HTC Thunderbolt Release

After a lot of anticipation, HTC Thunderbolt was released on 17th March, 2011.

Design and Display

HTC Thunderbolt looks big and feels heavy in the hand, having a standard HTC design. It looks similar to HTC Inspire with a unibody metal chassis. This device has a spacious 4.3″ WVGA capacitive touchscreen of 480×800 pixel resolution. The display looks sharp and crisp, displaying images and text clearly. At the back, the battery cover is made of plastic but has a smooth steel finish. There is a kickstand attached at the back, with the loudspeaker below it. The sides of the HTC Thunderbolt contain the power button and volume rocker.

HTC Thunderbolt Specs

HTC Thunderbolt measures 4.75″ x 2.44″ x 0.56″ and weighs 6.2 ounces. This device runs on a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon single core processor, Adreno 205 GPU and MDM9600 chip for LTE. A slight disappointment arises here because a dual core processor can improve performance and battery life, helping in delivering a quick performance. Further, this device has 8GB internal memory and 768MB RAM. It also comes preinstalled with a 32GB microSD card.

Features

This smartphone runs on Android 2.2 (Froyo) with HTC Sense UI. The Sense UI is standard. HTC Thunderbolt blazes as a 4G/LTE device. Upto eight WiFi devices can be tethered to it, enhancing the pleasures of internet browsing. Download/upload speeds are great for viewing web pages, apps and watching videos. Some of the apps that can be accessed include Kindle, FM Radio, Adobe Reader and Quickoffice. Audio quality is best when the device rests on the kickstand. Otherwise it is slightly muffled.

Camera

HTC Thunderbolt has an 8MP camera lens at the back of the device with LED Flash. A 1.3MP front facing camera is also present. Photo quality is good but unfortunately there is no dedicated camera key on HTC Thunderbolt.

HTC Thunderbolt Battery

There have been concerns about the battery life of HTC Thunderbolt from the start. This device was rated to have about 4 hours of battery life on 4G but pulls along for a little more time. Therefore users will have to use the HTC Thunderbolt battery carefully, charging phones in time or using the add-on battery pack. Without 4G, battery lasts longer.

For users who need a device that delivers along with a wide network to work in, HTC Thunderbolt provides a good option. Priced at $249, with a two-year contract, this device is set to wow customers with what it offers. Despite 4G battery life issues, HTC Thunderbolt offers a powerful mobile experience.

HTC HD 7 Design and Quality

HTC HD 7 looks similar to the HTC Desire HD but this device has a more standard plastic battery cover. The smartphone is large but slim, sliding into the pocket easily. When held in the hand it feels solid. It sports a 4.3″ WVGA super LCD touchscreen of 480х800 pixel resolution. This large screen enhances the browsing and multimedia experience of users, being quite responsive. Below it are the touch-sensitive Back, Start and Search keys. While the camera button and volume rocker are located on the right spine, the bottom of the device has the microUSB port and 3.5mm headset jack and the top of HTC HD 7 holds the power button. The rear contains the camera lens with dual LED flash and speaker. Framing the HTC HD 7 from the top and bottom are metal grills that look decorative but end up attracting dirt. This device also comes with a kickstand, so that it can be  inclined on a table to watch videos.

Specifications

HTC HD 7 measures 4.8″х2.68″х0.44″ and weighs 5.7 ounces. This device runs on a 1GHz processor and has 16GB internal storage. This smartphone has ROM 512MB and RAM 576MB.

Features

HTC HD 7 is a Windows Phone 7 device. Tiles are arranged on the homescreen, with a maximum of eight fitting at a time. These tiles even display latest updates. HTC HD 7 can be personalized through the various themes that are present. The display is uncluttered and the phone book integrates information from Facebook. Call quality is good on this device. Due to the large size of the screen the virtual keyboard is very spacious and messaging is a treat, both in portrait and landscape mode.
This device has 3G support and comes loaded with WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS. Internet browsing is quite smooth on HTC HD 7 though there is no full screen viewing in portrait mode. However, emails can be accessed easily in HTML format.
Both music and videos play well on HTC HD 7. Zune Pass can be used for streaming music.

