Mobile Phone Reviews

Archive for the ‘Touchscreen’ Category

One of several phones in the HTC One smartphone series, the HTC One S was released to the UK in 2012 and is a slightly cheaper alternative to the HTC One X, with a similar mid-range target market to the Samsung Galaxy S2 smartphone. 

Ultra slim, it has a 4.3 inch screen that benefits from a bright AMOLED display protected all round by Gorilla Glass fascia.  Easily viewable in daylight and even bright sun, the HTC One S is highly user-friendly and has an easily navigable touch screen, in addition to being strong and lightweight.  A dual core processor and 1GB of RAM make this fast and powerful, and despite limited internal storage of 16GB, integrated Dropbox storage more than compensates for this.  Coming in two colours, black or grey, the HTC One S also incorporates a QWERTY keyboard for ease of use, and features a very good 8 megapixel camera which produces clear and sharp images. 

Connectivity settings are good, and the HTC One S includes Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth and GPS.  Running on Android Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version, this is a speedy and highly efficient smartphone with a fantastic user interface and easily navigated apps.  As with other smartphones in the HTC stable, there is Beats Audio software incorporated for a brilliant listening experience.   There are some great HTC One S deals on the market, with free handset and some internet use with 24 month contracts, making it perfectly placed in this competitive mid-range field.

In today’s rapidly evolving technological world, new terms are always coming into mainstream use.  People ask questions about these, such as ‘What is HTC Sense?’  HTC is one of the more recent companies to emerge in the competitive smartphone market of mobile phones.  HTC produces mobile phones that utilise the operating system known as Android.  HTC Sense sits on top of this OS on all HTC smartphones.

Basically, HTC sense is a GUI that expands and enhances the Android platform.  A typical HTC phone will have seven major modes.  This includes such features as the time, day and current weather.  Also included are the four main functions of the phone, which are browsing the web, text messages, the camera and email.  HTC Sense adds touchscreen commands such as cycling through the modes by swiping your finger to either side.  Zooming is performed by pinching fingers, which will display all the main icons that can then easily be selected. 

HTC is always adding new improvements to the system that complement and expand Android technology.

In the past, mobile phones had become smaller, yet in today’s world of technology smartphones are boasting a bigger and improved display screen designed for browsing the web and using apps for gaming, productivity and online reading.  Handsets such as the iPhone, Palm Pre, Blackberry and Android are leading the way for ‘bigger on the inside’ functionality, allowing more space for the ever expanding array of apps, music and videos, enabling browsing and email to become a much more significant feature than ever before.  Photos are bigger and clearer with the ability to tag photos with a location.

For the majority of smartphones, including iPhone and HTC, the traditional keypad is replaced by an on-screen version, conveniently hiding in the background, popping up when the user needs to insert text.  Other handsets such as the Android and Blackberry have swapped the keypad for a QWERTY alternative.  Texting and emailing is made easier with precision and speed, and the ability to edit documents from the handset makes the smartphone an ideal handset for both personal and business usage. 

Many handsets offer an app store in which many business and recreational tasks can be undertaken direct from the handset, such as paying bills, sending invoices and chatting online. Users can find local amenities and facilities such as cash machines, taxi firms and supermarkets with details of directions. 

There are many Android sat nav apps in the Android App Market, with impartial reviews available online.  GPS is also available on major smartphones and information can be found on many trusted review websites. HTC Radar reviews can be found amongst other major handsets.

The compact but mighty HTC Desire S smartphone has a 3.7” screen, 400 x 800 pixels and a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, which enhances the energy efficiency of the device and is assisted by 768MB of RAM.  The Desire S also comes to you with a full Gingerbread package and the streamlined Android 2.3.

The body of the Desire S is ingeniously manufactured using the unibody method (industrial strength, no joins, less weakness) and the Desire S weighs only 130g and is slimmer than its ancestor, the original HTC Desire.  The only plastic to be seen is the slide cover, under which are housed SIM and memory cards.

