They rarely bother with email, as text messages and Facebook reign supreme for communication. To that end, the Status promotes itself as the perfect phone for Facebook users, but is the integration truly useful, or simply a chintzy add-on? More so, can HTC successfully marry Gingerbread with an upright keyboard? Join us after the break to learn whether we “Like” the HTC Status.

HardWare

The HTC Status has a form factor you know well. Measuring 4.5 inches (114.4mm) tall and 2.54 inches (64.6mm) wide, it’s a touch larger than your run-of-the-mill 9700 or E73, but at 0.42 inches (10.7mm) narrow, it’s thin where it counts. Like the Nexus S, it has a gentle curve — or bend, depending on how you look at it — a design quirk that tilts the screen ever-so-slightly toward the user. At 4.37 ounces (124g), it’s relatively light, although we immediately noticed that the weight isn’t well-balanced, as the top half is appreciably heavier. Fortunately, it felt very comfortable when held securely.

On the inside, the Status packs a Qualcomm MSM7227 Turbo SoC with an 800MHz CPU and an Adreno 200 GPU. It supports quadband GSM and features HSPA connectivity over the 850 / 1900MHz bands. There’s a wide assortment of goodies here, including 512MB of memory, WiFi (up to 802.11n), mobile hotspot functionality, Bluetooth 3.0, AGPS, and FM radio, along with a compass, accelerometer, and proximity and ambient light sensors. Users will find a 2GB microSD card pre-installed, but much to our frustration, the expansion slot is buried beneath the anemic 1250mAh battery.

The first thing you’ll notice is the full QWERTY keyboard stretching across the bottom half of the handset — that and the dedicated Facebook button, which we’ll talk about more in a bit. In many ways, the Status takes its design cues from the HTC Flyer. The face of the phone is largely blanketed in a metallic silver coating, save for the chrome speaker grille up top, a curved white strip along the bottom, and a thick black bezel surrounding the display, which contains four haptic navigation buttons. The silvery finish extends around the back to form a broad strip that showcases an engraved HTC logo and separates the camera pod from the battery cover.

Oddly, these upper and lower sections are composed of two distinct white plastics. While the upper portion has an outstanding look and feel that’s reminiscent of ceramic, the lower part is woefully thin, which cheapens its attractive satin appearance. To make matters worse, the battery cover is very, very difficult to remove. While the user’s manual suggests it can be popped free with two thumbs, we tried this method for ten minutes without success. Instead, HTC should have written the instructions as such:

Sandwich the phone face-down between your palms, squeeze tightly, then push forward without abandon — the cacophony of key tones is normal, so don’t be scared — just keep forcing it until that damn securely-engineered cover pops free.

Aside from the poorly designed battery door, the Status is well-assembled. It even survived an (unintentional) drop on the hardwood floor completely unscathed. Maybe next time…

Hidden within the chrome speaker grille, you’ll discover a green / amber notification light that indicates new messages or a low battery, and there’s also a front-facing VGA camera nestled in the bezel. Along the left side of the phone is a short, narrow volume rocker that runs nearly flush with the phone, and while you can press nearly any part of the button to adjust the volume, the rocker feels stiff, with poor tactile feedback. Below that you’ll find an exposed micro-USB port. A 3.5mm stereo mini-jack is located up top, positioned to the left of the power / lock button. Around back, a 5 megapixel autofocus camera is paired with an LED flash and a dedicated loudspeaker.

Display

The 2.6-inch (480 x 320) Gorilla Glass touchscreen features approximately 221 pixels per inch. While this is a step below the norm, we still found all but the smallest of text to be quite readable (albeit, marginally blurry). The TFT LCD screen is decently bright, which allowed us to comfortably view the display in direct sunlight. Granted, it wasn’t ideal, but we didn’t need to run for shade either. While the color saturation diminishes when angled beyond 20 degrees to the left or right, it’s significantly better than the EVO Shift 4G we used for comparison.

Keyboard

Performance and Call Quality

Provided you’re not looking to play graphically demanding games, you’ll be pleasantly satisfied with the Status’ performance. Seriously, you weren’t really planning to on honing your Fruit Ninja skills on the little screen, were you? Sure, its 800MHz CPU is no speed demon, but it’s doubtful you’ll start begging for an upgrade, either. When it comes to the things this phone was meant to do — browse the internet, play music, poke through galleries, and yes, update Facebook — you’re likely to have a satisfying experience. Unfortunately, the Quadrant benchmark software wasn’t able to complete the requisite CPU test, but we’ve got a host of other benchmarks for your careful scrutiny.

