The group was able to come up with a solution by injecting secondary dex files directly into the Android class loader, but then another problem appeared. It turns out that the Facebook app would crash immediately after startup because it had surpassed the method limit set by Android’s virtual machine, Dalvik. The team was at a stand-still, unsure what they could do to fix the problem. They thought that they would have to cut out various features in their Facebook 2.0 app, or just restrict the revamped app to devices with newer versions of Android.

The developers thought “if we could only increase that buffer from 5 MB to 8 MB, we would be safe!”. They realized that they needed to find the LinearAllocHdr object, “lock it, and replace the buffer.” They then had an idea of using a JNI extension to replace the existing buffer with a bigger one. They found the proper value in the vmList using the JavaVM pointer in JNI, they scanned the DvmGlobals object to find the match, found the LinearAlloc header and replaced the buffer. They were able to build the JNI extension and implement it into the Facebook app.

They ran into a small issue with the Samsung Galaxy S II, which they dubbed as “the most popular Gingerbread phone of all time”. The buffer size was 4 bytes off, so they had to safely scan the process heap to search for the correct buffer. After they found the fix, they created a test app, and with the help of manual testing, DeviceAnywhere, and a Google test lab, they were able to test their new Facebook app on 70 different Android devices. To their relief, the app successfully worked on each device.

The team thanks Google and Android for being an open source platform. If the platform wasn’t open, they wouldn’t have been able to “ship our best version of the app”. Facebook also has its extensive training program to thank for that. The program, which was started last year, helped many Facebook staff members discover the reasoning behind the Gingerbread/Facebook debacle.

[via Facebook]

It does not appear to make a whole lot of sense that this tablet would have a more streamlined user interface over Android while it mysteriously grows a collection of buttons on its side. What you’re seeing here is a keyboard inside the software aside a bar of buttons also inside the screen. It seems as if this tablet too will have no physical buttons (other than a power button and maybe a volume rocket) and will continue the Google trend of on-screen controls with a wide mix.

This bar has a home key, back button, gray arrow button that more than likely reveals an expanded set of controls, full-screen button, menu button, search, and favorite star. The star will likely interact with online sales of digital content as well as with your Amazon shopping experience. The keyboard as well is nothing like the standard Android experience – unless you’re using Android 2.3 Gingerbread, that is.

The top bar above the search bar we’re seeing here has a battery symbol and wi-fi connectivity icon that appear to be part of Android, so we can probably use these and the rest of the clues to assume that Google will have built at least the software that this tablet will be based on. This is the same as the first Kindle Fire tablet, while Amazon will probably once again be heavily modifying the software to the point where Google will not certify it for Google Play. Amazon will be OK with this, of course, as the aim is to make the Amazon app store mainstream – or continue to do so – here in the next generation.

Join us on the 6th of September to see the full real deal via the Amazon event scheduled for that day – and expect something slightly advanced!

With MetroPCS ramping up efforts to bring 4G LTE to the USA on a network that’s not quite expansive enough to compete with the big guns, a set of two smartphones may be just what they need to stay steady. There’s also a device called LG Motion 4G on the market now for as low as $99 – it’s also a mid-range Android smartphone working on their burgeoning 4G LTE network. Details on the LG Motion 4G can be found in our post last week on the birth of the network’s new connectivity announcement.

Meanwhile you’ll be paying $150 USD for this smartphone working with such features as a microSD card slot, wi-fi connectivity, Bluetooth, GPS navigation, and a 1,600 mAh battery – more than likely much more than enough to keep you powered up for a full day at a time. This device can be purchased and paired with the carrier’s $55 USD a month rate plan with 4G LTE, and is also part of a buy-two-get-rebate plan.

If you purchase two of these devices – or one of these and an LG Motion 4G smartphone – you’ll qualify for a $50 mail-in rebate. Sounds like a deal! Have a peek at your local MetroPCS retailer immediately if not soon to grab em both!

With this device you’ll be grabbing a T-Mobile single-line, Monthly4G no annual contract plan. This plan has unlimted talk, text, and data (without a cap) and access to T-Mobile’s 4G data network. You’re able to pair this device with Walmart’s Family Mobile service as well for monthly payments. This Walmart Family Mobile plan will bring on no-annual-contract phone service with data for individuals as well as families – again, all powered by T-Mobile’s network across the USA.

You’ll be able to pick up the T-Mobile Concord smartphone at Target as well at Walmart starting on August 26th. This device will be available for $99.99 with a qualifying Monthly4G plan at Target and for $99.98 paired with a Walmart Family Mobile no annual contract plan at – you guessed it – Walmart.

This device is the next in a line of ZTE products being brought to the United States by the manufacturer in their effort to enter this lively mobile market. ZTE is responsible for a collection of fabulous and strangely enticing devices internationally, most of them running Android, and we’re more than ready to welcome them to the USA with open arms. More manufacturers means more competition and better devices in the end – lets go!

Check the timeline below for more ZTE action and prepare yourself for more products created by them but branded with the carrier their on here in the USA.

They also make it clear that the smartphone, in this case, will not have the same – or any, for that matter – optical zoom that the COOLPIX does. Many smartphones do have digital zoom, but this method doesn’t use lens adjustments and therefor makes the photo you take get just a bit more grainy the closer you get – every time. The S800c is able to zoom in on your subject with 10x optical zoom – the good kind.

The S800c also has the ability to take 16 megapixel photos which, unless you’re using an amazing device such as the Nokia 808 PureView (see our full review here), you’re just not going to get from a smartphone. This camera is shown doing essentially the same set of tasks as the smartphone in the video, but with less steps in some cases – and of course with the one drawback in place, that being a lack of mobile data connectivity.

Instead you’ll need to be working with Wi-fi connected to data – which you might want to get being connected to your smartphone. But at that point you might just want to send the camera back and pick up your phone – but who are we to judge? The COOLPIX is also shown battling against what appears to be an iPhone, gaining a lot more “Great!” points on an off-brand social network than the smartphone.

Of course there are a few oddities in the video such as the iPhone appearing on both sides of the black line at once at 0:32 – but no worries, the message is clear! Have a peek at the timeline below to see more Android camera action from Nikon from all angles!

If we were looking at this device two years ago, it would seem rather pleasing to both the eye and the pocket. At the moment it seems quite behind the times. It does have a 5 megapixel camera on the back, which will probably suffice for the standard smartphone users out there, but the tiny processor and strangely large price for such a device has us a bit baffled.

You’ll be paying $179 after a mail-in rebate, and if you forget to send that rebate in, you’ll have payed $279 for a device that’s not nearly as fabulous as the Galaxy S III which is, again, on the same carrier. The plus side is that this price does not tie you to any sort of contract. And if you live in a 4G LTE network area, you’ll be able to get the device for $129 after $100 mail-in rebate. A reminder once again that the Galaxy S III will cost you $199 after a $100 mail-in rebate on this same carrier.

This device also has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard for you physical tappers as well as a relatively new version of Samsung’s TouchWiz interface, sitting right between the candy-coated and the modern, but again working with Android 2.3 Gingerbread for last year’s technology lovers. If you do not live in one of US Cellular’s 4G LTE areas, you’ll be working with 3G across the nation.

[via US Cellular]

These images do by all means appear to be legitimate Nikon-made device photos or renderings of the smart camera before its announcement this month. This device appears in three different configurations, two with rounded corners, each of them with a different setup for the logos on the front, and one model that’s a bit more square than the rest. This device appears to have a standard set of buttons for taking photos, zooming in and out, and accessing a gallery of images.

On the back of this device appears to be a display that is indeed running Android 2.3 Gingerbread with little to no modifications made to its build. This device also has a set of three buttons below the screen (when held in portrait mode) that likely attach to back, home, and menu functions. It’s not yet known if this device will be able to connect to mobile data, but it’s quite likely that it’ll be working with wi-fi signals at least.

Have a peek in the timeline below to see additional bits from the recent past from Nikon to gain additional clues on their near future. Android may very well be finding its way into more than one camera soon!

That’s not bad at all for the price. It might be lacking on storage, but you’ll get a free 2GB microSD card slot in the box, and the phone supports cards up to 32GB cards in size. The phone may be running Gingerbread, but you weren’t really expecting Ice Cream Sandwich at this price point, were you? Connectivity includes Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi, GPS, and tri-band 3G. It’s not too thick or heavy at 11.5mm and 120g, and a 1,400mAh battery should keep you going for a full day.

Virgin Media will be offering the ZTE Kis starting from today. You should be able to pick on up either on Virgin’s website, or by giving them a call and ordering one directly. Virgin will be throwing in 1GB of data per month over 12 months for free as well, which should come with the mandatory £10 top-up that you purchase with the handset.

Hardware

The San Diego won’t be winning any awards in the design department. It’s about as generic a design as you can get, and if you look back at hands-on from CES 2012 you’ll actually see that it’s a similar design (if not the same) as the reference phone shown off to the press and developers. It’s the same black monolithic design you’ve seen a thousand times before, just with ports and buttons located in different places.

We’ll give credit where credit is due: whereas phones at this price point and below often use glossy plastic covers, the San Diego instead opts for a rubberized texture that repels grease and fingerprints. The 4-inch handset is comfortable enough in the hand, even if it is a smidgen too big thanks to the wasted space underneath the four capacitive keys at the bottom of the screen. There’s also some noticeable flex to the device. Keep a steady eye on the phone as you shift and twist it in your hands, and you’ll hear some creaking emanating from the bottom half, with some noticeable bending to boot. Does it feel like it’s going to break? No, and it’s solid enough, but it was somewhat alarming at first.

A silver trim goes around the phone which also houses the numerous buttons and ports, including power and the 3.5mm headphone jack at the top, plus volume rocker, camera shutter, and microSIM card slot on the right. A microHDMI output can be found on the left hand side, while microUSB rests on the bottom next to the speaker grills. Odd that Intel didn’t spring for a combined port with MHL output, but perhaps the silicon doesn’t allow for that yet. The camera shutter didn’t present us with any problems, but the power button did give us a bit of trouble at first. It doesn’t protrude from the device enough, resulting in not a whole lot of feedback when pressed. It never failed to register our presses, however.

On the back you’ll find the eight megapixel camera, a nice surprise considering the £199 price of the handset, although you won’t be able to remove the cover. Everything is sealed into the device, including the battery, and there’s no options for removable storage. Even worse, USB OTG doesn’t seem to work, so you’re stuck with the limited internal storage that comes with the device. Orange advertises this as 16GB, although after the operating system and apps take up allocated space, there’s about 10.7GB left available to the user.

The display on the San Diego is definitely punching above its weight. A resolution of 1024×600 spread across 4-inches of real estate may sound like a strange combination, but it works well. Pixel density is great at 296 PI, but better yet is the quality of the panel. IPS this is most definitely not, but it seems that Intel didn’t cut any corners with its manufacturing partner, Gigabyte. Colors are bold and vibrant, viewing angles are above average, and brightness was just about good enough to overcome the glare presented in extreme daylight. Our minor, nitpicky complaints are these: at extreme angles, colours do tend to shift, and holding the phone at an angle while taking a closer look exhibits the same grainess found on the Xperia U. The difference on this handset is that everything looks fantastic when viewed head on, while on the Xperia U it was a constant problem.

As for all the specs, the San Diego is powered by an Intel Atom Z2460 clocked at 1.6Ghz and paired with 1GB of RAM. Radios include quad-band 3G (850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100) with HSPA+ rated at up to 21Mbit/s. Careful, though: the San Diego is locked to Orange’s network, so you won’t be able to pick one up and then use it on another network. At the time of writing, there doesn’t seem to be an unlocking solution for the phone either. That’s a bummer, but you didn’t think Orange was going to make it that easy, did you?

Software

We hope you like Gingerbread, because that’s what you’re going to be stuck with if you buy this phone. It’s strange that the phone has been saddled with android 2.3 considering Ice Cream Sandwich has been with us for some time, especially considering the reference Medfield phone was running 4.0 back at CES 2012. Having said that, we imagine the bulk of software testing to bring Atom to Android was done on Gingerbread. Orange say that an Ice Cream Sandwich update is on the cards for Q3, but by then we’ll be *another* version higher on the Android software ladder. That’s something you’ll have to take into consideration.