HTC HD 7 Apps

HTC Hub provides easy access to apps and they are launched quickly. The Weather App is presented in 3D format and helps users stay informed. Likewise, the Stocks app provides the latest market updates. For enhancing sound quality, the Sound Enhancer app may be used while the Flashlight App turns the HD 7 into a flashlight. T-Mobile’s Family Room app is useful for sharing photos, notes and information within a certain group.

Camera

HTC HD 7 contains a 5MP camera with dual LED flash. With autofocus feature and various camera modes, resolutions and effects, images shot are decent.

Battery

HTC HD 7 has a talktime of 380 minutes and a standby time of 310 hours on GSM. This device can handle about a day’s usage before it needs to be charged.

Despite many plus points, the HTC HD 7 has no provision for expanding memory and the touchscreen is not too sharp and bright, as compared to AMOLED screens. However, the display size itself may be very exciting for users. Overall, this device does perform well in most cases and apart from a few niggling worries, seems here to stay.

HP TouchPad

Look wise similar to the Apple’s iPad, it has a mahogany fine shiny finished black back, reviewed as “finger print Magnet and has used Palm’s innovative webOS mobile operating system. Many players have entered the market in the tablet section as competitors to the iPad,  TouchPad was launched by HP in June, 2011 in the US with a competitive introductory price of both the versions, 16 GB version as US$399.99 and 32 GB version as US$499.99. However, the prices were dropped due to various reasons best known to the company. This TouchPad with its webOS , is one of the many multi-touch hand held tablets and has quite a few notable features, one of them being the only one with a native Facebook application. It also has an advantage of being able to hook up to any cloud service, internet or corporate intranet, with its amazing ability of multitasking  and even playing Flash video.

Photo By mbiebusch

It is laden with a 6300 mAh battery with a claimed life of 9 hours, touch screen, a virtual keyboard. Its dimensions are 10”x7.5”x0.54” with  a weight of about 740 grams, is definitely bulkier than its iPad counterpart and even the GalaxyTab 10.1.

HP TouchPad Features

The front of the Touch Pad has a home button serving a dual function of opening the screen or returning back to the page showing your current usage. The 1.3 megapixel camera is front facing for video conferencing. The Touch Pad is Wi-Fi only and it runs on a 1.2 gHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor giving it a solid performance. The virtual keyboard allows for easy text entry including a numeral row (isn’t that fancy!). In addition to these features, the HP’s cloud technology provides users with automatic routine backups of accounts and application data. With this, you can easily restore or remove features. Protecting you TouchPad is very important. You can do this by setting a PIN or password. This feature enables users to protect important files, data and information by changing settings to “erase data” options if the incorrect PIN is inentered for a set number of times. This prevents the risk of misused data due to stolen or misplaced HP TouchPads.

The TouchPad is equipped with InvenSense gyroscope and accelerometer compass to sense motion, with addition of GPS function through cellular data access points performed by WiFi.

One hardware innovation which was pioneered by Palm, and expanded by HP , is the standard Touchstone conductive charging technology— user simply place the TP in either a portrait or landscape mode onto the Touchstone tablet stand and it immediately begins charging: no connectors are required. Also, the TP detects that it has been place onto the Touchstone and can automatically launch a clock, photo slideshow, or other applications that support its “Exhibition” mode.

On the audio front, HP has licensed Beats audio technology for the TouchPad for enhanced sound quality, and the TouchPad has a built-in microphone as well as stereo speakers ( along the bottom edge in landscape orientation).

Software: The two main features of the WebOS, first, the integrated OS level multitasking, where each application runs on its very own card and second the technology driven by “the cloud” which enables multiple services for Yahoo, Gmail, Face, Twitter etc to be accessed at one. The beauty of Synergy is that all of the accounts can be integrated on a single device automatically, while each remains unaffected by changes to the others.

TouchPad supports all HP products, and HP’s ePrint technology. TP users can print to almost any network- connected HP printer directly from the tablet, including via a printer-specific-e-mail address. No other manufacturer has yet adopted ePrint as a standard.

Multitasking: As for multitasking, while other operating systems may combine specific background processes with application switching, webOS on the TouchPad works much like standard desktop operating systems: applications run in one or more windows, called cards, and continue to run whether or not they are in active use. If an application is visible, it’s running; to close it, the user swipes the card upwards and off the screen.