After enjoying outstanding call quality on the Wildfire S — also on AT&T’s network — we had high hopes for the Status. Unfortunately, those hopes went unfulfilled. While voices sounded clear, an inescapable hiss emanated from the phone as soon as we started a call. Even during calls to landlines, our friends’ voices seemed distant, hollow, and muffled. Worse yet, calls would frequently cut out, forcing friends to repeat what was said. Fortunately, no calls were dropped, and our friends perceived us very clearly and seemed quite satisfied with the depth of our voice.

Battery Life

Given the small display and relatively pedestrian CPU, we’d hoped the 1250 mAh battery would provide sufficient longevity for web browsing, chatting, check-ins and status updates. Unfortunately, any social-savvy user is likely to overwhelm the lithium-ion cells. One day, we enjoyed an hour of music, and three half-hour blocks of web browsing, Facebook messaging, and good ol’ voice chat. During this time, we took approximately a dozen pictures, checked into three establishments via Facebook, and sent a smattering of emails, Facebook status updates, and picture uploads. Ten hours later, we were scrambling for a wall outlet. While the battery will certainly carry you through the day, don’t expect it to deliver you through the evening, too.

In our standard battery rundown test, we started with a full charge and fresh boot, enabled GPS and WiFi (without connecting to an access point), set the display to 50 percent brightness, configured one push email account, and set Twitter and Facebook to poll every 15 minutes and one hour, respectively. When playing a movie on a continual loop, the handset kept pace for just three hours and thirty minutes, while average runtimes for Android smartphones are nearly twice that

Camera

The five megapixel AF camera is an admirable performer under ideal lighting conditions, and is able to capture a respectable amount of detail, especially when coupled with HTC’s tap-to-focus feature. Overall, we were quite pleased with the picture quality, but the camera isn’t without setbacks. Unfortunately, if you shoot in direct sunlight, even vivid colors will appear somewhat muted, and bright areas will be frequently overexposed. Meanwhile, pictures taken under artificial lighting appear overly saturated, and proper white balance is often difficult to achieve. The camera also produces an appreciable amount of noise indoors, even at low ISO settings.

As you might expect, the sensor performs poorly in low light situations, and creates an unnatural (though vaguely artistic) effect of overexposing lit areas while underexposing dark patches. There’s no macro shooting mode either, and we found that you’ll need at least four inches of distance between the lens and your intended object for the shot to be halfway usable. The LED flash is certainly capable of illuminating an indoor scene, but you’ll need to be cautious of reflective surfaces, as the built-in bulb can easily overwhelm the sensor. Video resolution goes up to 720 x 480, and while the frame rate can’t properly convey fluid motion at this setting, it should be adequate for capturing embarrassing situations that are bound for Facebook.

Software

Much to our delight, the Status comes loaded with Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread). It also features a customized version of HTC’s user environment known as Sense 2.1 for Messenger, which retools the familiar UI for the smaller display. While the main screen is quite crowded, many users will likely appreciate the amount of information and content that’s immediately accessible from this panel. Rather than the standard weather widget, you’ll find a bubble underneath the clock that displays status updates for Facebook and Twitter. Granted, the usefulness here is debatable, but it’s certainly cute given the social nature of the phone. There’s only five home screens (rather than HTC’s standard seven), and the default panel now occupies the leftmost position. The four remaining spaces include widgets for Google search, FriendStream (which aggregates Facebook and Twitter activity), Facebook chat, and an empty panel with a solitary plus icon that’s intended to encourage customization.

The lock screen is modeled after Sense 3.0, which offers quick access to the dialer, email, camera, and messages by simply dragging the appropriate application onto a ring that’s located at the bottom of the display. These icons are also customizable, should you care to replace any with apps of your choosing. Sadly, the notification panel doesn’t include the handy Quick Settings menu, which means you must dig through Android’s settings to select which radios are enabled.