“Well,” you say, “I’ll just root the device and put whatever I want on there!” Not so fast there, little buddy. Paul O’Brien of MoDaCo fame has confirmed that the phone has a locked bootloader. To make matters worse, he’s heard directly from Orange that the carrier has no plans to unlock the phone at all, meaning you won’t be able to get root access or flash custom ROMs unless something short of a miracle occurs.

And you know what? That’s a shame. Part of the reason for the San Francisco’s success was its easy hackability along with the impressive specs for the low price. The San Diego could easily have been a fan favourite among the hacking community, leaving those who wanted custom ROMs free to play around while regular customers still receive the Orange experience. Major players like Samsung and HTC have already recognized the importance of getting the enthusiast community onboard, so why can’t Orange and Intel?

Bootloader ranting aside, Gingerbread is mostly a stock affair but with some minor visual tweaks to the interface made by Orange to fall in line with its other branded phones, such as the San Francisco and Monte Carlo. That primarily comes in the form of the launcher, homescreens, and widgets, although a smattering of apps have also been included with the phone. NAVIGON Select is onboard for turn-by-turn navigation, Quickoffice gives you some basic editing capabilities, doubleTwist provides media playback, and Dailymotion gives you access to online video content. The rest are Orange’s own branded apps, including Orange Wednesdays, Tags, Assistant, and Your Orange.

The standout feature that Orange has included is the Gestures application, which lets you draw certain shapes or symbols on the screen to quick launch an application. Let’s say you draw an “O” on the screen: the browser springs to life and Orange’s homepage loads. Draw a square, and you’ll be kicked into the Messaging app, while an arrow opens the Clock. Better yet, you can create custom assignments for drawings, so you’re not locked into the defaults, and you can choose just about any shortcut you desire, whether it be launching an app, looking at a contact, or jumping into a Gmail label. We didn’t use the feature all that much, but we appreciate having the option and imagine it’ll go down a treat with some customers.

All Android apps are designed to work on ARM processors, but Intel is running everything on x86 thanks to some binary translation trickery. Everything seems to work well, and the majority of apps that we’d normally download to other Android phones ran flawlessly on the San Diego. Having said that, there are some app compatibility issues. Running a quick check against the Top Free apps category will show you exactly what’s available and what’s missing. The short version is that while most major apps seem to be available for the San Diego, there are notable exceptions like Flash and Temple Run in addition to several other games. One of our favourite video players, Dice Player, was also unavailable.

What about the performance of the handset? Does a single-core Atom with hyperthreading really match up to dual-core offerings from the likes of Samsung, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm? Yes and no. General performance of the phone was a mixed bag, with a laggy launcher that can mostly be blamed on Orange’s customizations. Installing a third-party alternative such as LauncherPro yielding much better results. The keyboard was very responsive, and probably performed the best out of all the Gingerbread phones we’ve used in the past.

The browser, meanwhile, seemed to always just fall shy of great performance. While pages are quick to load over WiFi and 3G, scrolling is never completely smooth, and it’s the same story with pinch-to-zoom. It’s about 90% of the way there, but the occasional hiccup and stutter stops everything from being completely perfect. The lack of Ice Cream Sandwich means you won’t be able to turn to alternatives like Chrome or Firefox either, and we can’t help but wonder if the latest version of Android is all that’s holding the phone back from being buttery smooth all around.

In terms of benchmarks, the Atom Z2460 clocked at 1.6Ghz more than held its own. Quadrant returned a score of 3,608, AnTuTu gave us 5,647, NeNaMark 2 finished with 39.7fps, and SunSpider 0.9.1 absolutely screamed with 1,436ms. That’s on par with high-end phones like the HTC One X and the Samsung Galaxy S III. Impressive, but we wish it was mirrored in real world browsing tests.

Camera

The eight megapixel sensor serves up decidedly average results, with photos appearing dull and lifeless thanks to undersaturated pictures and a light smattering of noise reduction which is consistently applied. The camera also had trouble focusing on close-up objects, with several attempts needed before the subject would become clear.

As you can see from the flowers in the gallery, reds seem to get some special preference, but not in a good way, looking extremely oversaturated despite the overcast British weather. Noise ramps up considerably in low-light situations too. Burst mode works as advertised, with the phone capturing 10 photos in rapid succession, then allowing the user to pick the best one. It’s nice to see such a function making it to a budget phone like the San Diego when the HTC One X and Galaxy S III boast a similar feature, but will you really use it with the camera’s dodgy output?

Video recording is a bit of a mess. We hope you enjoy videos that look like they were recorded underwater, because that’s pretty much exactly what the 1080p H.264 Baseline L4.1 footage encoded at 15Mbit/s looks like. Cars, motorcycles, and pedestrians devolve into gelatinous forms are they wobble across the screen in the resulting output, with considerable distortion as you pan the phone around. That’s made all the more frustrating by the fact the compression is actually pretty good, with no obvious artifacts and only a very minor amount of noise. Sure, the output isn’t as sharp as 1080p video you’ll find on other smartphones, but most phones in this category are shooting 720p with far worse results. Audio quality is great too, with stereo AAC encoded with a constant bitrate of 320Kbit/s.

Phone and Battery

Call quality was good on the San Diego, with those on the other end coming across without any issues and reporting the same for me. As is often the case, the earpiece could do to be slightly louder, but it’s a minor detail.

We weren’t unable to perform tests across multiple carriers on the San Diego due to the simlock that Orange has placed on the device. We did reach out to Orange and ask for an unlock code so we could better test the phone, but they were unable to provide one. As a result, we were stuck on Orange and T-Mobile’s combined 3G networks and were met with less than impressive results. Speeds never broke the 2Mbit/s barrier no matter where we were throughout London, with tests often falling well below 1Mbit/s matched with occasionally high pings. It’s the same story with real world performance, with websites taking longer to load on average when compared against O2 or Three.

Battery life was a mixed bag, to say the least. Let’s get the video rundown out of the way. We took a 1080p H.264 High Profile L4.1 clip with a bitrate of 20Mbit/s and played it on loop, with WiFi/3G left on, brightness set to 100%, and headphones left plugged in with volume set to 50%. The San Diego managed 2 hours and 43 minutes before dying. That’s well below what even the most modest devices are capable of achieving, so we re-ran the test with a less demanding 720p H.264 Baseline L3.1 clip with a bitrate of 2Mbit/s, this time managing 3 hours and 59 minutes. That’s a tremendous difference, and comes down to the Atom chip’s video decoding capabilities. ARM-based chips typically have dedicated video decoders that only have a small difference in power drain depending on the complexity of the video clip, but it looks like it’s a pretty huge variance in Intel’s case. That’s backed up by the temperature of the phone too: the phone was much warmer to the touch after the 1080p test than the 720p, so the Atom chip was definitely feeling the strain despite video playback being perfectly smooth. Even if you take the better of the two results, the battery falls short of other handsets.

In more typical usage, we could definitely get a full day out of the phone and survive for most of the next too, although the overall drain does seem to be ever so slightly higher than average. Part of the blame can be assigned to the power hungry screen, and during the idle time the phone matched what ARM-based chips had to offer. Web browsing, Twitter updates, push Gmail, and a handful of text messages did see the battery fade away a little quicker than we would have liked, however.

Wrap-Up

Intel deserves some credit. The company has been trying to make x86 work in mobile devices for quite some time, and has finally proven that the whole package is possible with good performance sans ridiculous battery consumption. Now the company needs to start working on refining the process and bringing battery drain up to speed with competitors, because they’re certainly not standing still.

As for the San Diego, it feels more like an experiment or the result of a happy accident that somehow made it into full scale production for general sale. It’s a quirky little device that features a good screen and decent longevity, but suffers tremendously from Gingerbread and a mediocre camera. Orange, however, has priced it pretty much perfectly. You’ll be paying well above the £199 asking price for phones that rectify those problems, or sacrificing key features and specs if you dip below it. In a nutshell, it’s good value for money if you can live with being stuck on an old version of Android for the foreseeable future.

The Atom processor inside the San Diego seems to move things briskly along with games and the web browser, although flicking between the home screen was somewhat sluggish – we’re blaming Orange’s customized skin on this one, as we’ve seen similar behaviour in the past on other phones. We did manage to run some quick benchmarks, with Quadrant coming in at 3790, and SunSpider 0.9.1 achieving 1523ms: impressive, and we’re told the phone is running final software so the numbers are representative of the shipping product. The eight megapixel camera comes with a 10-shot burst mode, which seems to work as advertised, allowing the user to select the best shot from the selection, much like HTC and Samsung’s current camera offerings.

The hardware feels competent enough, and isn’t as cheap as some other phones in the price range. Sure, it might be a generic black slab, but the rubberized texture on the back cover gives it a nice grip in the hand. The size is about right too: 4.03-inches, not too big, and not too small. The screen has a resolution of 1024×600, and everything looked nice and sharp to us. We were taking photos and video next to a window on a bright sunny London day, and the screen could do to a bit brighter, but fared relatively well otherwise. Viewing angles were decent, but not great: don’t expect IPS quality for £200.

Orange and Intel seem to have struck a nice balance between the capabilities of the phone and the price. There certainly isn’t anything else in this price range that seems to match the performance, and in some benchmarks Intel’s offering is nipping at the heels of flagship offerings. The phone is due to be released on June 6th for £199.99 on Pay As You Go, and £15.50 on a 24-month Pay Monthly contract. We’re looking forward to getting our hands on a review unit, but in the meantime feast your eyes on the pictures and video below.

The above video mentions a 4.3-inch screen – we meant 4.03-inches. Sorry!

Hardware

Unlike its slightly more massive cousin which you can see in our Samsung Galaxy Player 5.0 Review, this device is extremely thin and certainly one of the lightest smart devices on the market today. The only lighter device we’ve seen along these same lines is one you can see in our Samsung Galaxy Player 3.6 Review – a tiny device, to be sure. This 4.2-inch relative of those Galaxy Players has many of the same specifications but here may well have the most ideal combination of palm-fitting form factor and media playing prowess.

Here you’ll find a device with Android 2.3 Gingerbread – certainly not the most advanced software available from Google or Samsung for that matter, but enhanced in several ways that make it equitable in a few choice ways. You’ll be able to see all of the applications you’ve got open at once by holding down the physical center button on the front of the phone. Access Google search by holding down the menu button. Turn the entire device on, the display off, and adjust the volume from the right side of the device, this handset having both its power and volume buttons sitting right under your thumb – if you’re right-handed, that is.

The two speakers on the front of this device remind us that Samsung has begun moving to this sort of model. We’ve seen this same cue on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 as well – have a peek at our Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 Review to see how we enjoyed this feature just as well there as we did here. The vast majority of smartphones working with exterior speakers have been on the back, made to bounce sound off of the palm of your hand and reserve space on the front of the phone for screen space. Here Samsung is making it clear that this is not a smartphone, but a device made to play games, play music, and play movies first and foremost.

The Galaxy Player 4.2 has a display that’s right on the sweet-spot for what I’d consider a perfect screen size. Most adults with mid to large-sized hands should be able to reach the entirety of the device’s display with their thumb without needing two hands to do it, and the ideal location of the power button and volume button only adds to that ideal media-controller situation.

This device is able to connect with DLNA displays with the app called AllShare, Bluetooth devices with Bluetooth 3.0, and of course wi-fi internet. You’ll be connecting to your computer for media transfer with the free desktop-connected app Samsung Kies, and your USB connection is 2.0. You can play AVI, MP4, 3GP, WMV, ASF, MKV, and FLV videos as well as MP3, WMA, Ogg, FLAC, AAC, and WAV audio files. Inside your basic Music application you’ve got a sound levels controller called SoundAlive which has a set of presets such as Rock, Dance, Jazz, and Auto – and there’s a couple of customizable sets as well.

Software

Here we see Samsung’s most advanced version of media-player-ready Android 2.3 Gingerbread with TouchWiz enhanced for a rapidly evolving Ice Cream Sandwich-heavy environment. It’s unclear why this device does not simply have Android 4.0, but perhaps it is just that – updating this device mightn’t be so simple. It’s not extremely necessary to have that newest version of Google’s mobile OS for media and game playing, and that is what this device is made for without a doubt.

Below you’ll get a glimpse of how quick the Galaxy Player 4.2 works with its installed software, and we’ve got a couple of benchmarks here as well for you to compare with the rest of the smartphone and media player world.