Finally, HP could have taken the easy way out. Like many computer companies, HP could have easily jumped on the Google train and copied the tablet. Instead, through determination and effort HP came up with one of a kind touch pad that could truly give Apple a tough competition.

The HP TouchPad is one result of this effort. In a tablet market that is more or less split between Apple and Google, the TouchPad offers a refreshing alternative with a distinctly different.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo aims at finding a balance between exquisite functionality and sweet price. As Sony Ericsson tries to nail the top spot, and it has achieved its aim to some extent, the world and mobile freaks will begin to wonder if at all this effort is enough to compete with the likes of iPhone and Samsung Galaxy Tab. Well, this is what this Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo Review aims to find out.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo

No doubt, Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo is clearly a good effort. The 3.7 inch screen which is backed by Mobile Bravia Technology coupled with 8.1 megapixel camera is certainly an attractive bit. It also comes with the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread package. If it is looked at from functionality point of view then the Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo has borrowed a lot from its predecessor Sony Ericsson Xperia and resembles a bit with Sony Ericsson Vivaz in design; speaking of which lets first analyze the aspect of its design in this Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo Review.

The Design of Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo

Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo is undoubtedly chubbier than its sibling the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc which seems to be sleeker and therefore more attractive looking but if it is watched and assessed without comparison then Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo is comfortably thin and stylish and not to mention light weight at 126g.

Moreover the design of Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo is just the thing a Sony Ericsson lover would expect from it – something unique and non-conforming. While most phones are just dull slabs, you will find Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo to be a bit rounded which is the reason why it feels very pretty nestled in the hand. Sony Ericsson has manufactured it with a very modern curvy style – very in and very chic indeed.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo is available in three very elegant colors – silver, midnight blue and red. So there would be one Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo for everyone out there.

The Screen of Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo

You must have heard that the screen of Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo has been enriched; read on this Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo review to find out.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo has been provided with touchscreen technology that has been enhanced with LED backlit feature. The screen is supplemented with 480 x 854 pixel resolution with more saturated colors. Therefore it makes the picture and video viewing even more enjoyable.

Sony Ericsson claims that the touchscreen of this mobile phone is made scratch less. You might want to differ with that slightly. The sunlight legibility is not very good either. Though it will not defame it badly, this fact will still not help it win a place over other mobile phones with the provision of touch screen. As it lacks the anti-reflective coating, you might want to use your hand as a shade in the sun – which is a mere something on the basis of which this smart phone cannot be rejected. So carry on and read this Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo review to find out other features of the elegant phone.

Features of Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo

Following are some of the exceptional features that could be found in Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo:

• Home, Back and Menu Buttons on the front,
• Front facing VGA camera on the top of front side of the phone,
• Light and proximity centers,
• 8.1 megapixel camera on the back with LED flash,
• Mini USB port on top of phone,
• Camera shutter key,
• A mini-HDMI port also on the top and
• A 3.5mm audio jack.

Functionality of Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo

You must be thinking that this Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo Review has so far been about the looks of this Android and not about its functionality or interface experience. But it is not so; firstly, Sony Ericsson has finally been able to capture the technique of what makes the Android speed up. Because as you will browse and navigate through the menus you will notice that the movements are fluid.

You can zoom in and out of the menu screen and arrange the apps in the order you like. When it comes to calling or texting, you will get a truly Android experience. There is an infinite space to enter the contacts with a QWERTY keyboard which makes messaging all the more fun.

The RAM memory of Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo is a good 512MB; internet connectivity, browsing and double touch features all work flawlessly. There is no problem in running Adobe flash in it; so when we talk of internet connectivity, you will be getting pretty much everything in this modernistic Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo.

Are you ready to discover the secrets behind the LG Optimus Pad? Well for starters, it sports a 8.9 inch widescreen display just like the iPad 2 but is thinner in height and width. With no soft or physical button on the front display, the Optimus is the true definition of a touchscreen tablet.

