoplug reckon you can do it all in sixty seconds, and as long as you’ve got a spare ethernet port on your router and a spare mains socket nearby, they’re probably not too far off.

After that, it’s simply a case of choosing what storage you’d like to use and plugging it in. Any USB drive should work, with mobile drives being powered from the port as usual, and you can have both a drive and an SD card connected simultaneously.

Software

Pogoplug Mobile is most easily accessed through the browser interface, either across your home network or remotely. You can, however, mount the volumes as drives in OS X and Windows for more straightforward drag/drop use. The internet-based UI offers access to files, as usual, and various multimedia sections, but Pogoplug has also released the Pogoplug Browser app for PC and Mac. That too shows files and folders, as well as gallery, jukebox and cinema sections that automatically pull out all the multimedia files on your storage and present them in a simple manner.

Files to be added to the Pogoplug can be dragged and dropped straight to the Pogoplug Browser app, and there’s sharing support as well to make firing off photos or other content via email or other routes easy. You can also set up an auto-sync folder that automatically copies any files saved to it over to a dedicated folder on the Pogoplug storage.

It’s the mobile apps that the company is really pushing with this new model, however. Versions for iPhone/iPod touch, iPad and Android are available, each a free download, with generally the same remote access options as the desktop software. You can browse through files/folders, stream photos, music and video, or download multimedia directly to the local storage on your handset. Conversely, you can set the apps to automatically upload photos and videos taken by the phone to your Pogoplug Mobile storage, meaning they’re ready and waiting when you get home. It’s a little like Apple’s iCloud, only with cross-platform support for both iOS and Android devices.

Performance

The bottleneck of the Pogoplug Mobile’s data-transferring abilities will inevitably be the USB 2.0 connection; factor in the inherent shortcomings of even 802.11n wireless networks and it’s inevitable that for most users access speeds will be significantly curtailed in comparison to a directly-connected drive. Still, we were able to watch an HD video stored on a USB 2.0 drive and streaming over an 802.11n WiFi connection to our laptop.

On the move, the mobile apps are very much dependent on your connection – both the download speed of your mobile network and the upload speed of the broadband connection the Pogoplug Mobile itself is connected to. Whereas you can generally rely on a commercially-hosted cloud storage service having a fat upload pipe, most domestic upload speeds are a fraction of the download speed.

That’s not so great an issue for accessing the odd file, browsing a photo gallery or even streaming music, but video could be a trickier issue. The mobile apps offer a choice of watching the original format clip – as long as you have a suitable playback app to handle the codec – as well as an “optimized” version that the Pogoplug Mobile converts into a more mobile-friendly format. The downside to that is the time and space required to actually do that transcoding; you can set it to automatically convert all video or do so on demand, the former obviously occupying space on your hard-drive, and the latter generally proving too slow when handling 720p/1080p original files to watch the clips when we actually wanted to.

Wrap-Up

Compared to regular cloud-storage services, the Pogoplug Mobile costs more upfront – the $79.95 unit itself, and then whatever storage you choose to plug in – but, with no subscription fees, less over time. If you’ve already got a USB drive you’re halfway there; alternatively, there are dual-HDD USB drives that you could plug in if you want some hardware redundancy. Since the Pogoplug Mobile itself is fanless, if you opt for an SD card then you’d have a silent, cool-running storage device that’s easily hidden away.

Alternatively, rely on USB drives for regular storage and then SD cards for when you want to quickly review the photos you’ve just taken on a tablet or phone which lacks a full-sized memory card slot (in other words most of them). It’s certainly convenient, as is dumping all your photos, music and video onto a single drive and streaming them around the home, rather than maintaining copies on each computer and gadget.

Those who can put up with a little noise and who aren’t bothered by SD compatibility might choose to grab the Pogoplug Classic, saving money and getting some extra USB ports in the process. For most mainstream users, though, the Pogoplug Mobile ticks most of the important boxes: ease of setup, ease of use and low cost of ownership.

This review is supplemented by the rest of the ChatON articles we’ve got here on SlashGear (in the timeline at the bottom of this post) as we use the app to show what a manufacturer is capable of when they put their minds to it. Where many apps created by manufacturers (OEMs that shall not be named) are not the most desirable for one to have on their mobile device unless they love aesthetic pain, Samsung has created this group chat app to both look nice and work simply.

The video here shows how a group chat works, complete with animated message – the coolest feature of the whole application when it comes down to it. What you’re able to do, and what this application does best, is create chats that contain just you and another person or you and several people, whatever you like. Inside your conversation you’ve got the ability to share any number of items from text to audio to anything you can capture with your camera, and sharing is more than just easy. Once you’ve shared your message, the media contained within shows up in the room with all your pals as well as in the room’s Trunk.

