Two years after Apple announced the iPad, Google joins the tablet war with their own branded tablet. Even though Google has a tablet version for the Android OS for a quite a while now, this is the first time that Google is sending it to the market with their own branded tablet. As usual, its not exactly who is building the tablet. And this time its ASUS who will be making it.
To talk about the tablet, it features a 7″ 1080×800 HD display, Android 4.1(Jellybean) onboard, Tegra 3 Quadcore processor with 12 core GPU, a 4325mAh battery, WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, Compass, Gyroscope, Accelerometer etc. There’s no built in 3G/4G functionality surprisingly. It also has 1.2 MP camera on the front and no rear camera. Bummer to those who were wanting to share video through rear camera while on a video call. Google claims 9 hours of continuous HD playback. Considering the size of the battery and the processor used, its surprising to know that this tablet can give that much battery life.
We wouldn’t really call it as an iPad competitor. But its surely a competition for the Amazon Kindle Fire. It is priced at $199 for the 8GB model and $249 for the 16GB model. Orders can be placed as early as today, however it will ship only around mid July. USA and Canada will be first markets to see the Nexus 7 tablet. Interested ?? Order one using the link below.
Sony hasn’t been quite active with their Android smartphone portfolio lately until they announced the Sony NXT series. This new series comes with a handful of Android phones that is targeted at all budgets. So there’s one device for every segment. The Sony Xperia U is the cheapest of the all. Other models include Xperia Sola, Xperia P and the Xperia S. We’ll be covering all the reviews here starting with Xperia U today.
Hardware:
The Sony Xperia U comes with a 3.5inch LED backlit display with a resolution of 480×854 pixels. The screen has approximately 280 ppi which is a lot more than many Android phones out there in the same segment. The display is also powered by the Sony Bravia Engine which will make your pictures look really good in the display. We really enjoyed the quality of images on the display. The color depth in the image was very impressive. The 3.5 inch display may turn some buyers off from this phone. Today, everybody is running behind large screens which are even difficult to carry when you consider certain models. If you are not crazy about phones with large displays, you’ll find this phone as one of the best. The phones size perfectly fits in hands. When you hold it, you know you have a good grip and control over it that can avoid accidental slippery leading to disasters.
On the right side of the phone, you’ll see the power button, single piece volume rokr button and the dedicated camera key. The three buttons are equally placed away from each other. Some you may find the volume rokr a bit to hard to control as its at the centre of the phone. But once you get the hang of it, its no longer a problem. The inclusion of a dedicated camera button is well appreciated. Let’s face it, having to fire up the display and then launch the camera app is tiresome and may also be the reason why you miss some great shots. However, the designers at Sony seems to have addressed the issue. And they’ve also included a special feature called the Quick Launch Mode where in which you can quickly target the camera to the object even when the display is off and perform a long press on the camera dedicated camera button and the camera app launches instantly and auto snaps whatever is in the frame. So, there’s no more excuse to missing that special moment again. I found this feature pretty useful.
On the left side close to the top, you’ll notice the the micro USB port for charging and data transfer. That aside there’s nothing else on the left side. At the bottom you can see the strap hole if you intend to use a hand strap and then there’s the main microphone as well. Sony does not provide any hand straps in the box, so you may have to buy them separately. On top we have the 3.5mm headphone jack to connect the headphones that comes in the box or any other standard headphones available in the market. You will also find a second microphone on top along with the headphone jack.
The new Xperia phones have an eye catching design. The inclusion of a transparent glass between the body close to the bottom not only make it look gorgeous but also increases the antenna performance. And if you really look closely, you can see the default Android action keys like the Home, Back and the Menu icons there. Right above them the three white dots can be see which is where you should tap so that the intended function is performed. And the most amazing thing is this glass cut piece gloss in different colors. It glows with a certain colour when you get a call. It glows when you press the action keys and it adjusts the color of the light to whatever colour is dominating the display. So if you are watching the picture of a green forest, it turns green, red for strawberries or whatever colour is being displayed on the screen. Its interesting to see how much Sony has concentrated on bringing a great design. While most manufacturers try to pack high specifications over great design, Sony has taken a different step this time. They’ve given equal importance to everything.