When trying to look “Inside” the Optimus, let’s try and get past the button-less, wide screened font panel. The LG Optimus Touch pad contains the Android 3.0 Honeycomb dual core ARM cortex A9 processor, GeForce GPU Graphics card and 1 Gb of RAM.ies underlying the sleek outer plastic casing. In addition, the 1 Ghz brain power is supplied by the Nvidia Tegra 2 platform. Even though the 32 GB of memory and flawless application surfing without any lag time in between, when tested, it was seen that the tablet is excellent for running multiple applications at a time but it is still not up to par with the Apple iPad 2 or HP TouchPad. It feels like just to jump in the competition to produce user friendly touch pads LG took it’s chance but failed when it came providing smooth interface between the tablet and the user.

The side of the tablet is equipped with highly accessible application buttons to multitask and create shortcuts to favorite apps. This allows you to jump around and work on different apps with a slight touch of a button. The Android 3.0 technology enables the Optimus Pad to customize the soft key setting for a personable experience. The biggest difference one can notice between the HP Touch Pad and Optimus is that you are able to view and edit documents in various formats on the LG Optimus Pad. This experience becomes easy and palatable as the widescreen featuring amazing touch screen settings covers up for the missing “keyboard” on the Pad.

As mentioned earlier, the Optimus Pad sports an 8.9 inch high resolution LCD screen. The high resolution helps with text legibility and eases the pain of zooming in and out during browser surfing. Also, this widescreen is accommodates movie watching and includes features such as playback and video recording supporting full HD abilities. Sporting bright colors wit pictures at accurate angles, the only disappointment here is sunlight legibility- but it’s workable. One of the biggest attractions of the LG Optimus Pad is the 3D capability. Like the TVs that LG produces, they have done a good job of introducing the 3-dimensional feature to pad itself. There are dual cameras set up an inch apart from each other for extraordinary 3D video capture. When working on 3D video capture there are different modes that you could use such as mixed, anaglyph, side by side or single. Recording using the side by side you can play the captured video on your television by using an HDMI cable and likewise, recording in the anaglyph lets you watch the video on a big screen using 3D blue and red glasses. The funnest part about 3D video capture is that whichever mode you pick…you can always play it on your television- pretty cool eh?

The Optimus Pad contains the 6400mAh battery which efficiently functions to allow longer use of the tablet. It is important to know that doing heavy tasks can suck up the battery faster than just browsing the wb, checking you mail or facebooking or tweeting. That being said continuous use of the video might require you to plug in your tablet way before. With this you can generally use your Optimus Pad on a long flight without any hesitation. The tablet also allows for inserting your SIM card by manually removing the back cover and resetting all the functions associated with the sim.

Now, there’s a lot more to the Optimus Pad than the big widescreen or the 3D capture and that is its above average sound quality. The Android Honeycomb application with its unique album design is used to manage all your music in different formats.

A few disadvantages that were noted are as follows:

• More expensive than other tablets with same functions
• 3D still pictures cannot be shot
• Battery is non replaceable
• Missing microSD card slot

Finally, the amazing features of the LG Optimus Pad makes it the number one choice among users. With this device you can easily play games such as Angry birds or card games, prance around the house checking emails, jamming out to your favorite music and tweeting-all at once! The 3D video capture feature definitely distinguished the Optimus Pad from other tablets this year. This could be on your birthday or Christmas wish list?

Key Features at a Glance:

• 8.9 inch wide and LCD screen with touchscreen features. 8.9″ 16M-color TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen of WXGA (1280 x 768 pixels) resolution
• Powered by Android 3.0. Honeycomb
• Built-in memory: 32 Gb
• Dual 5 mega pizel high resolution cameras with geotagging features and 2.0 megapixel camera for video calling applications
• 2.0 MP front-facing camera; Video calls
• Full HD and 3D Capture
• Wi-Fi Enabled
• USB Port available and mini HDMI port
• Stereo Bluetooth v2.1
• GPS with digital compass and geotagging features
• Rechargeable Battery

