HACKING TRICK
Android phone
Samsung Galaxy Nexus Review: Sleek and Speedy
We’ve been clamoring to get our hands on the Galaxy Nexus ever
since its unveiling in Hong Kong back in October. Finally, at long
last, the U.S. version of the Galaxy Nexus has landed in our office. So
is the Galaxy Nexus, the first phone to run Android Ice Cream Sandwich,
everything we hoped it would be? Mostly, yes. The Galaxy Nexus ($300
with a two-year contract, as of December 16, 2011) impresses with
lightning-fast performance, strong data speeds, a thin design, and, of
course, all of that Ice Cream Sandwich goodness.
It isn’t perfect, however. The camera isn’t outstanding, and the
handset has no expandable memory slot. But as it stands, the Galaxy
Nexus is the best Android phone currently available.
Design
The
Galaxy Nexus is one fine-lookin’ piece of hardware. The glossy display,
piano-black bezel, and textured back are all standard Samsung design
elements. But unlike other Samsung Galaxy phones I’ve reviewed, the
Galaxy Nexus feels high quality. At 5.1 ounces, it has a nice
substantial weight to it without being too heavy. As you can see from
the photos, the Galaxy Nexus has a subtle curve, which nicely contours
to the hand. If you have small hands like me, however, you might find
the Galaxy Nexus a bit large (it measures 5.33 by 2.67 by 0.37 inches).
The Galaxy Nexus has no physical hardware keys on its face. Instead, the
touch-sensitive Back, Home, and Search keys are built into the display
as soft keys.
Super AMOLED Display (No Plus)
The Galaxy Nexus has a high-def Super AMOLED display--not to be confused with the Super AMOLED Plus technology
found in the Samsung Galaxy S II line of phones. This 1280-by-720-pixel
display is actually based on a PenTile pixel structure in which pixels
share subpixels. Engadgetpoints
out that the Galaxy S II phones have full RGB displays in which the
pixels have their own subpixels. This means that the Galaxy Nexus has
lower overall subpixel density, reduced sharpness, and degraded color
accuracy than the Galaxy S II. But according to site FlatpanelsHD, the Galaxy Nexus has 315 pixels per inch, which is slightly lower than the iPhone 4/4S at 326 ppi.
To be quite honest, the only quality difference I saw between the Galaxy
S II, the Galaxy Nexus, and the iPhone 4S was in color accuracy. Colors
on the Galaxy Nexus had a slight yellowish tint, mainly in pictures or
websites with a white background. Otherwise, blacks looked deep, while
fonts and details appeared sharp. Unless you’re crazy about pixel
density or have insanely sharp eyes, you probably won’t notice the
slight display downgrade.
The display is a roomy 4.65 inches, but really only 4 inches of that
real estate is usable. The remaining 0.65-inch space is occupied by a
customizable shortcut bar that appears at the bottom of the home screens
as well as some other internal screens. Even so, the screen feels
plenty spacious for all of your gaming, video, and other multimedia
desires.
Ice Cream Sandwich: Simply Sweet
We’ve written extensively on Ice Cream Sandwich, and will be doing much
more in-depth coverage in the next few days. For this review, I’ll focus
on how Ice Cream Sandwich performs on the Galaxy Nexus.
If
you’re familiar with Android Honeycomb on tablets, you’ll find a few
familiar features in Ice Cream Sandwich. As in Honeycomb, widgets in Ice
Cream Sandwich are now resizable on the home screen. You'll also find a
dedicated on-screen Recent Apps button for seeing all of your open
apps; just as on Android tablets, it displays a scrollable list of
running apps with thumbnail images. Flicking through and switching
between apps is not as speedy as I would like it to be, however--I
encountered a noticeable delay when going from one app to another.
You’ve probably heard a lot of buzz about the ability to unlock your
phone with your face. The front-facing camera snaps a picture of you and
then uses facial recognition software the next time you unlock your
phone. It's cool, most definitely, but it's not the most secure way of
protecting your phone. As Google warns, somebody who looks similar to
you can unlock your phone with their face. Nevertheless, face unlock
works well, and it is a pretty neat--although somewhat
gimmicky--feature.
The Android software keyboard in Ice Cream Sandwich has larger, more
square keys so it is easier to type on (though I still made a few errors
here and there). You now have an option to verbally dictate your text,
as well, though I didn’t always find it accurate. For example, “This is a
test of the auto-dictate feature” translated into “Types of the otter
dictate feature.”
Developers will delight in the dedicated “Developer options,” which let
you access tools such as a CPU usage meter and controls for touchscreen
feedback and the background process limit. It is features like this that
truly make Android a standout operating system. There’s something for
everyone.
The Core Apps
Gmail
gets a face-lift, with a new context-sensitive Action Bar at the bottom
of the screen. The bar changes depending on where in the app you are.
For example, when you’re looking at an email message, you see options to
archive it, trash it, label it, or mark it as unread. When you’re
viewing your inbox, the bar changes to display options for composing new
messages. Adding attachments from your gallery or other folders is now
much easier as well. If you’re a heavy Gmail user like me, you’ll really
appreciate these updates.
The browser in Ice Cream Sandwich is just about as close as you can get
to a desktop one. You can now set the browser to request full desktop
versions of sites, not the lesser mobile versions. You can also sync
your bookmarks from the desktop Chrome browser to the Browser app in Ice
Cream Sandwich. Google has added support for tabbed browsing, and you
can quickly view which tabs are open, each with a live preview of that
page.
Google Calendar pretty much runs my life, so I was pleased to see a
cleaner, easier-to-read version of it in Ice Cream Sandwich. I also
appreciate the fact that you can pinch-to-zoom in on a particular
calendar event to see more information about it; previously you had to
tap on the calendar event, and it would open a new window. Like all of
the other core-apps updates, Google has made everything in the Calendar
more efficient and easier to use.
Unfortunately, Google Wallet is not supported on the Galaxy Nexus--despite the fact that the phone’s hardware supports NFC.
Performance
The Galaxy Nexus is powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz Texas Instruments OMAP
4460 processor, with 1GB of RAM and 16GB or 32GB of storage. The Galaxy
Nexus scored well on all of our benchmark tests (which includes the
Sunspider JavaScript benchmark and the GLBenchmark). Interestingly, the
Nexus’s overall score was about the same as the mark of the Motorola
Droid Razr, which has a 1.2GHz TI OMAP 4430 processor. The Samsung
Galaxy S II for T-Mobile scored slightly higher overall than the Galaxy
Nexus.