Sony has included an 5MP camera with LED flash on to the phone. The phone takes very good pictures once you try a hand with the exposure levels. Photos looked a bit washed out without adjusting the exposure levels. However, the video wasn’t very impressive at all. It takes 720p video and the quality of it is quite underwhelming. There’s also a front facing camera which is VGA for self portraits and video calling. Watch the samples from the back camera we’ve posted below.
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On the Inside, Xperia U sports a dual core 1Ghz A9 cortex processor with 512MB RAM. And we’ve gotta say it, the processor and RAM does their job quite well. We never really experienced any lag on the phone. Everything was quite smooth from launching apps to playing games. The phone currently runs Android 2.3(Gingerbread), however a planned upgrade in third quarter this year will bring Ice Cream Sandwich to the device. Currently, only Xperia S has got the Android 4.0 update. The only downside of the phone that we couldn’t put up was the storage. Sony, for some reason has only added a 4GB ROM into it with no external card support. Thats right, if you listen to lot of music or if you watch a lot of movies, then you’re gonna find this storage very insufficient. Not to forget, all the photos you take, videos you shoot and the apps install also go to the same space. If its any compliment, the phone supports USB OTG i.e. USB On The Go. So you can have your contents loaded from a pendrive which can’t stored on the hard drive. Coming to connectivities, the phone is equipped with WiFi b/g/n with DLNA support. You’ll also find Bluetooth support, GPS, FM Radio etc. The phones bottom cap is interchangeable. You can put white, Pink, Blue or Yellow caps. Xperia U has a 1320mAh battery to support all your activities on the phone. While this may not sound very pleasing to many heavy users out there, taking into account the size of the display, I think this is pretty neat. The phone didn’t last for an entire day(which phone does ?!!), but it got us going till the evening on 3G which is not bad. Not to mention, we were on 3G network, switched to WiFi for a few hours, push was enabled for email and twitter. The best part is, these device charges very quickly. If you use the supplied power plug and the data cable, it charges pretty quickly. Most phones usually takes hours to charge via the microUSB connecter. But Sony has addressed that issue with the new line of Xperias including the Xperia U.
Software:
Sony has also worked a lot on the software side. Besides just loading the Gingerbread on to the phone, they’ve also added an overlying software called the Timescape UI. If you’ve used Sony Ericsson Android phones before, then you might be familiar with this UI. To be honest, I found this software to be way better and intuitive than any other overlying softwares from the competing manufacturers. The Touchwhiz UI from Samsung packs a lot of features, however the overall look and feel of the software is really underwhelming. And when such a poor looking software is powered by a hardware as good as an AMOLED screen, you really get an awful experience. But Sony has done a great job here. They’ve beautifully designed the Timescape UI. The software has a grey theme everywhere. The icons look good. The transitions are neat and the level of access for menus are well placed that it doesn’t take a lot of steps to get things done. Sony has also integrated all the social networks in to this software to give you a unified experience. So every contact of yours will not only fetch you their phone numbers or email, but their social networking statuses from various sites which you’ve linked.
There’s also a dedicated app called the Timescape which is one stop place for accessing all our social content like Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare etc. It pulls all the updates from all these networks and shows them in one place in a stacked UI. In landscape orientation, they beautifully re-orients to form a cover flow like UI. Other apps inlcude Back Up and Restore app that creates back up of the phone contents to restore later at any case of data loss and wipe off. Sony also has a software, something I would like to describe as an intelligent software that can act according to certain situations if preset. For example, you can assign it to run the music player when you connect the earphones. Or you can set it to run the Back Up and Restore app when you connect it to a charger etc. The app is called LiveWare manager and works flawlessly. Sony also has included the Track ID app that works pretty similar to Shazam or Soundhound. The app can listen to music and then fetch you the song details in seconds. It also provides link to the purchase the song online which is cool. Talking about music, if you fall in to any supported countries of Sony’s Music and Video unlimited service, then you can enjoy great collection of song and videos right on your phone.