Though belonging to the smartphone category, the Gravity Smart does not boost of a really smart look, something that is usually a hallmark of Android phones. Clearly, this handset is designed for those looking for a good device that comes with the android experience and at a reasonable price, but nothing fancier than that. The key features of this phone include a  3.2″ 16M color, TFT capacitive touchscreen with 480 x 320 pixels resolution, multi touch, full four-row, slide-out QWERTY keyboard with a customizable social networking key, ARMv6 800MHz CPU, 270MB RAM, 150MB of user-available storage, Android 2.2.2 (Froyo) with TouchWiz 3.0 UI, Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support, Wi-Fi Calling enabled, Wi-Fi 802.11 b, g, with hotspot functionality, GPS with A-GPS connectivity; digital compass, 3.15 MP autofocus camera, QVGA video recording at 30 frames per second, microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth 3.0, microSD slot (up to 32GB, 2GB in box), standard 3.5 mm audio jack, accelerometer and proximity sensor, web browser with Flash support, and Smart dialing. Cased in a soft touch back cover and a mostly plastic exterior, the Gravity Smart handset is relatively lightweight, with design aesthetics that are not as exciting as its competitors in the same category.

Samsung Gravity Smart: Software and Applications

Running on Android 2.2 and TouchWIZ, the Gravity Smart has the 600MHz Qualcomm chipset with Adreno 200 GPU, though it cannot be touted as the fastest performer around. The Gravity Smart plays 3D games quite well, though there is room for improvement as far as graphics and fine pixel movement are concerned. Social networking is not an issue with this phone, as there are apps supporting Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, Snapfish, and many more. Internet lacks Flash support, though Group Texting and Cloud Texting options may quite easily be called some of the Gravity Smart’s highlights. Phone calls made and received do not really deliver outstanding sound quality, and may be categorized as just an okay experience. Good things can be said about the battery life of the Gravity Smart though, as a single charge on the 1500mAh pack is enough to last the entire day. When tested with the phone’s screen set at 50 percent brightness, push email enabled, Twitter polling at an interval of 15 minutes,  automatic Facebook updates every hour, GPS and WiFi on, and playing a looped video, the Gravity Smart’s battery was able to provide over seven hours of usage.

Coming to the camera of the Gravity Smart, though the 3-megapixel camera with LED flash can deliver good enough shots in bright light, the 320×480 HVGA resolution videos are not exactly of a high quality. Not quite an Android super phone, the Gravity Smart has a few disadvantages. These are the absence of shutter key, no ambient light sensor, lack of a dedicated video player application, QVGA – only video recording, absence of secondary video-call camera, and the presence of Android 2.2 Froyo and not the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread

The Specifications:

• Dimensions: 114 x 59 x 14 mm
• Weight: 130 g
• Android OS with 800 MHz processor
• Display/ Screen: 320 x 480 pixels, 3.2 inches
• Multi touch, full four-row, slide-out QWERTY keyboard
• 152 MB storage, 278 MB RAM
• Upto 32GB microSD storage
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
• Bluetooth enabled
• 3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels, LED flash with GEOTAGGING
• Standard battery, Li-Ion 1500 mAh: 364 hours stand by time and 5 hours talk time

The Verdict

In conclusion, those in the market for a smartphone that packs in features like HD capable camera, a high resolution screen or graphic intense gaming, the Gravity Smart will not be a good choice. However, this is one device that will find favor among those looking for a smartphone that is highly compatible as a social networking companion and with smart messenger tools, along with an easy to use keypad. The good battery life is an added plus, for the otherwise unexciting but text-friendly Gravity Smart from Samsung.

Lenovo Ideapad K1

The IdeaPad K1 is available in white, red, black, and brown, and the pack of the tablet is covered with a thick honeycomb pattern that gives it a good grip as well as a sleek look.

Lenovo Ideapad K1 Specifications:

• 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor
• 1GB of RAM.
• 10.1-inch multitouch display-1280 x 800 resolutions with a 16:10 aspect ratio.
• Internal storage of 32GB available on this tablet can also double with a microSD card of up to 32GB.
• Front-facing 2-megapixel camera and back-facing 5-megapixel camera with LED flash.
• No USB ports whatsoever, but instead this device has its own proprietary pin connector port.
• There are two cables included in the box, one of which ends with a USB male, while the other ends with a wall socket adapter.
• As is the case with other Honeycomb devices, Mac users will need the Android File Transfer app so that their computers can recognize and access the IdeaPad K1.
• Transferring data with the help of a microSD card is not an easy matter with the IdeaPad K1, as it will only be possible to pop the microSD card slot open by using something to poke the small pinhole next to its cover.
• Lenovo did keep this in mind while packaging the IdeaPad K1 and provides a small metal clip specifically for this purpose.
• Micro-HDMI port
• 1080p full HD video-out and video playback
• Bluetooth
• WiFi connectivity