Seeing that the Status is, after all, a social phone, we were consistently frustrated with the typing experience. Mind you, the hardware is excellent — we’re just griping about software here. As writers, we take pride in our words, and unless something is on fire, it’s unlikely you’ll find us spelling you’re as “youre”, or who’s as “whos.” Since smartphones are supposed to be, you know, smart, we shouldn’t ever have to type an apostrophe to form a proper contraction. Sure, this can be resolved by enabling prediction, but then we must contend with astonishing “corrections” such as “Boise” being changed to “noise.” We have better things to do than keep tabs on word prediction. With a keyboard this good, our typing is deliberate, intentional, and most of all, accurate. Hence, we need a distinct “Auto Correct” mode that’s separate from “Auto Predict.” All we’re asking for is properly formed contractions. Bonus points for capitalized proper nouns. Just don’t make us babysit the prediction engine any longer.

Our pains didn’t end with the keyboard software, either. The camera application routinely quit while taking pictures, and while it brought little fanfare — returning us straight to the HTC Sense home screen — it desperately needs a remedy. We also noticed there’s a dedicated shortcut to the settings menu that should activate by pressing Alt + Space. Unfortunately, unlike the quick access camera button, this link is broken. Worst of all, third-party applications that don’t support rotation will force you to hold the phone sideways to read the content. Initially, this was only a minor annoyance, but it turned out to be a huge inconvenience whenever we needed to enter text. Your only option will be typing sideways or viewing your input in an equally awkward manner. Granted, this isn’t necessarily HTC’s fault, and should serve as a wake-up call to developers, but it doesn’t change the fact that all Status owners will be forced to tolerate this inhumane experience.

Facebook

Of course, no review of the HTC Status would be complete without examining its Facebook integration. Intuitively, many assume that this solitary blue square is merely a dedicated shortcut to the Facebook application. In reality, it’s a context-sensitive button that’s primarily geared toward sharing status updates and links. By default, a single press opens a dialog for updating your status. (We’re sure the pun isn’t lost on you). Alternatively, you can write on friend’s walls or upload pictures. A long-press on the Facebook button reveals a dialog for checking into nearby establishments, along with the ability to create check-in points for previously unlisted destinations. Tapping the Facebook icon from the web browser allows you to share the article you’re viewing — and provide a thoughtful description, such as: “zomg! LAME!! kthxbai.” Sharing pictures directly from the photo gallery works in the same manner, and you can tag friends or provide captions before choosing an album destination. If you’re currently a social butterfly who posts updates throughout the day, you might find true value in the Facebook button — if not, it’s unlikely to change your habits.

Facebook chat is another primary element of the Status, where a full-screen widget allows you to quickly communicate with other online acquaintances. The instant messaging is incredibly enjoyable to use, and inbound replies were nearly instantaneous. Unless you deliberately sign off, however, you’ll appear online and available for chat with friends — even while you sleep. In other words, even though you’ll likely rekindle a few friendships with your new-found availability, you’ll probably end up apologizing to just as many contacts that you inadvertently ignored.

Wrap-up

By now it should be obvious that the HTC Status fails to achieve its full potential. Given that it’s a device for communication, typing should be flawless, but the software makes it a consistent pain. We hated the battery cover, the battery life is borderline insulting, and there’s room for a larger display with greater pixel density, but — believe it or not — we’d be willing to forgive these elements if the phone’s software felt more polished. We believe HTC will go a long way by simply improving the typing experience, but in order for this form factor to thrive on Android, developers must also rally to support landscape displays in a portrait enclosure. If you’re considering the Status as the perfect complement to your Facebook lifestyle, at just $50 on contract, there’s still a lot to appreciate. For our part, we’re hoping that a better phone is just a software update away.

For a big phone, it is also relatively light: it’s lighter than the iPhone 4. So, how is it to carry the Samsung Infuse 4G around and use it in the real world? Is it as good as AT&T says it is? I tried it for a couple of weeks, and in this review I’ll tell you about its greatness and its pitfalls.
Context

We all use smartphones in different ways, so it’s important that I tell you where I come from: I check my email (a lot!) with Microsoft Exchange, and I reply only moderately because a virtual keyboard is not as productive as a physical one. I browse the web several times a day to check on news sites, but I rarely watch movies or play music. I don’t call much – maybe 10mn a day. On the “apps” side, I have a couple of social networks, but I rarely play games – even Angry Birds. This usage pattern will affect battery life and the perception of what features are useful.