Hands-on

Sound Quality

Samsung has never disappointed with their ability to place excellent speaker systems in the smallest of devices, and this is no exception to the rule. Through the earbuds included with the Galaxy Player 4.2 or through higher-quality headphones, you’ll not be let down by the headphone jack on this machine. The same is true of the two impressive speakers on the front of the device, each of them perfectly strong enough to use in a crowded bus station or on your own in the darkness.

Camera and Battery

This device has a front-facing camera good enough for basic video chat, a back facing camera with 2-megapixels imaging quality power, and both are fairly good. Compared to the kings of the smartphone world, they’re not so fabulous, but for taking photos for Facebook or Twitter, you’ll be fine. Have a peek at a few examples below and behold all 2 megapixels of fury.

Battery life on this device is fantastic if only because there’s no mobile data to be sucking it down hours after hour. We’ve gotten at least a day’s use out of this smart handset if not a day and a half after web browsing, streaming video over Wi-fi, and playing music through the whole test. The Galaxy Player 4.2 is a very well-balanced device as far as battery life goes, that’s for sure.

Wrap-Up

If I had to choose one Galaxy Player from the whole lineup released or announced thus far to work with, this would be it. The Galaxy Player 3.6 is just a bit too small to want to work with, and the Galaxy Player 5.0 is much too thick to want to have anything to do with. The only misgiving I’ve got with this particular model is the slightly less than stellar lighting in the buttons on the front of the device. This seemingly out-of-character feature does not look great, but does not hinder the operation of the device in any way.

Here at $199 this may well be the best deal on the mobile market if you’re not in the market for a tablet-sized device. Later this year we might be seeing sub-$199 tablets at 7-inches with next-level processing power. For now, $200 with no contract for an entertaining device such as this with Android is a fairly decent price. Find shops both online and offline to purchase this device through Samsung and gain entertainment in excess.

It’s certainly a more pocketable handset. LG has hacked away at some of the bulk, removing the camera bulge on the back which made the original feel so clumsy, and leaving the profile more like that of Samsung’s Galaxy S II. Up front, meanwhile, is a new NOVA display, which uses the company’s brighter LCD technology. Unfortunately, it’s still only running at WVGA resolution, when qHD and 720p HD are commonplace among high-end phones.

LG 3D Max Unboxing and hands-on

Inside it’s a case of a solid chipset – TI’s 1.2GHz OMAP4430 dual-core – running an old OS, namely Android 2.3 Gingerbread. LG adds its own 3D UI, as well, which offers a little entertainment with the glasses-free 3D display, though we’re not sure it’s of lasting worth. Still, it makes framing 3D videos and photos more straightforward, and you can output them both via MHL-HDMI to a compatible 3D TV.

We’re still not quite convinced by 3D on phones – and, judging by the relatively little impact LG’s original Optimus 3D had on the market, neither is the public at large – but at least there are fewer compromises with the Optimus 3D Max. We’ll be putting it through its paces in time for the full SlashGear review to see if the benefits of 3D content creation on the move outweigh old Android and a low-res screen.

Specifications are the same as what we’ve seen on the LG Spectrum and LG Nitro HD: a 4.5-inch LCD screen with a 720p IPS display, 1.5Ghz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, eight megapixel camera, and 1.3 megapixel front facing camera. Unfortunately, Gingerbread will greet you when you power up the phone, but hopefully Ice Cream Sandwich will make an appearance. Those in Germany lucky enough to receive an LTE signal will be able to enjoy the super fast speeds too.

While LG has announced the handset, the company hasn’t said which German carriers will be offering the phone, or given detailed pricing either. O2, T-Mobile, and Vodafone all offer LTE services in Germany, so until one of them speaks up, we recommend you furiously refresh each website.

[via Unwired View]

The Galaxy S Advance has a 4-inch Super AMOLED display with a 800×480 resolution, which we’re assuming is the same PenTile matrix used on the original Galaxy S. Specs otherwise include a 1Ghz dual-core processor, 768MB of RAM, 8/16GB of storage, five megapixel camera with LED flash and 720p video recording, and a 1,500mAh battery. There’s also a microSD slot for cards up to 32GB, HSPA connectivity will jack you in at up to 14.4Mbit/s, and it all comes in a relatively slim package at 9.69mm thick.

Unfortunately, the Galaxy S Advance is running Gingerbread, and Samsung hasn’t indicated whether or not the phone will be seeing an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich. It’s certainly not lacking in the power department, and we have to wonder why it simply didn’t come with ICS out of the box.

Samsung say that Phones4u and Vodafone will both be offering the handset, and Clove has the handset in stock right now for £322.80 (~$522.75).

The Optimus 3D Max will have a 4.3-inch screen with a WVGA resolution, plus Gorilla Glass 2. Specs include a dual-core 1.2Ghz OMAP4430 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage with a microSD card slot, two 5 megapixel cameras, and a 1,520mAh battery. Everything is running on Android 2.3, Gingerbread, and the phone comes in at 9.6mm thick.

LG has also customized some of the software on the phone to fully take advantage of glasses-less 3D. The 3D Converter takes 2D content from apps like Google Earth and Maps and converts them to 3D for your viewing pleasure. A 3D video editor is also included, allowing you to edit your video footage in 3D in realtime, and a 3D Hot Key allows you to quickly switch between 2D and 3D views.

NFC support is also on board, and you’ll be able to push video content via MHL HDMI, or wirelessly thanks to DLNA, at resolutions up to 1080p. 3D content shot using the phone can be pushed out to your TV using either method, provided it’s 3D ready.

Hardware

This device is clearly meant to reflect the everyday user’s need to hold the device in one hand and tap with one thumb, as the size is not gigantic as the LG’s upcoming phablet nor is it so tiny one cannot see the display. It’s got a display that’s made for business as well as casual users, and under the hood is enough power to play even the highest class games on the Google Play App Store today. Qualcomm has created a set of chips in this device capable of bringing power as well as ultra-fast connection speed for data on Verizon’s LTE network.

Have a peek at the data speeds here, first of all, and note that this device is ramped up to take full advantage of Verizon’s ultra-fast data network. We’re sitting in Saint Paul MN, one of Verizon’s heavy areas for LTE, so expect nearly as good of results if you’re in a place like NYC or basically the entirety of California.

Then for Quadrant Advanced, a relatively basic but reliable test of the inner workings of Android devices, you’ll see that this is working surprisingly well for the mid-range device this hardware is being marketed as. Qualcomm has done a fabulous job of getting down to business here in this small LG beast.

Of course the hardware power is only half of the picture. LG has here brought on another new iteration of their user interface on top of Gingerbread, as well as a smooth set of connections to cloud services and a video editing app as well. Have a peek at the hardware and a bit of software here:

Software

This device features another new look at LG’s vision for a perfect Android user experience, complete with an enhanced app drawer and several different pre-set themes for you lovers of switching between looks. Have a peek at this hands-on with the new software and be amazed that LG is putting so much work into a device that will likely fall under the shadow of their more high-spec’d devices:

Camera and Battery

This device has behaved amazingly with LG’s collection of everyday (as well as enhanced) pushes for energy saving. We’ve got it clocked at an amazing day and 10 hours with admittedly low use – but still! LTE appears to be starting its pull back on the energy sucking here, more than likely thanks to Qualcomm once again (since its their chips that are doing the work here with the data.) See a chart of battery use in the video above.

Then there’s the camera. We’ve got just a 5 megapixel camera here, and it’s not the most fantastic piece of hardware in the world. That said, the 1080p video is fairly decent. have a peek at some examples below:

Wrap-Up

LG has done a decent job here releasing a top-of-mid-range device for the masses, not quite overtaking what they’ve already got released on Verizon with the LG Spectrum, but certainly a fine phone for those with hands that aren’t goliath in size. This device is available at Verizon starting this week and you can pick one up online in Verizon’s online shop for $79.99 after online discount and 2-year contract. Grab it!

The Sony Xperia S features a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 1GB of RAM, and 32GB of data storage with up to 1.5GB of app storage. It has a 4.3-inch 1280 x 720 TFT pixel-dense display, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, and a 12.1-megapixel rear-facing camera with 16x digital zoom, LED flash, and 1080p Full HD video recording. For more details on the device, make sure to check out our full review.

The device comes in black or white and features a unique transparent navigation bar that runs across the phone just below the screen. Sony hasn’t revealed the pricing and exact date of availability and is leaving that information for local retailers to announce soon. A US version is expected to arrive on AT&T and will be called the Xperia Ion, priced around $200-300. However, it will be missing the transparent element in the design.

[via Android Community]

This device is currently available in China and can readily be purchased through carriers and resellers of hardware if you’re in the area. Should you want to use this device in the United States, you’ll want to make sure it’s set for English right out of the box or you may have a bit of trouble (provided you aren’t able to read Mandarin) working with this device’s many interfaces – each of them available in several languages, thus is the power of Android. What you receive here in this unique handset is a high-end experience in both a unique piece of hardware and a unique custom-made user interface working over Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread – with a planned upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich sometime in the future.

Hardware

Though there was a very early report of a chipped case in one of the first review models that was released, Meizu has since replaced the back cover with a more substantial back battery cover – you wouldn’t know the difference unless you had both covers in your hands, and even then the differences are next to impossible to spot. So we’re fully confident now that the phone is solid all the way through. The way the back cover attaches to the bulk of the device is unique in that it clips on throughout but has two metal pins that are spring loaded at the bottom of the phone. There’s no chance this back cover is coming off unless you want it to come off, I can say that with confidence.

The white back and black front of the device give it a lovely two-tone look that’s rare in the market today, with a set of light-up arrangement-switching lights surrounding the center Home button – which sticks outward instead of the usual inward we see with such smartphones as the iPhone. The Home button does just that, brings you back to your main home screen from whatever app you’re in, and is also able to wake the device up. Because the button is out rather than in, it poses the risk of you hitting it often when you do no intend to – more than likely we’re seeing reduced battery time because it’s on in our pocket so very often unintentionally.

The lights on either side of the Home button are capacitive and can represent a number of different functions. When you see three lights in a row, you know that it’s a menu button. When you see three lights in a triangle, you know that it’s a back button. When you see one light, you know that your device is awake, but that the button will not do anything except give you haptic feedback. When the phone is asleep, these light-up buttons serve as notification lights, “breathing” in and out whenever you get a notification – be it for a message, an email, or whatever else you’ve got hooked up to give you notifications all the live long day.

The front panel is some sort of unnamed reinforced glass over a 4-inch 960 x 640 pixel resolution ASV display (aka Advanced Super View TFT LCD). This display has a 288 ppi pixel density – this compares with the 330 ppi pixel density of the iPhone 4/4S and the 316 ppi pixel density of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Note that though these displays cannot be directly compared with pixels per inch alone, it is interesting to see how close to one another they are simply based on that one count. Set them next to one another and you’ll be able to tell the difference – alone they’re all more than sharp enough for any discerning smartphone lover.

Software

This device runs on Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread with Meizu’s custom user interface “Flyme” running on top. You’ll get a good look at how this version of Android works in comparison to both Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and iOS 5.0 on the iPhone 4S in this hands-on video:

There’s another China-based app store here that’s not affiliated with Google but, strangely enough, can view your downloads folder and tell you which apps you’ve downloaded for the official Android Market – which is also on the device out of the box. Take a peek at a few other screenshots of modified applications included in this build in the gallery below, but note most what the Music application looks like here. There’s an equalizer in there! It works pretty good too, for what it is. It’s no ultra-advanced set of modifications for your tunes, but it does adjust well enough for the headphones, built-in speakers, or speaker jack you’ll be using.

Also feel free to take a glance at a set of benchmark tests done on the phone here, and note that this is the early-release developer/reviewers edition of the device, it appearing in forums across the web as having benchmarks just about 85% as good as the final release of the device. This device is, again, already available in China now. SunSpider is run on the stock web browser with T-Mobile 3G:

Camera

The camera interface you can also take a peek at in the hands-on video above, it having a decent amount of ability to take modified photos right out of the box, but not having the most extensive set of effects out of the box. Both videos and photos are at least decent and the interface created by Meizu for Flymm functions, but does have some oddities we’re not a big fan of. One example is once a photo is taken, previewing the image displays a cropped image – you’ve got to pinch to zoom out to see the full image. Have a peek at some 8 megapixel photos and a 1080p video here to make your own judgements:

The video above shows how terrible the camera can be in a dark environment, then this next video comes from someone in China using the final version of the device (and the camera) on a relatively clear day on a road. It should be pretty clear here that this camera can create big range of qualities in video.