Lenovo IdeaPad K1: Software

Quite lightweight at 1.65lbs, the IdeaPad K1 sports a slim look, while other external features include a screen-lock switch, the power button, volume rocker, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a home-screen button that makes taking screenshots super easy. The area where the IdeaPad K1 scores really high is its interface. The company has worked very hard on adding plenty of neat touches for a personalized experience, starting with not using the stock Android 3.1 Honeycomb. The most popular feature of the IdeaPad K1 that users would surely be happy about is the fact that the customized interface lets apps be closed from the task switcher. The Lenovo Launcher feature however may not be as exciting, and some users may find it redundant, especially since the IdeaPad K1 also has a fully customizable App Wheel feature. The IdeaPad K1 comes loaded with more than 30 apps, and supports Flash content right out of the box. A special mention must be made of a first from Lenovo as far as tablets are concerned – one of the preloaded apps on the IdeaPad K1 is Netflix, along with hardware-enabled DRM that allows streaming Netflix movies, TV shows and more, wherever, whenever.

Lenovo IdeaPad K1: Applications

The IdeaPad K1 offers excellent video quality, while the two speakers do a great job of providing equally good audio. Even though they are located on the back side of the tablet, these speakers are positioned in a way that they are never obstructed, irrespective of the angle of the tablet. Getting to the IdeaPad K1’s battery life, the 2-cell battery can deliver between 8 to 9 hours of continuous usage. Those into games will love this tablet, as it comes loaded with those. While some are full version, like Galaxy on Fire 2, others are trial versions, like Need for Speed Shift HD and Vendetta Online. There is a child-friendly game called Talking Tom, along with the usual ones like Hearts, Solitaire, Hardwood Backgammon, Spades and other card or dice games. For those who want more apps than those already present in the IdeaPad K1, there is good news. The Android market and the company’s own Lenovo App Shop are included with the IdeaPad K1.The App Shop offers an impressive selection of Android applications, categorized as per genres like Social, Games, Health & Fitness, and Business. The user needs to share his credit card information before signing up and starting download activities, even though the store has free applications. However, given the huge selection in Google’s market as well as third-party markets like Amazon, nobody seems to be complaining.

Lenovo IdeaPad K1: The Verdict

All in all, the Lenovo IdeaPad K1 is sleek, light and comfortable to carry around, offers good storage at 32GB, excellent performance and battery life, and is a good buy given the very attractive price. That is if the user does not mind not having a USB port, or finding access the microSD card slot a tad difficult.

Specifications:

• Runs on Android 2.3 OS
• Powered by an 800 MHz processor
• Capacitive touch-screen display
• 3.2 mega pixels camera, video player/recording
• Music player, FM radio with 3.5 mm audio jack
• Internal memory and external memory support
• Social networking integration (Facebook Smartphone app and Twitter Smartphone app), instant messaging & Email support
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth stereo (A2DP)
• USB Standard rechargeable battery
• Measures 93 x 52 x 18 mm
• Weighs100gms.
• 3 inch touch screen display with 240 x 400 pixels resolutions
• Display features include a scratch-resistant surface
• Single-touch input method
• Proximity sensor for auto turn-off, and accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate.
• 100 MB internal memory with 64 MB RAM
• Card slot for microSD which can go up to as high as 32 GB

Sony Ericsson Text Pro: Software and Applications

Powered by PNX-4910 processor, the Text Pro provides good support for GPRS, EDGE, WLAN, Bluetooth and USB. Enhanced internet connectivity can be experienced thanks to the GPRS support, while the Text Pro’s GPS support can help the user with navigation while looking for an address. The 3.5mm jack comes in very handy when there is a need to connect the phone to speakers, and good audio quality can be expected. The 3.2 mega pixels camera with 2048×1536 pixels resolution offers quality pictures and is helpful when the user wants to record videos. The USB offers flexibility in terms of transferring files, while the standard Li-ion 1000 mAh battery gives back up of up to 400 hrs when in standby mode, and up to 5 hours when in talk time mode.