We also ran the Qualcomm-developed Vellamo benchmarking app, on which the Galaxy Nexus earned a score of 803. (The Droid Razr got
a score of 1040, which put it ahead of the Samsung Galaxy S II.) This
score puts the Galaxy Nexus ahead of the Samsung Skyrocket and the HTC
EVO 3D. Because Vellamo was made by a competitor to Texas Instruments,
we tend to take these results with a grain of salt.
We’re lucky enough to get very strong 4G LTE coverage here in San
Francisco. In my tests using the FCC-approved Ookla Speedtest app, the
Galaxy Nexus achieved download speeds ranging from 6.69 to 12.11
megabits per second and upload speeds of 21.18 mbps. In other words, the
Galaxy Nexus is blazingly fast.
Call quality over Verizon’s network in San Francisco was consistently
good. I had great coverage everywhere I went in the city. My friends and
family sounded natural, with an ample amount of volume. One of my
friends remarked that my voice sounded “hollow,” but other people I
spoke with were pleased with the quality.
We have not yet finished our formal battery life tests, but the Galaxy
Nexus survived through a whole day of heavy use before I needed to
charge it again.
Camera
At
the Hong Kong unveiling, Google bragged that the camera on the Galaxy
Nexus has zero shutter lag. In my hands-on tests, I found these claims
to be accurate: It processes your photo almost instantly after you press
the shutter key. Another nice feature is the ability to access the
camera from the lock screen rather than having to unlock and then dig
through menus.
Unfortunately, the camera just isn’t of the same caliber as the rest of
the phone. The photos I shot with the Galaxy Nexus’s 5-megapixel camera looked a bit flat. Colors seemed a touch washed out, and details were a little fuzzy.
But even if your photos don’t come out perfect, Ice Cream Sandwich has
your back with its suite of photo-editing tools. You get an array of
filters (like your very own Hipstamatic app), the capability to adjust
the image angle, red-eye removal, cropping functions, and more. Any
edits you make to a photo will create a copy, in case you ever want to
revert to the original.
In camcorder mode, you can record video in up to 1080p. Video in my
tests looked quite good. The camera handles motion well, with no
artifacting or pixelation. Check out the test clip below.
Bottom Line
The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is a superb phone, and a great vehicle for
introducing Android Ice Cream Sandwich to the world. Android has clearly
come a long way, and the tweaks and updates Google has implemented
throughout the operating system make a huge difference in efficiency and
ease of use. Right now, the Galaxy Nexus is the best Android phone you
can buy.
The arrival of Samsung's Galaxy S II phones
has been a long time coming. We first saw the next generation of
Samsung's popular line of Android phones back in February at Mobile
World Congress. After many successful months in Europe, the Galaxy S II
line of phones is finally coming to U.S. shores. The first of the
phones, theSamsung Epic Touch 4G($200 with a two-year contract with Sprint; price as of September 12, 2011) will be available starting on September 16.
The
Epic Touch might be a bit larger than the previous generation of
phones, but it is incredibly thin. Measuring 5.1 inches by 2.7 inches by
0.38 inch, the Touch feels pretty comfortable in hand--and this is
coming from somebody with small hands! Samsung phones have a bit of a
reputation for being plasticky, and the Epic Touch unfortunately falls
under that descriptor. In her hands on of
the Epic Touch at Samsung's launch even, my colleague Melanie Pinola
remarked that it felt "less refined" than AT&T's Galaxy S II
version.
2)Samsung Epic Touch 4G
Samsung Epic Touch 4G for Sprint: Slim and Speedy
The arrival of Samsung's Galaxy S II phones
has been a long time coming. We first saw the next generation of
Samsung's popular line of Android phones back in February at Mobile
World Congress. After many successful months in Europe, the Galaxy S II
line of phones is finally coming to U.S. shores. The first of the
phones, theSamsung Epic Touch 4G($200 with a two-year contract with Sprint; price as of September 12, 2011) will be available starting on September 16.
Ridiculously Thin
The
Epic Touch might be a bit larger than the previous generation of
phones, but it is incredibly thin. Measuring 5.1 inches by 2.7 inches by
0.38 inch, the Touch feels pretty comfortable in hand--and this is
coming from somebody with small hands! Samsung phones have a bit of a
reputation for being plasticky, and the Epic Touch unfortunately falls
under that descriptor. In her hands on of
the Epic Touch at Samsung's launch even, my colleague Melanie Pinola
remarked that it felt "less refined" than AT&T's Galaxy S II
version.
On the bottom of the phone, you'll find the MHL port, a feature we've
seen on many of this year's high-end smartphones. The MHL specification,
which stands for Mobile High Definition Link, is a 1080p HD video and
digital audio interface for connecting smartphones and other portable
devices (tablets, cameras, and the like) to HDTVs. So what's the big
deal? It simultaneously provides power to your phone--something that
HDMI cables don't do.
Super AMOLED Plus Display
The 4.52-inch Super AMOLED Plus display on the Epic Touch is quite nice,
but text isn't quite as sharp as what we saw on the European Galaxy S
II. The Epic Touch's display is slightly larger than the European
version (which has a 4.3-inch display) so it seems like the text
sharpness may have been compromised by larger screen real estate. The
text is still quite readable, but it is something I noticed right away
upon using the phone.
Otherwise, the display's colors looked bright, details were crisp, and
the viewing angles were very good. Blacks were deep, and colors were
richly saturated without being overdone. Even when held in direct
sunlight, the Epic Touch's display remained incredibly visible. Whites
had a bit of a bluish tint, but it wasn't too noticeable. According to
Samsung, Super AMOLED Plus displays have 50 percent more subpixels than
the first-generation Super AMOLED displays (seen on the Vibrant, Mesmerize, and other Galaxy S phones) and perform even better than their predecessors in bright light.
Android Gingerbread With TouchWiz 4.0
The revamped TouchWiz 4.0 is fairly similar to the previous version, but
it has a few aesthetic and functional enhancements here and there. For
instance, the new lock screen displays missed calls and unread text
messages; you can swipe these notifications rather than having to unlock
your phone and then dig through menus to find the missed messages. The
Epic Touch's keyboard isn't the native Android one, but it retains the
multitouch key-chording feature (you can simultaneously press Shift and a
letter to produce a symbol or number--no need to switch between modes)
and the ability to use your voice to correct words as you type.
Taking a page from (or directly ripping off) HTC Sense,
TouchWiz lets you pinch your homescreen to see thumbnail-size versions
of all of your screens. Samsung borrowed another feature from HTC Sense,
too: When the phone is ringing or playing music, you can silence it by
flipping it face-down on a surface.