Photos on the other hand are pretty darn nice. Check these examples out:

Battery and Phone Quality

The battery inside this device lasted us about 8 hours with medium use, needing just one charge a day if you’ve not been playing video all day. Have a peek at this indicator of how long the device will last if you’re only using it for email, a map or two, and photography: more than a day, easy.

Wrap-Up

This device appears more than ready to take on the top-tier market in China, but certainly isn’t something you’ll want to pay several hundred dollars to import here to the United States. It works with micro SIM cards from T-Mobile and AT&T, but the coverage limitations and the specs which are essentially equal to phones such as the Galaxy S II make this a device you’ll be better to pick up if you actually live in China.

The software is interesting, but does not seem to offer any large benefits over iOS or Android besides the fact that it looks just a bit different. It essentially functions the same as Android, doesn’t have an apps drawer so reminds one of iOS, and sits at about equal or a little less powerful a device on the whole mainly because of the software. This is certainly Meizu’s best effort to date, and if you do get the chance to play around with one, take it: it’s a sign of what might be coming eventually to the United States if a manufacturer here can make it profitable to offer such a different take on Android.

Take a peek at the images and video above and below, and if you’ve got any questions on the device in the near future, do not hesitate to ask!

The Gigabyte GSmart G1355 is expected to run Android 2.3 Gingerbread and offers moderate specs. It sports a 4.3-inch WVGA display with an 800MHz Qualcomm porcessor, 512MB of RAM, and 1GB of ROM. It offers WiFi, GPS, 3.5mm headset jack, and a 5-megapixel rear-facing autofocus camera with LED flash. It also has a microSD card slot, expandable up to 32GB.

The device overall looks sleek, measuring in at about 11.5mm thick and weighing about 170g. It’s expected to launch sometime later this month, which means it will likely make a showing at MWC. Pricing information has not been revealed yet.

[via GSMArena]

This smartphone is both light and powerful, it rolling out with the most high-clocked dual-core processor on the market and a collection of applications right out of the box that will have your head spinning. There’s ESPN ScoreCenter for your sports needs, it connected to the NFL, the MLB, and NASCAR to name a few. You’ll notice that this and other apps are collected cleanly in the apps drawer which has a unique face, it being part of LG’s own custom user interface over Android.

While you’re watching the hands-on video for this device, please feel free to write down any and all questions you’ve got on its technology or its build. We’ll be giving this smartphone a full review by the end of the week, and we want you to have all the information you need on what’s going on here! Wouldn’t want to buy a phone unless you had the full story, yes? Have a peek at the sharpness for now!

The new Arnova 9 G2 tablet comes packed with a 9.7-inch capacitive, multi-touch touch panel, a 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8 single-core processor, stereo speakers, a built-in microphone and a forward-facing camera. Moreover, it houses a sturdy 8 gigs of flash storage, a microSD card slot, a USB port & micro USB port, and 802,11b/g/n WiFi wireless connectivity. Google’s Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system comes standard on board, as it does on most tablet computers running Android OS these days.

In terms of dimensions, the tablet measures a standard-esque 9.4″ a 7.2″ x 0.5″ and weighs 1.4 pounds. Which basically makes it a tidbit smaller than a 1st-generation Apple iPad. Although Archos hasn’t revealed the pricing for the tablet yet, the Arnova 9 G2 in all likelihood will also be quite a bit cheaper than an iPad. Archos also has tablet offerings at the 7, 8, and 10.1 inch display sizes as part of its budget-focused Arnova G2 lineup, and the majority of these tablets sell for under $250. And if you haven’t checked out Archos in awhile, be sure to check out our recent review of the Archos 80 G9 tablet.

[via Liliputing]

Hardware

What we have with the Breakout is a pretty unique and well rounded individual. It looks completely different than any Android device thus far, and they’ve added their own user interface overlay atop Android too but lets breakdown the hardware. We have a 4.0″ WVGA 480 x 800 resolution display, a 1.0 GHz Qualcomm processor, 512MB of RAM, then the usual Wi-Fi, Blueooth, and standard sensors. This is all rounded off with a 5 MP camera on the rear (no flash) VGA front for video chatting, and powered by Android 2.3 Gingerbread and Verizon Wireless 4G LTE.

Pantech Breakout 4G LTE hands-on

This might not be the top of the line handset you were thinking about when you decided you’d get an LTE smartphone, but this would have been a top tier smartphone not too long ago, yet it has 4G LTE and is only $99 — a steal if you ask me. As for the hardware around the smartphone we’ll start with the front. We have 4 dedicated standard Android hardware buttons. Menu, home, back, and search. The middle has a unique and different brushed aluminum design that looks nice but has an odd texture I’m not sure I like.

The entire design actually feels really industrial and quite solid. For a $99 dollar entry level priced phone you get excellent build quality and a very solid, nice feeling phone in your hand. On the right side we have a dedicated camera button, an oddly placed power and wake button, then a door that opens up to our micro-USB port for charge and syncing. I must say I’m not a fan of where the power and wake toggle button is. Samsung has a familiar idea but its higher up and out of the way while the Breakout’s button is right where I reach to hold the phone while placing calls or picking it up and I’ve accidentally turned it on or off way too many times already.

If you follow the aluminum bezel wrapping around the face of the Breakout over to the left side we have a few more dedicated buttons. The 3.5mm headphone back, volume up/down switch, and then a dedicated voice control button for hands-free calling and dialing controlled by Nuance Voice Control. Again this is a nice feature but the button location seems a bit odd and if you hold your phone as I do — your ring finger might toggle it a few times accidentally. I may be a bit critical here but they seem too easy to push if you ask me. A great feature for those that need or want it, I just wish it wasn’t so easy to accidentally activate.

While the hardware is exceptionally great for a phone of this caliber and price, lets move on to the software and 4G LTE shall we?

Software

Running on a mildly skinned version of Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread the performance is a decent for the most part. Sliding the lock screen and occasionally while panning through my homescreens it seemed a little slow. Nothing we haven’t seen on skinned versions in the past like Moto Blur so this isn’t really an issue — I’d just prefer vanilla Android personally. In general the user interface is nicely polished. We have custom widgets, quick toggles for W-fi, Bluetooth, Data and more in the notification drop-down bar. The app tray is very standard but we have a nice carbon fiber looking backdrop in the application tray that seems to fit with the textured back of the device.

Also we have about the average amount of pre-installed bloatware that we’ve come to expect from Verizon. Amazon Kindle, Blockbuster, City ID, a Doc Viewer and more. One new thing is a converter tool that will convert ft to inches, temperatures and weight types and more. Another reason the phone has an industrial like attitude. Then we have those other standard Verizon apps like Need for Speed, NFL Mobile, Slacker Radio, and then way too many VCAST applications. This is about average for most phones and anything out of big red so we’ll take it. For only their second Android smartphone here in the U.S. Pantech has done a nice job with the user interface although a few of the widget icons are a bit generic. Performance was rarely sluggish and overall performed as we’d expect from a single-core 1 GHz Android smartphone.

Performance and Speedtests

Like mentioned above we have a 1.0 GHz single-core processor, 512MB of RAM and 4G LTE. This next set of pictures tests both the device performance with Quadrant, as well as a few speedtest runs to see how Pantech handles the Verizon 4G LTE network. Given the internal specs the Pantech Breakout performs right on track with something like the Nexus One. With a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and all. We saw Quadrant Advanced sit around 1400 — give or take a few. Again, no dual-core here but for the price this smartphone rocks compared to other similarly priced phones on the market.

Next, to test the 4G LTE performance we’ve ran Speedtest, as well as another popular network testing applications called BenchBee speedtest. Take note Benchbee still scores quite well but the only server is located out of country so results may vary. Speedtest.net was accurate like always and we are seeing similar results to the DROID Bionic, peaking around 10,000 kbps on average and sometimes a bit lower.

Camera and Battery

Just like the phone we’ll keep this short and sweet. The camera found on-board is a 5 megapixel shooter with no LED flash, with VGA up front we all know what to expect from that. Below I have snapped a few test photos both indoors and out to see how well the 5MP lens handles things. Unless otherwise stated the camera is like many we’ve seen thus far and does decent. For a $99 dollar entry level phone this beats most others in its range, do consider that.

Battery life has been pretty pleasant so far. I know many are wondering what to expect here so lets go over this. All other 4G LTE devices have 4.3″ displays, some AMOLED, and then the Bionic is a dual core. The Pantech Breakout has a smaller 4.0″ display, a large 1500 mAh battery, and an efficient single-core processor and so far its proved quite nice. I was able to use the Pantech Breakout all day each day I’ve used it. I made a few phone calls, ran all my benchmarks and speedtests, browsed the web plenty, even played some Need for Speed and tried the Mobile Hotspot service. After an entire day I still had about 25% come morning. It lasted overnight — something most other 4G LTE phones can’t even touch.

4G LTE plays a big role in battery life, like most LTE devices we have 3G/4G switching throughout the day that can also hinder battery life as its constantly changing. I never once disabled 4G to test battery life as I felt I didn’t need to. For someone coming from a smaller smartphone, or even a dumbphone (feature phone) the Breakout will have better battery life than any other LTE smartphone available.

Wrap-Up

To sum things up in a very understandable and straight shooter way — this phone is nice and it has impressed me. It may not have a simple, thin, and elegant design like the Galaxy S II. Nor does it boast a dual-core processor, and the screen isn’t 4.5″ inches either. What we do have is a very very solid device that has great build quality, almost every feature we’ve come to want and expect from our smartphones, a decent sized screen that actually looks great for the price, all powered by 4G LTE and the latest Android Gingerbread. You add all that up and learn it only costs $99 (with a new contract of course) this really is hard to beat.

For those looking to get into the world of Android, try their first 4G LTE smartphone, or just are on a budget the Pantech Breakout will make one great choice. Many might opt for the high priced Bionic at $299, but Pantech is clearly aiming this device toward new buyers or someone that isn’t a power-user and they’ve achieved just that — a phone that fits its price. While this isn’t a phone I’d buy for myself (I’m a speed and overclocking junkie) I would recommend this for first time buyers looking for a good experience at an affordable price. If you like what you’ve seen head over to Verizon Wireless and pick one up for just $99.

If you’ll take a look here you’ll see that we reviewed this tablet all the way back at the start of May when it was only out in the UK and again at the end of May when it was formally released in the USA to Best Buy stores in the Wi-fi edition you see being price-slashed here. No word yet on if the third edition, the HTC EVO View 4G, will be slashed accordingly. Meanwhile we’ve got reservations again about the highest-priced on-contract Android tablet on the market also put up by HTC, that being the HTC Jetstream, a 10-inch tablet currently set at $700 on AT&T.

Also I’d like to point you in the direction of a post I wrote a few months ago for Android Community entitled Best Buy Takes Tablets Seriously with Massive Floor Setting. Currently Best Buy is quite obviously the most tablet-ready store in the USA, it having the biggest amount of floor space dedicated specifically to the tablet market. Will it be enough to pump up future tablets to avoid windfall from the lower-priced tier of tablets on the horizon?

I’m almost unsure of where to start I’m enjoying this phone so much. The Samsung Galaxy S II really is a pretty awesome smartphone. It has it all from a simple design that is sleek, thin and lightweight — while being extremely powerful and fast at the same time. For all the details you’ll need check out my hands-on and unboxing. We’ll start with the video hands-on overview below and then get into all the details shortly.

AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II hands-on

Hardware

The hardware we all know plenty about — plus was laid out in the video above but just in case here are a few more details. We have Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a 1.2 GHz Samsung Exynos processor, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage under the hood. Optional micro-SD support for extra storage, 8 megapixel camera around the rear with LED flash and a 2 MP front shooter for video chatting and more. All of that neatly packed into an ultra lightweight and thin design.

On the front we have a 4.3″ Super AMOLED Plus display with a 480 x 800 resolution. The screen is bright, vibrant, and extremely clear and really just looks better than anything else on the market thus far although the qHD displays are looking better and better. Shown in the images below you can see the AT&T branding, 2MP front camera, earpiece, as well as the four dedicated capacitive touch buttons.

Moving along to the left, right, and top of the device we have a very clean and simple design. No bright aluminum buttons or volume rockers, no weird textures on them either, just a plane jane black style. Many might like the aluminum accents some smartphones offer and I do too, but the Galaxy S II just has a simple and clean elegance to it. The only bezels present are the aluminum around the camera and the 3.5mm headphone jack up top.