The display screen is improved too, being inlaid closer to the glass for sharper, clearer visuals, excellent viewing angles and guarded by Gorilla Glass for extra durability.  The navigation keys are touch sensitive which allow for both accuracy and quick response thereby minimising the chance of accidental key presses.

All in all the HTC Desire S comes with the most contemporary features on the market and does everything the user would expect.  A speedy load-up with Flash support, performance boosters, smooth operations, voice activation, front facing camera and video capability are only a little of what the new Desire S offers.

The elegance and unfussy style combined with the user friendly nature of the Desire S makes it a popular addition to the HTC range.

Motorola originally started life as a manufacturer of car radios in 1930. In the early 1980s it began developing a range of Motorola mobile phones. Recently it has been struggling to make an impression in the marketplace. However, it has recently released some smartphones that have received favourable reviews.

The Motorola Atrix is one of the first dual-core smartphones to be released. It runs on Android 2.2 and has its own enhancements as well. Moto Blur keeps you up-to-date with Twitter and Facebook feeds. It weighs around 135g and feels solidly made. The screen is 4 inches with a resolution of 540 by 960 pixels. The camera has good specifications, with 5 megapixels and an LED flash. It can also shoot video in 720p HD. The GPS integrates well with Google Maps and other android sat nav apps. Its unusual feature is that it comes with a fingerprint scanner, and once set up you need to use this to unlock the phone.

The Motorola Defy is another Android smartphone. Its 3.7-inch screen has a high colour display. It weighs 118g and is 134mm in depth. It is also equipped with a GPS, which combined with Google Maps turns it into a reasonable sat nav device. The music player is capable of playing a variety of files such as MP3, WAV and AAC.

Motorola has also started producing some lower end phones with the Motorola Wilder about to come onto the market. This phone is designed to be tough and has a resistive touchscreen. It rounds out the current range of Motorola mobile phones. 

There seem to be mixed reviews on the HTC Wildfire.  On one extreme end of the spectrum users are disappointed, while at the other end, users consider it the best low-end phone they’ve ever owned.  Users who see it as a decent low priced handset occupy the middle ground.

How it adds up
Wildfire is a cheaper alternative to the Desire.  Both phones look the same but Wildfire carries a much smaller screen, less internal memory (512 MB) and a much slower processor (528).  It is small and surprisingly sturdy for a phone of its kind.

Call quality is good and silencing an incoming call is as easy as turning the phone over.  Features include WI-FI, USB, microSD card compatibility, Bluetooth, an audio player that supports eight types of files (including MP3, MA4 and WMA, a WMV, 3GP and MP4 video player, FM radio and 3.5mm headphone jack.  Additionally, the phone is sold with a decent 3.5mm headphone as part of the package.

Unfortunately poor battery life, constant freezing and bad screen resolution is a let down for some.  Also, although it comes with a 5mp camera, the picture quality can be poor.  Some users have a hard time using the apps downloaded, the friend stream widget can be slow and unresponsive, or offer outdated info.

In the end, the HTC Wildfire leaves a lot to be desired by tech lovers, however for those looking for a low end phone with some of the perks afforded by more advanced phones, it’s a good pick.  Overall, it’s worth the price.

The LG Optimus Black is an Android smartphone. It is slim and light but doesn’t feature a dual-core processor like the Optimus 2X. However, you will be able to find much better LG Optimus Black deals available.

It is a nice phone to hold and look at, with tapered sides on the back. It measures 9.2mm and weighs just 109g. It has a matt finish, which doesn’t mark so easily as other glossy phones. The screen is 4 inches and looks similar to an iPhone. The resolution of 480 by 800 compares favourably with similarly priced phones. The NOVA display technology provides for a crisp image, which is particularly bright.

Although it doesn’t have the dual-core processor, the phone seems capable of running apps and games well. It also comes with an FM radio tuner, which provides a good signal. The amount of apps for Android phones is a strong feature of this phone. 

It has some innovative interface enhancements. If you shake the phone while holding the ‘g-button’, it will answer incoming calls. Turning the phone over will mute it or stop the alarm as well. 