So to sum it up, Sony has provided a gorgeous looking new design powered with a good hardware, the amazing Android OS Gingerbread with a planned upgrade to ICS in the next quarter and of course with a lot of Sony exclusive apps and services. The phone feels great in hands, its not too big not too small and it lasts decently long enough. The exchangeable bottom caps are a plus for those fashion minded youths and the glowing glass piece is an eye turner. The Xperia U stands out as a classy device at its segment. If the limited storage doesn’t bother you much, then this is the perfect device at this price range. Its trendy, its handy and value for money. That said Sony Xperia U now retails in the market for around Rs 16,000/-. Online dealers like Flipkart and eBay have various offers going on at the moment which will let you buy the device even at lower price point. If you cant wait any longer, you can always walk up to Sony dealers close to your place.
Android is flooding with manufacturers. There’s HTC, Motorola, Samsung and lot many others who makes devices that runs Android. There’s this one brand who have been doing a great work recently that it caught my attention very much. Huawei has been making Android powered devices for a while now. And distinguishes them from others is that they have some softwares of their own that can finally address some of the glitches and missing features that we’ve been waiting for Google to Address. So is the case with hardware. Before we jump into details lets first take quick look at the device with this video below.
Design And Hardware:
The Huawei U8860 or simply the Huawei Honor is a new phone from Huawei that falls to the mid-high end range segment. The phone features a 4 inch touchscreen with a resolution of 480×854 resolution. The screen has approximately 245ppi which is on par with most phones of the same segment. We found the display pretty decent. However, at some occasions the screen demanded harder taps to launch apps or do any operation. Just below the display you’ll notice the touch sensitive buttons. One each for Menu, Home, Back and Search. Its a little unusual to see four touch buttons on an Android phone as these days we only see three on most phones. The search button is no longer seen anywhere. However, some users may find this very helpful as search is just a tap away.
The phone’s body is fully plastic. However, the phone does not give you any cheap plastic feeling while holding it in your hands. Huawei has wisely designed a rugged back to the phone that not only gives a good grip in hands but decreases the chances of getting scratches.
Talking about the back side of the phone, you will find the 8MP camera with autofocus and LED flash on top. Right next to it, you can see the speaker which is decently loud without any distortions at high volumes. Just below the camera and the speakers you’ll see the Huawei logo and towards the bottom another Google logo.
On the left side we have the volume rockr buttons, the right side is pretty much empty with no ports or buttons, at the bottom we have the micro USB port for connecting the cable to computer and for charging via the AC outlet. The top side has the headphone jack and the Sleep/Wake button.
On the inside, there’s a 1.4Ghz processor with Adreno GPU 205 which gives a significant boost to the graphics in games and apps, the 512MB may not standard for phone in this range. But you’ll never feel any lag.The inclusion of a 4GB ROM besides 1GB internet storage and the support for MicroSD cards upto 32GB is unbelievable. You’ll never run out of space from now on for a long time. Then of course it also has all sorts of connection support like WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS, FM Radio etc. The phone also has an 8MP camera on the front and VGA camera at the back.
But, what makes this phone stand out from others is the battery. Android is well known for its high battery consumption. Most manufacturers are trying to include large batteries to the phone so that one can use the phone for an entire day before charging it again. Phones like Motorola RAZR MAXX and Samsung Galaxy SIII has been powered with a 3300mAh and 2100mAh battery respectively to give you a longer battery life. However, one has to pay hefty price to enjoy this. While none of the companies have bothered to bring the same benefit customers in the mid range segment, Huawei has come forward with the Honor by powering it with 1930mAh. That’s right, its huge. We found the battery to last quite long.