Inside the Trunk you’ll find all of the media shared inside the Chat, each of these units of fun able to be re-shared and downloaded by you at will. Inside the Chat where you’re sharing you’ve also got the ability to change how the Chat looks to you, this ability given to everyone else in the Chat as well, just affecting their view of the Chat. Change the color of the chat bubbles, their shape, the appearance of the background, and the text’s font. Quite simply fun and entertaining.

Download the app on the Android Market right this moment completely for free. You can also download this application for free from Samsung Apps and on other platforms (such as in your web browser through chaton.com) soon!

Wireless Keyboard with Trackpad

What you’ve got here is a keyboard that connects to your device with Bluetooth. It has a slide-out trackpad that works with some gestures, and the keyboard has your normal QWERTY set of keys along with some Android keys across the board. This keyboard works, but its certainly not the highest quality keyboard ever made for mobile. In regards to the Transformer Prime and its keyboard attachment, there is no comparison, this is plastic while that is high quality ring-spun metal and has its own rechargeable battery, amongst a host of other value-added features. What Motorola has created here is the most basic model it seems they could get away with, run by two double-A batteries to boot.

Wireless Keyboard with Portfolio / Protective Portfolio

I’m not entirely sure how these two pieces of industrial design nightmare were allowed to leave the gate, but I don’t recommend picking them up as they will be available for purchase when you head to your local Verizon store this week. The Wireless Keyboard with Portfolio does add the ability to carry your pen tool with you – the one you got with your XYBOARD 10.1, but its less than perfect construction means you’ll have to take special care you’re closing it correctly or you’ll have a less than flat notebook-like amalgamation in front of you. There’s a fold-out hard bit in the back that allows your tablet to sit up straight when you’re typing, and your mouse is a nubbin like what’s made famous by the red ThinkPad nubbin you should be well familiar with.

The Protective Portfolio case is a basic rip-off of Apple’s iPad 2 Smart Cover with three panels that pull back and into a triangle allowing you to sit the device up sideways. Unfortunately this case comes across as a knockoff and, unlike the iPad 2 version, doesn’t stick to the display magnetically, hanging basically free except for a tiny bit of what I can only describe as old adhesive meant to grab on to the glass.

HD Dock

Fortunately all is basically redeemed in this very interesting HD Dock which is adjustable to accommodate for a wide variety of Motorola mobile devices. You can plug either one of the DROID XYBOARD tablets in to this, or go for any one of the many dual-port-toting dual-core Motorola Android devices that have been released in the past year too. Be sure to ask your clerk to try out your device to make sure it fits, as the original ATRIX ports are slightly differently placed than the new DROID BIONIC, for example, but you’ll more than likely be in luck.

All of these devices and docks and sleeves and whatnot should be available at your local Verizon outlet or store starting this week for when you pick up your Motorola DROID RAZR or XYBOARD or any number of other similar devices. You know what to do! Also be sure to check out our reviews of the DROID XYBOARD 10.1 and the DROID XYBOARD 8.2 as well as the DROID RAZR and the DROID BIONIC for good measure.

This is the next step in the Motorola like of devices, and not just in the tablet lineup, in the dual-core and above lineup as well. Starting with the Motorola Atrix at the start of 2011, the dual-core processor-toting handset craze began, and with it Motorola started their lineup of dual-port-toting smart devices that continues to this day. The XYBOARD is the latest Motorola tablet to fit into this puzzle.

The Atrix and the Motorola XOOM were the first to have a microUSB and a microHDMI port at the bottom of them, and starting with this most recent wave of Motorola devices including the Photon, Atrix 2, Droid RAZR, Droid 3, and the XYBOARD tablets, the ports are equally spaced, allowing you to use basically any Motorola accessory with any Motorola Android device. Without getting too in-depth on that wavelength, this is a device that Motorola considers part of its own evolving family, one that does not necessarily need to compete with the rest of the Android world.

Hardware

This again is the smaller of two XYBOARD tablets, and in its international form is called the “XOOM 2 Media Edition” because it’s got an improved speaker setup and is supposedly better for listening to music and watching videos than the larger tablet. I’ve not personally found the experience to be all that different between the two in that regard – the difference, instead, in an everyday sense, is that these two tablets are different sizes physically. The DROID XYBOARD 8.2 at first seemed to me to be overpriced and under-improved when compared to the original XOOM, and I still do feel that way about the 10.1 version to a degree, but here in the 8.2 you’re going to find a rather nice package for a tablet, and one sized and shaped in a way that puts it up in the top 5 Android tablets on my list currently.