Contacts gets some cool new gesture-based functions. Swipe right on a
friend's name, and you'll start a call with them; swipe left on their
name, and you'll jump to the SMS composer, which you can use to send
them a text message. Each of your contact's cards comes with your
communication history--for example, when you last called, texted, or
emailed the person.
One funny new feature is the ability to reject a call by sending a text
message. Let's say that your brother is calling to ask when you're going
to pay him back for dinner the other night. A menu will come up giving
you the option to answer the call, hang up, or reject it with a text
that says "I'll pay you back tomorrow!"
All of Samsung's Galaxy S II phones have six-axis motion sensing,
powered by an accelerometer and a gyroscope. This feature is great for
gaming, but Samsung also throws in some gesture-based phone controls.
For example, you can zoom in and out of images in your gallery or in the
browser by tilting the phone. This feature feels a bit awkward and
unnecessary, however; I can't see myself ever using it.
TouchWiz isn't for everyone, so be sure to spend some time with it before purchasing a Galaxy S II phone.
Multimedia and Apps
Because this is a Sprint phone, you'll find all of the usual bloatware:
Sprint Music Plus, Sprint Radio, Sprint TV and Movies, and Sprint
NASCAR. You also get a game called N.O.V.A. HD and various
apps--including Samsung's AllShare app for sharing media over DLNA
servers.
Perhaps the coolest app Samsung provides on the phone (and on all Galaxy
S II phones we've seen) is the company's own Kies Air. The app lets you
view call logs, videos, photos, bookmarks, and IMs, and send SMS
messages from PC. In order for the app to work, you'll have to install
it on your PC and connect it to the same Wi-Fi network as your phone.
Like all Galaxy S phones, the Epic Touch provides the Media Hub for
movie and TV-watching. Video looked fantastic on the handset's display
and played back smoothly. Even if you don't like Samsung's Media Hub,
you'll want to watch a lot of movies and TV shows on this phone. Unlike
the European version, the Epic Touch 4G does not have the Readers or
Music Hub for purchasing ebooks or MP3s, respectively.
Performance
Like the AT&T Galaxy S phone, the Epic Touch is powered by a 1.20GHz
dual-core Samsung Exynos processor. The Epic Touch booted up in 20
seconds, which is pretty fast; in contrast, theDroid Bionic took 43 seconds to turn on fully.
We also tested the phone using Qualcomm's new benchmarking app, Vellamo,
to see how a Samsung processor would fare against its competitors. The
Epic Touch 4G earned a very impressive score of 914, putting it right
behind the Galaxy Tab 10.1 for overall performance and ahead of two
phones running Qualcomm chips--the HTC Sensation 4G and the HTC EVO 3D.
You should take these results with a grain of salt, since Qualcomm
manufactures the app, but the data is interesting to compare.
I experienced reliably good Sprint WiMax 4G coverage in San Francisco. I
had a strong 4G signal pretty much everywhere I went in the city.
Sprint's 4G network paired with the Samsung Exynos dual-core processor
makes for some excellent Web browsing, too. Over 4G, PCWorld.com (the
full site) loaded in a speedy 12.1 seconds. Image-heavy site
TheBoldItalic.com loaded in 10.1 seconds, and media-heavy
ThrasherMagazine.com loaded in 13.6 seconds.
Of course, 4G coverage and signal strength vary depending on where you
live in the country and whether your city even offers 4G. We have good
4G coverage in San Francisco; but in our 4G Phone Shootout, Sprint had the poorest country-wide coverage.
Call quality over Sprint was very good overall. My friends and family
said that they could hear my voice perfectly and described it as
sounding natural.
Superb 8-Megapixel Camera
When
we reviewed the European version of the Galaxy S II, we were impressed
by its 8-megapixel camera. Luckily, Samsung seems not to have changed
the sensor for the U.S. versions. The Epic Touch took excellent photos
indoors and out. My only complaint is that colors in my indoor photos
looked a bit oversaturated. Details were quite sharp and I didn't detect
any graininess or pixelation. The shutter speed on the camera was fast
enough to capture photos of sports, kids, and other quick-moving
subjects. Again, I must lament the lack of a physical shutter button, but the camera's quality makes up for it.
Like the Motorola Photon 4G, HTC Sensation 4G, and the LG Optimus 3D,
the Epic Touch 4G supports up to 1080p HD video capture. Video quality
was good: The Epic Touch could handle fast-moving cars and slower-moving
people without distortion or pixelation.
Bottom Line
We'll be conducting formal lab testing over the next few days, but right
now, it looks as though the Epic Touch 4G is the fastest Android
smartphone out there. On top of its speediness, it has a superslim
design, a gorgeous display, and a superb camera. My only complaint is
the amount of carrier and manufacturer-added bloatware on the phone, but
that's pretty much par for the course these days
First
and foremost, the Evo 3D is a gorgeous phone. Like the Evo 4G, the Evo
3D is black with blood-red detailing. Keeping it in the family, the Evo View Android tablet,
also announced today, has the same color scheme. The Evo 3D smartphone
feels solid, but not bulky in the least. It has a nice, textured rubber
backing and a slimmer shape that feels good in hand.
3)HTC Evo 3D
HTC Evo 3D Review: Dual-Core, 3D Display, 4G Speeds
I'm not sold on 3D for consumer devices,
and I'm certainly skeptical of it on a smartphone-size screen. However,
Sprint and HTC make a great team, so I decided to keep an open mind
about the HTC Evo 3D.
Did the Evo 3D change my opinion of 3D phones? Well, let's just say it
is a very good thing that there's more to this phone than just a 3D
display.
Solid, Beautiful Design
First
and foremost, the Evo 3D is a gorgeous phone. Like the Evo 4G, the Evo
3D is black with blood-red detailing. Keeping it in the family, the Evo View Android tablet,
also announced today, has the same color scheme. The Evo 3D smartphone
feels solid, but not bulky in the least. It has a nice, textured rubber
backing and a slimmer shape that feels good in hand.
With the battery in place, the HTC Evo 3D weighs 6 ounces. It measures
about 5 inches tall, nearly 3 inches wide, and 0.47 inches thick. Its
display is a 4.3-inch 3D touchscreen with a sheet of Gorilla Glass for
added toughness. Unlike the Evo 4G, the Evo 3D doesn't sport a
kickstand--mainly because the twin 3D cameras occupy most of the space
on the rear.
