Summary:

The HTC Sensation XL is yet another iteration of HTC’s high-end Sensation handset. This time, however, the processor is single-core only, and the screen resolution has dropped to WVGA, despite being larger in size than the regular Sensation’s display. The XL comes with Beats Audio integration, as I imagine most of HTC’s handsets in the future will going forward. This pushes it towards music lovers, and suggests that it’s a multimedia powerhouse, despite it lacking a microSD slot for expanding its storage.

Still, the Sensation XL is a handsome device, and hums along nicely with its single core processor and it comes with a decent set of Beats Audio earbud headphones for blasting out your tunes. The 4.7-inch display is also bright and colorful, and works well in bright sunlight. You even get a new back side illuminated 8 megapixel sensor in the camera, which offers up 720p HD video as well. So it’s not all bad, but is it better than the other Sensation models? Read on for my full low down and impressions.
You’ll find a video tour of the HTC Sensation XL after the Table of Contents, below.
Hardware :

The HTC Sensation XL isn’t a small device, by any means. However, at just 9.9mm thick, it feels smaller than it is, and doesn’t bulk up pockets too much. The actual dimensions are a significant 132.5mm x 70.7mm x 9.9mm (5.22in x 2.78in x 0.39in), with the handset tipping the scales at a portly 162.5g (5.73oz) including the battery.
The first thing you’ll notice with the Sensation XL is it’s huge display. At 4.7 inches, it’s not far off from becoming a tablet. Yet the display only has a WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) resolution, lower than the qHD resolution displays found on the other Sensation family members. Whilst that’s certainly a shame, for the most part it wasn’t a huge issue. Text and images on web pages weren’t as sharp, but other than that, you don’t notice it an awful lot. In fact, it’s nice to have the extra screen real estate for more accuracy when tapping on-screen buttons, due to their increased size. The display is also bright and colorful, and does well in low light, thanks to its design.
Above the display you’ll find the XL’s earpiece, 1.3 megapixel forward-facing camera, and a notification LED. Below it are four touch sensitive keys, providing staple Android functions; home, menu, back, and search. Round back is the 8 megapixel camera’s F2.2 lens and dual LED flash, plus the loudspeaker grille and both HTC and Beats Audio logos.
Up top you have the usual power button and 3.5mm headphone port, with charging and data being issued via the micro-USB port on the left side, and volume control being offered by the rocker switch on the right side. The Sensation XL appears to be available only in white/silver, so it’s tough luck if you wanted black. That said, I quite liked the XL in white and its build feels altogether very high quality, with no squeaks or creaks.

Usability:

The HTC Sensation XL is running the same Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS as its siblings and features the same HTC Sense 3.0 user interface, for a bit of extra eye candy. This makes the handset fun and easy to use, and some of the widgets have been tweaked to make better use of the screen real estate. With 7 home screens available to customize with widgets and app shortcuts, plus weather animations and animated wallpapers on offer, the Sensation XL is a very characterful handset.

One of HTC’s main strengths is their social networking integration, and as you’d expect it’s present in the Sensation XL, keeping users connected to their friends via Facebook and Twitter, with updates appearing in contact entries and when making/receiving calls. A nice touch is being able to flick through friends’ Facebook and Flickr albums from their contact entry, as well as seeing all emails, messages, and call history for that person in one place.
The Sensation XL comes with a task manager pre-loaded that can be accessed from the drop-down notification bar. This allows users to monitor running applications and close any that don’t need to be open, and saves downloading a third party task manager.
HTC has also thrown in an active lock screen that can show weather information, FriendStream updates, photos, stocks, or one of HTC’s pre-loaded clocks, as well as four user-customizable shortcuts.
Despite the HTC Sensation XL’s 1.5GHz processor being a single-core unit, most everything loaded up very quickly and ran without any hiccups. If I didn’t know the specifications of the handset, I doubt I’d have noticed the lack of dual-core in my everyday use.
Calling / Data:
In terms of call quality, the Sensation XL was quite average, with little distortion at full volume, but not a great deal of volume available, either. The speakerphone was also not hugely impressive, but on par with many smartphones these days. In terms of reception, however, I felt that the Sensation XL didn’t hold a signal as well as other recent HTC handsets, and I had the odd occasion where I lost signal altogether, which is unusual in my area of the UK.
The Sensation XL is a quad-band GSM(INFO) device that also works on the 850/900/2100MHz 3G bands for HSPA(INFO) data connections, and during testing I averaged download speeds of around 5.3Mbps and upload speeds of around 2.5Mbps on the Vodafone UK network.
The Sensation XL has Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP(INFO) for use with stereo Bluetooth headphones, and includes the ability to send files wirelessly via FTP/OPP. Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n is also on board, as is DLNA compatibility for streaming media to a DLNA certified TV or computer. You even get the handy Wi-Fi hotspot capability that most HTC smartphones offer these days.

Messaging :

The HTC Sensation XL’s huge 4.7-inch screen offers up a massive on-screen QWERTY keyboard, allowing for fast and accurate typing. SMS and MMS are taken care of in a single inbox and are displayed in a conversation view. Twitter, Facebook Chat, and Google Talk come pre-loaded and work well, and Tango’s video chat app comes pre-installed to make use of that forward facing camera.
The Sensation XL’s email client works well and caters for IMAP, POP, Microsoft Exchange, and Gmail accounts, including synchronization of contacts and calendar entries. The Mail application can also draw multiple inboxes together, so you can view all your emails in once place, although Gmail has it’s own app, so is excluded from this.