Technical Highlights

Display: 4.5” 800×480
Soc:  Samsung 1.2GHz “Hummingbird”
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
UMTS: 850/1900/2100 MHz (3.5G HSPA+)
OS: Android 2.2
RAM: 512MB
User Storage:  13GB (internal), 2GB (external)
Camera: 8 Megapixel + 1.3 Megapixel
Sensors: G-sensor, Compass, Proximity sensor, Light sensor
GPS: yes
Local networks: WIFI + Bluetooth
Battery: 1750mAh

Industrial Design

The industrial design of the Samsung Infuse 4G is clean and simple. The front looks nice, although the “AT&T” and “Samsung” logos are probably too invasive in my opinion. The backside of the phone would be a much better place for that.
infuse 4g review

The USB cable won’t get in the way if you use the Infuse 4G while charging

The USB connector is conveniently located at the bottom of the phone, which ensures that you can use it relatively comfortably, even while charging. A 3.5mm audio jack plug is present at the top of the phone. This is a classic location that works.

There are few buttons on the side (volume control and power), which is a good thing because it avoids accidental clicks. I personally find the Power button to be a little too recessed and I find myself searching for it sometimes… I use it dozens of time a day.

infuse 4g review

The back side has a texture that provides additional “grip”, which is great, but it also feels like plastic, well, because it is made of plastic. On the other hand, the frame all around the phone is made of metal, which makes the phone’s structure very rigid. Samsung has chosen to use a mix of very light and very strong materials to keep the weight down.When holding the Samsung Infuse 4G, it immediately feels lighter, even when compared to much smaller phones, like the iPhone 4.
Display (beautiful)
infuse 4g review

The display is great, especially for entertainment and gaming

The 4.5” display looks very nice and is easy on the eyes. One of the reasons why I like larger screens is because I type faster on them (bigger virtual keyboard keys). This is critically important for those who text/email a lot. Emails and web pages are also very readable, even when using the smallest font. Actually, I think that Samsung could use an even smaller font in the Email app. The typography in this phone isn’t as nice as it is on Windows Phone 7, but I hope that typography will continue to improve for all smartphones. As usual, keep in mind that Samsung’s OLED displays have colors that tend to “pop”, but are not accurate. Fortunately, most people like over-saturated colors, but if you care about color accuracy, LCD or IPS-LCD would be better.

In direct sunlight, OLED displays can be hard to read, and with the Samsung Infuse 4G, the problem is compounded with the fact that the user interface is mostly dark, which makes things even harder to see on a bright day. If you want things to be more legible in direct sunlight, I recommend using a bright background whenever possible.

The Infuse 4G, next to an iPhone 4. Note that the moire effect only appears on a photo
Software

As most manufacturers do, Samsung tweaks Android (here, version 2.2) to fit their own taste. some additions are really useful, while others just make things “different”. Here are a few things that I found useful:
infuse 4g review

The power control is so popular that Samsung has integrated it

The integrated power control: Android ships with a Power Control widget that lets you turn things on and off. It’s very useful to optimize the battery life. Samsung has such a widget built into the status screen of your phone (that’s where all the alerts go). You can see it by swiping down from the top of the screen.

Unlike the Droid Charge, Samsung’s power controls in the Infuse 4G lack the “Mobile Data” toggle. I think that this is a great loss for those who care about battery life because mobile data is one of the big power drain in a smartphone. Also, it would be really nice if the user interface was “consistent” from one Samsung phone to another…
samsung infuse 4g review

Start typing as soon as you are in the contact app

The integrated contact search box: by default, many Android phones require you to tap the Search button if you want to find a contact by typing a name. Samsung knows that for power-users, that’s one tap too many, so it has integrated the search box directly in the contact screen.

Most people don’t know that email search is not a standard feature for all Android phones out there

Email search: Many Android phones don’t have an email search… that’s annoying when you’re looking for that email buried among the 200 others you received yesterday. Samsung’s email app has a search!
Samsung Infuse 4G Review

Users want to be in control of their apps

Task manager: Android is notoriously bad at letting the average user know which apps are on/off, and closing running apps can be daunting for novice users. Samsung has a task manager that shows running apps and lets you shut them down with ease. It even shows how much processor resources each apps consume. That’s great, and I wish that this was a stock “Android feature”.

And yes, I know : android (2.2+?) is supposed to take care of moving apps, or shutting them down. But on the ground, what I’m seeing is that having a ton of apps in the background can still affect performance. There’s no question that users want to be in control of their apps, whether Google agrees or not.
Basics

Dialing: calling someone is super-easy with Android. Whether it is by dialing a number with the virtual numeric pad, using a contact or a shortcut (my favorite), calling someone is fast. There are no problems there and I even wonder if I should cover this part in future Android reviews (tell me in the comments).

