HTC Desire S

April 10, 2011 — tdroid

“It’s not novel, it’s not surprising, it’s just very, very good.”

HTC is rightly proud of its aluminum unibody construction method. It goes beyond what other manufacturers do — such as Nokia with the aluminum-clad N8 — by using just one piece of the lightweight metal, which is wrapped around the phone’s internal components and acts as both its case and frame. On the Desire S, there are a couple of plastic-covered rear compartments, one to accommodate the 5 megapixel camera, LED flash, and loudspeaker, and the other to permit access to the 1450mAh battery and SIM and MicroSD card slots. The latter chunk of soft-touch plastic also acts as the Desire S’ antenna. You might expect the move to a metallic construction to incur some penalties in terms of weight and bulk, but the Desire S is five grams lighter than the original Desire at 130g (4.59oz), 4mm shorter at a height of 115mm (4.7 inches), and just slightly thinner and narrower than its predecessor. Another appreciable upgrade over the original Desire is that the display now sits closer to the glass at the front of the phone, eliminating what was a noticeable distance between the two on the older device.

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Acer Iconia Tab A500

April 8, 2011 — tdroid

“An Android 3.0 Honeycomb device in a dual-core Tablet for $450 at Best Buy…”

Acer has officially unleashed its Iconia Tab A500, a 10.1-inch tablet poised to defy the likes of Apple and Motorola. Unsurprisingly, Acer is billing its new creation as the ultimate companion device for Web browsing, accessing social networks, reading e-books, listening to music, watching videos, playing games and so on.

Like Motorola’s Xoom, the Tab A500 is powered by Android 3.0 Honeycomb and a dual-core 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 250 SoC, which is quick enough for 1080p video playback and mobile gaming. In fact, Acer is shipping the slate with free copies of Need for Speed: Shift and Let’s Golf installed (the former is $5 via the Android Market).

The slate carries a 1280×800 display with 80-degree viewing angles and the ability to register input from all 10 fingers. You’ll also find 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage (a 32GB model is in the works), a microSD card reader that can handle up to 32GB cards, a 5MP rear camera with flash and auto-focus and a 2MP front cam.

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HTC Thunderbolt

March 25, 2011 — tdroid

“One of the top smartphones on the market right now…”

The HTC Thunderbolt is Verizon’s latest flagship Android smartphone. The Thunderbolt has Verizon’s wickedly fast 4G LTE for download speeds ranging from 8 to 15 megs on the phone and sometimes faster when using the WiFi hotspot sharing utility that provides a broadband connection to your notebook, iPad or other device. We love the large 4.3″ display and kickstand that lets you kick back and watch streaming movies comfortably and the phone’s fast second gen Snapdragon CPU. The 8 megapixel rear camera takes sharp shots and 720p video and there’s a front-facing camera as well. The Thunderbolt isn’t perfect, but it is one of the top smartphones on the market right now.

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Motorola Xoom

March 3, 2011 — tdroid

“The Motorola Xoom is the first Android 3.0 tablet to hit the market…”

That makes it the first Android tablet to ship with an OS that’s designed especially for big screens, and that’s why it’s so exciting.
Every tech gadget must be judged solely on what it provides, its purpose in life, and whether it will help you accomplish tasks and enjoy your media.
With the Motorola Xoom, it’s too easy to make constant iPad (and iPad 2) comparisons. Can you purchase movies as easily? Does the screen get as grimy? Does it cost more?

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HTC Flyer Android Tablet

February 15, 2011 — tdroid

“HTC is entering the tablet arena with quite a bang!”

The company has just taken the wraps off its brand new 7-inch Flyer Android tablet, which touts a 1.5GHz single-core CPU, 1GB of RAM plus 32GB of flash storage, an aluminum unibody construction, 1024 x 600 resolution, a tablet-optimized version of Sense, and… what’s this, a pressure-sensitive stylus! The HTC Scribe trademark we saw floating around in legal waters turned out not to be the branding for a tablet, it’s actually the name HTC gives to the technology enabling what it calls a “groundbreaking pen experience.”

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LG Optimus 2X

February 11, 2011 — tdroid

The world cried out for a dual-core smartphone and LG and NVIDIA answered the call.

Actually, the world only ever dreamt about multicore mobile architectures up until late last year, but sometimes that’s all it takes to get those zany engineers engineering. So here we are, in early February 2011, beholding the world’s first smartphone built around a dual-core processor, the Optimus 2X. This is a landmark handset in more ways than one, however, as its presence on the market signals LG’s first sincere foray into the Android high end. Although the company delivered two thoroughly competent devices for the platform with the Optimus S and T in 2010, they were the very definition of mid-range smartphones and the truth is that Samsung, HTC and Motorola were left to fight among themselves for the most demanding Android users’ hard-earned rubles.
Nothing much has changed since we first met this phone under its codename of Star a couple of months back. One uninterrupted slate of glass covers the entire front, broken up only by the earpiece grille at the very top. Four capacitive touch buttons keep the 4-inch WVGA LCD company, along with a front-facing camera just to the right of the LG logo. As we said in our preview, this is an uncomplicated and restrained design, evidence perhaps that LG chose to spend its time and money on what lies beneath the skin.