Apps / App Store :
As with any Android handset, the HTC Sensation XL has access to hundreds of thousands of apps and games via the Android Market. The Market application is easy to use and now offers books and films to download. It has also undergone some cosmetic surgery in recent months and is now more attractive and fun to navigate and browse content with.

usual Android/HTC suite of apps, including a calendar, calculator, voice recorder, and alarm. The usual Teeter game is still present as is the SoundHound music recognition app, a flashlight, a book reader, and a copy of Polaris Office file viewer.
On top of all this, you also get HTC’s “Locations” offline mapping app and Google Maps Navigation, with the latter offering turn-by-turn navigation for free and the former demanding a subscription fee. HTC Watch is present as well and offers the purchasing/renting of movies and TV shows directly on the handset. New additions include a “Usage Monitor” app that monitors mobile data, call minutes, and message usage, a “Voice Dialer” app, and a “Notes” app that simultaneously records audio and time stamps when each written note is made.

Browser :

The HTC Sensation XL features the standard Android WebKit browser, which offers pretty snappy performance when coupled with its 1.5GHz processor. A big benefit of this browser is its ability to display flash content, and the Sensation XL has no issues with this. YouTube videos play directly in the browser and, for the most part, look as you’d expect it to on a regular PC, proving that the lack of a dual core processor doesn’t hamper it too much.
It’s possible to have up to four windows open at once, and both pinch and double tap zooming are present. Text is automatically re-flowed when zooming and pages can be viewed in either portrait or landscape orientation by simply rotating the phone. Unfortunately, in the fully zoomed out view text is mostly unreadable, due to the lower resolution of the XL’s display when compared with that of its qHD-wielding siblings.

Camera :
Bringing a few new tricks to the party is the Sensation XL’s 8 megapixel BSI (back side illuminated) camera, with a fast F2.2 lens, autofocus, and a dual LED flash. While these technologies are supposed to improve the camera’s low light abilities, there’s no getting away from the fact that cellphone camera sensors are tiny, so improvements were marginal.
The XL’s camera also suffers from many of the other faults that plague camera phones, such as blown out highlights and poor white balance control, resulting in photos with bright white skies, and blueish tints. I also found there to be a reddish hue in the center of most shots, which was even visible in the viewfinder whilst taking photos. Still, the image quality is perhaps a little better than HTC’s non-BSI sensor camera phones, though you can judge the results for yourself by checking out the sample images at the end of this review.
As usual, there are settings like white balance, exposure, and ISO, plus things like ego-tagging, self timer, and face detection. Once you’re done snapping, photos can be found in the Gallery, which can be quickly accessed from a button in the bottom left corner of the viewfinder. From here it’s possible to share photos via Bluetooth, email, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, or MMS, or show them off on a DLNA certified TV.
Unlike its siblings, the Sensation XL cannot record video in full 1080p HD resolution, but instead only offers 720p. This is one of the downfalls of the single core processor, which restricts the phone from sucking in full HD content. The 720p videos weren’t really anything to write home about, either, and exhibited the same red hue in the center of the image as found in the XL’s photos. The XL does have one party trick up its sleeve, though, with a fun slow motion video setting that records slow motion video in WVGA resolution.

Music :

Unlike the Sensation XE with Beats Audio that we reviewed recently, the Sensation XL’s music player has been changed from HTC’s usual offering, and provides a different layout. Whilst most of the functionality remains the same, the new music player makes use of drop down boxes and menus to help navigate your music easier. Unfortunately, HTC has decided to not include a microSD card slot in the XL, limiting the amount of music you can carry to just 12.64GB, providing you don’t load anything else on the phone. That’s a pretty shocking limitation for a handset aimed at media consumers.
Still, album art is supported as before, as is playlist creation and shuffle/repeat, and the player has an option to find YouTube videos related to any given song, or update the album art via Gracenote’s music database. However, the Sensation XL loses the usual selection of equalizer presets in favor of just one; Beats Audio sound enhancement. This did at least improve the sound for certain music, and if you connect a non-Beats Audio set of headphones you also get the option of HTC Sound Enhancement.
The sound quality from the Sensation XE was pretty good with the included in-ear headphones, and they even feature a microphone and basic in-line remote. However, they weren’t as great as I had expected, and my relatively inexpensive Sennheiser earbuds produced a far superior sound when used with the XE. Still, the included headphones have the advantage of acting as a hands-free kit and also looking the part, with matching red cables and a neat pouch to keep them in when you aren’t using them.
Battery:

The HTC Sensation XL has a 1600mAh battery that is rated for almost 6.8 hours of 3G talk time or 19 days of 3G standby time. In real-world use I found myself charging it daily, as I did with the original Sensation, although I could just about manage two days on a single charge with careful use.

Sony Ericsson Xperia RaySony-Ericsson Xperia-ray is a GSM phone. Sony-Ericsson Xperia-ray, a SmartPhone mobile comes with a great list of features. Sony-Ericsson Xperia-ray price is optimal and it is a great buy. Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray is a sleek GSM Smartphone 9.4mm thin with a stylish aluminium frame that is guaranteed to catch your eye. It’s fast, powerful; responsive that will make you relive your magic movements watching clear and crisp video of 3.3′ Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIAEngine.

With Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray Android touch phone, TFT display and resolution of 854 x 480 pixels resolution, enjoy browsing the Internet and remain in touch with the world with Google, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. Remain connected with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G and GPRS facilities. Also included is PC Link Feature.
Immortalize your special moments with 8.1 MP camera (also includes Front-facing camera- VGA for video chat) with flash and zooming facilities. Entertain yourself with FM Radio, Music Player, Video Player & Recording, Games and Ringtones. It measures 111mmx53mmx9.4mm with 100gm in weight. Don’t lose data store it with 300 MB internal memory with up to 32 GB extensible. If you are looking for speed, power then Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray is the mobile for you.
Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray Features & Specifications:
Sales Package:
HandsetBatteryUser ManualTravel Charger
Dimensions:
Length 111 mmWidth 53 mmThickness 9.4 mmWeight 100 gm
Memory:
Internal Memory 300 MB,RAM:512 MBMemory Card Type microSDExtensible Memory 32 GB
Power Management:
Battery Li-IonTalk Time Up to 6 hrs 50 minStandby Time Up to 430 hrsCapacity 1500 mAh
Connectivity:
Bluetooth AvailableWi-Fi Available3G AvailableUSB Connector AvailableGPRS Available
Display:
Touch Screen AvailableQWERTY AvailableDisplay Type TFTResolution 854 x 480 pixelsNumber of Colors 16M
Camera:
Type MegapixelMegaPixel 8.1 MPZooming Up to 16xFlash Available
Multimedia:
Music Player AvailableVideo Recording AvailableRingtones MP3,AAC
Call Management:
Contacts Management Available

Messaging Features:
SMS AvailableMMS AvailableEmail Available
Warranty1 Year Manufacturer Warranty
Special Features:Internet AvailableGames AvailableJava Enabled AvailableAndroid OS AvailableFacebook AvailableTwitter AvailableBrowser HTML

Micromax A85 is a GSM phone. Micromax A85, a SmartPhone mobile comes with a great list of features. Micromax A85 price is optimal and it is a great buy.

The Micromax A85 incorporates features to meet personal and professional needs. It runs on the Android v2.2 (Froyo) operating system and has a 1 GHz Cortex-A9 Dual Core processor. The Micromax A85 has a 3.8-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen with a screen resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. The Micromax A85 has dual camera. The 5MP primary camera offers amazing picture quality. The 7.2x zoom and the innovative multi-shot features offer enhanced user experience. The front facing secondary camera has a resolution of 0.3 MP.
The Micromax A85 incorporates 512 MB RAM and is loaded with a motion sensor to give enhanced user experience. The 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery powers this mobile phone and offers a talk time of up to 3 hours and a standby time of up to 250 hours. This mobile phone also has an internal memory of 8 GB which is expandable up to 32 GB using the microSD and microSDHC cards. Now users can store all their images, videos and data, on the Micromax A85.
The Multimedia aspect is one of the major highlights as it supports MP3, WAV and AAC formats. Users can store more music and listen to it on demand. The video player supports MP4, H.263 and 3GP formats. An integrated FM radio allows users to tune into their favorite radio stations on the go. The Micromax A85 helps you to stay connected with a host of connectivity features like GPRS, 3G and Wi-Fi platforms. The handset also supports Email and Push Email along with Document Viewer, Document Editor and Fax. The Micromax Superfone A85 also supports YouTube, Google Talk, Picassa, Instant Messenger and Google.

Micromax A85 Superfone Dual Core Android Smartphone Features & Specifications:

Memory:
Internal Memory 8 GBExtensible Memory 32 GB
ConnectivityBluetooth AvailableWi-Fi Available
Display:
Touch Screen AvailableDisplay Type 3.8 InchResolution 480 x 800 Pixels
Camera:
Type MegapixelMegaPixel 5 MP
Multimedia:
FM Radio AvailableMusic Player MP3/MP4 Player
Warranty:
1 Year Manufacturer Warranty
Special Features:
Android OS AvailableOS Version Foryo 2.2

(List Price:  29,999
Our Price:  29,714
You Save:  285 (1%)

Nokia Lumia-800 is a GSM phone. Nokia Lumia-800, a SmartPhone mobile comes with a great list of features. Nokia Lumia-800 price is optimal and it is a great buy.

