Droid Charge review

We're still shaking our heads and sighing longingly at the performance of Samsung's Galaxy S II, a phone that wowed us in Europe but likely won't be coming to American shores for some time -- and who knows what it'll look like when it does. But don't get too down, dear reader, because here comes another slice of Samsung and this slab has that same 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display tucked in there. It's a little less slim, a little less classy, and a little less quick than Sammy's latest world-conquering wunderphone, but the LTE-equipped Charge is a proper contender in its own right. Read on to see why.

Hardware

The Droid Charge is definitely a bit of a handful, as you'd expect with its 4.3-inch, 800 x 480 display. Still, we wouldn't call it a big phone by today's standards. It's .46-inches (12mm) at its thinnest, though it swells slightly in a little flare at the bottom (out to about 14mm). That's in the same ballpark of the recently-released Thunderbolt, which we're thinking many people will cross-shop this with. The Thunderbolt comes in at about .52-inches (13mm) thick, but the taper and profile on the Charge makes it seem thinner.

It's considerably lighter, too, 5.04oz (143g) versus 6.23oz (177g), though that relative lightness comes at a cost: a somewhat plasticy build. It certainly doesn't feel as bad as that Samsung flip-phone you had back in 2002, the one you rocked until your dog got ahold of it, but compared to the metal and unibody offerings seen elsewhere the Charge lacks any feeling of prestige in the hand.

It doesn't feel bad; there's a comfortable taper about it, a little bulge at the bottom that shifts the center of balance of the phone downward toward the center of your palm when holding it. It's quite comfortable to hold, helped by the smooth, glossy back that, sadly, seems a bit prone to scratches.

When held this way the power button on the right side and the volume rocker on the left fall to fingers quite readily. But, and here's something of a shocker, those aren't the only physical inputs here. On the phone's chin, which is designed with a hint of a pointy goatee, you'll find four honest-to-gosh buttons. Touch them and they actually depress! Some might call this a dated throwback to the olden days of cellular telephony, others will quite appreciate their presence. We like them, though we do wish they lit up a bit brighter.

Display

The buttons may be a bit dim, but there are no issues with brightness on that display, which again is 4.3-inches of Super AMOLED Plus goodness. Resolution is not jaw-dropping at 800 x 480, though the contrast is. Blacks are, naturally, perfectly black and the brights are borderline blinding in a darkened room, while viewing angles are unlimited. Even outdoors in the screen is quite readable. We had no problem composing shots when the sun finally broke through the clouds and lit up our weekend.

However, color reproduction can leave a bit to be desired. On the default, automatic-brightness settings, white sections of the display instead fall toward green. Remove that toggle, dial up the brightness and you get far more pure shades -- just make sure you squint a little before popping on the display in a dimly-lit area. The color-tweaking feature found on the Galaxy S II? Sadly not here, though the display is still mighty impressive even without.

Performance and battery life

The Charge is sadly not a member of the dual-core militia, but despite its 1GHz Hummingbird internals we found it to be quite responsive. You know, snappy. It won't blow your mind with ridiculous benchmark scores but, more importantly, it never left us waiting. In fact benchmark scores were something of a mixed bag, leaving us unconvinced that they're correctly reflecting the performance of the phone. Quadrant delivered scores around 1,000 and Linpack 13.8 MFLOPS -- on the poor side. Neocore, meanwhile, managed 56.8fps and Nenamark 45fps, while the Sunspider Javascript benchmark completed in a respectable 6,194ms. Again, most importantly the phone feels quick to use -- it's no Atrix, but it's certainly on par with the Thunderbolt.

When it comes to battery life, there's no competition. The Charge blitzed through a full day of what we'd consider typical use, coming off the charger at about 9am and not getting slotted back in again until 9pm the next night. Yes, you read that right, two working days of what we'd consider average use with GPS and WiFi on, taking pictures and videos, all powered by a single 1,600mAh battery. Granted, we weren't running our performance benchmarks at the time, but we were hammering the LTE antenna to get some speed results.

And what results they were! On LTE we managed a maximum download of 15.1Mbps down and 3.9Mbps up, enough to shame your average cable modem. And those with lots of friends (or lots of tablets) can share that connection with up to 10 devices.

Oh, and in case you're still worried about the GPS performance of your Sammy handset, fear not. The Charge didn't exactly impress us with its geolocation abilities, occasionally struggling to find a lock when in an occluded area, say on a porch or inside near a window. However, once in the clear it found enough orbiting birds in the sky quickly and accurately.

Software

The Charge comes with Android 2.2 Froyo installed and, yes, that's a bit of a disappointment in these days of Gingerbread, but the light customizations applied here by Samsung help to keep it looking somewhat fresh. The phone's lock screen has you dragging a puzzle piece to get access to the main OS, though missed calls and other events will pop up here and, if you put them in their place, you'll be taken right to whatever event caused them to appear in the first place.

A healthy seven home screens are on offer, and pinching on any of them zooms you out to see them all from high, high above. By default the middle one is your go-to screen, but you can choose any of them to take that place. Samsung adds a few custom widgets to the mix, but nothing too mind-blowing, like a dual-clock that will tell you what time it is at home and afar, plus a task manager widget that's handy if you think you're better at memory cleaning than Android.

The cool accelerometer-augmented gestures for zooming and moving on the Galaxy S II are sadly not here, however there are a number of inclusions here that are rather less wanted -- a huge amount of icons for bloatware and game demos that cannot be removed. They're not exactly filling the phone to capacity, but having three full pages of apps on your phone the first time you boot it up seems a bit excessive.

Camera

Out through a little chrome highlight on the back of the phone peers what we believe is the same eight megapixel sensor that earlier impressed us on the Galaxy S II. It impresses us here, too, capturing bright, clear images even when lighting conditions are less than optimal. Tap-to-focus quite naturally works, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that the camera used auto-focus when capturing video.