Software

Here we have Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread and the latest Samsung Touch Wiz 4.0 to keep things pretty. With only a few slight changes to the entire Gingerbread look and feel this is a pretty stock device but features some added benefits. Nothing extremely crazy here like Sense UI, just a few added features and small changes. AT&T chose not to overdue it with bloatware either and for that — we thank you. We have a few dedicated AT&T applications and that is about it. The pre-installed apps other than AT&T specific things are Amazon Kindle, Live TV, Memo Pad, My Files, Qik, Quick Office, Words with Friends, and YP (Yellow Pages). Many additional apps such as another email app, video player, calender, file explorer, and a dairy application have been enhanced by Samsung’s Touchwiz to make the most of the 4.3″ display.

Samsung’s Touch Wiz also has a unique new feature with the just announced 4.0 for the Galaxy S II in the US and that is Motion Control. Once enabled, users can move icons on homescreens, zoom on images and webpages and more all by touching the screen and moving or panning the device rather than dragging multiple fingers. It’s quite neat and made moving icons from screen to screen extremely easy.

When first unveiled back in August our man Chris Burns was live at the Samsung event for some hands-on time with the SGSII. Below is a quick video of that coverage as well as a more detailed rundown of the changes to the software and user experience.

Performance

As usual we’ve ran a wide array of benchmarks and speedtests to see how this SGSII fends in the real world compared to other devices. Many other dual-core smartphones score well under 3000 in quadrant, especially stock devices with no tweaks or adjustments. The Samsung Galaxy S II with the in-house Exynos chip performs extremely well across all benchmarks and especially well in Quadrant. We’ve tried a few and were pleased to see the AT&T SGSII scored around 3800 in Quad — completely stock! Impressive if I don’t say so myself and you can really tell during day to day usage. My Sensation 4G gets around 2400 out of the box, big difference right?

Below are a few pictures showing just how well the SGSII also performs in Vellamo, and CF Bench, as well as a few quick tests on AT&T’s 4G HSPA+ network (no 4G LTE here).

I know benchmarks don’t tell the entire story, and many users don’t care to read about them and would just like to know about real world usage. I’m happy to report the Galaxy S II is really one of the quickest, most fluid and easy to use phones I’ve had my hands on to date. I’ve experienced no delays or lag during browsing, gaming, benchmarks, loading multiple images in the gallery or anything. Even downloading about 10 app updates at a time the experience was barely touched and the overall performance was stellar. From adding icons to different pages, to flipping through homescreens and the application tray there is no gitters or choppy moments that I’ve experienced yet. This is truly a great performing smartphone that will meet any users demand.

Battery life and Camera

The AT&T SGSII comes with a 1650 mAh battery under the hood and while every user is different I’ve managed to have better than average battery life. From using this smartphone over the past week or so the battery lasts a bit longer than most. My Sensation 4G has a similarly sized battery and it just doesn’t manage to stay powered as long. Many reviewers of the original SGSII from Europe mentioned similar results where the SGSII battery life seems to outmatch rivaling handsets. This could be in part to changes made by Samsung, and another thing worth mentioning is the highly efficient AMOLED display, it seems to consume less power and really helps. Stand-by time was not fully tested but I left the device untouched for over 3 days and it remained around 25% when I finally plugged her in. While I’ve not done any video loop tests I have however played plenty of Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, used Google+ allll day, and browsed the web off and on throughout daily tasks and the phone holds up extremely well in the battery department. The Galaxy S II battery life is above average and will last most users more than the average work day.

As for the camera we have an 8 megapixel shooter and just like the battery life — the Galaxy S II seems better than the rest in terms of overall camera performance. I’ve snapped a few shots around the house and outside so you can see low light and standard lighting results. Many phones currently offer an 8 MP camera just like the DROID Bionic, but the slow shutter speed and mediocre performance makes the Samsung shooter just that much better. Here are a few pictured taken with the SGSII.

We’ve also tested the 1080p video capture and the Galaxy S II does impress here also. Very smooth and decent in regards to video capture although you must remember this is a phone, but they are getting better and better as they come. Below is a short video demo of the kids (my dogs) playing and messing around just for an idea of real world indoor video capture results. (Isn’t the puppy cute?)

Quick Comparison and Accessories

I’ve quickly snapped a few photos of the AT&T Galaxy S II sitting next to the big bad DROID Bionic by Motorola and Verizon Wireless. While both are comparable regarding specs, the SGSII doesn’t feature LTE but does however have a faster processor. I’ll break down the details later but for now here are a few pictures of the two just for an idea on size and thickness for those that may be wondering.

Also thanks to Chris Burns and our sister site Android Community we have a quick video showing the Galaxy S II accessories that Samsung will be releasing here in the U.S shortly although details on pricing and availability remain unknown. We have a car dock, home dock with additional battery and a desk dock shown in the video below

Galaxy S II accessories hands-on

Wrap-Up

The AT&T Galaxy S II is essentially the same exact SGSII we’ve seen, known, and loved for the past few months. With the same screen size and specs as the international version the only changes are a few to the UI, and the capacitive touch buttons below. Having a winning combination of being thin, light, fast, and affordable the Galaxy S II is a clear winner for the US as well as Europe and outside of the US sales have already passed 10 million globally. With the AT&T version being the closest U.S. Galaxy S II to the original, what more reason do you need to get this amazing smartphone?

Feel free to ask any questions in the comment section below and I’ll be sure to look them over and try to answer them as accurately as possible. More photos of the Galaxy S II can be seen below in the gallery. Look over the pictures, decide if this awesome smartphone is for you, and if so head down to a AT&T store on October 2nd and pick one up for just $199.

While I mention most of it during the hands-on video below lets go over the specs just to make sure. This beast is one of the fastest phones around rocking a 1.2 GHz dual-core Samsung Exynos processor, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB internal storage — and then we can’t forget that amazing screen. Running with a 4.3″ AMOLED display just like most Samsung phones it is bright, vivid, and has extremely good colors and contrast. Extremely lightweight and thin was the goal and Samsung delivered. With a slight hump down below on bottom the rest is as plush as it gets. We have an 8MP camera on the rear with flash, and a 2MP shooter around front for video chatting and more. Check out my video!

AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II hands-on and unboxing

What makes the AT&T Galaxy S II different from the others is both the Epic 4G Touch (already released) and the upcoming T-Mobile Hercules versions have a larger 4.52″ display. The AT&T model, like its international cousin, only has a 4.3″ screen although the difference is quite small. Everything else remains just about the same for this beautiful collection of aluminum, plastic, and glass. With four capacitive touch buttons on the bottom and a nice sleek frame this phone both looks and feels nice. You all probably already knew that though right?

This phone has been a long time coming and now it’s finally here I’m not quite sure what to do with it. Totally joking there because we’ll be tossing this bad boy through the trenches that is a guarantee. I’ll be running plenty of benchmarks and speedtests, and comparison tests with something like the 1.2 GHz Sensation 4G for an idea although I’m pretty sure we already know who wins.

Obviously we’ve seen Samsung’s AMOLED dislay before but the Super AMOLED Plus that comes with the Galaxy S II is simply stunning. Between the brilliant display, fast and extremely fluid performance of the dual-core processor, and the overall sleek and thin design I can tell you from my initial hands-on I’m going to love this phone. The Sensation 4G is my daily driver but we’ll see who wins that battle in my full review coming in the next few days. Feel free to drop any suggestions or questions in the comment section below and I’ll be sure to keep them in mind while conducting my full in-depth review.

Now look over the photos below and imagine if you’d like to buy this phone. It will be available from AT&T starting October 2nd, for only $199.

(trust me I was careful)

We’ll start with my hands-on unboxing video so everyone can get a feel for the ELECTRIFY and what it’s all about, then I’ll get into the nitty gritty here shortly.

Motorola ELECTRIFY hands-on video

Hardware

Outlined nicely in the video above is just about all you need to know about this well rounded smartphone. If you remember the Motorola PHOTON 4G or saw our detailed review then you know everything about the ELECTRIFY already as they are identical twins. The ELECTRIFY is the US Cellular version of the PHOTON 4G — without the WiMAX.

What we have is a powerhouse 4.3″ qHD (Quarter High Defenition) display with a 960 x 540 resolution, Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread and the popular NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core 1.0 GHz processor under the hood. Topped off with 1GB of RAM, 16GB internal storage and additional micro-SD slot for extra storage, an 8MP camera on the rear with dual LED flash and VGA front for video conference. The camera is capable of full 720p video capture that can then be streamed via the micro-HDMI out on the side of the phone.

Oh and we can’t forget the sweet sweet kickstand on this bad boy either. I wish all phones had such luxury but sadly they do not.

Now for a quick photo tour of the hardware I’ll start with the left side. We have a nice aluminum bezel around the entire frame of the phone and on the left edge we have the micro-HDMI and micro-USB for charging and that is all. Ports are neatly labeled and they feel very sturdy.

Following the aluminum bezel around to the top we have the power and wake button, then to the right we have the volume up/down rocker and a dedicated camera button. These have a unique and rigid texture to them almost like a file or something. I’m not sure if I like this but you wont have a hard time finding the volume rocker that is for sure. It’s actually a nice touch just different than what we are familiar with.

Around back we have that all important kickstand and our 8 MP camera. The kickstand has the same rigid texture as the other buttons only its not on the part that swings out, just seems backwards to me but this isn’t a con or anything. Just would make more sense because the end that flips out you’d touch, thus needing the texture like the other hardware buttons. Nicely branded with Motorola and US Cellular and covered with a soft coated matte backing that is simple to hold and extremely scratch resistant.

Software

Along with stellar hardware we have Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread and one of the latest builds of Motorola’s Blur UI. Motorola has made a few small changes visually to Gingerbread but nothing too drastic. We have custom icons and widgets, the menu’s look different but everything is basically just themed. Nothing crazy like HTC does and I really like the simple design Motorola’s been using as of late. The software runs quick, fluid and stable thanks to the dual-core processor and while we do have some bloatware most are applications users would install on their own.

Most of the bundled applications can be seen above. We have Amazon App store, Amazon MP3, Asphalt 5 racing, Daily Perks (deals app), quick office and that is about it for pre-installed bloatware. They’ve also added a Mobile TV application and once signed up you can stream movies on the ELECTRIFY and even send it out via the HDMI-out port to your HDTV. Moving around the widgets is a little choppy but that is thanks to Motorola’s UI, other then that everything else was as smooth as butter.

Performance

As usual we’ve ran a few benchmark tests for everyone and just as we expected the ELECTRIFY performs quite well. The dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM keep this device running strong. Below is our Quadrant results as it is most popular. Then followed by Vellamo that tests the overall performance of everything from web browsing, graphic rendering, and even network performance and the device performed decently here. Although it did fall behind the EVO 3D and Sensation 4G they have a slightly faster 1.2 GHz processor than the ELECTRIFY and its NVIDIA Tegra 2. We also quickly ran a few speedtest results and while the ELECTRIFY isn’t running on any sort of 4G or LTE spectrum it received decent speeds across the board. Fairly decent for 3G speeds and about as expected.

Battery life and Camera

Just like the PHOTON 4G the Motorola ELECTRIFY features a modest 1700 mAh battery that should last all day. Whether this is a con or not for users the US Cellular ELECTRIFY doesn’t feature 4G WiMAX but the benefit of that is better battery life than that of the PHOTON. Over the past few days we’ve experienced average battery life that seems to be better than most. I’ve been using the ELECTRIFY today for about 8 hours and between a few phone calls, web browsing and multiple benchmark tests I’m still rocking a little over 60%. It’s safe to say the ELECTRIFY will last most moderate users through an entire day with the possible need for a top off in the evening. If you play Angry Birds all day don’t blame me when your battery lasts 5 hours though.

Camera being 8 MP it takes great photos although low light could use some improvement. The shutter speed and autofocus is much quicker than the Bionic and I found taking a quick photo fairly easy with consistent results. Here are a few below

Wrap-Up

To sum things up nicely this is a great all around smartphone. With enough internal storage to last through most users needs no matter how many apps they install, a powerful dual-core processor, top of the line camera all with a bright and brilliant 4.3″ display the choice is clear for those on US Cellular. While you may be able to debate if this is one of the best phones around compared to the Bionic or the Galaxy S II (and they are pretty comparable) the choice for US Cellular customers are a clear one. The Motorola ELECTRIFY is hands down the best phone on that carrier regarding Android. Being their top of the line offering and being the only newly released phone with Android 2.3 Gingerbread on US Cellular looking over their phone selection this would be my first and only choice. While a few have been updated to Gingerbread, none are as powerful or as nice as the ELECTRIFY.