3D Display
One of the most important features of the Evo 3D is, of course, its 3D display.
The phone uses parallax barriers to display 3D images and video,
without the need for clunky 3D glasses (similar to the concept used on
the Nintendo 3DS). The Evo 3D's 4.3-inch qHD 960-by-540-pixel screen
looks terrific in 2D--and pretty good in 3D, as well. Let me be clear,
however: This isn't the kind of 3D you'd see at the movie theater.
Images aren't exactly flying in your face. Rather, it looks like you can
peer into the phone much like a diorama.
You need to maintain an absolute dead-on viewing angle to properly
appreciate the third dimension, though. If you're viewing at a slight
angle, the image will look like a blurry mess. This can be difficult
with a small screen. With an image or a short video clip, it isn't too
hard to hold the phone directly in front of your eyes for a few seconds.
And don't even think about trying to watch 3D movies outside; it
completely fades in bright sunlight. If you don't want to view 3D images
and prefer to stick to the standard 2D display, a toggle switch on the
side of the device allows you to turn the effect off.
New HTC Sense User Interface
Like the HTC Sensation, the Evo 3D comes with the latest version of the Sense user interface.
Sense 3.0 has a brand-new customizable lock screen. You can pick a
theme for your lock screen (the phone offers quite a few to choose from)
and then select four apps that you visit the most. When you turn on
your phone, you'll see those four apps at the bottom of the screen. To
unlock your phone, you drag the circle and move it over an app; you then
jump straight to that app. That way, you don't have to go through
multiple menus to reach your e-mail or any other items you access
frequently.
The new version of Sense also has a spruced-up Walls system. Rather than
having to flick back and forth between your walls, as you do in the
stock Android operating system, you can flick the Evo 3D's screen to
make the walls spin. The effect is slightly reminiscent of a carousel
and makes navigation a little easier.
You'll find a clutch of new widgets in Sense, but my favorite is the
gorgeous new Weather widget. HTC has a nice tradition of creating visual
weather apps, and it is cool to see the company continue to improve
them. They might not always be pretty, but they sure are dramatic.
Performance
The Evo 3D is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.
The Snapdragon processor supports advanced 3D technology, including
full 1080p 30-frames-per-second HD video and stereoscopic 3D video
capture and playback.
So how much of a difference does dual-core make? We matched the Evo 3D
up against its predecessor, the HTC Evo 4G (a single-core device), and
there's quite a big difference--one you'll notice as soon as you turn on
the phone. The Evo 4G had a startup time of 74 seconds (!), while the
Evo 3D had a much faster
startup time of 13.7 seconds. File transfer speed was about the same
for both phones, with the Evo 4G clocking in at 7.8 megabits per second
versus the Evo 3D with 7.2 megabits per second.
We also conducted two gaming performance tests using GLBenchmark, a
software suite that tests the quality and performance of OpenGL
graphics. We conducted two tests: one with antialiasing on, and one with
it off. (Antialiasing is a graphics setting present in many games and
is intended to make gameplay graphics look smoother--for a full
explanation of the pros and cons of antialiasing, check out Geek 101: Making Sense of Anti-Aliasing).
We measured the graphics in frames per second (fps)--the more frames
per second, the smoother the animations and graphics. The difference
between the single-core Evo 4G and the dual-core Evo 3D is huge: With
antialiasing off, the Evo 4G averaged 5.7 fps while the Evo 3D averaged
36.5 fps.
We're currently testing other dual-core phones, including the HTC
Sensation and the LG T-Mobile G2x, to see how the Evo 3D's Snapdragon
chipset stacks up against its Tegra 2 competitors.
3D Camera and Video Capture
Despite my mixed feelings about 3D, there's something quite satisfying
about capturing 3D images or videos and then being able to watch them on
the same device. But you can also view them on any 3D TV with the help
of the phone's HDMI-out jack. The HDMI jack uses a technology called MHL(Mobile High-Definition Link) that allows both charging and HDMI-out via the same port.
Like the Sensation 4G, the Evo 3D comes loaded with Watch, HTC's new
movie and TV-show streaming service. With Watch, you can download videos
and start viewing them immediately. Watch is well integrated into
Sense, making it easier to find the videos you want to, um, watch. The
app's interface is clean, and movies are easy to find, but the library
is pretty sparse at this point. You'll find some newly released movies
like Due Date and some classics like Top Gun. If you're looking for something in particular, though, you're not likely to find it (no Spinal Tap!). A few popular TV shows like Chuck and Gossip Girl are available, but you're limited to one or two seasons of episodes.
Data Speeds and Call Quality
The Evo is also juiced with Sprint's 4G data speeds,
and it comes with a 4G mobile hotspot feature that lets you share your
connection with up to eight devices. I tested the Evo 3D's data speeds
using the FCC Speedtest app in the South Park area of San Francisco. The
Evo 3D achieved average download speeds of 3.59 megabits per second and
average upload speeds of 1.42 mbps. This is in line with other 4G
Sprint phones we have tested in the past. And thank goodness for the 4G
widget on Sprint phones, which makes it easy to switch 4G on and off
(this setting is buried in the Settings menu on Verizon's 4G phones).
Call quality over Sprint's network in San Francisco was okay, though it could be uneven at times.
Bottom Line
The Evo 3D is a powerful phone--3D or not. My opinion of 3D remains
pretty much the same: It is fun to watch short videos in 3D or take 3D
photos, but it is definitely still a novelty feature. That said, the Evo
3D's design is gorgeous, and the combination of dual-core Snapdragon
processors with 4G can't be beat. It is definitely the best phone on
Sprint, and a worthy successor to the original Evo
The
HTC Rezound ($300 with a new two-year contract as of January 3, 2012)
is one of the more capable devices released in the past year. With beefy
specs, including a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor and Verizon LTE 4G connectivity, the Rezound holds its own against other Verizon smartphones.
4)HTC Rezound
HTC Rezound Review: A High-Performance Android Phone
The
HTC Rezound ($300 with a new two-year contract as of January 3, 2012)
is one of the more capable devices released in the past year. With beefy
specs, including a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor and Verizon LTE 4G connectivity, the Rezound holds its own against other Verizon smartphones.Design
With a 4.3-inch, 1280-by-720-resolution super LCD screen, the Rezound is
definitely on the larger side. Although the phone may not fit in
everyone’s pocket, the roomy display is great for watching movies and
playing games. At 6 ounces, the Rezound can feel a bit hefty, but that
weight also makes the phone feel rock solid.