Software:
As far as software is concerned, we have Gingerbread onboard with Ice Cream Sandwich update that’s about to release soon. But the question is, what more ? And Huawei seems to have a big answer there. While Android has several solutions for a back up solution, the best one demands you to root or hack the phone which may not be everyone’s cup of coffee. It’s surprising that Google being the king of web haven’t found a simple online solution yet to back up phone data to web which can be tied to one’s registered email address. Huawei has a cloud service of their own called the Cloud+ service that does an amazing job at data back up. It is obviously a service exclusive to Huawei devices. The Cloud+ service is a collation of many services like Cloud+ Drive, Message+, Streams, Phone Finder, SNS, Contacts Integration etc.
Cloud+ Drive:
The Cloud+ drive offers extra space on the cloud to store your movies, songs and photos or even documents. The gallery is intelligently integrated with the Cloud+ service. So when you get a single view of what’s in the cloud and phone in one place which is simply brilliant.
Cloud+ Synchronization And Back Up:
Cloud+ automatically syncs your contacts in your phone to cloud instantly and pushes the update to your other Huawei smartphone or tablet. The Cloud+ Drive gives you 16Gb on free online storage that can back up your data like photos, videos, music or any documents that are on your phones. The backup can be set to happen instantly via 3G or WiFi or you can schedule them to happen at any time you wish. All you need to enjoy this service is a Huawei smartphone/tablet and a Cloud+ account which you’ll be guided through to make during your initial boot up on your Huawei device.
Find My Phone:
You must be familiar with the famous Find My iPhone service from Apple. Well, now you can also find and recover your Huawei phone if lost as long as the phone is not wiped or turned off. You can login to hicloud.com and use your cloud account to track your phone. You can also wipe the data remotely or display emergency messages on the phone directly from the web.
Apart from the Huawei exclusive apps, you will Android pretty much the same and similar to the default UI. The software runs pretty smooth on the phone be it the menu navigation or individual app performance.
Camera:
Coming to camera, Huawei Honor does a decent job with its 8MP camera. We took the camera for a spin at the beach and we came up with the following samples. We also a shot a 720p video. Unfortunately, the Huawei Honor does not do videos in 1080p yet. However, we’re told that the feature will be soon added. Still photographers will be glad to know that the camera has a built in HDR feature. The HDR did a great job from our tests. We’ve uploaded a couple of pictures here. The first slideshow embedded below has all the pictures taken normal clarity while the second show that’s below it has all the pictures taken with HDR on. We’ll let you be the judge here. Check them out.
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To ensure you watch it the full quality, do switch to the 720p version. As you can see we’ve shot the video during a significantly low light time of the day and yet the phone has captured the scene pretty well. There isn’t a lot of editing functionality within the settings, but you can surely reply on the Play store for that.
Conclusion:
Huawei Honor has been a great device to use. With its simple design, exclusive apps and services from Huawei, the whopping 1930mAh and the fact that whole package is available for just Rs 19,990/-, this is something incredible. The phone may have some pit falls in some areas, but if you consider the whole package you are getting way more that what competitors has to offer. Huawei was one of the companies I never considered previously, but the progress they’ve made and the efforts they are putting in to bringing great Android phones is attracting my attention. It may be easy to make a high end device and give it a hefty price tag, but the actual talent is in bringing great packages for small price. Honor is the perfect example of that. The phone is available in most offline and online stores across the country.
Sony has just announced that the Ice Cream Sandwich update for their flagship smartphone Xperia S will be rolling out today. In a recent blog post, Sony details the update and has also included a video showing the latest new features in the update. The Xperia S was released with Android Gingerbread on board and has received a few updates till date. However, this is the major release from Sony since the launch of the product. Sony has been updating their previous generation Xperia devices to Ice Cream Sandwich since last month and promised the Ice Cream Sandwich update for Xperia S to be released in June. Well, they’ve kept their word and we’re impressed. Here, take a look at the video Sony released about the update.
Not all may be looking forward to updates like these, however there are many geeks and enthusiasts out there who hates to live with old softwares on their phone. Hence, their purchase decision always include update release frequencies by brands. This roll out is a good sign from Sony and we hope the other Xperia devices like the Xperia P, U and Sola will get the update soon.