The payback is a little bit of focus noise injected into your footage, a sort of tapping you can hear in the sample above, but we didn't find it to be too obtrusive. However, the auto-focus is a bit slow, so we still preferred manually focusing by tapping. Video quality is again quite good, not quite the 1080p stuff that the Galaxy S II can deliver, but there's only so much you can do with a single core processor.

Wrap-up

The Droid Charge is a total sleeper. We'll be perfectly honest that we weren't expecting to be wowed but, well, we're certainly impressed. In terms of performance it's more or less on par with the recently-released Thunderbolt, but battery life is far superior and, while the Super AMOLED Plus display has its quirks, we think they just add character. The imaging sensor 'round the back is top-notch and, overall, this is a very good phone. The only real disappointment? A plastic design that probably will be looking a bit rough after a few months in your pocket.

And then there's the cost: $300 on-contract puts the 32GB Charge in an unfortunate tie for the position of Verizon's most expensive smartphone. That tie is, of course, with Apple's 32GB iPhone 4. That's $50 more than the Thunderbolt, which also comes with the same number of gee bees. Worth the extra? Given the battery life and display improvements here, we'd be inclined to say yes.

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Kobian Mercury Viva Review: An entry-level phone with dual SIM capability

The Indian mobile terrain has several new players to talk about. Astonishingly, most (or say almost all) of them plan to create a niche market for basic, entry-level phones. This has given rise to innumerable budget handsets that try to cling on a single or multiple features. Adding to this all-new list of phone manufacturers like Sharp, iBall and Videocon, Kobian decided to spurn out mobile phones under its loyal Mercury label. Keeping the trend of dual SIM phones in mind, the company adds this attribute to its Viva dual SIM phone which has now entered our review zone. Read on further as we ink down this exclusive analysis of the handset.

The phone comes boxed in a white packaging with a tray carrying the device while its accompaniments such as charger, earphones and user manual are packed in the compartment below. The device emerges as the usual low-end candy bar but with the touch of a distinct style. The front and rear portion alongside some part of the edges has been dipped in glossy black and matte black respectively. A red shiny rim that runs along its edges may be liked or disliked by users. The rim itself has the mini USB port embedded on the left side, a flash on the upper edge and a lanyard slot on the right edge. The backside shows off the camera lens marked in a square shaped design with a tinge of red. While the company decided to print Mercury on the front side, ‘Viva’ and Mercury logo settle on its backside.

The Kobian Mercury Viva is a basic phone without any embellished features and well-priced within the range of low-end segment so we aren’t really expecting anything out-of the box. However, let’s see if it proves to be better than other phones in this range. Well, the keypad has been designed with four separate strips posing a wavy design. Each row carries three keys and each key isn’t carved out distinctly. Above the keypad is a tiny LED display, leaving a thick glass frame on all sides. We wonder why Mercury didn’t try and utilize the space for a larger display. Probably the 2K price tag comes with a handful of compromises.

The display flashes 480 x 640 pixels of resolution. Above the keypad, a square five-way navigation button sits at its center with a silver outline. This navigation button has been flanked by Menu, Back, Call1, Call2, Call end and Flash buttons. The Call1 and Flash button have been almost squeezed through the four above mentioned buttons. Though typing on the keypad was a smooth experience, we’ve lately seen low-end devices come with a QWERTY, so we hope Mercury has compensated the bit somewhere.

Heading towards its interface, the simple, one page Menu is quite approachable. Without much ado it runs you through Messaging, Contacts, Call Log, Settings, Gallery, Multimedia, Organizer, Applications and Web. The dual SIM functionality has been clearly divided as you enter different functions, allowing SIM1 and SIM2 access options separately. The Contacts list displays ‘All’ contacts as well as contacts of SIM1 and SIM2 separately. You can easily switch between tabs to lay your fingers on the desired contact person. The Messaging icon offers SMS, MMS, Chat, Voice Mailbox and Broadcast Message. The Call Log neatly displays history of both phones – SIM1 call history and SIM2 call history, allowing to view dialed, received and missed calls, call duration and more. The home page shows both the networks and now we clearly know which one is less effective in confined spaces.

Talking about the call quality, it seemed pretty fine at times and was completely haywire otherwise as the caller on the other end complained at several instances. On the camera front, it’s quite a disappointing scenario at 1.3 megapixel which is quite mediocre. Further, it miserably fails in low light conditions due to the missing flash. If you are looking for a low-end phone with satisfactory camera functionality then simply look elsewhere. It also features a video recording ability which was again mediocre, owing to the low resolution sensor.

The music interface is again simple and the device manages to emit out a decent audio experience. The loudspeaker performed well and so did the bundled earphones. However, we didn’t find the earphones comfortable enough and the missing standard headphone jack worsens the scenario. We were glad to see the web browsing ability with support for GPRS. Well, owing to the small screen, it wasn’t an eye-pleasing experience. Web browsing was satisfactory but not swift. Needless to say, the small screen size adds to the woes.

The handset bundles up a fun-filled voice feature dubbed Magic Voice. This feature transforms your voice to that of a man, lady or kid. Besides, it also supports answer machine and blacklist functions. The handset packs in two games namely UFO and Puzzle. UFO is a space ship shooting game while Puzzle is a brain cracker. These games aren’t something which could visually appeal many but are engaging enough for casual gamers who indulge into mobile gaming while commuting or during long-waits.

We could dig into the Organizer icon to pick from usual functions like Alarm, Calculator, Unit Convertor, Stop Watch and more. The device comes with FM and Schedule FM Recording as well. The handset equips a 1700mAh Li-ion battery which promises up to 18 day standby time and up to 8 hours of talk time. However, with average usage the phone managed to squeeze through a day.