Nokia Lumia 800 is a Windows phone with Li-Ion battery providing GSM talk time of 13 hours and GSM standby time of 265 hours which is on par with other mobile phones available in the market. Nokia Lumia 800 has a 3.7 inch Amoled Capacitive touch screen with pinch zoom .Its built-in 8 mega pixel camera makes it a great substitute of a camera. The 28 mm wide screen gives a panoramic view and clicks the best shots with great ease. Its integrated FM player and music player rejuvenates people who are passionate about music.
Nokia Lumia 800 USP is its user friendliness. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin can be updated on the home screen without much efforts.
Internet explorer 9 and Wifi enhances its connectivity and one can access internet applications in no time. Work while on move is one of the most lucrative features for users who travel for official work. Accessing word, excel and PowerPoint anywhere, anytime has added life to Nokia Lumia 800.
Changeable color themes, ringtones, 16 GB internal user memory differentiates Nokia Lumia 800 from various other phones offered by Nokia. Users have a choice of choosing from cyan, black and fuchsia colors.
Nokia Lumia 800 is an elegant phone and seems to be appealing choice for people enthusiastic for Windows phone.
Nokia Lumia 800 Features & SpecificationsSales PackageHandsetBatteryUser Manual1 Travel ChargerDimensionsLength 116.5 mmWidth 61.2 mmThickness 12.1 mmWeight 142 gmMemoryInternal Memory 512 MBPower ManagementBattery Li-IonTalk Time GSM up to 13 hStandby Time GSM up to 265 hCapacity 1450 mAh
Connectivity:
Bluetooth AvailableWi-Fi Available3G HSDPA 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 MbpsUSB Connector AvailableGPRS Available
Display:
Touch Screen AvailableDisplay Type AMOLEDResolution 480 x 800 PixelsNumber of Colors 16M
Voice Features:
Speaker Available
Camera:
Type MegaPixelMegaPixel 8 MPFlash LEDMultimediaFM Radio AvailableMusic Player AvailableVideo Player AvailableRingtones MP3, WAV
Call Management:
Contacts Management AvailableSpeed Dialing AvailableLogs AvailableAutomatic Redial Available
Messaging Features:
SMS AvailableMMS AvailableEmail AvailableEMS Available
Warranty:
1 Year manufacturer warranty
Special Features:
Internet AvailableGames AvailableJava Enabled AvailableFacebook Available

BlackBerry Bold-9790 is a GSM phone. BlackBerry Bold-9790, a SmartPhone mobile comes with a great list of features. BlackBerry Bold-9790 price is optimal and it is a great buy.

There is a rare and impeccable quality inherent to Blackberry smartphones that sets it apart from the rest. One of the latest gadgets to be launched by the Canadian smartphone maker is the very stylish and user friendly BlackBerry Bold 9790. Built on the BlackBerry OS 7, this smartphone offers a standard BlackBerry form factor. A physical QWERTY keyboard allows enhanced user experience and the 2.44 inch display with resolution of 360×480 pixels makes the BlackBerry Bold 9790, a gadget worth its mettle.
Now if you thought the smartphone capabilities end there, rest assured you are in for more surprises. The Bold 9790 sports a 5-megapixel camera on the back enabling you to capture life`s precious moments the hassle free way. There is a 1 GHz CPU and 8 GB of storage memory, which allows further expansion via the microSD cards.
The Bold 9790 also combines a high-resolution and highly responsive touch display with a highly tactile keyboard. The precise optical trackpad allows more flexibility. The BlackBerry 7 OS and powerful 1 GHz processor make the BlackBerry Bold 9790 a smart performer. The smooth performance allows enhanced browsing experience along with easy access for browsing the web, running apps, and working diligently with documents.
Now get the power of the Bold 9790 and have the smartphone experience of your life.
BlackBerry Bold 9790 Features & SpecificationsSales PackageHeadsetBatteryUser ManualTravel ChargerDimensionsLength 110 mmWidth 60 mmThickness 11.4 mmWeight 107 gmMemoryInternal Memory Upto 8GBMemory Card Type MicroSDExtensible Memory Upto 32GBPower ManagementBattery Li-ionTalk Time Up to 432 h (2G) / Up to 408 h (3G)Standby Time Up to 5 h 10 min (2G) / Up to 5 h 20 min (3G)ConnectivityBluetooth AvailableWi-Fi Available3G AvailableGPRS AvailableDisplayKeypad AvailableQWERTY AvailableDisplay Type TFTResolution 480 X 360 PixelsNumber of Colors 16MVoice FeaturesMultimediaVideo Recording AvailableRingtones MP3Call ManagementContacts Management AvailableMessaging FeaturesSMS AvailableMMS AvailableEmail AvailableWarranty1 Year Manufacturer WarrantySpecial FeaturesInternet AvailableGames AvailableOS Version BlackBerry 7 OSSpeaker AvailableCameraType MegaPixelMegaPixel 5 MPZooming 2x digital zoomFlash LEDDeliverable LocationsThis product ships to India.Free Shipping to India.

ntroduction

Alright. This one’s a bit different. So we act accordingly. And because we’re not quite versed in all things fashion, let’s move straight to what we’re good at. Meet the HTC Rhyme.

Key Features

Comes in colors no man can name
Has a purse charm
Mirror app preloaded

Main disadvantages

There’s no period calendar pre-installed

Seriously, now. Tough job building a ladies phone – but hey, that’s what accessories are for. Before we get to them though, the HTC Rhyme is a delicious little phone, except that it’s not that little at all. The good thing is the trademark unibody design is less industrial but softer and more delicate. And the colors… Apart from the accessories, the paintjobs are the only thing that makes the handset different. Feminine?

The HTC Rhyme is hard to define. It almost feels like they didn’t plan this one as a phone for girls. When they later decided to target the female audience, they came up with all sorts of relevant accessories. You’ll never hear anyone at HTC call it the ladies smartphone. But it’s being marketed as one. They are extra careful to avoid references to Android and don’t even call it a smartphone in any of their ads.

That’s not what we’re gonna do. We’ll look at the smartphone inside the Rhyme. And see if it could be his smartphone too, as much as hers. That’s what HTC would gladly have people think. It’d be a win-win for them.

But let’s see what’s in the HTC Rhyme for users. We have the full list of features and possible deal-breakers coming up.