Wireless network: Although it gets plenty of sarcastic comments, often for good reasons, the AT&T coverage has been getting better overtime, at least in the area of San Francisco where we are located (Potrero Hill). We were connected to the HSPA+ network according to the “H+” icon on the phone and with 3/5 bars, we got 1.4Mbps of download and 0.96Mbps of upload speed (using speedtest.net app, 136ms latency). On a less busy day, and a few yards away, we got much better speeds (3Mbps+ download) shown in the image above. Check our Verizon LTE review to compare.

Call Audio Quality: The call audio quality was average. For example, the Nexus S and many other recent smartphones did fare better in that area. However, in the grand scheme of things, the Samsung Infuse 4G was usable, even if the Nexus S remains ahead (by far) in terms of call audio quality.

The Samsung keyboard is simple and (visual) clutter free

Virtual Keyboard(s): The Samsung Infuse 4G has a (Samsung) keyboard that is clear and clean. I personally like this one better than other keyboards that display the “alternative” characters on the upper-right of each key. The stock Android keyboard is available for those who like it.

Swype often leads to less typos and faster typing

Swype is a third option. If you’re unfamiliar with Swype, it’s a keyboard that lets you glide your finger from one letter to the next without ever lifting it. Staying on the display surface reduces the rate of error, and the end result is often a faster typing rate. The only downside to Swype is that sometimes my finger obstructs my view of part of the keyboard. Check it out.

Copy/Paste is not consistent from app to app. Android 2.3 should help with this

Copy/Paste (inconsistent): in the Samsung Infuse 4G, you will only find a partial support for Copy/Paste. I know, you may think that this functionality should work everywhere by now, but it’s not the case (!). With the Infuse 4G, you can copy paste text from a web page, but not from an email (in read mode). Copy/Paste doesn’t work consistently from one app the other, and in the case of email, it’s a bit annoying, I think. I also could not copy/paste text from CNN mobile (the site), while it worked fine on this site.

Samsung Infuse 4G Review

Web Browsing (very good): Like with most Android 2.2 phones, the web browsing on the Samsung Infuse 4G is very good. Websites render properly, and you can zoom in and out at will. I haven’t found a website that is totally unusable because the browser doesn’t know how to interpret the code.
Samsung Infuse 4G Review

This is a flash site that runs with all its original features

Adobe Flash support: By now, Flash for Android is well supported on Android 2.2+ so I wasn’t expecting any issues, nor have I found any – if I use it within reason. Don’t forget that most of the Flash-powered web has been built for computers, not smartphones. Many Flash applications require more raw power or memory than a mobile device can provide.

Flash HD video is a good example: at the moment, most Android devices won’t be able to play 720p via Flash. Some casual games might work, but I think that the main advantage is that Flash on Android will let you access many promotional or small business sites built with Flash — something that the iPhone doesn’t offer out of the box.

Work

Exchange support has been very decent on Android for some time now

Exchange: The Samsung Infuse 4G can sync with Exchange (contacts, calendar and emails) without any issues. Overall, I found that the calendar and contacts apps worked well. The email is not always synchronized when I open the Email app, even if I get notifications of incoming emails. This might be an “optimization” to save battery life, but I’d like to have emails already downloaded and ready to be read as soon as I open the app. The BlackBerry was great for that.

GMail: Most email services support POP and IMAP, and setting things those up is usually very easy: just enter your email and password and you should be good to go. If you are hosting your email on your own domain, you may have to enter the server address and so on, but most people who own a domain would know how to do that.

Google Docs:  using Google docs is an option since Google made some fixes to make it work on mobile devices some time ago. Keep in mind that Google Docs could consume considerably more battery as it is saving your modifications to Google’s servers almost in real-time. There’s a Google Docs app that might be more network efficient.

Microsoft Office Documents: To open and edit office documents, there’s a version of QuickOffice that comes pre-installed in the Infuse 4G, ready to be activated. With it, I have been able to open Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents – and edit them. It’s not that I particularly look forward to editing a word document on a touchscreen phone, but it’s nice to have the option if I *need* to.
Play (good)

In terms of gaming performance, it’s “average” – there are much faster gaming phones out there

Games: With the Infuse 4G, polygonal 3D games run “OK”, but relative to the best phones out there, it’s on the “average” side. It’s not bad, but don’t expect to get the latest eye-candy. Most casual, 2D-ish (angry birds, and the likes) games should run very well on it.