This newest addition to the low-end segment isn’t an option to ignore as it delivers a decent set of functions for a price of Rs. 1999. Though it falls short on the camera functionality and a few more aspects, the price tag and other features like music seem pretty fine. As an entry-level device for the price tag it carries, the Kobian Mercury Viva phone is decent enough to clutch if you are tight on budget. Our rating for this device is 6 on a scale of 10.

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HTC Desire Z Review

The first Android phone had a QWERTY keypad and was manufactured by HTC. After that there haven t been a lot of droids with QWERTY keypads and HTC in particular never visited that territory. Not until now, that is. The successor to the original droid, the T-Mobile G1 was followed by the G2, which is several leagues ahead of its predecessor.  Of course, that phone is restricted to T-Mobile so HTC came up with the Desire Z - the phone that we are reviewing today - where they loaded it with their own Sense UI and are selling it unlocked in other markets. The phone has been selling in the Indian market for some time now but it took HTC a while to send us a review sample. Nevertheless, we have the phone with us now and we have been spending some quality time with it. So read on if you want the full review. 

 
Design and Build

The Desire Z has a slightly subdued design compared to the Desire. You can tell it is designed to suit a businessman more than, say, a college goer. Nevertheless, it is still a handsome phone. The silver brushed aluminum finish goes well with the grey rubberized plastic. Metal is used sparingly on the Desire Z, possibly to keep the weight less; the sliding mechanism already adds a lot to that. 

 

On the front you have the large earpiece on the top with the ambient light sensor and the proximity sense hidden towards its left. Below is the 3.7-inch display covered with a Gorilla Glass. Below the display is a thin row of touch sensitive keys along with an optical trackpad. We preferred the physical controls below the Desire's display; it is much more difficult to press unintentionally. The trackpad has a ring that glows when you have a notification. 

 

On the left side are the volume control buttons and the micro USB port. On the right is the camera shutter button, and the button for releasing the battery cover. 

 

On the top is the 3.5mm headphone jack and a power button. 

 

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Peel Fruit and iOS app review: channel surfing of the future

There's no shortage of devices that aim to replace your always-missing remote control with your always-present smartphone, and the Peel is one of the more recent and unique entries into the space. A software / hardware combination consisting of a "Peel Fruit" and accompanying iOS app, the package brings a new approach to finding what to watch -- and it's unlike most other smartphone-IR options we've encountered so far. Does it all come together, or are we left wishing for more? Read on past the break to find out!

Hardware

The hardware half of the Peel system consists of the Peel Fruit and accompanying Peel Cable. Designed by Yves Behar, the Fruit resembles a pear, and represents the IR-blasting component of the remote controlling pair. It's meant to sit on a coffee table within a recommended 10-15 foot range away from your TV, all-the-while emitting the necessary commands to perform other control functions issued from the companion Peel app. The Fruit takes a single C battery, and has a purported battery life of about six months -- thanks to its use of the ZigBee communication protocol instead of traditional WiFi.

The Peel Cable plugs into an Ethernet port on your router and into a standard power outlet as well. Since the entire hardware communicates via ZigBee, there should be virtually no network setup needed once your router assigns an IP address to the Peel system. We had some problems getting this to happen at first, but plugging in the Ethernet cable with the router off, and then powering it up seemed to remedy the connectivity issues. In general though, we definitely appreciate the ease of setup that comes with using ZigBee as opposed to dealing with user-unfriendly things like IP addresses and port-forwarding (we're looking at you, Sling).

Software

Once the hardware's in place, it's time to load up the Peel app on your i-device and link your Peel Fruit. The process is pretty straightforward, and involves typing in a five-digit identifier into the app and walking through a quick setup procedure. This is where we hit our first speed bump -- there was no suitable IR code for the Sanyo TV we're using for the review. Subsequently, we had to fake the app into thinking it had a correct TV before it would even let us configure our set-top-box. Thankfully, we didn't have the missing codes problem with our Comcast DVR, and the app pulled in the correct channel lineup for us in Philadelphia. We asked the Peel crew what the procedure would be for folks whose devices weren't supported, and they say they'll add the IR codes to their database within about 24 hours after you give them a call. True to their word, our Sanyo model sprung to life just a few hours later after we received an email from support notifying us that the code had been added.

The Peel app is interesting for what it does -- and what it doesn't. The product's tagline -- "there's something on" -- demonstrates the company's view on content coordination. Rather than providing you with a familiar number pad or even channel up / down buttons, the main screen of the app has smaller frames showcasing programs it thinks you may like. By favoriting and blocking shows and channels, it attempts to build on your tastes over time to more accurately suggest content that you might like. We like the fact that it makes suggestions, and found ourselves watching shows on channels we wouldn't normally have tuned to. Still, the lack of choice is a major setback -- at least with this version of the software. We can't help but wonder why there's no straight up program guide, since it's clearly pulling in that data already.

The app's main screen consists of "top picks," which are presumably coordinated by the demographic information you enter (or choose to opt-out of) during setup. Selecting the 19-24 male group gave us top picks like "Jersey Shore" and "Bones", and we'd imagine that these picks will get better as more and more folks start using the service. The app further breaks down content into TV shows, movies, and sports. Each of these categories is further divided by genre, so you can swipe through and try to find something that suits your mood. The only annoyance when browsing is that it seems to be contextual menu after contextual menu, especially when trying to change channels. There's a handy "Last 5 Channels" button, but only when the controller is toggled into "Playback" mode (as opposed to "Navigation" mode), but we wish that was available in more screens. We also like the option to set reminders from right within the app, so you don't have to worry about missing an upcoming episode or special. The content discovery options here are certainly robust, but many folks will be perturbed by the fact that it lacks a full representation of the remote control it aims to replace.

We got to speak to the Peel guys and raise some of our concerns with the app as it is now, and we have to give them credit for having some good responses to our biggest issues. They told us that 99.9% of the core functionality used on a daily basis is present in the current version of the app, and that oddball buttons like PIP and A, B, C are rarely used. According to them, the app is really designed for tuning to programs and controlling DVR'd content -- and for those two functions it definitely does a good job.