Key features (the real thing)

Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G support
14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
3.7″ 16M-color capacitive S-LCD touchscreen of WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels)
Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread with HTC Sense 3.5
1 GHz single Scorpion CPUs, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 chipset
768 MB RAM; 4 GB storage
microSD card slot (class 4 8GB card in the bundle)
5 MP autofocus camera with single LED flash; face detection, geotagging, HDR mode, image auto-upload
720p video recording @ 30fps, slo-mo videos (2x at WVGA)
Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
GPS with A-GPS
Stereo FM radio with RDS
Accelerometer, proximity and ambient light sensor
Front facing camera, video call
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v3.0
Smart dial, voice dialing
Office document editor
DivX/XviD video support
HTC Locations app
HTCSense.com integration
HTC Portable Hotspot
Ultra-fast boot times
Rich set of accessories

Main disadvantages (sadly, the real thing)

Average display
Non-user-replaceable battery
No dedicated camera key
Pricey for a single-core smartphone (generously accessorized though)
Wi-Fi death grip issues

So, what’s so special about the Rhyme? No, it’s not another Beats Audio phone – although we love the headset it ships with. We’re looking at a pretty much standard unibody package running a familiar Android Gingerbread/Sense UI combo. But the accessories and paintjobs do make it different from the slew of Android handsets. There is a leather pouch, a docking cradle, specially designed headphones and the eye-catching Charm cube that lights up upon an incoming call or message.

t’s a feature-rich smartphone and the box is full of surprises, and useful too. Wanna have a closer look? Read on for our traditional unboxing and hardware checkup.

General     2G Network     GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network     HSDPA 900 / 2100
HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100
Announced     2011, May
Status     Available. Released 2011, August
Size     Dimensions     88 x 52 x 16 mm
Weight     99 g
Display     Type     LED-backlit LCD, capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size     320 x 480 pixels, 3.0 inches (~192 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch     Yes
Protection     Scratch-resistant glass
- Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine
- Timescape UI
Sound     Alert types     Vibration, MP3 ringtones
Loudspeaker     Yes
3.5mm jack     Yes
Memory     Card slot     microSD, up to 32GB, 2GB included, buy memory
Internal     512 MB RAM, 320MB storage
Data     GPRS     Up to 86 kbps
EDGE     Up to 237 kbps
Speed     HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA 5.76Mbps
WLAN     Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
Bluetooth     Yes, v2.1 with A2DP
USB     Yes, v2.0 microUSB
Camera     Primary     5 MP, 2592×1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, check quality
Features     Geo-tagging, image stabilization, smile and face detection, touch focus
Video     Yes, 720p, check quality
Secondary     No
Features     OS     Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread), planned upgrade to v4.0
Chipset     Qualcomm QSD8255 Snapdragon
CPU     1 GHz Scorpion
GPU     Adreno 205
Sensors     Accelerometer, proximity, compass
Messaging     SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push email, IM
Browser     HTML, Adobe Flash
Radio     Stereo FM radio with RDS
GPS     Yes, with A-GPS support
Java     Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
Colors     Black, White, Blue, Dark pink
- SNS integration
- MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player
- MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV player
- TrackID music recognition
- Google Search, Maps, Gmail,
YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk
- Document viewer
- Voice memo
- Predictive text input
Battery           Standard battery, Li-Ion 1200 mAh
Stand-by     Up to 340 h (2G) / Up to 320 h (3G)
Talk time     Up to 4 h 30 min (2G) / Upto 4 h 30 min (3G)
Music play     Up to 25 h

I’m not sold on 3D for consumer devices, and I’m certainly skeptical of it on a smartphone-size screen. However, Sprint and HTC make a great team, so I decided to keep an open mind about the HTC Evo 3D. Did the Evo 3D change my opinion of 3D phones? Well, let’s just say it is a very good thing that there’s more to this phone than just a 3D display.

HTC Evo 3D Review: Dual-Core, 3D Display, 4G Speeds:

First and foremost, the Evo 3D is a gorgeous phone. Like the Evo 4G, the Evo 3D is black with blood-red detailing. Keeping it in the family, the Evo View Android tablet, also announced today, has the same color scheme. The Evo 3D smartphone feels solid, but not bulky in the least. It has a nice, textured rubber backing and a slimmer shape that feels good in hand.
With the battery in place, the HTC Evo 3D weighs 6 ounces. It measures about 5 inches tall, nearly 3 inches wide, and 0.47 inches thick. Its display is a 4.3-inch 3D touchscreen with a sheet of Gorilla Glass for added toughness. Unlike the Evo 4G, the Evo 3D doesn’t sport a kickstand–mainly because the twin 3D cameras occupy most of the space on the rear.