Music: music playback has pretty much been solved problem for a while now. On Android, there are many services that offer music sales, rent or purchase. It’s really up to you to choose which one you want, and if you already have a big collection, you can copy it locally, but also to a cloud service like Amazon Cloud Player or Google’s Music Beta.

A Youtube HQ Trailer of Transformers 3

Videos: whether it is from a local file, or from a high-quality streaming service, videos that are displayed at the proper resolution will look great. Thanks to the large OLED display, the blacks are truly black, and the colors are well saturated. The only thing that stands in between you and video entertainment is “where” you will find the content: Android doesn’t have a great video store yet, but that’s coming… The best way to enjoy video on the go, is to have files stored locally, but on Android, this is not as easy as it should be yet. If you download or convert videos yourself, then things should be straightforward, as long as you use the proper video format.

Speaker Quality: Because it is placed in the back, the loud speaker does not convey the sound directly towards the user. Instead, it will bounce around in the environment to eventually arrive to the user’s ears. Relative to its size, the speaker works “OK”, but other phones do have a better speaker audio: the Atrix, the Optimus 2X, or even the iPhone 4. The Samsung Infuse does have a sufficient volume, but I think that the sound has a bit too much “echo” for my taste. I would probably prefer to use headphones to watch a movie, or a music clip. For phone conversations, it should be OK.
Photos and Video (very good)

The Samsung Infuse 4G camera app is interesting. It has many options, but only the most popular options are presented as icons. I like the fact that you can choose to leave the options visible on the left at all times. It takes a little bit of screen space, but it’s very handy. When using the camera, pressing the Power button will lock every button in the phone so that you can’t exit the camera app by accident. Unfortunately, the shutter button also becomes inactive, which kind of defeats the purpose… This maybe more useful in “camcorder” mode, when you want to make sure that the camera keeps recording.

A photo shot with the Samsung Infuse 4G

Photo capture: with a relatively good lighting environment (broad daylight  to early evening), the Samsung Infuse 4G snaps very good photos. That’s typical for recent smartphones as sensor technology and image processing software have made tremendous progress in just a few years. The Infuse 4G also has a macro mode, but it would be great if the switch from “normal” to “macro” was automated. (check additional samples in our Flickr account)

In a low-light situation (restaurant, parties) things are a bit more difficult. The problem is not really the sensor, it’s the auto-focus. The software is having a hard time deciding when the image is in focus or not. This may result in slightly blurry photos, but when shrunk for web use, they are mostly good enough. However, this is something that Samsung will need to improve upon, as the competition does better. Sony Ericsson and its Exmor sensor can snap sharp and clear low-light photos.

Video capture: the video recording pretty has the same optical qualities and flaws seen in photo capture. The good news is that DVD or HD (720p) resolution, the framerate of the video stayed at a solid 30FPS. This is not always the case, and in the past, I’ve often recommended phone users to stick with 640×480. Things are getting better, and although 640×480 if often good enough to share on social networks, it’s nice to have the option to snap a higher definition video.

Photo gallery: The photo gallery separates images and videos in several categories: camera, online albums, (email) downloads and local videos. You can probably add more sections by creating directories yourself on the SD card. Overall, things are fast and fluid, so browsing images should not be a problem. I did not have time to fill the phone with hundreds of pictures, but that would be an interesting test.
Data Sync

Media files: it is easy to connect over USB and browse/copy user files just like you would on a regular USB drive/key. If you don’t have a lot of files to move around, this is actually much easier to deal with than Apple’s iTunes, which is very strict and sometimes really annoying.

Want to copy some photos? Connect the phone in “disk mode” and copy your .jpg files just like you would with any disk. If you have a lot of media files that constantly change, it’s a bit more complicated as this is a typical case where a data management application like iTunes is helpful.

The thing is: people who tend to have large collections of media files are probably savvy enough to figure things out. Secondly, iTunes is not an option out of the box, but some 3rd party apps will help you sync with it…

You also have the option to upload your content to an online storage (and streaming) service like Amazon Cloud Music. It works well, but you need to have an active Internet connection, which can deplete your battery faster. Winamp can also be used to manage large quantities of music files.