When we asked why there was no channel up or down button, or if there were plans to add a regular program guide, they told us that "it's the show you care about, not the channel number." They do have a point, but we were assured that future releases will address some of these issues (we weren't given specifics). We did find out that an iPad app is in the works, as are apps for Android and Honeycomb specifically, so the Peel won't be iOS only forever. Finally, social sharing options will most likely get beefed up as the app matures. We're envisioning beefed up Twitter and Facebook sharing as well as possible friend following, which will hopefully help refine the suggestions even further.

Wrap-up

The Peel -- at this point in time at least -- is a great concept for folks who don't know what they want to watch, but those who enjoy channel surfing in its current form may find it to be limited. That's not to say it's not useful when you don't know what to watch, but as power TV watchers, we'd like to have some more options. Still, the concept is definitely unique and we're all about finding new interesting stuff instead of watching DVR'ed episodes of "Gossip Girl." Overall, we like the current iteration of the Peel, and we're excited to see what's in store as the little orb starts to invade coffee tables everywhere.

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HTC Arrive review

Though it was teased late last year -- on the same day that HTC announced its very first Windows Phone 7 devices, in fact -- the company's QWERTY-packing 7 Pro has taken its sweet time to make it to American airwaves; in the process, it's gone through a name change and picked up the first big platform update from Microsoft. The phone we now know as the Arrive is finally available from Sprint, becoming the first Windows Phone 7 device available on a CDMA network. These days, it's pretty unusual for an HTC handset -- or a handset on any American carrier, really, regardless of manufacturer -- to take this long to make it to subscribers' hands after announcement, but in this case, Sprint's hands were tied: Microsoft simply didn't support CDMA initially, which explains why both AT&T and T-Mobile have been enjoying a selection of models from Samsung, LG, Dell, and HTC alike while Sprint and Verizon have been patiently twiddling their thumbs.

The CDMA dry spell's over, though; the Arrive marks just the first of what should be several Redmond-powered phones over the course of 2011. Is it a fitting first effort? And how does it fare against the GSM models that beat it to market? Read on.

Hardware

The Arrive comes boxed in very standard, ordinary Sprint packaging -- nothing special here. Carriers generally seem to be saving the stand-out package designs for flagship models, which should give you an idea of how Sprint's viewing and positioning this model (had they been able to sell it five months ago alongside the first round of GSM devices, we suspect it could've been a different story). In the box you'll find a glossy black USB wall charger (the same one we've seen bundled with most recent HTCs), micro-USB cable, black stereo earbuds, and the usual bag of literature. Our review unit came with the battery already installed, but your mileage may vary.

Pulling the phone out for the first time is a refreshing experience, in a way, especially if you've handled any HTCs in the past year or so. Why? Well, in a word, it's... different. Sure, it shares many design elements with a variety of 2010 HTC models, but we get the vague sense that this one was designed by a team with a little bit of creative freedom. The most obvious example of that is the slide-tilt mechanism, which is totally unique in the company's hardware portfolio (more on it in a bit), despite the fact that it was likely designed and engineered around the same time as the Desire Z / G2 -- which has another utterly unique slide mechanism all its own. If anything, we suppose the Arrive's nearest design cousin might be the Surround, which makes sense -- we could imagine that HTC might be looking to visually differentiate its WP7 models from its Android ones.

Unlike some other QWERTY smartphones on the market, the Arrive feels solid whether it's closed or open. One complaint owners of the G2 have lodged is that the screen flops around a bit when the keyboard is stowed, but you won't have any of that here -- until you get to the end of the slide, the screen stays flat and tight in its track without any wiggle or slop (the G2's issues are partly due to the fact that you're working with a complex hinge mechanism -- there's actually no slide involved at all). The phone's heavy -- as QWERTY sliders tend to be -- but not annoyingly so; really, it's just heavy enough to unmistakably convey that all-important "substantial" feel.

The keyboard itself is really well-designed (and at this point, HTC's garnered enough experience with this form factor so that they don't have much excuse to put out a stinker). Compared to LG's Quantum -- the only other landscape QWERTY Windows Phone 7 slider currently offered in the US -- we definitely prefer the Arrive. Button size and clickiness ranges from "good" to "great" on both devices, but the Arrive takes the trophy for two big reasons: one, it lacks the Quantum's bizarre shift and function key placement; and two, it's a five-row setup (compared to the Quantum's four) with a dedicated numeric row. The keyboard's ventilated (though almost certainly non-functional) surround looks awesome, too -- it's a style we've really liked going all the way back to Verizon's Imagio.

Going back to the slide mechanism, it's very tight -- almost to the point of feeling like it could use a squirt of WD-40 -- and lacks any sort of spring loading to "pop" it open (which the Quantum has, by the way). When you extend the slide to the very end of its range, though, a spring-loaded swivel takes over, tilting the display about 30 degrees upwards -- perfect for typing, but perhaps a little shallow for watching videos. We're not complaining -- we wouldn't want it to tilt any further automatically -- but a second user-selectable detent might be nice. Interestingly, we found that you can reliably extend the slide just shy of the swivel point and leave it there because the slide's tight enough to keep the screen fixed in its position; this lets you use the keyboard with the screen flat like a traditional QWERTY slider. It's unclear if HTC intended to do this, but regardless, it works well.

The left edge of the phone features a thick, curved volume rocker that looks good and works well (a stark contrast to the dodgy one on HTC's Thunderbolt) -- it's easy to find without hunting or looking for it. Similarly, the position, shape, and tactile response of the power button on top (next to the 3.5mm headphone jack) are all near perfect. Around back, you've got a real brushed-metal battery cover -- a nice, premium touch -- but you might be stymied at first trying to get it open. Turns out the notch you can use for leverage in prying it off is only accessible when the screen is fully deployed and tilted, which causes a hinged bar along the right edge of the phone to swivel upwards (the notch is underneath). Of course, it's a little awkward to pry the cover off with the screen tilted like this, but you really shouldn't need to get in there too often; like most other Windows Phone 7 devices, the microSD card isn't user-accessible, and it's not a global phone so there's no SIM to worry about. In fact, the one and only thing in there is the 1500mAh battery.