There are two cameras on the phone, a front-facing camera for video calls and a 5 megapixel camera which is rear-facing. This comes with an LED flash and an autofocus system. Battery life is good for this type of smartphone, probably lasting around 2 days before needing another charge. 

The Samsung Omnia 7 is the first Windows Phone 7 to be offered from Samsung mobile phones. Well designed with a slim casing and sensitive touch screen, this mobile phone from Samsung has an excellent four-inch Super AMOLED screen with superb pinch to zoom facility. The industrial chic design works brilliantly with its fabulous HyperReal screen with super-sharp graphics and picture quality. The Samsung Omnia 7 has a range of excellent features, including its Maps application, and the handset has a high quality feel.

The display quality of the Samsung Omnia 7 really elevates it to one of the best smartphones on the market. It also comes with all the standard Windows 7 features, such as GPS, 5-megapixel flash camera with many adjustable settings, an HD camcorder, and Wi-fi. The Samsung Omnia 7 also offers a user-friendly QWERTY style keyboard and a music player feature that enables the user to instantly transfer their favourite tunes onto their phone.

The touch sensitive buttons on the front of the Samsung Omnia 7 handset are extremely responsive, and integrated online messaging and social networking are easily accessible. It may not have the largest memory capacity on the market but the Samsung Omnia 7 makes up for this with its truly excellent display and fantastic high definition colour and picture quality. This is a highly recommended offering from Samsung mobile phones.

What is HTC Sense?  According to the Taiwanese giants, HTC Sense is an experience designed around many little original and insightful, yet simple, ideas.  So is HTC Sense an ideology?  A way of thinking?  Or merely corporate jargon?  In reality, HTC Sense is the interface that HTC uses for its Android, Brew and Windows Mobile devices.  However, even HTC itself often seems confused as to what exactly HTC Sense is, sometimes calling it the user interface (UI) and at other times insisting it is not.

Stock applications and widgets are a massive part of HTC Sense and, out of the box, HTC hopes that its highly customisable features will deter consumers from deferring to an alternate UI.  Due to this, HTC is constantly updating its UI in order to ensure customers stay loyal to HTC Sense, despite the free-market mentality of Android as competition.  Recent additions to HTC Sense include maps that synchronise with the phone’s compass in order to rotate in unison with the owner, previewing the route ahead while using navigational applications and the ringer turning off when the phone is flipped.  It adapts to the lifestyle and location of its owner, allowing technology and connectivity to contacts to combine for the modern age. 

Ideas such as these, which HTC are offering, will meet the wishes of today’s consumer, who is free to choose between the countless number of free UIs offered on the Android market.

Ten years ago if you asked anybody to name a mobile phone manufacturer, you can bet Nokia would have been mentioned.  The manufacturer was the world’s biggest at the start of the last decade and its 3210 model revolutionised mobile technology.  Ten years on and the competition have caught up.  Companies such as HTC and Sony Ericsson have been born, while Apple and Samsung have produced hit after hit; leaving the Finnish giant playing catch-up.

In order to reverse the trend, Nokia has recently announced plans for the N9, the first MeeGo-powered smartphone, and it certainly packs a punch.  The phone comes with up to a massive 64GB internal memory as well as PowerVR SGX530 graphics, a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 OMAP 3630 processor and 1GB of RAM to ensure an instantaneous response to any user request.  While Nokia mobile phones have sold poorly over the past couple of years, the N9, which is to be launched later in 2011, could certainly spark the reversal of fortunes that the company so desperately needs.

Furthermore, Nokia has recently announced plans to launch an £80-million advertising campaign to promote its partnership with the Windows OS.  As of yet, Nokia has not revealed which handsets will be running Windows, although the massive advertising push will certainly ensure tat the handsets will be known.  After running the, now arcane, Symbian operating system on its phones, which triggered massive losses, Nokia hopes that the increasingly popular Windows OS will once again propel the manufacturer to the forefront of mobile technology.