In the end, you’ll have to poke around and see what works for you, but I think that the large majority of users will do just fine with copying their media files manually over USB. I actually like it.

Contacts, Emails: out of the box, Android is built for synchronizing everything over the Internet. However, some vendors add utilities to synchronize contacts and media files. Samsung is not one of them.

Desktop email sync is not an out-of-the box option (you might be able to find an app for that). Even Microsoft does not provide an Outlook email synchronization software with its Windows Phone 7, so in this smartphone world, you’re clearly better off with an online service.
Internet Sharing

The Hotspot is great, but it’s often not as fast as a USB modem. It depletes the battery too

Hotspot: As it is the case with most Android 2.2 phones, it possible to share the wireless data Internet connection by creating a Mobile Hotspot. There is no app or icon to do so, but going to settings>wireless and network>Mobile AP gets you to the right screen to enable the hotspot and assign a password. From there, it’s very easy to connect. In my opinion, this is the easiest way to share your data connection with another WIFI device. Note that this will deplete the battery much faster than normal usage, so be mindful of this.

USB Modem: It is also possible to use the Samsung Infuse 4G as a USB modem. To do so, you need a cable, and you may have to install drivers on your PC. This would obviously not work on tablets, and operating system for which the drivers aren’t available. Often, Mac and Linux computers are left out.
System Performance (good)

When talking about the performance of a consumer electronics device, I always try to separate the “measured” and “perceived” performance. Measured metrics are obtained by running synthetic (not always life-like) benchmarks to stress *specific* parts of the system.

On the other hand, “perceived” performance is the user’s observation of performance. Although they should correlate, I would always place perceived performance as being the most important. After all, why care if you can’t tell?

“Measured Performance”

BrowserMark and SunSpider are two tests that measure the speed of Javascript, a key component for interactivity in websites. To be clear, this does not measure “how fast” pages are loading. Instead this look at how fast scripting code can execute. Javascript is used in modern websites for user interface or even complete applications/games.

The Samsung Infuse 4G is average to above-average in those tests. While it doesn’t mean that web browsing is going to be significantly slower in general, Javascript speed shows how fast the central processor is.

CPU Benchmark: This test tries to measure the number-crunching capabilities of the phone. It explains why Javascript performance is relatively low: the Droid Charge main processor is by far the slowest at this particular test.

This is yet another processing power test, and it confirms that the Infuse 4G is slightly above-average, when compared to other smartphones that we have recently reviewed.

GUIMark 2 (Flash): This test measures the Adobe Flash performance. Flash is a widely used multimedia platform and you can find it virtually everywhere as advertisement, video or other forms of interactive web page module.

Whether or not Adobe Flash is useful, is just a matter of performance. The Samsung Infuse did provide a positive surprise: it is the fastest “Flash” single-core smartphone that we’ve tried. I bet that there’s a mix of CPU speed and software improvements, but the good news is that it is one of the better Flash-compatible phones.

NeoCore Graphics Benchmark: NeoCore is an old polygonal 3D graphics test, but most Android games are still using relatively old graphics techniques, so it is still relevant – hopefully not for long.

The graphics performance of the Samsung Infuse 4G is very much in line with other Android phones that I’ve tried. If anything, polygonal 3D performance has not changed a whole lot since the Nexus S was released in December. On the hand, phones equipped with NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 SoC have dominated those benchmarks for some time.

“Perceived Performance”

The Samsung Infuse 4G did fairly well in the synthetic performance tests, and in the real world, it mostly feels comfortable to use. But it is also a phone with which I had occasional “stall” or “freeze” issues (for a second or two) while doing seemingly simple tasks like checking emails, or navigating the user interface. It also happens more frequently than on other phones, like the Droid Incredible 2 or the Nexus S. I suspect that this might be a “software thing” that may be fixed in a future update, but I never hold my breath on those.

That did not prevent me from enjoying the phone during the test, but if you can’t stand waiting on your phone, this might be a small issue that you should know about.
Battery Life (good)

The battery life is in the higher range

With my particular usage pattern, the Samsung Infuse 4G managed to last for a couple of days, which is in the higher range for modern smartphones. In practical terms, I can use it for a day, and not charge it that night, but on the following night, I would charge it or it would run out of battery on sometime on the day after.