3D Display

One of the most important features of the Evo 3D is, of course, its 3D display. The phone uses parallax barriers to display 3D images and video, without the need for clunky 3D glasses (similar to the concept used on the Nintendo 3DS). The Evo 3D’s 4.3-inch qHD 960-by-540-pixel screen looks terrific in 2D–and pretty good in 3D, as well. Let me be clear, however: This isn’t the kind of 3D you’d see at the movie theater. Images aren’t exactly flying in your face. Rather, it looks like you can peer into the phone much like a diorama.
You need to maintain an absolute dead-on viewing angle to properly appreciate the third dimension, though. If you’re viewing at a slight angle, the image will look like a blurry mess. This can be difficult with a small screen. With an image or a short video clip, it isn’t too hard to hold the phone directly in front of your eyes for a few seconds. And don’t even think about trying to watch 3D movies outside; it completely fades in bright sunlight. If you don’t want to view 3D images and prefer to stick to the standard 2D display, a toggle switch on the side of the device allows you to turn the effect off.
New HTC Sense User Interface:
Like the HTC Sensation, the Evo 3D comes with the latest version of the Sense user interface. Sense 3.0 has a brand-new customizable lock screen. You can pick a theme for your lock screen (the phone offers quite a few to choose from) and then select four apps that you visit the most. When you turn on your phone, you’ll see those four apps at the bottom of the screen. To unlock your phone, you drag the circle and move it over an app; you then jump straight to that app. That way, you don’t have to go through multiple menus to reach your e-mail or any other items you access frequently.
The new version of Sense also has a spruced-up Walls system. Rather than having to flick back and forth between your walls, as you do in the stock Android operating system, you can flick the Evo 3D’s screen to make the walls spin. The effect is slightly reminiscent of a carousel and makes navigation a little easier.
You’ll find a clutch of new widgets in Sense, but my favorite is the gorgeous new Weather widget. HTC has a nice tradition of creating visual weather apps, and it is cool to see the company continue to improve them. They might not always be pretty, but they sure are dramatic.

Performance:

The Evo 3D is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. The Snapdragon processor supports advanced 3D technology, including full 1080p 30-frames-per-second HD video and stereoscopic 3D video capture and playback.
So how much of a difference does dual-core make? We matched the Evo 3D up against its predecessor, the HTC Evo 4G (a single-core device), and there’s quite a big difference–one you’ll notice as soon as you turn on the phone. The Evo 4G had a startup time of 74 seconds (!), while the Evo 3D had a much faster startup time of 13.7 seconds. File transfer speed was about the same for both phones, with the Evo 4G clocking in at 7.8 megabits per second versus the Evo 3D with 7.2 megabits per second.
We also conducted two gaming performance tests using GLBenchmark, a software suite that tests the quality and performance of OpenGL graphics. We conducted two tests: one with antialiasing on, and one with it off. (Antialiasing is a graphics setting present in many games and is intended to make gameplay graphics look smoother–for a full explanation of the pros and cons of antialiasing, check out Geek 101: Making Sense of Anti-Aliasing). We measured the graphics in frames per second (fps)–the more frames per second, the smoother the animations and graphics. The difference between the single-core Evo 4G and the dual-core Evo 3D is huge: With antialiasing off, the Evo 4G averaged 5.7 fps while the Evo 3D averaged 36.5 fps.
We’re currently testing other dual-core phones, including the HTC Sensation and the LG T-Mobile G2x, to see how the Evo 3D’s Snapdragon chipset stacks up against its Tegra 2 competitors.

3D Camera and Video Capture:

Despite my mixed feelings about 3D, there’s something quite satisfying about capturing 3D images or videos and then being able to watch them on the same device. But you can also view them on any 3D TV with the help of the phone’s HDMI-out jack. The HDMI jack uses a technology called MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) that allows both charging and HDMI-out via the same port.
Like the Sensation 4G, the Evo 3D comes loaded with Watch, HTC’s new movie and TV-show streaming service. With Watch, you can download videos and start viewing them immediately. Watch is well integrated into Sense, making it easier to find the videos you want to, um, watch. The app’s interface is clean, and movies are easy to find, but the library is pretty sparse at this point. You’ll find some newly released movies like Due Date and some classics like Top Gun. If you’re looking for something in particular, though, you’re not likely to find it (no Spinal Tap!). A few popular TV shows like Chuck and Gossip Girl are available, but you’re limited to one or two seasons of episodes.

Data Speeds and Call Quality:

The Evo is also juiced with Sprint’s 4G data speeds, and it comes with a 4G mobile hotspot feature that lets you share your connection with up to eight devices. I tested the Evo 3D’s data speeds using the FCC Speedtest app in the South Park area of San Francisco. The Evo 3D achieved average download speeds of 3.59 megabits per second and average upload speeds of 1.42 mbps. This is in line with other 4G Sprint phones we have tested in the past. And thank goodness for the 4G widget on Sprint phones, which makes it easy to switch 4G on and off (this setting is buried in the Settings menu on Verizon’s 4G phones).
Call quality over Sprint’s network in San Francisco was okay, though it could be uneven at times.

The arrival of Samsung’s Galaxy S II phones has been a long time coming. We first saw the next generation of Samsung’s popular line of Android phones back in February at Mobile World Congress. After many successful months in Europe, the Galaxy S II line of phones is finally coming to U.S. shores. The first of the phones, the Samsung Epic Touch 4G ($200 with a two-year contract with Sprint; price as of September 12, 2011) will be available starting on September 16.

Ridiculously Thin
The Epic Touch might be a bit larger than the previous generation of phones, but it is incredibly thin. Measuring 5.1 inches by 2.7 inches by 0.38 inch, the Touch feels pretty comfortable in hand–and this is coming from somebody with small hands! Samsung phones have a bit of a reputation for being plasticky, and the Epic Touch unfortunately falls under that descriptor. In her hands on of the Epic Touch at Samsung’s launch even, my colleague Melanie Pinola remarked that it felt “less refined” than AT&T’s Galaxy S II version.
On the bottom of the phone, you’ll find the MHL port, a feature we’ve seen on many of this year’s high-end smartphones. The MHL specification, which stands for Mobile High Definition Link, is a 1080p HD video and digital audio interface for connecting smartphones and other portable devices (tablets, cameras, and the like) to HDTVs. So what’s the big deal? It simultaneously provides power to your phone–something that HDMI cables don’t do.