The Motorola ELECTRIFY will rival almost any phone on the market and has every feature you could possibly want regarding what is currently available other than maybe 4G LTE and a faster processor. Whether you are a first time smartphone buyer or a long time member of US Cellular this is the phone to choose. Yes it could be a little thinner, and the design is unique and different than most devices on the market this is still a tier 1 smartphone that will make any user happy. It is available today starting at just $199 so head on down to your nearest US Cellular store and snag one up, then come back and tell us what you think in the comment section below. Enjoy the remaining photo’s in the gallery below.

No official details have been revealed yet about the HTC Runnymede, but it’s expected to feature a 4.7-inch WVGA resolution display, a 1.5GHz single-core processor, 768MB of RAM, 16GB or 32GB internal storage, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, and an 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash. But what should stand out more is the integrated Beats Audio technology for excellent sound quality.

However, the HTC Runnymede may also pack a big price tag. It’s tipped to be priced at 530 pounds or about $838 off-contract for the 16GB model and 560 pounds or $885 off-contract for the 32GB model. Specific dates for launch are still unknown but more details may surface at the upcoming HTC event in NYC on September 20, when the HTC Bliss and HTC Vigor will likely be announced.

[via PocketNow]

This is great news for Netflix subscribers who have had to rely on leaked APKs to get the app running on unsupported Android phones. Unfortunately, the update still doesn’t support all Android tablets, which have much more suitably sized screens for enjoying a Netflix subscription.

So far, the only tablets that support Netflix are the Lenovo IdeaPad K1 and the Lenovo ThinkPad tablet. The app allows subscribers to stream movies and TV shows over WiFi or 3G connections as well as to manage their DVD queues.

[via Android Community]

The screenshots give a nice preview of what Android 3.2 Honeycomb with the new Sense UI will look like on the Flyer. It maintains the iconic HTC Sense Flip clock widget, Home and Multitasking button, a modified clock, as well as notification and battery icons on the bottom right of the screen.

What’s a bit confusing is that the new Sense UI is called “Sense 1.1 for Tablets” whereas the current Flyer shipped with a version called Sense 2.1, which looks a lot like Sense 3.0 running on HTC smartphones.

Also, the Flyer Honeycomb ROM that O’Brien put up is a developer build beta version and thus he offers various warnings of possible device bricking and an extensive step-by-step list for the process. One XDA member, globatron, was able to successfully boot the ROM on a 32GB 3G Flyer, which is apparently the only version the ROM will work on.

Globatron offered up some thoughts on this early developer build, saying that there are more widgets, smooth operation, no real lag, there’s more compatibility in the market, and the pen interaction works everywhere, including for typing and buttons. However, globatron also offers some negatives, saying that the buttons on the bezel are gone, except for a pen action button, everything is optimized for landscape orientation, and phone support doesn’t seem to work yet.

[via AndroidBugle]

This is the HTC Ruby (codename) and should be landing on T-Mobile as the HTC Amaze 4G according to latest details. These images while they may be a bit blurry, show us more than anything we’ve seen thus far. We’ll take what we can get right? This will be the fastest phone launched to date by HTC packing a speedy 1.5 Ghz dual-core CPU and 1GB of ram.

Other specs include a 4.3″ qHD 540 x 960 resolution display, Android 2.3 Gingerbread and should include Sense UI 3.5 although most T-Mobile HTC phones have only small bits of the Sense UI present. The images suggest that will likely be the same with the Amaze 4G because we barely see HTC Sense UI here, that or this is still just a prototype. The device has an 8 MP camera on the rear with dual LED flash, 2 MP front for video calling and 16GB of internal storage.

For now that is all the details and specs we have but should be seeing and hopefully hearing more shortly. Last time we saw the Amaze 4G in white so chances are we might be seeing multiple colors offered at launch. Stay tuned for more details.

[via thisismynext]

The Xperia Arc S features a 4.2-inch 854×480 Reality Display and comes preloaded with an 8GB microSD card. Although the upgraded 1.4GHz processor is still single-core, Sony claims that it now has a 25 percent improvement in overall speed, including in the start up of the camera, and a 20 percent increase in page rendering speeds for web browsing.

It has an 8.1-megapixel with LED flash that utilizes an Exmor R image sensor for enhanced image quality and can take 2D and 3D pictures in panorama mode. As for entertainment, it now has access to Sony’s Music Unlimited and newly renamed Video Unlimited services that offer a catalog of 10 million songs, radio channels, movies, and TV shows.

The handset is expected to ship to select markets later this fall, with a release date for the UK reportedly in October. Dates for the US have not been revealed and neither has any pricing information.

[via CNET]

Hardware

When it comes to the hardware specs, the Vizio Tablet isn’t going to blow your mind given its cost constraints. But, what’s there has been thoughtfully selected for the least amount of compromise. The 1GHz Marvell Armada 600 Series single-core processor, along with 512MB of RAM, offers enough performance power without the battery drain, but we’ll get into the benchmarks and battery life later.

The tablet measures 6.6” x 8.1” and is about 0.48” thick, weighing 1.2lbs. The edges are slightly tapered and angled such that the tablet appears thinner than it really is. Hence, it also feels heavier than it appears. But, it does have a very convenient size that’s comfortable to hold and its build feels solid.

Its 8-inch capacitive touchscreen LCD display has the same 1024 x 768 resolution and 4:3 aspect ratio as the Apple iPad 2, but on a smaller screen. It’s not an IPS panel and thus viewing angles are lesser on two of the four sides. Text and graphics generally look crisp, although pixels are visible on closer examination. Playing high-quality YouTube videos did reveal some blocky pixelation and jagged edges.

The tablet has a front-facing VGA (640×480) 30fps camera that’s just barely good enough for video chatting and there’s no rear-facing camera. It’s a minor trade-off and for its purpose a camera’s not really essential.

There are three LED backlit touchscreen buttons for Back, Home, and Settings that adjust when you switch orientations so that they’re always sitting in the bottom frame of the bezel. The tablet, however, is meant to be used in only two orientations. And by that, I mean you get only one landscape option and one portrait option such that the speakers are always near the top.

And that leads us to the tablet’s first standout feature—THREE stereo speakers. When you rotate the tablet from one orientation to another, the speakers adjust so that you always get right and left stereo sound. Since we just reviewed the Toshiba Thrive and it’s sitting here next to the Vizio Tablet, we were able to do a side-by-side comparison. Neither one is spectacular, but the Vizio does win with louder, fuller audio and the adjusting stereo makes a noticeable difference.

Another standout feature is the integrated IR blaster. The Vizio Tablet can turn into a giant universal remote capable of controlling up to 95% of your home theater devices using a continually updated database that contains presets for thousands of TVs, media players, and set-top boxes. Different profiles can be set up for each room to control the various entertainment devices throughout your home. It controlled my Toshiba TV and LG Blu-Ray player just fine making me feel like the true master of my domain. This kills two birds with one stone and is a great deal if you’ve been wanting a universal remote, since they can cost on average $150 with fancier ones fetching a few hundred more.

Storage capacity on the Vizio Tablet is only 2GB. This isn’t much space, but can be easily expanded with a microSD card of up to 32GB. Considering that a 32GB microSD—if you don’t already have one—sells for about $50, the total cost of the Vizio Tablet plus the card is still up to $200 less than a 32GB tablet. Additionally, transferring data to and from the tablet is easy thanks to its micro-USB port. A micro-USB cable is included in the box and is also used for charging the tablet.

Other connectivity options include Bluetooth, WiFi, and a micro-HDMI port that supports 1080p full HD video-out and is HDCP compliant.

Software & Performance

The Vizio Tablet comes running a highly customized interface called Vizio Internet Apps Plus (VIA Plus) on top of Android 2.3.2 Gingerbread instead of Honeycomb. Although this may be a gripe for some, Vizio’s decision to stick with Gingerbread makes sense for a more stable experience on the smaller screen and access to a whole lot more apps in the Android Market. Vizio does assure that an upgrade to Honeycomb are in the months ahead, although no specific timeline was given.

The VIA Plus interface brings apps to the forefront, with widget windows relegated to its own app called Widget Board. The main interface is split into two sections, one on top of the other. The first section shows all the apps in a particular category. Pressing the arrow button at the top right brings up a dropdown menu for you to select which category to display. You can add/delete categories and add/remove apps from each category. The second section shows all your apps in one place.

And, along the bottom of the screen sits a menu bar that works like a shortcut dock. There’s a total of five shortcuts that can be customized. Below is a quick video demo of the interface.

As you can see from the video, the interface isn’t very snappy and its touch controls aren’t consistently responsive. This is perhaps the biggest drawback to the tablet. Vizio has already confirmed that an update would be rolling out within the next 45 days to enhance overall performance, but in its current state it can get frustrating at times.

When it comes to synthetic benchmarks, the Vizio Tablet gets killed. If the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is like a Ferrari, then the Vizo Tablet is like a 2005 Ford Focus. You can’t really compare the two although they’ll both take you places. And again, for general consumers the overall user experience won’t be impacted much by these scores. We used synthetic benchmarking tools, including Vellamo, Quadrant Pro, and Smartbench 2011.

The Vizio Tablet’s closest competitors are probably the 7-inch Dell Streak and the 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab. The Dell Streak 7 boasts a powerful 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor in contrast to Vizio’s modest 1GHz Marvell single-core processor, but battery life complaints plague the Streak, which is said to even downclock speeds to stay more efficient.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab, on the other hand, with an initial $600 price tag was far from affordable. But even now with its price cut to $349, the tablet is several months old with support waning and a thinner, lighter replacement likely on the way.

Furthermore, the Vizio’s 8-inch display adds just that much more screen real estate for all your tablet-ing needs, but remains a size that’s very portable and comfortable to hold. Also, if connectivity options are important, the Vizio Tablet wins with its mini-HDMI and mini-USB ports.

The Vizio Tablet also comes with Flash 10.1 support with decent Flash performance results using the GUImark 2 benchmarking tool, but it cannot be upgraded to Flash 10.3 at this time.

Battery

Vizio’s decision to go with a single-core processor along with its highly customized VIA Plus layer may have contributed to a slower user interface, but it makes up for it in splendid battery life. The Vizio Tablet is rated for up to 11 hours based on standard use, while our usage, which mainly consisted of surfing the web, playing games, and watching YouTube videos intermittently throughout the day allotted us well over 9 hours.

Wrap-Up

The Vizio Tablet did have poor benchmark scores and the interface is noticeably less snappy than what we’re used to on a Tegra 2 dual-core tablet. Touch controls, at times, also felt slow to respond. An update, expected within the next 45 days, should boost performance.

However, the single-core processor does afford a much greater battery life and the good looking interface makes operation more intuitive and user-friendly for the first-time tablet owner or general consumer who probably won’t fuss over whether what’s underneath is Android 2.3 or 3.2. But, Vizio does promise to upgrade to Honeycomb in the coming months.

Upcoming Vizio 3DTVs (models XVT-3D556SP and XVT-3D476SP) with Google TV integration will be using this same interface for a unified VIA Plus ecosystem. And the inclusion of an HDCP-compliant micro-HDMI port on the Vizio Tablet means that protected content such as movies from streaming subscriptions can be sent in full 1080p HD to your HDTV. And then there’s the integrated IR blaster that lets you control your other home theater devices directly from your Vizio Tablet. All of this combine to make it the ultimate companion in the living room.

And when you want to enjoy multimedia directly on the Vizio Tablet, you’ll have the advantage of a three-speaker system to enjoy proper stereo sound in both landscape and portrait orientations. Its 8-inch screen is a perfect size for all your tablet needs while remaining comfortable to hold with an overall build and look that is solid and slick.

The Vizio Tablet will be a great choice for many general consumers. It’s currently selling for $329 $284.99 (at Costco), which is an excellent price for what it has to offer, especially to the first-time tablet buyer on a budget. With affordability and a broader audience in mind, Vizio made design decisions that reflect a focus on functionality, sacrificing mainly specs that shouldn’t bother most consumers while adding other unique features that enhance the overall experience.