Speaking of the battery, the Arrive seems to do a commendable job of holding up through a normal day. From 100 percent to the critical warning, we got 21 hours and 8 minutes of usage including a 40-minute voice call, two hours of I Love Katamari, and one hour of Slacker at full loudspeaker volume. Unlike some smartphones we've tested recently, we think we'd be comfortable leaving the house and working a long, hard day with the Arrive in our pocket and no access to a charger or a spare battery. For some road warriors, that alone could be a deciding factor.

One area while the Arrive falls short is the display: at 3.6 inches, it's a little cramped. It's not a problem, per se -- but when you put it alongside a Samsung Focus or an HTC HD7, the difference becomes noticeable. What bugged us more than the size, though, is the quality; in an age when IPS, SLCD, and Super AMOLED displays are dominating the mid- and high-end smartphone market, the Arrive's run-of-the-mill TFT LCD falls short. Contrast is noticeably worse than most 2011-spec handsets, and the colors immediately wash out when you tilt it to the side. It's on par with the Surround, HD7, and EVO 4G in this regard -- fine by last year's standards, not so fine this year, particularly considering that HTC's been using SLCD in almost everything lately from the Desire up through the Thunderbolt.

We had basically zero issues with the Arrive's sound quality, though we did have a rather unusual problem: it's pretty much the first phone we've ever used where there were situations we couldn't turn the earpiece volume low enough. We'd say it ranges from "normal" to "extremely loud" and bypasses "soft" altogether -- not a huge deal, but an interesting situation nonetheless. The loudspeaker -- located on the same metal bar around back as the camera lens -- performs admirably, though it does tend to muffle quite a bit when the phone is sat back-down on a surface because that metal bar is the furthest-protruding surface. Many phones make small design allowances for this -- either with a protrusion to get the speaker holes off the surface (as with the Galaxy S series) or by placing the holes along the edge or the front -- and we're actually a little surprised that HTC would've overlooked this in a business-oriented device where a quality speakerphone tends to be a higher priority. It's still totally usable, but it sounds a tad funny on occasion.

Camera

The camera on the HTC Arrive is disappointing. It exhibits a lot of the same flaws as its WP7 sibling, the HTC Surround: over-exposure and over-sharpening in bright scenes, random blurry spots that look like severe compression artifacts, plus lack of detail and excessive noise in low light. We know from using other phones like the Nexus One, G2, and myTouch 4G that HTC can produce a decent 5 megapixel shooter. Since it's unlikely HTC is using more than a couple different 5 megapixel camera modules across multiple devices, we think this is a software / firmware issue. The Arrive captures reasonably smooth HD video (720p), although the audio sounds a bit muffled. But what's really exciting about video recording is that it supports continuous autofocus (!), just like the Surround. The camera interface provides the same minimalistic experience we've come to enjoy with Windows Phone, along with the same limitations: the flash setting is reset to automatic and the video resolution is switched back to VGA each time the camera is restarted. Like all other WP7 devices, the Arrive features a dedicated two-stage camera key, something we'd like to see on all phones. Overall, we shooter on the Arrive feels half-baked, and we hope HTC / Microsoft can address imaging performance in a future update.

Software

There's not a lot to say about the software on the Arrive. And really, that's exactly how Microsoft wants it -- they've locked down the experience on Windows Phone 7 so comprehensively that you can seamlessly move between devices without skipping a beat. No skins, no garbage. There's something to be said for that.

There are, however, a couple notables worth mentioning. First up, Sprint includes a branded application, Sprint Zone, that's little more than a stylized RSS feed; clicking on news items and tips sends you out to the browser rather than keeping you inside the hub. The carrier's also got a curated list of recommended apps here that will send you straight to the Marketplace. The app's tile comes placed on the home screen by default, but like pretty much everything else in Windows Phone 7 -- thank you, Microsoft! -- it can be removed at the user's discretion. Secondly, as we've pointed out before, the Arrive is launching with Windows Phone 7's so-called NoDo update -- the platform's first with actual feature changes -- and that means that users now have access to copy and paste:

If you're coming from another platform, the way Microsoft has implemented the clipboard here isn't immediately intuitive, but you'll pick it up in no time. Long term, we think they'd be well advised to add some sort of mechanism for selecting individual characters -- the current system only works with entire words -- but it's a start.

Wrap-up

After having used the Arrive for a few days, we think you could make a convincing argument that it's the best Windows Phone 7 device currently available. Problem is, that's still not saying much when you look at what's currently out there. Really, the landscape really hasn't changed much at all since the platform's retail introduction last year -- and HTC's upcoming HD7S could steal that title back by correcting one of the original HD7's biggest shortcomings, the weak display (a problem that afflicts the Arrive, too). That said, we'd argue that Sprint certainly picked one of the best manufacturer / form factor combos to launch Windows Phone 7 on its network -- and with the updates Microsoft's got in the pipeline, this one could be a player for many months to come.

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Sony Ericsson Xperia Play review

The PlayStation Phone. We've had quite the intimate history with this gamepad-equipped slider, learning of its secretive existence way back in August and then handling a prototype unit in January, so you'll forgive us for feeling sentimental and still entertaining our pet name for it. The Sony Ericsson marketing gurus renamed it the Xperia Play when it finally went official at MWC this year, but the PlayStation connection remains as strong as ever. Aside from the D-pad, iconic game keys, and two touchpads, this device comes with a little app named PlayStation Pocket, which will be serving up dollops of classic PlayStation One gaming to all those with a taste for it. Yes, the Sony influence is strong with this one, and the Android Market will be joining the fun with Xperia Play-optimized titles from third-party developers. So all we really need to know now is whether the Android smartphone underpinning this smash-bang fusion of old and new school entertainment happens to be any good. Shall we get Started?