Super AMOLED Plus Display:

The 4.52-inch Super AMOLED Plus display on the Epic Touch is quite nice, but text isn’t quite as sharp as what we saw on the European Galaxy S II. The Epic Touch’s display is slightly larger than the European version (which has a 4.3-inch display) so it seems like the text sharpness may have been compromised by larger screen real estate. The text is still quite readable, but it is something I noticed right away upon using the phone.
Otherwise, the display’s colors looked bright, details were crisp, and the viewing angles were very good. Blacks were deep, and colors were richly saturated without being overdone. Even when held in direct sunlight, the Epic Touch’s display remained incredibly visible. Whites had a bit of a bluish tint, but it wasn’t too noticeable. According to Samsung, Super AMOLED Plus displays have 50 percent more subpixels than the first-generation Super AMOLED displays (seen on the Vibrant, Mesmerize, and other Galaxy S phones) and perform even better than their predecessors in bright light.
Android Gingerbread With TouchWiz 4.0
The revamped TouchWiz 4.0 is fairly similar to the previous version, but it has a few aesthetic and functional enhancements here and there. For instance, the new lock screen displays missed calls and unread text messages; you can swipe these notifications rather than having to unlock your phone and then dig through menus to find the missed messages. The Epic Touch’s keyboard isn’t the native Android one, but it retains the multitouch key-chording feature (you can simultaneously press Shift and a letter to produce a symbol or number–no need to switch between modes) and the ability to use your voice to correct words as you type.
Taking a page from (or directly ripping off) HTC Sense, TouchWiz lets you pinch your homescreen to see thumbnail-size versions of all of your screens. Samsung borrowed another feature from HTC Sense, too: When the phone is ringing or playing music, you can silence it by flipping it face-down on a surface.
Contacts gets some cool new gesture-based functions. Swipe right on a friend’s name, and you’ll start a call with them; swipe left on their name, and you’ll jump to the SMS composer, which you can use to send them a text message. Each of your contact’s cards comes with your communication history–for example, when you last called, texted, or emailed the person.
One funny new feature is the ability to reject a call by sending a text message. Let’s say that your brother is calling to ask when you’re going to pay him back for dinner the other night. A menu will come up giving you the option to answer the call, hang up, or reject it with a text that says “I’ll pay you back tomorrow!”
All of Samsung’s Galaxy S II phones have six-axis motion sensing, powered by an accelerometer and a gyroscope. This feature is great for gaming, but Samsung also throws in some gesture-based phone controls. For example, you can zoom in and out of images in your gallery or in the browser by tilting the phone. This feature feels a bit awkward and unnecessary, however; I can’t see myself ever using it.

Multimedia and Apps:

Because this is a Sprint phone, you’ll find all of the usual bloatware: Sprint Music Plus, Sprint Radio, Sprint TV and Movies, and Sprint NASCAR. You also get a game called N.O.V.A. HD and various apps–including Samsung’s AllShare app for sharing media over DLNA servers.

Perhaps the coolest app Samsung provides on the phone (and on all Galaxy S II phones we’ve seen) is the company’s own Kies Air. The app lets you view call logs, videos, photos, bookmarks, and IMs, and send SMS messages from PC. In order for the app to work, you’ll have to install it on your PC and connect it to the same Wi-Fi network as your phone.
Like all Galaxy S phones, the Epic Touch provides the Media Hub for movie and TV-watching. Video looked fantastic on the handset’s display and played back smoothly. Even if you don’t like Samsung’s Media Hub, you’ll want to watch a lot of movies and TV shows on this phone. Unlike the European version, the Epic Touch 4G does not have the Readers or Music Hub for purchasing ebooks or MP3s, respectively.
Performance
Like the AT&T Galaxy S phone, the Epic Touch is powered by a 1.20GHz dual-core Samsung Exynos processor. The Epic Touch booted up in 20 seconds, which is pretty fast; in contrast, the Droid Bionic took 43 seconds to turn on fully.
We also tested the phone using Qualcomm’s new benchmarking app, Vellamo, to see how a Samsung processor would fare against its competitors. The Epic Touch 4G earned a very impressive score of 914, putting it right behind the Galaxy Tab 10.1 for overall performance and ahead of two phones running Qualcomm chips–the HTC Sensation 4G and the HTC EVO 3D. You should take these results with a grain of salt, since Qualcomm manufactures the app, but the data is interesting to compare.
I experienced reliably good Sprint WiMax 4G coverage in San Francisco. I had a strong 4G signal pretty much everywhere I went in the city. Sprint’s 4G network paired with the Samsung Exynos dual-core processor makes for some excellent Web browsing, too. Over 4G, PCWorld.com (the full site) loaded in a speedy 12.1 seconds. Image-heavy site TheBoldItalic.com loaded in 10.1 seconds, and media-heavy ThrasherMagazine.com loaded in 13.6 seconds.
Of course, 4G coverage and signal strength vary depending on where you live in the country and whether your city even offers 4G. We have good 4G coverage in San Francisco; but in our 4G Phone Shootout, Sprint had the poorest country-wide coverage.
Call quality over Sprint was very good overall. My friends and family said that they could hear my voice perfectly and described it as sounding natural.