Like most other HTC phones, the Rezound has a straightforward design. On
the front of the device are the four standard Android navigation
buttons (Home, Menu, Back, and Search), as well as a 2-megapixel
front-facing camera. The back of the Rezound sports an 8-megapixel
camera with dual-LED flash, and it has a soft rubber surface that feels
nice in the hand. The volume rocker and power button sit flush with the
rest of the phone, giving it a very streamlined look, but also making
them somewhat difficult to press. Buttons aside, the Rezound is still
very well designed.
Specs and Performance
When it comes to specs, the Rezound is a beast. The dual-core 1.5GHz
Snapdragon processor keeps the phone feeling zippy and is great for
running graphics-intensive games such as Grand Theft Auto 3 and Dead Space.
Unfortunately all that power comes with a price: The Rezound’s battery
life is less than optimal. After I spent 3 hours playing games, browsing
the Web, and downloading apps over LTE, our fully charged test Rezound
had only 30 percent of the battery remaining. The Rezound has several
different modes to help regulate power consumption; if you are a heavy
apps user, however, you will want to invest in an extended battery pack.
We will update this section once we put the Rezound through our
official battery tests.
The high-resolution display looks great, but it sometimes lagged when I
pressed a button or swiped between home screens. This usually occurred
after I exited an app, but it didn’t happen enough to be a nuisance.
The Rezound takes advantage of Verizon’s blazing LTE network. Here in
San Francisco, I was able to download several hundred megabytes' worth
of data in only a few short minutes over a strong connection. Using the
FCC-approved Ookla Speed Test app, I clocked download speeds of around
11.55 megabits per second, and upload speeds of about 10.38 mbps. Call
quality was even, with no hiss or static. The people I called said that I
came through clearly, and that they couldn’t hear any background noises
in my call.
Software
The Rezound runs HTC Sense over Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and comes with
a handful of preloaded software. The Amazon Kindle app, Blockbuster
Mobile, Polaris Office, and Slacker Radio all come preinstalled, along
with the full version of Need for Speed Hot Pursuit and a demo of Let’s
Golf 2. While some of these apps may be useful and entertaining, it’s a
shame that you have no option to uninstall any of them should you not
want them cluttering your phone.
The HTC Sense overlay runs well on the Rezound, and brings along a few
features that are missing from stock Gingerbread. The lock screen allows
you to launch applications quickly without having to unlock your phone
first, and the notification bar contains a list of recently opened
applications for easier multitasking. The Rezound is slated to receive Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) sometime later this year; it will be interesting to see how Sense interacts with the new OS.
Entertainment
If you like to use your smartphone as a media player, you will be interested to learn that the Rezound has built-in Beats Audio for
better listening. When you plug in Beats Audio-compatible headphones,
the Beats Audio software will enable itself and will supposedly
“enhance” the audio.
In my tests, I concluded that the Beats Audio software does make music
sound better when enabled--but only because normal playback sounds
muffled and murky. You’ll want to keep the Beats Audio software enabled
whenever you listen to music on the Rezound. If you don’t happen to have
Beats-compatible headphones already, try the pair that HTC has
graciously included along with the phone. Although they aren't the best
headphones ever, they do a better job than most headphones you find
prepackaged with phones these days.
The HD episode of Doctor Who that
I watched on the Rezound looked excellent, and streaming video over LTE
worked flawlessly. As I mentioned earlier, the Rezound’s robust
processor makes it awesome for games, and a few hours of playing Dead
Space on the Rezound certainly made my daily commute enjoyable.
Camera
The
8-megapixel camera on the Rezound is decent enough for everyday photos,
but performs poorly in dimly lit environments. In areas with good
lighting, colors can look washed out, and objects can sometimes have a
reddish tint. The front-facing camera offers good image quality, but you
most likely won’t use it for anything besides a few self-portraits.
The Rezound is capable of recording in 1080p, and it did well at picking
up audio. It produced a mild jelly-like effect when recording in 1080p,
but the result wasn't the worst that I’ve seen. Something that I must
commend HTC on is the amount of options available in the camera
software: You can fine-tune various aspects for better photos, including
sharpness, saturation, and exposure, and the Rezound even features a
panorama mode that makes it extremely easy to capture panoramic images.
Bottom Line
The HTC Rezound is one of the best phones available in terms of specs,
and it's perfect for media junkies who like to use their smartphone as a
multimedia player. The high-resolution display is well suited for
movies, and the included Beats Audio headphones are a much-appreciated
bonus. The battery life is weak, however, so you will want to buy an
extended battery or carry a charger around just in case.
Now for the hard part: choosing between the Rezound and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
Both are excellent devices, but the decision comes down to what you are
looking for in a phone. If you want a phone that is always up-to-date
with the latest software, go with the Galaxy Nexus. If you value specs
more and can wait a few months for Ice Cream Sandwich, the Rezound will
suit you just fine
5)T-Mobile MyTouch 4G Slide
T-Mobile MyTouch 4G Slide Review: Best Phone Camera Ever
Earlier this month, T-Mobile announced the latest addition to its MyTouch family, the myTouch 4G Slide($200
with a two-year contract, as of July 15, 2011). The specs look pretty
standard for this summer's slew of high-end smartphones: 4G
connectivity, a 3.7-inch Super LCD screen, Android 2.3 and a dual-core
processor. All of this is great and everything, but what really caught
my eye were the camera's specs. In fact, T-Mobile claims that the Slide
has the most advanced camera of any smartphone available. So how does
the Slide hold up as both a phone and a camera? Read on to find out.
Slider Design
As the name implies, the HTC-built MyTouch 4G Slide has a slide-out full
QWERTY keyboard in addition to a 3.7-inch WVGA super LCD touchscreen.
For a slider phone, I was surprised with how thin the Slide is at only
0.54 inches thick. For comparison, the keyboard-less myTouch 4G is 0.43 inches thick. It weighs a manageable 6.5 ounces.
The keyboard's keys are nicely spaced and large enough, but
unfortunately they are a bit too flat for my liking. I found myself
using Swype on the touch keyboard more than the physical keyboard.
Killer Camera
The
Slide has an 8-megapixel camera and an HD camcorder that can shoot
video in up to 1080p. It also has an array of advanced features. As
phones beat editor, my camera knowledge is pretty basic, so I went to
our cameras beat editor, Tim Moynihan, to decipher some of these specs
and features for me.
The Slide supposedly has zero shutter lag, which sounds good on paper,
but it is something we definitely needed to put to the test. According
to Tim, the autofocus system has to be pretty fast in order to capture
non-blurry images without any delay. Looks like T-Mobile's claims are
true; the Slide's camera was perfectly snappy and smoothly handled every
subject we threw at it.