Hardware

The gamepad

There's likely little point in us trying to discuss any of the Xperia Play's external hardware before addressing its literal and figurative centerpiece, the slide-out gamepad. A DualShock attached to your smartphone it is not, but you already knew that. The real question is how close it comes to replicating the console experience rather than how well it competes with it. Judged on such terms, the Play acquits itself very well. The digital directional keys are firm with a satisfying amount of travel and the same goes for the face buttons. Squeezed in between them, Sony Ericsson also throws in a pair of analog pads, which react to your input in much the same fashion as the capacitive touchscreen does -- with the big difference being that while you use the pads you're not obscuring any of the action on screen. Each pad has a handy indented dot at its center, helping to orient your thumb without the need to look down.

An Android Menu button on the bottom left is accompanied by Select and Start keys on the right (at least one of these three buttons feels perfunctory as they serve overlapping functions) and there are two shoulder buttons on the outside, where you would usually find the L1 and R1 controls on the proper console gamepad. Some among our staff have taken to calling them flippers, because they're closer to flaps or paddles in their operation than fully fledged buttons. In actual gameplay, we found them a little too sensitive, which caused us to activate them unintentionally a few times and fail almost completely when prompted by one game to press them simultaneously. We succeeded once out of every six or seven tries, such was the capriciousness of their design.

The sliding mechanism responsible for serving up the gaming controls is pretty much flawless. It's spring-loaded, meaning you only need to slide it halfway up or down to achieve the required opening or closing action and it does the rest by itself. Movement is smooth and consistent, and one-handed operation is no problem either. What impressed us most about it, though, was its sturdiness. There's no tilt to the handset, the screen just slides straight up, and that's the way it stays -- perfectly parallel, no matter the violence of our attempts to find any structural flaws. It's clear to see that Sony Ericsson spent a lot of time refining this slider and we're happy to say it lives up to a very high standard of durability -- an absolute necessity when making a button masher's device such as this.

Moving to the top half of the slider, we find a volume rocker, nestled craftily in between the aforementioned shoulder buttons, a power key, and the usual four Android buttons, arranged in yet another innovative formation. For whatever reason, Sony Ericsson opted to swap the Home and Menu buttons' positions up front, leaving our prototype unit looking desperately out of date and us wondering why it had to be done at all. While we've no complaints to proffer about the power and volume keys, we must express our deep discontentment with the Android set. They're quite spongy, meaning they can absorb a lot of pressure before registering a click, which tends to lead to an inconsistent and frustrating user experience. Even more troublesome is the difficulty to differentiate between them by touch alone, forcing you to look down, which is then amplified by the fact they're not backlit. So yeah, the Xperia Play will give you a whole new reason to be afraid of the dark.

Construction

Squeaks and creaks were sadly too readily apparent with the Play, mostly owing to the poor quality of plastics used in its construction. It's a rigid device and, as already pointed out, there's little questioning its internal structure, but there's no getting around the fact that SE didn't blow the budget on procuring the most high-end of shell materials. The rear cover feels brittle, in spite of its flexibility, and the overall glossy aesthetic lends itself to picking up scuffs and scratches easily. The metallic accents aren't to our tastes, either, mostly because they're not made out of actual metal. And if you're not going to at least insert a little bit of premium material or functional utility in your design, why complicate it? Build quality is, therefore, a mixed bag. We get the feeling that after a while the Xperia Play will end up looking rather like The Terminator -- losing its soft and and pathetic outer shell, but revealing some hardcore engineering within. Maybe that'll be a good look for it.

A final note is merited about the Play's dimensions. At 16mm (0.63 inches) in thickness and 175g (6.2 ounces) in weight, this may easily be the chubbiest flagship Android device you're going to see coming out this year. That said, provided you're not too bothered by its heft (and you shouldn't be), it's actually shaped to sit very neatly in the hand. Its curved rear is reminiscent of the Palm Pre, though to the Play's credit it also manages to lie perfectly flat when rested on horizontal surfaces. When opened up into action mode, the whole device again feels nicely thought out and we doubt there'll be a hand size that won't be suited by its shape. 

Internals

Allow your curiosity to drag you past the Play's rear cover and you'll be rewarded with a happy surprise -- both the SIM and MicroSD card slots are accessible without removing the battery. Not many phones make it that convenient and another rarely seen asset the Play can tout is a set of stereo speakers. They're not just two mono outputs, there's actually a tiny little sound stage created by them working in tandem. The quality of the audio they pump out isn't going to threaten a set of dedicated speakers, but it's certainly a lot more tolerable than the general mediocrity we're used to from smartphones. Considering the device's entertainment-centric reason for existence, we believe this to be a big strong point in its favor.

In terms of the hardware that makes the wheels go round, the Xperia Play relies on a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon chip, which comes with an Adreno 205 GPU. Neither is a slouch, but it's obvious that more could, and perhaps should, have been included in this bargain. Looking around at the spring / summertime smartphone landscape, a potential Play buyer will be confronted by Motorola's Atrix and Droid Bionic, LG's Optimus 2X and Optimus 3D, Samsung's Galaxy S II, and HTC's EVO 3D -- all of whom tout dual-core SOCs and generous apportionments of RAM. Oh yes, about the RAM. There's only 400MB of it on the Xperia Play, don't ask us why. It may seem overly demanding to expect every new smartphone to match up to those benchmark destroyers, but we must remember the Xperia Play is about gaming and games will make use of every last ounce of performance you can give them. As it stands, it's a healthy and sprightly device today, but do be aware of the gathering storm clouds above its future. It's simply not powerful enough for us to give you any assurances about its long-term viability.

