HTC One S – Video review

The HTC One S is the mid-range device in HTC’s One family. It features: 4.3-inch Super AMOLED capacitive display, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with HTC Sense v4.0, Dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB built-in storage, 8MP main camera, 1.3MP front facing camera and 1650 mAh Li-Po battery.


Check the video review:

HTC One X – Video Review

Aaron from PhoneDog reviews the global version of the One X, HTC’s newest Ice Cream Sandwich flagship smartphone.

Here are some basic specs, HTC One X features a  4.7″ HD S-LCD 2 screen, 1.5 GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8MP ImageSense camera, front facing camera, 1,800 mAh non-removable battery, and Android 4.0 (ICS) with HTC Sense 4.

Check the video review:

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Samsung adds ‘blink’ feature to ‘Face Unlock’ to spruce up security

Face Unlock is one of the most talked about features in the latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS). However, tech-blogs and phone reviewers have used it and also come out with ways to override this security unlock feature and get access to the phone.

As have been experimented, Face Unlock, unlocks phone even if you use a photograph of the user. This has been taken up seriously by Samsung and they have come up with a tweak to the feature that asks you to look into the front facing camera and blink as well to serve as an assurance of a living human being. This feature will be included in the custom version of ICS upgrade that will be pushed to Samsung’s devices in coming months.

The feature was announced on Samsung’s blog, Samsung Tomorrow, along with other company and product related updates.

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Android 4.0 ICS on the Samsung Galaxy S ll Skyrocket – Video walkthrough

Lisa Gade from MobileTechReview walks through a leaked Samsung version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket.


Check the video walk through:

 Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket is slightly tweaked version of the standard Galaxy S II with 4G LTE on AT&T. Still no official word from AT&T and Samsung when official 4.0.3 update will be available to the public, but according to this review no major flaws have been found in the leaked build.

Everything you need to know about Sony Xperia Sola

Sony Ericsson announced Xperia Sola earlier this month on 13th March. The phone has average specifications for a smartphone and runs on Android Gingerbread. Now that's nothing surprising, however, it has one feature to blow your mind. The phone incorporates an innovative touch technology called “Floating Touch”. The screen integrates two different types of capacitive touch technologies: Mutual capacitive and Self Capacitive. Mutual capacitive sensors help the phone to pick physical touches and the self capacitive sensors helps it pick touch events from a distance of 22 millimeters. So you don’t even have to touch the screen now, plus the phone also supports multi-touch gestures.

What’s great?
The phone is not yet set for sales and would take a few more changes before it gets into the market. But surely the aspects look promising. The phone’s floating touch would provide you a whole new web browsing experience. NFC (Near Field Communication) is also integrated in the phone which enables fast app loading and data sharing. Sony Ericsson has used their revolutionary Bravia Engine for the 3.7 inch display, this produces very sharp and crisp, real like images. The phone is powered by 1 GHz Dual core processor for super fast processing with multi-tasking. For sound the phone has 3D surround sound and xLOUD technology for clear and fuller sound. The phone is currently made on Gingerbread but it would be upgraded to Ice cream sandwich (v4.0) before the official release. Sony claims that this phone would bring an excellent opportunity for app developers to create innovative apps.


What’s not so great?
The phone has a few key features missing, which we found should have been incorporated. The phone does not have a front facing camera for the video calls. It also lacks an HDMI output port to view images, videos etc. on an HDTV. And lastly and most importantly, it should have had a better battery and a better power management. But things are open and we think that they can do something about it.

Things to watch out for
The cursor behaves same as a mouse cursor and, as you move your finger above, it gets highlighted and moves too. When you want to make a selection, you just tap the screen like before. As we said earlier, the phone would go many changes before it is lined up for sales. It would also take some time for the app developers to create something innovative and exclusive. So we think one should not buy it as soon as it is released. We recommend that you should wait a little longer after the release so that you could have a refined product. The NFC smart tag feature is also on hot selling point for the phone and would have a lot of applications in near future.


Verdict
If we talk about the looks, the phone looks dashing and would come in three colors: black, white and red. The release data for the phone is not yet known but it should be out there in the second quarter of the year. Also there is no officially released pricing for the phone out yet. The technology is completely new and would evolve into something great. So we just have to look out what really happens with this technology and we don’t want it to be abandoned after something new. But one big question still remains: Should we still call it a touchscreen?

MWC 2012: Acer's Uncertainty

Acer CludMobile and Liquid Glow smartphones had been announced before the expo but MWC 2012 it was the first time I had a chance to see them. Unfortunately, the demo CludMobile handset was not operational so it is pretty pointless to describe it. It looks like a typical Acer phone – the company managed to create a recognizable style for their smartphones except for the first generation devices after the company purchased E-Ten.

The size of CludMobile is very convenient: it is not too big or too tiny and the curved battery lid makes it even more comfortable to use. The battery lid plastic has a square pattern that looks unusual and feels nice.

The quoted specs are as follows: 1280x720 4.3” screen (HD-IPS matrix), the Qualcomm 8260A platform with a dual core 1.5GHz processor, 1GB of system memory and 8GB of storage space. The reps did not mention a memory card slot. The main camera is an 8MPix module. This smartphone runs Android 4.0. Technically it is almost a flagship – it is the most attractive Acer Android device as of early 2012. However, it is obvious that Acer is having difficulties especially on the smartphone market. The fact that Acer did not come to the main mobile event of 2012 proves that Acer will not be betting on CludMobile which is too bad because if the price was right this phone could be a success.

The other new smartphone Acer Liquid Glow is a lot simpler. It looks somewhat similar to CludMobile but it is smaller and has simpler hardware. The 3.7” 800x480 screen uses a TFT matrix, the phone features a 1GHz CPU, 512MB of system memory, a 5MPix camera and runs on Android 4.0. It looks good for a budget Android phone but no info on the release date is yet available.