The glass front slopes off on its left and right edges before being engulfed by a metallic frame that wraps around the whole handset. Fit and finish between the two is absolutely perfect. The third component to the 2X’s external setup is a flexible matte plastic cover that accounts for its entire rear section. It’s stupendously easy to remove and replace while still forming a very good seal with its surrounding elements. The austere black back (there’ll be brown and white versions too) is decorated with a silver column running through the middle brandishing a “with Google” slogan, which ends in a slight bump near the top, designed to accommodate the 8 megapixel camera module. We’re happy to see another little glass cover here protecting the lens from accidental damage.

Overall, the Optimus 2X feels very well put together. It is rigid and unyielding, and although its construction materials are nothing special, the cumulative result is a highly pleasing one. Attention to detail is evident throughout….
The skinny: Awesome hardware specs but wonky software implementation hold this beast back

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Motorola Atrix 4G

February 9, 2011 — tdroid

“PC World ranks the Motorola Atrix 4G as their #1 Android phone model from their top ten Android phone list.”

A lot of excitement surrounded the Motorola Atrix at the Consumer Electronics show in January. It appeared to be not just another phone, but the cornerstone of a new concept that might deliver the mobility of a smartphone and the superior usability of a laptop in a single product.

After using the Atrix itself for a day or so, I came away impressed with the phone–especially the power of its processor, the clarity of its display, its no-hard-edges design, and its compact shape. Frankly, it’s a phone I would buy.

But I’m giving low marks to the new smartphone/laptop combo device that Motorola proposes with the Atrix. I like the idea of a close bonding of the two devices, but the execution in this instance is poor.

Still, the Atrix itself is a strong addition to AT&T’s growing line up of Android phones. The phone is one of the first AT&T phones to be branded “4G”, and the connection speeds I saw from the phone, while not quite 4G-like, were much faster than the 3G speeds we’ve measured from the AT&T network in the past.

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HTC Inspire 4G

February 6, 2011 — tdroid

The Inspire quickly become one of our favorite Android smartphones”
HTC Inspire 4G
HTC Inspire 4G AT&T is getting serious with Android now that their iPhone exclusivity is over, and the Inspire 4G is one lovely high end Android phone at a reasonable price. The Inspire 4G has HSPA+ 4G, a sharp 4.3″ SLCD display running at 800 x 480 resolution and a second gen 1GHz Snapdragon CPU. The unibody aluminum alloy body is sumptuous and the 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash does 720p video with aplomb. The Inspire runs Android OS 2.2 Froyo with HTC Sense software. It’s quickly become one of our favorite Android smartphones.

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LG Optimus S

November 21, 2010 — tdroid

“The LG Optimus S is the fastest and most able to handle this software…”

LG Optimus S is the most affordable of Sprint’s new trio of Android smartphones running Sprint ID software that allows you to quickly and pervasively customize the phone. Sprint ID offers selections from a variety of interests such as sports, business and entertainment and installs free software, widgets and utilities and it installs the whole bucket in one 5 to 10 minute download and install session. We’re still not sold on Sprint ID since it tends to slow down the phone, but the LG Optimus S is the fastest and most able to handle this software load vs. the Samsung Transform and Sanyo Zio (Sprint’s other 2 Sprint ID phones).

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Samsung Galaxy Tablet

November 1, 2010 — tdroid

The story of the Galaxy Tab has been quite a saga, to say the least…

In fact, it was actually back in May that we first heard rumblings of Samsung’s plans to unleash a 7-inch Android tablet much like its Galaxy S phones, but it was only after months of painful teasing — including a cruel look at just its packaging on the Engadget Show — that Sammy finally unveiled the Galaxy Tab to the world at IFA. The Tab certainly packed the specs — a 1GHz processor, full Flash support thanks to Android 2.2, dual cameras, support for up to 32GB of storage and WiFi / 3G connectivity — to put other Android tablets to shame, and our initial hands-on with it only had us yearning for more. Without pricing and availability, however, the story was at a cliffhanger. Of course, those details trickled out over the next few months, and here in the US, Samsung finally announced that all four major US carriers would be getting Tabs to call their own. Verizon then finally took the lead in announcing pricing, and revealed that its Tab would hit contract-free for $600 — Sprint followed with the same no-contract pricing along with a $400 two-year contract option.

Posted in Engadget Reviews, Samsung Android Tablets. Leave a Comment »
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