Review Android smartphones are fast losing their novelty status as more manufacturers get to grips with Google’s open source operating system and go the widget way, often developing their own individual take of the basic style. Motorola and Samsung have been recent converts – with their Dext and Galaxy, respectively – but Taiwanese firm HTC was the first, and has been churning out variations on the theme with steady regularity.
HTC’s Tattoo: Android for the mainstream?
The Tattoo marks a change of positioning for HTC, since the handset aimed very much at the mid-range, and is the cheapest Android yet. It seems to have sacrificed remarkably little in doing so, since it comes with HTC’s popular Sense user interface, HSDPA 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS and a 3.2Mp Camera.
The Tattoo breaks with the tradition established by HTC’s previous Androids by forsaking the distinctive style of the likes of the Magic and the Hero with their quirky little chin. Instead, HTC has here opted for the more classic look of HTC’s Windows Mobile handsets. Beneath the 2.8in, 240 x 320 touchscreen sits a circular navpad, a control mechanism not usually seen on Android handsets, and certainly not HTC’s. Read the rest of this entry »
Review While many mobile makers in the smartphone game have been concentrating their designer firepower on touchscreen devices, the Nokia N86 8MP rolls in as a successor to Nokia’s previous generation of Symbian S60 3E-packing heavyweights rather than as another touchphone contender.
Nokia’s N86 8MP: the N-series ancestry is immediately apparent
Making its mark as Nokia’s first 8Mp cameraphone – and its first with a mechanical shutter – the N86 8MP combines design and functionality elements from both the N85 and N96, two of Nokia’s most fully featured S60 devices. Imaging may be its focal point, but the N86 8MP also offers Wi-Fi to complement its HSDPA 3G data connectivity, A-GPS satellite navigation, 8GB of on-board storage, an FM transmitter plus a full spread of multimedia features and support for Nokia’s suite of online Ovi services.
There’s no mistaking that N-series family connection in the bodywork and front panel layout. The N86 8MP’s two-way slider design, which incorporates a numberpad and a media player control set as first seen on the N95, is chunky, measuring 103.4 x 51.4 x 16.5-18.5mm. It weighs a pocket-sagging 149g and feels very substantial in the hand.
Scratch-resistant hardened glass covers the front panel and the display, a 2.6in, 16.7m-colour 320 x 240 OLED screen that’s strikingly bright and clear. Read the rest of this entry »
Review HTC may have done it first, but now the Androids are starting to come thick and fast. Motorola got in early with the Dext, and all the major manufacturers are planning their own entry into Android land.
Samsung’s Galaxy: Android for the mainstream?
The Samsung Galaxy is the Korean giant’s first attempt and turns out to be a well specced, slimline, glossy black number similar on the surface to its earlier Jet. It boasts an OLED touchscreen, 5Mp Camera, HSDPA 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS and an impressive 8GB of onboard memory.
One of the great things about Android – which, lest we forget, is still in its early stages – is that it should be endlessly configurable. It’s fully open for developers to tweak, adjust and improve wherever they feel it to be necessary. HTC has given us a taste of the possibilities with the Sense UI in the Hero, and Motorola took social networking a stage further with Motoblur.
But despite charming us with its TouchWiz interface in the past, Samsung appears to have done very little with the basic Android UI. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Sony Ericsson tends to get the most publicity from its Cyber-shot cameraphones and Walkman music phones. Not unusual, that, but the company also has a large array of mid-range and lower end mobiles. A case in point: the S312. At £100 Sim-free or £69 from T-Mobile on pay-as-you-go, it fits right into that lower price bracket.
The S312 makes no pretensions to be a Cyber-shot. But despite being pitched as a bit of an all rounder, there is a greater emphasis on the Camera than you might expect from a low-cost voice-centric mobile.
To that end, it does steal a clever Camera idea from its higher end siblings. Hit the small round green button on the right side of the phone and you are into the Camera software. Obviously, that’s nothing new. But when you are in Camera mode the 3, 6, 9 and # keys double up as Camera and video shooting shortcuts, small icons to the far right of the key area reminding you of their functions. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Few would be surprised to learn that US brand Motorola has struggled of late. Since the flush of success it enjoyed with the Razr series back in 2004, Motorola has singularly failed to set the mobile world alight, seemingly watching as other brands grasped the smartphone nettle and raced to the future.
Motorola’s Dext: better than we’d imagined
But now, the company thinks its saviour may be at hand. The Motorola Dext is a smartphone that focuses on social networking using its Motoblur service. This makes innovative use of cloud technology to put instant Facebook and Twitter updates on your home page and holds all your phone‘s info on a remote server, so you can access it anywhere and revise it instantly.
Motoblur features aside, the Dext runs the Android operating system, has a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, 5Mp Camera, HSDPA 3G, Wi-Fi, A-GPS and a host of additional apps. However, for UK users, it’s initially only available on the Orange network. The Motorola Dext is a fairly chunky device at 114x58x16mm and 163g. Still, its designers have made the effort to soften its brick-like tendencies by tapering the front edges dramatically. This actually feels a bit odd at first, since the top half sits slightly inside the bottom half, but it turned out to be quite a practical solution. Read the rest of this entry »