Sony Ericsson Text Pro Application Features

Coming to the most prominent and arguably the best feature of the Text Pro, the 4-row QWERTY keyboard on this phone may be small in size, but the buttons are placed in a way that most hands should find it comfortable enough to operate. The buttons need a little time to get adjusted to in terms of the pressure needed to press them, but once the user gets the hang of it, there shouldn’t be a problem. The side sliding mechanism of the Text pro’s keyboard is built solid, as it is a given that common users would definitely take to opening and closing it all day long. The design element has taken that into consideration, though the clicking sound that accompanies could have been a tad quieter. On the front of the Text Pro’s keyboard is the signature feature of all recent handsets from Sony Ericsson – a half-circle home button that has been placed there for instant brand recognition.

Sony Ericsson Text Pro: The Drawbacks

After the praises and flattering reviews the only major drawback of the Text Pro is the lack of 3G multimedia service. In addition to the excellent GPRS/EDGE and Wifi support the phone comes with a built in internet browser. Hold your horses now- this internet browsing on the textpro might not be a palatable experience as you expect. The phone has increased lag time during pages and gets divided into several sub pages causing the whole surfing experience to be highly complex. Also, the double tap and multitouch settings along with zoom in and out get disabled when browsing the internet. There is no getting around this drawback- face it this phone would be a perfect tech gadget if Sony was able to fix the browsing issue.

The Verdict

The Text Pro has truly been designed for the young user of today who lives in the virtual world. The Sony Ericsson website says that with the Text Pro, “making your friends the centre of attention couldn’t be easier.” That is exactly what the Friends apps are supposed to do – help the user add five friends whose Facebook status updates and Twitter one-liners can be seen at a glance. The Drag and drop feature allows the placing of applications as and where desired, thus leading to a customized homepage. Other features included in the Text Pro are picture wallpaper, timer, stopwatch, flight mode, calculator, alarm clock, Outlook, Google Talk, Bluetooth technology, picture messaging, and Track ID music recognition, among others.

Samsung Galaxy S2

A 2011 launched product in the Android range in the competition war of the Smartphones the Samsung’s Galaxy 2, the first of the company’s phone is a ‘beauty’. It has a dual-core processor, runs on Android version2.3 called Gingerbread with an incredible 4.3 inch Super Amoled Plus Touchscreen..With a high ended price tag, the sleek, lightweight Samsung Galaxy2 is costlier than its rivals by LG, Motorala, HTC.

• Dimension and Weight:

Samsung Galaxy S2 has a dimension of 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm and weighs 116 g,

• Display:

Samsung Galaxy S2 features a 4.3-inch 480 x 800 pixels WVGA Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touch screen, that has a covering of Gorilla Glass and fingerprint resistant oleo phobic coat.

• Processor:

Samsung Galaxy S2 comes with dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor. Samsung uses its own product the Exynos 4210 SoC and ARM company’s Mali-400MP for its GPU. For enhanced and exciting gaming experience Tegra 2 that is supposed to support hardware acceleration for Flash and javascript is an added asset.

• Camera:

Samsung’s Galaxy S2 has an 8-megapixel 3264 x 2448 pixels auto focus camera at its rear with a single LED flash. Additional features are its geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection and image stabilization.   Galaxy S2 captures video at 1080 at 30 fps. Recently an S2 owner captured impressive time lapse video using Samsung’s 8 mp camera, which has a tilt shift effect a technique used in small and medium format cameras that use tilt for selective focus, which in Galaxy was added later on.

A front facing fixed 2-megapixel camera, that can do dual job of video calling and simple video recording. This camera has a resolution of VGA -640×480.

• Storage memory:

Galaxy S2 has 1GB RAM and comes with 16GB/32GB storage depending on the model. S2 has an external microSD slot for card to support 32 GB extra storage.