Motorola is bringing their latest smartphone the Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX to India tomorrow . In a press release that was issued today, Motorola stated that the phone will be available in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand starting tomorrow. Motorola is now expanding their RAZR smartphone portfolio to the South Asian territory with this.
In India, Motorola RAZR MAXX will be priced at Rs 31,590/- which we think is a great price for the phone. The phone comes with Android 2.3.6(Gingerbread) onboard. It will receive the ICS update over the air very soon as per Motorola. The phone has a 4.3″ Super AMOLED display with 540X960 resolution. A dual core processor clocked at 1.2GHz, 1GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, WiFi, BT, GPS etc. The camera is 8MP with autofocus and LED Flash. It does 1080p videos as well. The front camera is 1.3MP and does 720p videos. However, the striking feature of this phone is the battery. The phone has been equipped with a astounding 3300mAh battery that will keep you going for a really long time. No matter how hard your device, the device will surely keep you going all day long before you start hunting for a power port.
On the other hand Motorola RAZR V comes with dual core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 4.3inch screen, 8MP front facing camera that does 1080p video, a front facing camera, Ice Cream Sandwich, WiFi, BT, GPS, Radio etc. However, the phone is only equipped with a 1750mAh battery. And hence you’ll see a lesser price which is yet to be announced. The phone will be available during third quarter this year.
Microsoft on Monday announced their brand new tablet called the Surface. Actually they announced two versions of the tablet, one which runs the Windows Pro version and the other which runs the Windows RT version. The surface tablet is just 9.8mm thick and has a magnesium casing which acts as pull out kick stand […]
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Apple has just aired a new iPad ad today. The new ad walks you through different different activities that you can do with the iPad. And of course, Apple is trying to tell you how the new amazing Retina display is going really spice up the experience. Here, watch the ad for more.
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Its been a while since Samsung Galaxy SIII was launched in India. To be precise, it was on May 3rd they announced the phone in India for a whopping Rs 43,180/-. Even though we couldn’t get a review device in time, we didn’t want it to be an excuse to deny a review of […]
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So we’ve seen some real iPhone leaks this week. But hey, we all like to see some dreamy concepts as well, right ?? Here’s something that you would drool on. Its got a transparent display, holographic keyboard and the video demoes the experience with your favorite apps like Instapaper, Tweetbot and Instagram. Check […]
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Nokia has finally launched the Nokia Pureview 808 officially in India. The phone was expected to enter the market a tad early, but due to some delays the launch was moved to yesterday. The good news is that it’s here. All those smartphone camera fans can now get ready to buy the phone if they are ok with Rs 33,899/- price tag. This is the MRP, so one can get it for cheaper price as well. And of course if you are willing to wait, you can get it for even better price. Price aside, Nokia Pureview 808 is an impressive smartphone. As you know, it has 41MP camera that uses the pureview technology to capture amazing pictures with huge details while still maintaining the size and resolution under decent limits. The Pureview 808 runs Symbian Belle FP1, sports a 4″ screen with Nokia’s Clear Black Display, 41MP Carl Zeiss Optics with Xenon flash, WiFi, BT, NFC, HDMI port, USB OTG, Dolby Digital Plus, GPS and a 1400mAh battery.
The camera on the phone is just amazing. However one may wonder why they should still go for a Symbian after Nokia’s own CEO Stephen Elop announced Symbian as long dead platform. It’s also surprising that why Nokia brought Pureview technology to Symbian and not to their newly wed Windows Phones which has very poor camera performance. Nokia may have plans to bring it to WP, but the question is when ?!! Nokia really doesn’t have good track record in bringing products on time to the market. Besides a 1400mAh battery seems a bit less comparing to other high end phones in the same segment from other brands. Then again Symbian usually delivers good battery life and the OS’ battery management is impressive. However, one may have to actually use the device themselves to see the actual performance of the phone after all the photoshoots with this amazing camera.
Flipkart already has the phone listed on their website with Cash On Delivery. So are you getting this camera beast ??