We found battery life a little lacking. There's a robust 1500mAh cell inside this handset, but we could only stretch it to about 22 hours under our light use test. It was a day's worth of sporadic use, where checking up on things like Gmail, Twitter and Facebook updates was the phone's most regular exercise. For a comparison, the similarly outfitted -- MSM8255 with Adreno 205 -- Incredible S from HTC managed to squeak past the 50-hour mark in spite of having a battery with 50mAh less juice. Again, both were subjected to light workloads that are unlikely to be representative of everyone's daily routine, but the delta in endurance between the two phones was striking. Not to put too fine a point on it, but something tells us all those software bells and whistles on the Play (hello, Timescape!) are working against Sony Ericsson here. On the bright side, throwing some actual gaming action its way didn't obliterate the battery quite as badly as we feared it might. Our overall impression (from admittedly limited testing) is that this will clearly not be an endurance smartphone because of its software overhead, but Sony Ericsson's promises of five and a half hours of continuous gameplay seem well within reach.

Display

Another thing that's taxing the Play's battery unduly is its screen. The default brightness setting for it is at the very maximum and once you use it for a while, you realize why. It's very dim. We're not talking about it being mediocre or some way short of the best, it's so lacking in brightness that it's borderline dysfunctional. Taking the phone out for an afternoon outside, we couldn't play Crash Bandicoot even on the bus, never mind out in the direct glare of the sun. It's not an unqualified disaster, as viewing angles are pretty wide, the 854 x 480 resolution is decent, and under the right circumstances you can obtain some pleasantly vibrant images from it, but it's still one the worst screens we've seen on a review phone -- hell, review hardware of any kind. This was most apparent to us outdoors when we used it side by side with Sony Ericsson's own Xperia Arc, the latter handset giving us better contrast, saturation, and of course, brightness. Both phones lack an auto-brightness option in their settings, which is a weird omission on Sony Ericsson's part, even if in the case of the Play it'd just be kept at max anyway.

Camera

Speaking of omissions, has anyone at SE HQ heard about the little trend of making 720p video recording a de facto standard feature in high-end Android smartphones? Because, well, the Xperia Play doesn't have it. We know full well that the hardware's capable of it -- a 5 megapixel imager sits round the back, so more than enough pixels can be pulled together to saturate a 1280 x 720 frame, and the 1GHz Snapdragon under the hood pretty much snorts with indignation at the routine task of processing such workloads at 30fps. What gives, we don't know, but the video you do get, recorded at a maximum of 800 x 480, isn't all that great anyhow. The recordings produced during our testing tended to be very soft, with noise suppression algorithms seemingly working overtime to ensure the smudgy appearance. That issue was compounded by poor microphone performance, which muffled and straight up distorted some of the sounds it picked up during recording.

Things look much brighter on the still imaging front, however, where we churned out some highly satisfactory results without requiring an excess of effort. Options on Sony Ericsson's custom software are a little limited, but you can adjust exposure, white balance, and focusing mode, which should still be sufficient for most users. Especially praiseworthy among those controls is the Macro mode on the Play, which allowed us to get seriously up close and personal with some of our subjects. On the downside, the Play's camera struggles to focus in low light and noise is no less an issue here than on most other smartphone sensors. One fanciful idea we had, in the absence of a dedicated physical shutter button, was that Sony Ericsson could have used the right shoulder key to double up as one. It's in just about the perfect location for the task and we can't see anything preventing SE (or some enterprising hackers, perchance?) from hooking it up to the picture-taking software. Overall, it's a decent to good camera with some disappointing video recording tacked on.

Software

PlayStation Pocket

As with the hardware section, we'll get straight to the PlayStation meat of the Xperia Play software matter. Two apps will be of foremost interest here: the not at all confusingly named Xperia Play, which serves as a showcase for Android Market games compatible with the Play's controls, and the PlayStation Pocket, which houses the hallowed PS One games that this new smartphone is so primed to enjoy. For the moment at least, we should probably narrow that down to the singular game, since the Play ships with just the one preloaded classic title, Crash Bandicoot, and the rest of the PS One library is still en route. That puts the Play's launch, coming up on April 1st across Europe, into a rather precarious position. It's supposed to be the bringer of great new entertainments to the thumb-equipped masses and yet we're staring at just one original piece of content upon its release. Bruce Lee, FIFA 10, Star Battalion HD, and The Sims 3 do come preloaded to soften the blow, but they're not exclusive to the Play, and in the particular case of The Sims, don't even benefit very much from the physical controls. Still, they're there and the means to accessing them is actually pretty swish. Opening up the slider kicks you straight into the Xperia Play app, where the games you already have on the device are split out from the list of purchasable compatible titles, meaning you're never more than a slide and a tap away from leaping into action.

Loading times for the games aboard the Play were quite tolerable indeed -- nothing was instant, but only the most impatient of gamer would find them a nuisance. In-game performance also gave us no cause for complaint, with smooth frame rates throughout. The basics look to have been well taken care of. One drawback we should highlight, however, is the fact that most, if not all, PS One games were coded for displays with a 4:3 ratio. That means either zooming or stretching the game in order to fill the widescreen panel on the Xperia Play. Both options are available to you in the settings, but Crash was already looking pretty aliased without us zooming in for a closer inspection. Not an ideal situation, but that's where we find ourselves. At least until Sony decides it's a good idea to drop its vast catalog of PSP games atop this device, then we'll have no such worries.

The gamepad is not abandoned completely once you stray outside the gaming arena, as you're able to navigate through lists with the D-pad and select and cancel things with the X and O keys. It's a somewhat inconsistent affair, as this integration doesn't permeate everything on the Play, but we found it useful in the browser and messaging apps.