Superb 8-Megapixel Camera:

When we reviewed the European version of the Galaxy S II, we were impressed by its 8-megapixel camera. Luckily, Samsung seems not to have changed the sensor for the U.S. versions. The Epic Touch took excellent photos indoors and out. My only complaint is that colors in my indoor photos looked a bit oversaturated. Details were quite sharp and I didn’t detect any graininess or pixelation. The shutter speed on the camera was fast enough to capture photos of sports, kids, and other quick-moving subjects. Again, I must lament the lack of physical shutter button

Like the Motorola Photon 4G, HTC Sensation 4G, and the LG Optimus 3D, the Epic Touch 4G supports up to 1080p HD video capture. Video quality was good: The Epic Touch could handle fast-moving cars and slower-moving people without distortion or pixelation.
Bottom Line
We’ll be conducting formal lab testing over the next few days, but right now, it looks as though the Epic Touch 4G is the fastest Android smartphone out there. On top of its speediness, it has a superslim design, a gorgeous display, and a superb camera. My only complaint is the amount of carrier and manufacturer-added bloatware on the phone, but that’s pretty much par for the course these days.

The Samsung Focus S is the top dog in the Korean company’s Windows Phone lineup. It is the bigger brother of the Samsung Focus Flash in AT&T’s smartphone lineup. The term “bigger” is almost entirely related to size here. Due to Microsoft’s…

The Samsung Focus S is the top dog in the Korean company’s Windows Phone lineup. It is the bigger brother of the Samsung Focus Flash in AT&T’s smartphone lineup.

The term “bigger” is almost entirely related to size here. Due to Microsoft’s tight hardware restrictions for their Windows Phone platform, the line between a flagship and a budget device is quite thin. Thus, the Focus S and Focus Flash share chipsets and CPUs. The differences between the two are in the screen size, built-in memory, and the camera units – here the Focus S is better equipped.

The Samsung Focus S, despite being a new release, should look quite familiar to you. In a rather clever fashion, Samsung’s designers have decided to shape the device as a twin to the highly successful I9100 Galaxy S II – not a bad idea given the fact that the Android powered handset is still selling like hotcakes.

As always, we’ll kick the review off with the key features of the Samsung Focus S, followed by its main disadvantages.

Key Features

4.3″ 16M-color Super AMOLED Plus screen with WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels)
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
3G with HSDPA (14.4 Mbps) and HSUPA (5.76Mbps)
Windows Phone 7.5 operating system
Ability to uninstall wireless provider’s proprietary apps out of the box
1.4 GHz Scorpion CPU, 512MB RAM, Snapdragon chipset
8 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash and geo-tagging; 1.3MP front unit
720p video recording (the OS does not allow higher resolution yet)
A number of Samsung proprietary apps, including a capable photo editor
Bing Maps with free navigation
16GB of built-in storage
Standard 3.5mm audio jack
Standard microUSB port (charging)
Wi-Fi b/g/n; DLNA support; Wi-Fi hotspot capable
Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
Accelerometer for screen auto rotation
FM radio with RDS
Office document editor
Built-in A-GPS receiver
Voice-to-text functionality

Main disadvantages

No system-wide file manager
Non-expandable memory
No Bluetooth file transfers
No USB mass storage mode
Limited third-party apps availability
No Flash (nor Silverlight) support in the browser
Too dependent on Zune software for file management and syncing
No DivX/XviD video support (automatic transcoding provided by Zune software, but lowers quality)

We’ve already encountered Windows Phone 7.5 Mango on several occasions. The OS has significantly matured with the latest update – it is now a viable alternative for those, who don’t want to go down the iOS or Android road.

Sadly however, Microsoft’s creation leaves no room for customization. You get the same experience, regarding of the device you’re using it on. This means that it is up to the hardware of the respective devices to win the potential consumer over – a welcome news for the Samsung Focus S, given its Galaxy S II pedigree.

Design and build quality

There is nothing revolutionary about the looks of the Samsung Focus S – we already mentioned this above. The phone looks almost identical to the original Galaxy S II, save for the button configuration at the front, and the slightly rounder edges. From certain angles you can easily mistake the device for its Android cousin.

As usual, Samsung has relied heavily on high quality plastic when building the Focus S. This might not be to everyone’s taste, but the end result is a light and easily pocketable phone. The front of the device is protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass.

With measures of 126 x 66.8 x 8.5 mm and 110.6 grams of weight, the Samsung Focus S has almost the exact same measures as the I9100. It has even managed to shed 5 grams of its waistline – not a bad thing.

The Samsung Focus S next to Galaxy S II Skyrocket

The all black color scheme of the phone, coupled with the Super AMOLED Plus screen, give it a pleasantly understated look.

The 4.3” Super AMOLED Plus display with WVGA resolution of the Focus S is a familiar sight. Its contrast and viewing angles are nothing short of superb. The screen is a perfect match to the Windows Phone OS. When using a dark color scheme for the OS, there is practically no telling of where the screen borders are – it is perfectly integrated with the rest of the device’s hardware.