Before I start posting up all the pictures of this cute little phone here is our hands-on unboxing post and the video is below.

HTC Wildfire S Hands-on & Unboxing video

Hardware

To start off this thing is tiny, it only has a 3.2″ 480×320 resolution screen, comes in with a 600 Mhz processor, 512MB of RAM and ROM as well as an included 2GB SD card but for the price the specs and quality are quite nice. I’d put the Wildfire S in my top 3 for best mid-range offering that is for sure. Here are some photos for a better idea.

This isn’t the first or the last device that will come with a 3.2″ screen so some might be used to the size. Overall usage seems fine with the screen size and the images are crisp and clear given the slightly lower resolution. Flip the Wildfire S on its side and we have the micro-USB charging port as well as the volume rocker to the side.

Around top we have the power/wake button and the 3.5mm headphone jack and that is all except for the indent to remove the back cover. For packing everything into this small of a package the device is pretty thin considering its cost.

The bottom has a neat little design curve to it almost like a chin we have seen on devices in the past, then the microphone pinholes and that is all. The device is pretty sleek and simple and the design wont win any awards but it looks good doing it — whatever that may be.

I have always been a fan of HTC build quality and even though this device is aimed at a lower priced crowd they didn’t cheap out. It still feels extremely well made and solid, no cheap plastic or goofy designs here. HTC knows how to build a good product and this doesn’t disappoint. I do have one small complaint and that is the capacitive android buttons are too close to the actual screen and sometimes while typing I accidentally hit home, or while trying to hit home I’ll open the app tray but other than this I have nothing bad to say about this little guy, or girl.

Software & Performance

Out of the box we have Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread so things are quick, speedy and extremely fluid even though we only have a 600 Mhz processor inside. A quick note the processor was strong enough to play Angry Birds on this 3.2″ screen with ease so that should make a few people happy (Can’t forget the birds). It does not feature the latest HTC Sense UI 3.0 but it does come with Sense 2.1 and if you’ve ever owned an Android HTC phone as of late you will feel right at home.

In the app tray we have all those things we’ve come to expect from Google, as well as those all similar apps from HTC like HTC Hub, Friends Stream, HTC Music, Peep, and others. We even have Slacker radio and a few T-Mobile apps like T-Mo Mail. That is all and bloatware was kept to a minimum and for that HTC and T-Mobile — we thank you!

I did happen to run those things we love called Benchmarks and for a single core 600 Mhz CPU I was a bit surprised with how well it performed. While Linpack only scored like an 8 or so we got relatively good results from Quadrant. I was confused when this 600 Mhz phone was close in comparison to the Galaxy S, but then this is a newer generation Qualcomm processor so it should be a bit more efficient than the older Nexus One even though it has a much slower CPU. It’s safe to say this should be plenty for the average or light user.

Camera & Battery

We have a 5 MP shooter for the camera with LED flash and it takes great photos for only being 5 MP. Shooting a few here and there around the town it worked great even indoors, remember for only paying $79 or so from T-Mobile you are getting a pretty excellent overall package.

The only concern with the camera is it can’t record in 720p even though we have a 5MP lens. This is most likely due to the processor or to keep the device spec within budget, but video turned out decent and would make any FaceBook user or average family member proud.

I took a few photos real quick just so you can get an idea of image quality. I did have to wake the dogs but they sleep all day anyways so whats the big deal right?

Regarding battery life I think most of you will be pleased to hear we have a winner here. While it only has a 1230 mAh battery it only has to power a slightly lower resolution 3.2″ screen and a 600 Mhz processor. No dual-core power hungry stuff here so the device lasted me more than the entire day on first use. It has been powered on for over 15 hours and I’ve snapped photos, recorded video, ran a few benchmarks and yes i even played a little Angry Birds for the reviews sake of course.

Phone call quality is about average for T-Mobile, was loud and clear and the hear me now guy would be impressed even though its T-Mobile. For being a budget friendly device both the earpiece and the speaker phone quality was loud enough and I have nothing bad to report here. The phone even features a notification LED on the speaker grill, something I wish all android phones came with.

Wrap-Up

To wrap things up I’d have to give this device a thumbs-up. For a first time smartphone or first time Android user this would be the ideal device. Some might want something larger but for the size and everything you get it really is awesome. For someone coming from a feature phone or a Blackberry use to a smaller device and great battery life this would be a great first step. Then maybe the next phone can have one of those massive 4.3″ screens.

Regarding T-Mobile and mid-range phones this will absolutely blow away the Samsung Dart, I’m only being honest so sorry Samsung. T-Mobiles other mid-range offer in the Samsung Exhibit 4G might slightly out-class this and have 4G but for the price the Wildfire S is a for sure choice. For now I will leave you with those last words, say good job to HTC for making such a sweet little device and I hope you all enjoy the photos below.

Hardware

The Droid 3 features a larger 4-inch (960 x 540) qHD display and a five-row slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Inside, it runs on a 1GHz TI OMAP 4430 dual-core processor with PowerVR SGX540, which is rated to be twice as fast as the previous SGX530 GPU. RAM remains at 512MB, while internal storage is now bumped up to 16GB, expandable with up to 32GB microSD.

External ports include the usual micro-HDMI, micro-USB, and 3.5mm headphone jack. It has the physical power button centered on top, volume rocker on the side, and the standard four capacitive touch buttons of Android devices.

Camera specs have been boosted to an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, capable of 1080p HD video capture. However, the LED flash is now replaced with a single LED that seems to do the job of the dual-set used previously. A front-facing camera has also been added, but only of VGA quality.

Software & Performance

Motorola’s customized interface runs on top of Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread. It’s no longer called Motoblur with a rather nice, clean look and some new icons along with new animations between windows. Five windows are available for adding your favorite widgets and apps, and the included widgets are nicely minimal. There is also a dock at the bottom of the screen with four customizable icons.

Preloaded are around 60 apps, which include a selection of Google apps, GoToMeeting, BlockBuster, and Skype to name a few. At the top right corner is a shopping bag icon that takes you directly to the Android Market, while to the top left is dropdown menu that lets you sort and filter your apps by Recent, Downloaded, All, or any custom group that you’ve created.

Benchmark scores for the Droid 3 are decent. The synthetic benchmarking tools we used include Quadrant Pro, Vellamo, and Smartbench 2011.

Battery & Camera

The Droid 3 will last you about a day given average use. It’s 4-inch qHD screen and dual-core processor will put a drain on the small 1540 mAh battery, but if you charge nightly, then it shouldn’t be an issue.

The camera quality boost to 8-megapixels is a nice bonus, offering crisp image stills and sharp 1080p videos. The below image and video were shot very close-up to some dry brush full of prickly thorns sitting in lava rock and demonstrates how nicely the camera captures all these tiny details. However, after video compression, the short clip you see below doesn’t really do the Droid 3 camera justice.

Wrap-Up

The Motorola Droid 3 is a good upgrade from the Droid 2. The overall design has remained mostly unchanged, which will be good for fans of the original that are looking for the same form factor but with boosted specs.

You will especially like the larger 4-inch qHD display, a thinner profile, and redesigned QWERTY with an extra row dedicated for number keys. There’s also the better 8-megapixel camera capable of 1080p HD video capture and the addition of a front-facing VGA camera—although that will be good only for video chatting.

The new “not Motoblur” interface is clean and snappy without too many custom widgets that get in the way. Performance is excellent with the new TI OMAP 4430 dual-core processor and battery life is decent though not great.

The only gripe perhaps is that the device does not support 4G LTE on Verizon’s network. But it is a world phone with dual bands and even comes with a SIM card inside. For those hoping for a 4G LTE handset, then perhaps wait for the Droid Bionic that should arrive sometime in September. But the trade-off then will be no QWERTY and no use abroad. So it really depends on your priorities.

The Droid 3 is currently available through Verizon for $199.99 with a new two-year service agreement. Off contract, the phone is selling for $459.99.

We will keep this short and sweet, just like the phone is. The Wildfire S is a 3.2″ 480×320 resolution phone with a Qualcomm 600 Mhz processor, yes only 600 Mhz but it seems to chug along just fine. It packs 512MB of RAM and ROM inside as well as a 5 MP 720p capable camera on the rear with LED flash. It does however come with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and the popular HTC Sense UI we all know and love.

When we get into the full review I will go over everything with more details but this is a pretty basic device. It comes with a 2GB MicroSD card and a 1230 mAh battery that should be plenty considering the screen size and processor speed. It might not be the thinnest device but it sure is lightweight and small in every other aspect. Holding it after handling my Sensation 4G and its 4.3″ screen for so long it just feels extremely little.

This might just take the cake for the best low to mid-range phone over at T-Mobile. They have stuff like the Samsung Dart i recently reviewed and the Wildfire S just blows them away with build quality and how sleek it is.

While this is no HTC Sensation 4G you can clearly see the similarities. The rear cover has a similar design and feel, as well as comes off in the same odd fashion. For the low price this phone is being offered at, and the great build quality and overall design (not to mention HTC Sense UI) this is a pretty great mid-range phone and will probably be what I recommend to first timers unless I find any serious faults during my review. Here is the video and don’t forget to click the photo gallery below to see the photos in their full size goodness.

HTC Wildfire S hands-on & Unboxing video

The Samsung Galaxy S II had been previously confirmed to launch in the US sometime in August. No details were given at the time on the carrier and pricing, nor a more exact date. But we now know that the handset will be offered through three of the four major carriers with different names for each.

The handset will be called the Samsung Within on the Now Network, the Samsung Function on Verizon, and the Samsung Attain on AT&T. We still prefer simply the Galaxy S II, don’t you? If you’re eager to find out more on its progress to the US you can stay tuned here on SlashGear or you can get updates by surrendering your full name, email, and mobile number to Samsung via the new sign-up page.

It’s a bit sad to think that folks in the UK will already be getting the white version of the Samsung Galaxy S II and we’ve yet to get the original. The handset first launched in Korea back in April, then hit Japan and several European countries in May, and just launched in China this past week.

Worldwide, the phone has already sold more than 5 million units and will eventually be offered in 120 countries and possibly selling more than 10 million units by the year end. Why so popular? Well, it has some amazing specs with a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, 2-megapixel front-facing camera, and all packed into an ultra slim and incredibly lightweight chassis. It will come running TouchWiz 4.0 on top of Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

To learn more about the device, you can check out our full review of the European version of the Samsung Galaxy S II.

[via CNET]

The Vizio Tablet offers an 8-inch multitouch display with a 1024×768 resolution and 4:3 aspect ratio. It sports a front-facing VGA (640×480) 30fps camera, but no rear-facing camera. Inside, it runs on a 1GHz single-core Marvell 600 Series processor with 512MB of RAM and has 2GB of internal memory that’s expandable with a microSD up to 32GB.

For connectivity, it offers micro-USB, micro-HDMI, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. There’s also the standard 3.5mm headphone jack, a physical on/off power button and volume rocker. When powered-on, three capacitive touch buttons light up for Back, Home, and Menu. They sit in the bottom frame of the bezel and adjust sides to remain below the screen when you switch between portrait and landscape modes.

Something else that also switches depending on landscape or portrait orientations is the Vizio Tablet’s stereo speakers. This is one of the hardware features that really stands out about this budget slate. Instead of one, or even two, the Vizio Tablet has THREE speakers that adjust to allow for proper stereo sound regardless of which orientation you’re using the tablet.

Another standout feature is the integrated IR blaster, which is certainly not seen included in any other tablet. It allows the Vizio Tablet to turn into a giant universal remote, capable of controlling up to 95% of your home entertainment devices. It taps into a third-party database of presets for thousands of TVs, media players, and set-top boxes.

Unfortunately, the Vizio Tablet does still run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread at the moment and its interface is so customized with Vizio’s own skin, that you can’t really tell what’s running underneath. However, there is access to Android Market, and an upgrade to Android 3.2 Honeycomb is promised for the near future. But with such a customized skin, that day might not be too near.

I won’t go into any further details as this is just my unboxing and hands-on for the Vizio Tablet. I’ll be putting it to the test for lots of multimedia action, so make sure to check back on SlashGear.com for my full review.

To get this review started I’ll post the hands-on and unboxing first so you get a feel for the device then continue with the details and photos below so start right here with the video.