At this very moment, no tablet comes near the ASUS Transformer Prime for quality, price, or power in any way at all. What you’ve got here in the XYBOARD 8.2 is one of the three nicest tablets carried by Verizon right this moment, and the best 4G LTE tablet for what you’d find me needing one for in my line of work. I should remind you that I have no need for a tablet, and that’s the truth, but for the time that’d I like to have one around – like on an airplane ride to the next Motorola product release, for example, I’d bring this perfectly sized unit along.

For the full specifications on this tablet, head to our listing over at DEVICE.AC’s Motorola DROID XYBOARD 8.2, and note again the alternate XOOM 2 title. This tablet is extremely light, very well made, and amongst the thinnest tablets in the world.

Software

Inside you’ll find a very basic build of Android 3.2 Honeycomb, complete with Motorola-made app icons you’ll recognize from everything starting at the Droid 3 forward. The apps themselves aren’t as changed as you’ll find them on a recent Motorola smartphone – for instance the gallery for photos and video isn’t the slightly less than appealing media center you’ve got on the DROID RAZR, it’s the lovely stock Honeycomb (or something close) gallery we know and appreciate. Use this tablet on its own or connect it to your HDTV to watch some high definition movies without a skip – or even play some Sonic CD on that gigantic television with pixels large as life.

Have a peek at the HD Dock being released with this and the other XYBOARD here in a hands-on video to see how well the software works as a team with its holder. All it really does is stand the device upright and keep it plugged in to power and your HDMI port if you like, but because it’s adjustable and lets you use the tablet essentially like a control panel, it’s worth it. And it’s adjustable for use with the rest of the recent Motorola Android devices as well.

Battery and Camera

While the 4G LTE does have a bit of an effect on the battery, you’ll find that you’ve got at least a full day’s use on this tablet of basic functions like email, web browsing, and the like. If you’re doing nothing but playing high-demand games and streaming video, you’ve got closer to 6-8 hours on your hands. Very comparable to handsets not being drained by the strain of the connection speed.

The camera is so-so. No worse than the original Motorola XOOM, but certainly no better than the rest of the 2011 lineup of Android tablets what with their similar 5-megapixel cameras, the lot of them. Have a peek at some examples in both photos and video here and in the gallery below:

Wrap-Up

This tablet is nice, and if you rule out the facts that it’ll cost you an arm and a leg to first purchase it then pay each month for 4G LTE connectivity, you’ve got a nice tablet on your hands. I find myself very skeptical that there’s a real need for data-connected tablets on today’s market outside those people who’ve got specific use-cases in mind, so if you’re just an average lady or man out there thinking of picking up a tablet for fun, I still suggest you look into a wifi-only tablet instead. That said, if you do have a need for mobile data on a tablet, this is certainly one of your better choices.

I’d rate this tablet slightly higher than the Samsung choice on LTE simply because I like to have HDMI connectivity right out of the box, but lower than the iPad 2 also available on Verizon simply because the iPad 2 STILL seems like a more complete package. For those of you looking for the best Android tablet overall, go for the ASUS Transformer Prime. For those of you looking for an Android tablet specifically on the Verizon LTE network, don’t rule the XYBOARD 8.2 out.

Head-on, and the Verizon version of the Galaxy Nexus looks no different to the GSM model. You still get the same 1280 x 720 Super AMOLED HD display and 2-megapixel front facing camera, with a gently curved “Contour Display” doing a little to help those with regular sized hands stretch their thumb all the way to the top of the screen.

It’s when you look at the side-profile or the back that things get different. Verizon’s version of the Galaxy Nexus has a larger battery and is a little bulkier than the GSM variant; offering 100mAh extra and a suitably swollen battery cover to accommodate it. Peel off the (still flimsy and plasticky) panel and the Li-Ion pack is noticeably different in shape and size, while the SIM slot has been moved slightly and now accommodates one of Verizon’s LTE microSIMs.

In the hand, the extra thickness and weight are only really noticeable if you’ve spent time holding the GSM version. It certainly doesn’t make for an overly chunky phone, though it’s worth noting that a 4.65-inch display does leave both variants large – particularly in length – in comparison to, say, an iPhone 4S.

With LTE the flagship feature, we wasted no time in running through a few 4G speed tests to see just what sort of performance Verizon Galaxy Nexus owners can expect. We’ll do more testing ahead of the review, but we’re already seeing average download speeds of 11.69Mbps and upload speeds of 7.16Mbps.

We also shot some new camera samples, to see if there was any difference in performance from the Verizon model’s 5-megapixel sensor and the new Android 4.0.2 firmware. You can see the results in the gallery below.

What impact LTE has on battery life remains to be seen: we’ll be putting the Verizon Galaxy Nexus through its paces ahead of the full review to figure that out. Until then, enjoy our hands-on video and gallery, complete with some side-by-side comparisons between the GSM and LTE versions.