Android à la Sony Ericsson

The OS underlying SE's new hero device is of course Android. Version 2.3.2 (aka Gingerbread) is shipping out on retail devices, marking this as one of the first non-Google handsets to come preloaded with Mountain View's latest and greatest. That means much-improved text manipulation thanks to the addition of new selection anchors, a general sprucing up of visuals, and a set of extra APIs with a gaming bent. Wonder why Sony Ericsson wanted to run its gaming device atop this platform, eh? Nonetheless, the company's UI designers haven't been sitting around exercising their thumbs and there's a vast amount of aesthetic tweaking done on top of Android. Almost all of it is for the better, in our opinion, as the whole UI benefits from a look of sophistication and maturity that Android has generally lacked. The phone interface is spacious and welcoming, while the contacts and messaging interfaces are extremely attractive, sensibly laid out, and utterly delicious to scroll through. Talk about optimization! The contacts section can also be navigated more rapidly just by initials and, if you have Twitter accounts associated with your buds' numbers, it shows you a snippet of their latest update, very handy. Moreover, entering individual contacts' pages shows their profile pictures nicely blended with the background, reinforcing the overarching theme of refined design. Thankfully, Sony Ericsson's alterations all look to be skin-deep, giving us some cause to believe the company's pledge that it'll be quick in responding to new Android rollouts from the Google mothership. Time will only tell.

There are some downsides to the skinning efforts on the Play, however, as might be expected. One is the aforementioned issue of the battery seemingly running down quicker than it ought to, which you can always offset by making your own adjustments, but obviously that's no great consolation for those hoping the device would just work like it should straight out of the box. Another thing we noticed was that Timescape, albeit a mere removable widget now instead of the overwhelming leviathan it was on the Xperia X10, was still susceptible to slow performance and even the occasional freeze-up. It remains an extremely graphically demanding tool, what with all its overlays and three-dimensional animations, so that's no surprise, but we still enjoy our user experience more without it than with it. It wasn't entirely alone in showing slowdowns, we experienced a few, very minor, hangups and delays while using the Play, but couldn't find any repeatable bugs to report. It feels a mostly solid build, though it's a little disappointing that the aforementioned smoothness of operation in the customized messaging and contacts apps doesn't carry over to the rest of the UX.

Browser performance is mostly decent, but we've definitely seen faster, whether you're talking other Android devices, Windows Phone 7 or iOS. Pinch-to-zoom and scrolling commands are executed, but in a slightly labored fashion. Aliasing is also apparent when zooming out from pages, not unlike what we saw on the Incredible S recently. Finally, SE's onscreen portrait keyboard is a little too cramped for our liking, with the letters being tall but not altogether wide enough to make for comfortable typing. Sony Ericsson might have done well to just stick with the default Gingerbread provision here.

Wrap-up

We've reached out to Sony Ericsson asking for a roadmap of when we can expect the PlayStation Suite and more PlayStation One titles to roll up on the Xperia Play bandwagon and make it worth joining. As it stands today, on the day of review and the precipice of its launch, the Play is looking out on a pretty barren gaming landscape. The Android titles up for grabs are not exclusive to the device and don't necessarily benefit all that greatly from its unique control scheme, whereas the catalog of classic PlayStation content stops after just one entry.

So with almost no differentiating software of its own, the Play is really relying on the strength of its gamepad to round up willing participants in its gaming revolution. We concur that that's indeed the phone's main strength, with good ergonomics and an extremely durable sliding mechanism. Nonetheless, the poor quality of the screen and good, but not great, hardware spec force us to be reluctant about recommending it as a sage purchase at present. Perhaps it picks up a loyal following, from both developers and fans alike, and within a few short weeks, we're all looking at a device with a rich ecosystem of compelling tailor-made content and a ton of reasons to own it. But as for today? We'd rather spend our cash elsewhere in the Android cosmos and hold out hope for the PlayStation Phone 2.0.

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Samsung Galaxy Mini S5570 Review: Right on the mini

Introduction

Minis are supposed to be the cheaper, stripped down version of the bigger and superior gadgets. There’s a long list of bigger and superior siblings for the Samsung Galaxy Mini S5570 to choose from but it has its own two feet to stand on.

Samsung Galaxy Mini S5570 official photos

So, the Galaxy Mini is the last shake of the bag. It will never get to rub shoulders with the big and scary smartphones. But it’s not all bad you know. Not bad at all actually for what basically is an entry level smartphone with complete connectivity, social networking, internet, Android apps and music. It’s the right kind of device for smartphone newbies. A good option if you just don’t want to spend a truck-load of money on a smartphone.

Key Features

• Quad-Band GSM and dual-band 3G support
• 7.2 Mbps HSDPA
• 3.14” 256K-color QVGA TFT touchscreen
• ARMv6 600MHz processor, 384MB RAM
• Android OS v2.2 (Froyo) with TouchWiz v3.0 UI
• 160MB internal storage, hot-swappable MicroSD slot, 2GB card included
• 3.15 MP fixed-focus camera with geotagging
• GPS receiver with A-GPS
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• 3.5mm audio jack
• Document editor
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Swype text input
• MicroUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth 2.1
• Social network integration
• Good build, youthful styling

Main disadvantages

• Low screen resolution limits choice of apps
• Fixed focus camera
• No secondary video-call camera
• No flash, no dedicated camera key
• Poor video recording QVGA @ 15fps

The Galaxy Mini was not made to impress. It was made to serve and be simple to use. It’s a solid little smartphone that has all the important ingredients. It can do most of the things your Galaxy S can, just without the stuff that pushes the price up.

Samsung Galaxy Mini S5570 live shots

With this one, Samsung look to encourage their loyal users to consider a smartphone. Versatility and friendliness make Android quite inviting. The Mini has the specs to back that up too.

Budget-conscious users are having a range of competing phones to choose from and the Samsung Galaxy Mini will have to work harder to get noticed. But the right price tag will put it on the radar of the young, novice smartphone users. That gives the Mini something to start with.

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