The camera has a backside illuminated sensor, which is fairly standard
in the most recent crop of point and shoot cameras these days, which
works well for low-light situations without need for a flash. The
Slide's F2.2 lens is a wider aperture than many recent cameras, which
also translates to better low-light shooting without the flash.
The
SweepShot mode is similar to Sony's Sweep Panorama mode, which is very
cool. You press the shutter and move the camera from right-to-left, and
the camera stitches together a panoramic image instantly. This mode is
incredibly fun to play with and the photos look pretty good (see
example) though sometimes they don't stitch up accurately.
The
ClearShot HDR mode is a lot like the iPhone's HDR feature. It snaps a
group of photos in rapid succession at different exposure levels, then
"stacks" them in the camera to bring out highlights in shadowy areas and
create an HDR shot. In my opinion, HDR can either look really cool or
really bizarre and blurry. It is fun to play around with, though (take a
look at the example).
BurstShot is a really unique feature for a phone camera. This mode takes
pictures in rapid succession as you hold the shutter button down
(paparazzi style). BurstShot is useful for snapping photos of
quick-moving objects, like kids and pets.
Macro
mode lets you take close-up shots of objects like the Furby, pictured
here. You can get as close as about three inches to your object before
the camera starts to lose focus. Tim says that this is pretty good, but
there are point-and-shoot cameras that can shoot even closer.
Image quality is excellent for a phone camera. A lot of camera phones
have a difficult time handling colors. Tim said that the Slide is on a
par with $200-to-$300 stand-alone point-and-shoot cameras. According to
Tim, the camera's interface is the best touch interface he's seen on a
camera. It is easy to navigate, responsive, and provides helpful
information for shooting in various environments.
Video quality was very good as well. In my casual tests, the Slide
handled quick-moving objects without any distortion or pixelation. We'll
have full camera and video test results posted next week.
Sense and MyTouch Come Together
The user interface is sort of a mash-up between the latest version of
HTC Sense and the custom-built UI we saw on the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G.
According to T-Mobile, the MyTouch rocks the same version of Sense
(Sense 3.0) as the HTC Sensation (also on HTC). The latest version of
Android, Gingerbread, is running underneath Sense.
You get a new customizable lock screen, which works similarly to the newly announced lock screen in iOS 5.
You can pick a theme for your lock screen (the phone offers quite a few
of them to choose from) and then select four apps that you visit most
frequently. When you turn on your phone, you'll see the four apps at the
bottom of the screen. To unlock the screen, simply drag the circle into
position over an app, at which point you'll jump straight to that app.
Thanks to this feature, you don't have to go through multiple menus to
reach your e-mail or other frequently accessed items.
The new version of Sense has a spruced-up Walls system, too. Rather than
having to flick back and forth between your walls, as you do in the
stock Android operating system, you can flick the Slide's screen to make
the walls spin. The effect is reminiscent of a rotating carousel. And
like the older version of Sense, you can pinch anywhere in your
homescreen to see thumbnail-size images of your walls.
The MyTouch 4G Slide comes with a few preloaded apps including T-Mobile
Video Chat powered by Qik for the front-facing camera and Group Text by
Bobsled, which lets you send and receive text messages with groups of
friends.
Performance
Call quality over T-Mobile's network in San Francisco was reliably good
and I did not experience any dropped calls. My friends on the other end
of the line reported my voice sounded a bit distant, but clear with no
distortion.
T-Mobile's HSPA+ network is weak where our office is located so I tested
the Slide in a number of different locations around the city.
The Slide's dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor (the same you'll
find in the HTC Sensation and the HTC EVO 3D) easily handled all the
apps and media-heavy sites we threw at it. We also tested the phone
using Qualcomm's new benchmarking app, Vellamo. The Slide scored an 803,
placing it right behind the HTC Sensation, also on T-Mobile.
Bottom Line
When I hear about phones with a single headlining feature, like say a
really powerful camera, I worry that the rest of the phone isn't up to
snuff. This isn't the case with the MyTouch 4G Slide, however. The Super
LCD touch display, slim design and software place the Slide at the top
of this year's mega-smartphones. Of course, if you're a serious
photographer, the camera on the Slide probably won't cut it for you. But
if you snap a lot of photos with your phone or don't want to carry both
a phone and a standalone camera at all times, the MyTouch 4G Slide can
get the job done
Considering
the massive screen, the crazy-powerful processor, and the NFC and 4G
support, it’s hard not to fall in love with the Samsung Galaxy S II on
T-Mobile. Available for $220 with a new two-year contract (as of October
10, 2011), the Galaxy S II is a great phone. It has just a few minor
flaws that keep it from being truly amazing.
6)Samsung Galaxy S II (T-Mobile)
T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II Review: A High-Quality, Top-of-the-Line Phone
Considering
the massive screen, the crazy-powerful processor, and the NFC and 4G
support, it’s hard not to fall in love with the Samsung Galaxy S II on
T-Mobile. Available for $220 with a new two-year contract (as of October
10, 2011), the Galaxy S II is a great phone. It has just a few minor
flaws that keep it from being truly amazing.A Tablet-Size Phone
The Galaxy S II boasts the same gigantic, 4.52-inch (480-by-800-pixel resolution) screen we saw on theEpic Touch 4G for
Sprint--and that impressive screen is definitely the phone's biggest
draw. Colors on the Super AMOLED Plus display appear bright and vibrant,
if a little oversaturated. The phone is extremely lightweight, thanks
largely in part to its plastic casing. I was never really a fan of the
plasticky body of the original Galaxy S, but the Galaxy S II feels solid enough that I can overlook it here.
At 5.11 by 2.71 by 0.37 inches, the T-Mobile Galaxy S II is slightly
taller and thicker than the version made for AT&T. When comparing
the two phones side by side, I found that I preferred the AT&T Galaxy S II over
the T-Mobile one simply because it was much more comfortable to hold.
Although larger screens are great for activities such as watching movies
or browsing the Web, I thought that the screen size of the T-Mobile
Galaxy S II seemed like a bit of overkill on Samsung’s part.
The biggest problem I have with the T-Mobile Galaxy S II is how narrow
the bezel is at the sides of the screen. When I navigated the large
screen, the bottom part of my hand would constantly hit one of the
capacitive buttons under the screen, or brush against the bottom quarter
of the touchscreen. Whenever I went to check a notification or enter a
URL in the browser, I also ended up opening a menu or launching the
dialer. In one instance, I was in the middle of composing a text
message, and I wound up closing out of it several times before I could
send it.
