Review You can argue all you want about the merits of the various mobile operating systems but it’s undoubtedly Android that has put smartphones into the hands of the impecunious masses and in numbers that would have been inconceivable just eighteen months ago.
Tidy price: Vodafone’s Smart
The new king of the cheap charlies is the Vodafone Smart or Huawei U8160 to give it its manufacturer designation. This pound shop special runs Android 2.2 and has a capacitive screen but will only set you back £75.
That’s nearly 20 per cent less than the price of the Orange San Francisco, né ZTE Blade, which will lighten your wallet to the tune of £99 plus a mandatory £20 credit (£119 altogether). Buy online and Vodafone doesn’t demand an airtime purchase as a condition of sale. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Sony Ericsson’s top of the range Xperia Arc was a bold move, cramming a feast of the company’s very latest technology into a case seemingly not a whole lot thicker than a credit card. The Xperia Neo winds things down a notch, not least the price, and the style, but this Android mid-ranger still manages to pack a serious punch.
The Neo is decidedly chunkier than the Arc, at 116 x 57 x 13mm and 126g, though it retains an echo of the ‘human curvature’ design we’ve seen on recent SE handsets. Beneath the screen is Sony Ericsson’s by now familiar approach to the Android control buttons, with slivery hard back, home and menu buttons, but no search à la the Arc, though the Xperia Play had it. Read the rest of this entry »
Review If there is such a condition as telephonic incontinence then HTC is clearly a sufferer, as it churns out a handset for just about every conceivable demographic. With the ChaCha, the company is focusing on text warriors with a hard Qwerty keyboard and some social networking tweaks.
Upbeat performer: HTC’s ChaCha
This Android 2.3 smartie is a funky frolic of a phone with a slimline form factor (114 x 65 x 11m and 124g) that curves in the middle to give it an ergonomic lift in the palm. Its white rubberised plastic and brushed aluminium casing give it a zesty modern feel. While the top half is typically Android – with the four familiar control buttons nestling beneath the touch screen – the 40-key Qwerty keyboard that takes up the lower part looks decidedly different for a Googlephone. BlackBerry users may feel a certain déjà vu, however.
The keys are made of HTC’s comfortingly tactile rubberised plastic, and each one is raised proud of the casing. They’re easy to find and press, both with the tip and the flat of the thumb, and offer good feedback with reassuring clicks for each press. They’re nicely spaced too, so they’re just as easy to use with two thumbs as one. Read the rest of this entry »
Product Round-up Android handsets have been steadily stealing Apple’s smartphone thunder for a while now, due in part to their variety – the range runs the gamut from cheap and (not very) cheerful to the heights of the very latest technology. This round-up pulls together the latter type, with the very best on offer from the major manufacturers. Some offer Android in its raw form, but most have been augmented with additional user interfaces and designer tweaks. They’re all deliciously different and offer a snapshot of the state of the art in Android development – be prepared for high-end cameras, retina-searing screens, dual-core processors, HDMI connections and much, much more. Read the rest of this entry »
Review The Atrix is Motorola’s first dual-core handset and has big ambitions to be your one and only connected device. It’s available with a set of accessories that can turn it into both your laptop and media centre – a PC in your pocket.
Unplugged: Motorola’s Atrix
Before we get to the accessories though, the basic Atrix is a good-looking, if slightly chunky sight in glossy black plastic, measuring 118 x 64 x11mm and 135g. The four standard Android buttons sit touch sensitively beneath the 4in screen and the sides feature volume buttons along with microUSB and mini HDMI ports, with a 3.5mm headphone jack on top. Read the rest of this entry »