Motorola PHOTON 4G Hands-on and Unbox

Hardware

From first glance there is nothing that really stands out as far as a weakness with this phone. To remind you of all the details it features a dual-core 1 Ghz NVIDIA Tegra 2 CPU, 1GB RAM, comes with 16GB internal storage, VGA front facing camera with a 720p capable 8MP rear camera with dual LED flash, a nifty kickstand for hands-free usage as well as HDMI-out. The display is a 4.3″ qHD high-res 540×960 resolution and looks vivid and crisp. It might not be as thin as the Galaxy S II but it does have 4G WiMax speeds as well to help out when needed.

On the left side you have the micro USB for charging and docking right next to the HDMI-Out while the rest of the goods are on the right side.

The PHOTON has a dedicated camera button as well as volume rockers on the right side. They have an aluminum finish and a weird texture of lines to them but they are so close together I feel like I could file my fingernails with them (if I did that sort of thing). Then your usual headphone jack and power/wake button up top.

The hardware is definitely a different approach than Motorola is used to, it doesn’t look or feel anything like any of the Droid devices but it does have a similar style to its older brother the Motorola Atrix. We reviewed the Atrix and you can see that here, a large part of the design and options for the PHOTON came right from the Atrix so if you’ve seen its dock or webtop power you’ve already seen what the Photon can do.

Overall I’m a fan of the hardware as it has great build quality and feels extremely solid in the hand. My thumb keeps getting caught on the texture from the volume rockers but other than that its clean, and beautifully designed and even is pretty lightweight. It is lighter than the EVO 3D but weights more than other 4.3″ dual-core phones.

Software & Performance

The PHOTON comes with Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread which is the latest iteration of Android and along with it comes Motorola’s user interface changes but were not supposed to call it Moto Blur anymore — it’s just UI enhancements they call it. It is a nice touch although I feel the widgets could use some work. The dual-core processor keeps things speeding along and overall the user experience is seamless and fast.

As far as pre-installed apps or bloatware some might like to call it, they really didn’t include too much so that is a plus. We have a game center, Nascar, Quick Office, TeleNav GPS, and then a webtop connector app for when using the HD Dock. That is about it then you have your suite of Google Apps and Facebook etc.

Next on the list is performance so I’ve done a few benchmarks to test things out and first on the block is Quadrant. I ran a few tests and the PHOTON scored pretty high in Quadrant and it was actually a few hundred higher than other Tegra 2 dual-core phones like the LG G2x or the Droid X. They score around 2100-2200 stock while the PHOTON 4G scored over 2400.

Next I ran a new benchmark called Vellamo and you can read all about it here. Vellamo tests the overall performance of the device based on browsing. From websites, to rendering, javascript, HTML5, canvas and image scrolling as well as network performance for input/output like when loading a webpage. The results are pretty interesting as the PHOTON scores barely above the myTouch 4G (single core phone) and is beat by both the Sensation 4G and the EVO 3D. Network speeds could be part to blame as it scored pretty low with network performance.

Also since we have a 4G device in our hands I ran a few speedtest results just to see what types of 4G performance we could get, maybe the dual-core would help things out and this is Motorola’s first 4G device powered by WiMax. Sadly it scored fairly low and my old Nexus One with 3G performs better. I’m not sure if 4G is lacking in Vegas but I tried at home and at the store with similar results.

For comparison I get over triple the download speeds on my 4G T-Mobile device, just thought I’d mention that.

Camera & Battery

Now the PHOTON 4G has an 8 MP camera with dual LED flash and the camera performed just as I expected it to, with low light indoors it took great shots and the shutter speed was faster than a lot of phones I’ve used in the past. I took a few pictures of my faithful puppy taking a nap but I don’t think he was happy with me for waking him.

Yes the pocket on the pool table is missing in the photo, again he is a puppy and that is what they do. Trust me I covered it daily for a year after that incident and it never happened again thankfully.

Here is a close up for some detail, this is natural lighting without flash and the 8MP camera does a great job again.

On the rear of the phone it says HD VIDEO like it’s all special, but it actually only records in 720p and not 1080 like most other Tegra 2 phones have the power to do, so I didn’t do a video sample because 720p is nothing new. If it were 1080p I’d have gave it a test run.

The battery is larger than most phones on the market other than maybe the EVO 3D and it comes in packing 1640 mAh and it has lasted me all day since 8 AM in the morning til late night. I’ve taken photo’s, recorded video, sent a few emails and placed multiple phone calls. Not to mention running a few benchmarks and playing Angry Birds for about 45 minutes. For those wondering I’m expecting the battery to last longer than that of the HTC EVO after this initial few days of testing.

HD Dock

The HD Dock is a step up from many other docks that phones have been released with in the past, but its nothing like the Laptop dock the Atrix came with. The HD dock features rubbery feet so it wont slide around while trying to install the device. It has HDMI-Out for feeding the screen to your HDTV or a computer monitor. It also has 3 USB ports for using keyboards, mice and anything else you’d need.

Now this is important because the Webtop App and User Interface allows you to plug your phone into the dock and view your desktop, market, video’s and more all over HDMI to your TV or basically make the phone into a personal portable computer.

Bundled with the HD Dock is an infrared remote so you can control everything wireless. No keyboard or mouse needed, you have media controls and volume. It also features the menu, back, home, and search buttons just as most Android phones do so you can basically access everything without touching the device. The HD Dock is $129 but makes your phone into a desktop PC.

Motorola was also nice enough to send us the car dock that will also be available at launch for those interested. Although it might not be build extremely durable like the HD Dock it still was sturdy and held the phone very securely. There is a latch on top that closes down and secures the phone to the car dock, from there you can rotate or move it as you see fit without fear of it falling or dropping.

The car dock came with a car charger, USB cable and a 3.5mm audio cord so you can stream music or navigation instructions to your car stereo. With extra sticky pads for the dash or windshield they have you completely covered. I’ve never been a fan of or used car docks in the past, but for those that must have one or use it for a trip the Motorola Photon car dock is a pretty good buy and will secure your phone through anyone’s crazy driving.

Wrap-Up

For what you pay for this is an extremely powerful and versatile phone. You can do a lot more than just text and play Angry Birds with this. You can browse the web and watch movies on your 56″ HDTV, use it for an alarm clock with that fancy kickstand and more. With a slightly unique design it will stand out in the crowd and you’ll love showing it off. Once you set up the HD Dock and get everything dialed in everything works pretty great, and there is no shortage of geek appeal.

Aside from having mediocre at best 4G performance, the phone runs great and is a solid device. Any EVO users would be happy with it aside from no HTC Sense UI. While other phones may offer the same dual-core performance they don’t have the webtop abilities and the kickstand all at the same time. Making this right up there as a top tier Android offering.

Don’t forget to click on all the images below to see them full size for your enjoyment.

The first one to get the over-the-air roll-out of 2.3 Gingerbread is the Motorola Atrix 4G. It was noted that this update for the Atrix will allow users to download apps from third-party stores. Another device highlighted was the HTC Inspire, which should get the update sometime in August. Other Android handsets in the 2011 AT&T lineup include the LG Phoenix, Pantech Crossover, and the giant Samsung Infuse 4G. The pre-2011 Samsung Captivate is also included.

However, to access the updates, users must be connected via Wi-Fi. If this proves difficult at home for whatever reason, you can use one of 26,000 free Wi-Fi hotspots that AT&T offers nationwide. The update will bring improvements to the interface, refined copy-and-paste functionality and other performance enhancements such as more efficient power management and better onscreen keyboard with multi-touch support.

[via Android Community]

So you guys can get a quick idea of the hardware I’ll start with the unbox video and then move on to the good stuff.

myTouch 4G Slide hands-on and unbox video:

Hardware

This phone comes to you with the same great build quality HTC is known for. As soon as you handle it for a few minutes and truly get a feel for it you will already feel like you’ve got your moneys worth. It might be slightly heavy but you should be expecting that with a hardware slide out keyboard device. Now down to the good stuff. This phone packs in a lot of features into a pretty small package. a 3.7″ Super LCD display, 1.2 Ghz dual-core Snapdragon processor, 768 MB Memory and 1GB ROM, plus 8GB Micro SD is included — and then there is the camera. The rear 8MP camera is a true beast and does a great job with dual-LED flash to help out if needed, the phone also has a VGA front facing camera for those in need of some video chat.

The keyboard is one of the best I’ve used on a smartphone. They are nice and evenly spaced, they have no rivets or angles, and the amount of pressure needed seems just right. It has a very similar feel to the G2 that was also on T-Mobile and I feel like this keyboard is much much better than say the Motorola Droid. It is easy and comfortable to use the keyboard and I actually could almost type as fast as I can swype these days (not really, but close). They have a great design for the keyboard and for people that want a actual hardware keyboard this would be a great choice. The little LED lights for CAPS and ALT are extremely convenient and all keyboards should have that feature pictured below.

Software and Performance

Now as you know the Slide is running with Android 2.3.4 but it also is powered by HTC Sense UI. It does however have the T-Mobile Espresso overlay so things looks similar to stock Sense 3.0 phones like the Sensation or the EVO 3D but there are a few changes to icons and some menus. The dual-core CPU keeps things speeding along plenty quick and I didn’t notice any stuttering of any sort. Scrolling through the Sense UI homescreens wasn’t as smooth as the EVO 3D but it was close, I’m not sure what causes this and it might be the Espresso UI overlay.

It does have Android 2.3.4 as well as a front facing camera but they have added Qik for your video calling needs rather than using G Talk. I would have tested the front camera but we all know how that goes these days. Quality could be better but its decent for what it is. Speaking of performance I did however run a few benchmarks because we all love those. Quadrant racked up a score of just above 2200. For comparison the higher resolution EVO 3D scored around 2100 in my EVO 3D Review. Here are a few results from both Quadrant, and the new benchmark app Vellamo

As far as pre-loaded apps — It does come with a few things I’d probably never use courtesy of T-Mobile. Other than those you get Swype, Bejeweled 2, Netflix (Yes and it works great), Qik, Flashlight app, task manager, and Zinio reader just to name a few.

Camera

Lets talk about the camera for a minute. The camera on the myTouch 4G Slide is supposed to be pretty great and from my initial impressions it rocks. HTC is claiming “the best camera of any smartphone” and it might just be true. The sweepshot panoramic mode alone is pretty awesome. Here is a list of the camera specs:

8 MP lens with auto face detect and dual LED flash
Low-light performance with a backside illuminated sensor and wide aperture lens with a f-stop of f/2.2
Zero shutter lag
SweepShot for capturing panoramic photos with a single click
ClearShot HDR images
and Burstshot for capturing multiple photos in a quick burst so you don’t miss a thing
Full 1080p HD video recording and you can edit right on the phone

I went ahead and tested the camera over the past week and it does take some amazing photos. The Sweepshot was extremely easy and you click once and just move the camera to get perfect panoramic pictures. You don’t have to try and line up the shots yourself anymore. Check it out.

The Macro mode is pretty stellar also, picking up all the details and dust right on my pool table. I must be special because somehow all the ball numbers were just aiming the right direction by accident (amazing).

What SlashGear review would be complete without testing the camera on my dedicated model and young puppy named Bentley so here’s one of him taken with the myTouch 4G Slide camera. He usually isn’t allowed on the couch and you can tell by the look on his face.

Next up is a little sample of the recording. The myTouch 4G Slide can record in full 1080p and the video comes out pretty amazing. The colors are sharp and the video doesn’t get choppy. From the past few phones I’ve used HTC seems to have great cameras.

Battery Life

The battery is just about average in its classification at 1520 mAh and I was able to get a full days worth from it. I’d say at least 8-10 hours of uptime with daily use such as texting, calling, browsing the web and the occasional Angry Birds play.

Wrap Up

All in all this is a top tier phone. It has the dual-core CPU to match the competition, runs on the absolute latest Android OS, has the shiny Sense UI and that camera for those special moments. This is a great phone with plenty of potential but if you don’t need the keyboard it does get a little irritating, and the camera adds to the thickness a little bit. If you don’t need or feel you will use the hardware keyboard you might as well get the Sensation 4G as it also has the same CPU and those 4G speeds. I’m so used to typing on screen I don’t think I’d ever go back to a hardware keyboard but that is just me.

If you feel you’d use the camera enough to warrant the purchase, and you want the hardware keyboard or are just a fan of the myTouch line in general — then yes this phone is awesome. It is the new HTC top dog over on T-Mobile (not counting the Sensation) and you wont find anything better for the time being. This phone is well suited and should be a pretty great device for months and maybe years to come.