Specs and Performance
With a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, the T-Mobile
Galaxy S II is the most powerful one of the bunch. Everything from basic
phone functions to intense 3D games run as smooth as silk. The only
time the phone ever slowed down or got stuck was when I tried unlocking
it: The lock screen hung for about 3 seconds before responding. To be
fair, at the time I was downloading and installing 15 apps at once, so
that could explain the minor hiccup I experienced. The phone comes with a
Task Manager; since the handset has 1GB of RAM, however, you shouldn’t
ever need to use it.
To--ahem--better test how well the Galaxy S II handled games, I downloaded and played Minecraft: Pocket Edition on
the device. The game ran well and looked great on that massive
display--the Galaxy S II makes for an above-average mobile gaming
device. After a good hour of play, I noticed the phone getting really
warm, but it wasn't hot enough to be uncomfortable to hold. I also
noticed that my hour of gameplay had little effect on the battery--I
probably could have squeezed another 2 to 3 hours of Minecraft in if I
were so inclined. After about 4 hours of heavy use over 4G, I managed to
drain the phone’s battery completely. Samsung has rated the phone as
lasting 167 hours on standby, but we’ll have to wait for the PCWorld
Labs to test the phone officially to see if that claim holds up.
Call quality on the T-Mobile Galaxy S II was nice and even in San
Francisco, but the people I called said that I sounded slightly
distorted. The occasional hiss and warping cropped up on my end, but it
was hardly noticeable. Overall I can say that making calls using the
Galaxy S II was an excellent experience.
Using the Speed Test app as an informal network test, I managed to get 3
megabits per second down and 0.44 mbps up in San Francisco. We don’t
have the best T-Mobile 4G coverage here, but those speeds are typical of
what we have seen with past 4G T-Mobile devices.
Software and Extras
The Samsung Galaxy S II runs Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) and has a few
preloaded apps. Netflix comes preinstalled, and runs extremely well over
4G. I could have done without the Blio and Zinio apps, but I can see
their usefulness for people who like to read while on the go.
Being a Samsung phone, the Galaxy S II also sports the latest version of
TouchWiz. Personally, I prefer vanilla Android or the HTC Sense
overlay, but TouchWiz has a few things that I really enjoy. Aside from
the bright and colorful icon set, this iteration of TouchWiz employs
motion controls for basic actions. To zoom in on a Web page, for
instance, you simply place both thumbs on the screen and tilt the phone
forward or backward. I found this motion far more intuitive than
pinch-to-zoom, and far more accurate.
In addition, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the T-Mobile
Galaxy S II comes with a Near Field Communication chip. With such a
chip, the Galaxy S II can read NFC-compatible tags. We haven’t seen many
phones that support NFC, and it’s a neat technology that I wish more
phone manufacturers would include in their devices.
Multimedia
Considering the phone's giant screen, you’ll likely want to watch movies
on this handset. Although I’m not normally a fan of using a phone as a
media player, I can see the appeal of doing so with a display of this
size. If you are adamantly against watching videos on your phone, you
can easily share them with your DLNA-enabled devices using AllShare.
The
phone has 12GB of internal storage, but unfortunately it doesn’t come
with a MicroSD card. The Galaxy S II is a stellar music player, though,
and could easily replace your stand-alone MP3 player. Should you decide
to make the Galaxy S II your primary audio device, the phone comes with a
pair of (mediocre) headphones that you can use.
Photos that I took with the phone's 8-megapixel camera turned out sharp
and clear. Colors seemed a little off, but still looked good overall.
The 2-megapixel front-facing camera also did a good job of capturing
still images, though it works better for video chat. The Galaxy S II
records video at 1080p, and holds its own as a video camera; it picks up
voices nicely, but the footage suffers from a jelly effect when you
move the phone around.
Bottom Line
The Samsung Galaxy S II is the best phone you can buy right now on
T-Mobile. This is a top-of-the-line phone, and it's perfect for people
who love larger screens. Though some people may find the handset a
little too big, the inclusion of 4G and NFC means that this device won't
feel dated down the line. If you crave true power from your smartphone,
and if you want the best that your carrier has to offer, the Galaxy S
II is the phone to get
It’s baaaack: Motorola has resurrected the Razr brand with the Droid Razr ($300
with a new two-year contract with Verizon; price as of 11/7/11). With
its 4.3-inch display, LTE connectivity, and dual-core processor, the Droid Razr is
a far cry from the original flip-style Motorola Razr. What it does have
in common with the original Razr, however, is a superthin, tough
design. It is an almost perfect phone, but the overall experience is
marred by its short battery life.
7)Motorola Droid Razr
Motorola Droid Razr Review: Thin and Fast, but Short on Battery Life
It’s baaaack: Motorola has resurrected the Razr brand with the Droid Razr ($300
with a new two-year contract with Verizon; price as of 11/7/11). With
its 4.3-inch display, LTE connectivity, and dual-core processor, the Droid Razr is
a far cry from the original flip-style Motorola Razr. What it does have
in common with the original Razr, however, is a superthin, tough
design. It is an almost perfect phone, but the overall experience is
marred by its short battery life.Tough, Thin Design
Many years ago, I owned a hot pink Motorola Razr phone. I loved it--maybe a little too much--because I put that thing through a lot.I dropped it, got it wet, carelessly threw it into my bag, and somehow, it still held up despite my torture.
Motorola has carried over that toughness to the Droid Razr, but without
compromising its looks (or thickness). The front of the phone is all
Corning Gorilla Glass with a diamond-cut Motorola nameplate. When I met
with Motorola product managers back when the original Razr launched,
they informed me that its design had been inspired by elements found in
high-end watches.
The soft-touch back is made out of Kevlar, a material found in high-end
speedboats, bulletproof jackets, and bicycle tires. According to
Motorola, Kevlar is five times stronger than steel. Using Kevlar on a
phone seems a bit, well, weird, but I was surprised with how delicate it
felt and how attractive it looked. It feels solid, but not bulky--it
measures 5.5-by-2.71-by-0.28 inches thick. For comparison, the iPhone 4S
is 0.37 inches thick, while the Galaxy Nexus is 0.35 inches thick. The
Droid Razr weighs a manageable 4.48 ounces.
The solid feel comes from the Droid Razr’s stainless steel core. It also
has splashguard technology, which will protect it if you happen to get
caught in the rain or spill something on your phone.