• Operating system:

Samsung Galaxy S2 features the Android OS version 2.3 (Gingerbread)

It uses its own Samsung TouchWiz 4.0 user interface a marked improvement on its predecessor. The web browser has facilities of zoom in /out by a simple press on the touch screen with two fingers, an evidence of its sensitive accelerometer for UI auto rotate and for auto turn-off.

3G: Samsung’s smart phone offers HSDPA up to 21 Mbps and HSUPA up to 5.76 Mbps.

WLAN/Bluetooth/ USB: The smart phone has a Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n DLNA support, with an additional Wi-Fi Direct feature. Samsung’s phone uses advanced 3.0+HS version Bluetooth Galaxy S2 has microUSB (MHL) and USB. It can act as a ‘host’with its USB On-The-Go standard similar to any desktop computer.

• Battery:

Galaxy S2 features a Li-Ion 1650 mAh battery

The smartphone Samsung Galaxy 2 includes 3.5 mm TRS headphone jack is positioned on the top side,, loudspeaker, SMS threaded view, MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, HTML browser, games, Java via third party application, digital compass, A-GPS support, SNS integration, Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Google Talk, Adobe Flash 10.1 support, voice-memo-dial-commands and predictive text input.

Galaxy S2 extra features include stereo FM radio with RDS, optional NFC support and TV-out via MHL A/V link, one of the first devices to support it.

To fish the drawbacks GSMArena could call upon ‘the all plastic body’ and ‘no dedicated camera key’ as below null points but gave an all going signal calling it an “absurdly powerful” hand held set. Samsung Galaxy has definitely not only stolen the hearts but has outnumbered, outsmarted and outplayed all the stalwarts of Tech companies by out crossing 6 million selling mark even before being released in the Great U. Maintaining its top level position of the Market Leader and winning the coveted honor of “Hottest New Phone for 2011” at Mobile Industry Awards 2011 Samsung Galaxy S2 looks bright, intelligent and eye-catching as slim and sleek has already stolen the hearts of many a man

Design and Quality

Blackberry Style is a flip device with a large external screen that has 240х320 pixel resolution. The external display shows a clock and alerts users about any new messages received. The ability to scroll through these notifiers without opening this device is a handy feature. Available in black and purple, this device feels light in the hand and looks smooth with its metal finish.
The internal 2.7″ QVGA display is small but text and images look quite clear. Below the screen, the layout found is similar to the one found on Blackberry devices. Back, Call, End and Menu keys surround a central responsive touchpad that helps in navigating between items. While the left side of the Blackberry Style 9670 has the microUSB/ charging port and headphone jack, the right side houses the volume rocker and camera key.

Specifications

Blackberry Style measures 3.78″х 2.36″х0.73″ when closed and weighs 4.62 ounces. This device comes with 512MB onboard memory with an 8GB memory card added for additional storage. Memory can be further expanded upto 32GB.

Features

Blackberry Style runs on Blackberry 6 OS. User experience is enhanced on this device in that multiple home screens can be easily personalized, there is a new browser, universal search option and a new notifier helps in viewing messages and calendar entries more quickly.
Call quality on Blackberry Style is good. The speaker also does a good job during calls or while listening to music. Messaging is also standard and users can access upto ten email accounts. While internet browsing is good on this device, it cannot measure up to the Android experience. For social network addicts, this phone comes preloaded with Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. WiFi, GPS and 3G service is available on the Blackberry Style. However, spotting of WiFi networks can be a problem at times.

Keyboard

Blackberry Style has a standard QWERTY keyboard that is found in Blackberry devices. While the keys are curved and provide good response, they feel a little flat at times.

Camera

Blackberry Style has a 5MP autofocus camera with flash. However, the lens is awkwardly placed near the phone hinge. This makes it slightly difficult to shoot photos among the eleven modes present. Image stabilization feature is also present. The quality of photos is good and looks crisp. VGA video recording is also present on this device.

Battery

Blackberry Style 9670 has about 4.5 hours of talktime and 10.5 days of standby time. It also boasts of upto 14 hours of music playback.

On the flipside, Blackberry Style has a smaller screen size, the camera lens is awkwardly placed at the bottom and video recording is not too great on this device. However, complaints apart, the Blackberry Style does perform well and slides into the pocket easily, winning its way towards many consumers.