Super AMOLED Display
We’ve knocked other Motorola smartphones, such as the Photon (Sprint) and the Droid Bionic (Verizon) in
the past for its PenTile displays. The Droid Razr, however, ships with a
4.3-inch qHD (Quarter High Definition), 960-by-540-pixel Super AMOLED
display. According the Motorola, the Super AMOLED technology should
solve some of the battery issues associated with LTE phones. This
technology has lower current consumption, which helps to conserve
battery life.
The Droid Razr’s display has excellent viewing angles and visibility
outdoors, two trademarks of Super AMOLED technology. Blacks are very
deep and whites are bright, but colors look a bit oversaturated (another
trademark of Super AMOLED display technology.
I did a side-by-side comparison of the Droid Razr against the iPhone 4S.
The iPhone 4S has a slightly higher resolution at 960-by-640, with a
pixel density of 330 pixels per inch (I could not find any pixel density
information for the Razr). While I appreciated the extra screen real
estate on the Razr, the iPhone 4S’s 3.5-inch display looked sharper,
with better color accuracy.
Software
The
Droid Razr runs Android 2.3.5. It isn’t a pure version of Android, but
it isn’t Motorola’s busy (and often annoying) custom overlay/service,
MotoBlur. It does retain some of the MotoBlur widgets. The interface is
almost identical to that of the Droid Bionic, but with a few tweaks. The
widgets are resizable, and you can scroll through them; in the calendar
widget, for example, you can scroll through a whole day’s worth of
events rather than viewing one event at a time.
Like the Bionic, you get the ZumoCast app/service, though here it has
been renamed MotoCast. MotoCast lets you access remote files on your PC
without having to upload or sync your files. You can access everything
from PowerPoint files to your iTunes playlists on your Razr. Even though
the Razr has plenty of capacity (1GB of RAM, 16GB of on-board storage,
and a preinstalled 16GB MicroSD card), I find it nice to be able to
access videos, documents, photos, and other media files without having
to download them to the device or upload them to a cloud service.
Motorola is determined to solve the LTE battery life situation. Smart
Actions, a new app, lets you set reminders to notify you when you should
recharge your phone (for example, when you go to bed). If you forget to
plug your phone in, you can set a Smart Action called “Nighttime
Battery Saver,” which adjusts your phone’s network and screen settings
to make your battery last longer the next day.
Smart Actions aren’t just about saving battery life. You can create
different profiles (Work, Home, Workout, and so on) and set rules for
each scenario. If you don’t want your phone to ring out loud when you’re
at work, you can set a rule called Quiet Location so your phone
automatically goes into silent mode during work hours. Overall, Smart
Actions is an easy-to-use, clever app. Although you’ll have to spend a
bit of time setting up the rules for each profile, once that's done,
Smart Actions will make all the adjustments for you.
Camera
The
Razr has an 8-megapixel camera, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera,
and 1080p video capture. The camera's user interface is much cleaner
than those on previous Motorola smartphones.
Motorola claims that the camera has almost zero shutter lag. This is
pretty much true; images are processed a split-second after you take
them. Unfortunately,
the touch-to-focus feature takes a bit of time to process, and I ended
up with a few blurry photos during my tests. This is an issue if you’re
trying to capture fast-moving subjects like kids or dogs.
Overall, my photos looked good, but not perfect. All of them seemed to
have a bit of a dark cast to them--even photos taken in natural light.
Details weren't as sharp as I would have liked, either. The flash tends
to blow out colors and details quite a bit, so use it only when
absolutely needed.
In our subjective lab tests of video quality, Motorola phones have
always done quite well. The Razr is no exception, producing smooth
videos captured at 1080p resolution.
Performance: Fast, But Battery Life Is Sad
We already know Verizon’s 4G LTE network is superfast when you have
connectivity. Luckily, we have good coverage in San Francisco (where PCWorld is
located), and the Droid Razr got some pretty fast speeds. Using the
FCC-approved Ookla app in various parts of the city, I found that the
Droid Razr achieved an average of 1.98 MBps for download speeds and 3.01
MBps for upload speeds.
The 1.2GHz dual-core TI OMAP 4430 processor was similarly impressive. I
ran the Vellamo mobile benchmarking app for Android (an app made by
Qualcomm) on the Droid Razr and was surprised by the results. The Droid
Razr got a score of 1040, putting it above the Samsung Galaxy S II and
the HTC Evo 3D. Apps launched quickly and ran smoothly. Scrolling
through apps and menus was fluid, and no apps crashed during my hands-on
time.
We haven’t yet formally tested the battery life of the Droid Razr, but
in my hands-on use, I was, as already noted, disappointed with the
fast-draining battery life. Though I was using the Razr much more
heavily than the average user would (testing data speeds, running apps,
and so on), how quickly the battery ran out was still surprising, all
the more so considering the big deal Motorola made over battery life
conservation. Games like Minecraft killed the battery, and when I
streamed a video clip longer than 5 minutes, I noticed significant loss.
I also noticed that it took quite a long time to recharge the Razr.
Again, we’ll be formally testing battery life and recharge time in our
lab later this week.
Call quality was very good over Verizon’s network in San Francisco. I
got coverage almost everywhere I went and never experienced any dropped
calls. My friends and family sounded loud and clear, with no static or
distortion. They reported similarly pleasurable experiences on their
end.
Accessories Galore
Like the Droid Bionic and the Photon, the Droid Razr is compatible with a
slew of accessories, such as the LapDock 500 Pro, a laptop-like portal
for the phone. The LapDock 500 Pro has a 14-inch display and a
front-facing camera. When you connect to the Webtop dock, you can access
the full Firefox browser as well as lots of specially made productivity
apps. Other accessories include an HD Station, a vehicle navigation
dock, and a standard dock.
Bottom Line
The Droid Razr is Motorola’s best Android phone to date. The TI OMAP
1.2GHz processor paired with Verizon’s blazing LTE speeds makes for an
incredibly powerful phone. Its unique design, reminiscent of the
original Razr, is also a success, and the Super AMOLED display is a step
up from the PenTile displays of other Motorola phones. Battery life is a
big issue, though, as it is for almost all dual-core LTE phones. In
our battery life lab tests of
other Android phones, almost every phone we tested did poorly. One
exception was the Samsung Galaxy S II, however. If you’re trying to
decide between the Droid Razr and the imminent Galaxy Nexus,
battery life might be a deciding factor. We don't yet have a Galaxy
Nexus in-house, but if its battery life is on a par with the Galaxy S
II, it might be the winner in the great Android arms race
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