Depending on your own use, this could be much less if you use the display a lot (it’s the #1 power-user, and if you do CPU-intensive tasks such as web browsing and games).
Conclusion (good, big)

“Display size” is really the name of the game here

The Samsung Infuse 4G is a good phone. I really liked the comfort and image-quality of its huge display, and the good battery life. The industrial design is clean, and the phone is even lighter than smaller phones like the iPhone 4. All those qualities are big advantages for most Android users in search for a comfortably big display.

On the downside, I think that, at times, the responsiveness of the phone did get to me. I’m used to more responsive phones, and to be honest, I’m not really sure how other people would react to it. It’s probably best to try it for yourself in a store, but keep in mind that in-store phones don’t have many apps installed, so they to represent the “best case” scenario.

In the end, it’s likely that prospect users will be mainly attracted by the display size which is the truly unique feature of this phone. If not, there are a lot of choices on the market, notably the Nexus S, or the Droid Incredible 2.

Source: Ubergizmo.com

Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510 Looks And Design

The phone looks quite stylish and Samsung has done a good job in providing a quality finish to the device. The keyboard and the screen are made up of grey plastic while the entire phone is carved out of plastic which makes it quite light. The phone weighs just a little over 103 grams. The phone is pretty wide measuring 108.6 x 66.7 x 10.7 mm.

With a 2.8 inches TFT capacitive touch screen, the phone displays 256 K colors of resolution measuring 320×240 pixels. The display is equipped with accelerometer and proximity sensors and the screen responds well to touches. However, it does not support multi-touch and viewing angles are also limited. Sunlight legibility is also not that great, but then considering the price of the device, we were happy with its design and construction. The phone feels robust, solid and quite comfortable to grip.

Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510 Apps

Google Search, Gmail, Maps, Calendar, Picasa Integration, Image/Video editor are some of the in-built applications in the phone. Streaming Youtube videos on the phone is facilitated by the presence of Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510 Youtube application. More apps can be downloaded by users from the Android market.

Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510 Features

One of the greatest features of the phone is its QWERTY keypad. Because of the wider design of the phone, the keys are well-spaced out which facilitates texting and messaging. The great phonebook of Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510 mobile phone is also pretty good which has unlimited capacity.

Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510 Specs

We were disappointed to find that the phone runs on Android 2.2 (Foryo) OS. We would have loved to see Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). The 800 MHz processor performs well, but then no way it delivers the performance of a dual-core processor. The phone however, has a 2GB of integrated memory card which can be expanded to 32 GB.

Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510 Camera Quality

The phone is equipped with a 3.2 MP which is capable of producing pictures of resolution measuring 2048×1536 pixels. The camera however lacks flash which makes it almost next to impossible to click pictures in the dark. The UI of the phone is touch-friendly and has great in-built features such as smile shot. The pictures clicked are good and provide enough detail. Considering that the phone is a messenger one, the performance of the camera is quite good.

Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510 Video

The phone offers QVGA video recording at 30fps which is hardly inspiring. The video recording is good enough for MMS.

Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510 Connectivity And Multimedia

The phone offers connectivity options for both 2G and 3G networks. The connectivity package also includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 with support for A2DP, and USB 2.0. The interface of the USB is pretty simple and the presence of 3.5 mm audio jack completes the connectivity options. The performance of the Android browser is also quite decent.

Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510 boasts of an FM radio with RDS along with a TouchWiz Music player. The video player is also very basic in nature and covers only basic MP4 and 3GP formats. The audio quality of the phone is not that great.

Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510 Unboxing

During unboxing the device we found it to be equipped with a charger, microUSB cable, 2GB memory card, microSD adapter and user manual.

Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510 Battery Life

The phone is equipped with a standard Li-ion which offers a talk time of around 11 hours when the phone is operated on 2G and around 5 hours when operated on 3G.

Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510 Launch

The phone was launched sometimes in April 2011.

Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510 Price

Price of Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510 in India is approximately Rs 9500. Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510 is one of the first Android messenger phone by Samsung which aims to target audience looking for a messenger device. The QWERTY keypad, along with decent connectivity option and Android 2.2 makes Galaxy Pro B7510 a decent purchase.

But while certain carriers were busy lobbying the International Telecommunications Union or launching crafty marketing campaigns, Verizon Wireless launched the fastest cellular network U.S. consumers have ever seen. On May 26th, Verizon released the LG Revolution and gave its subscribers their third 4G smartphone option. Does LG’s first 4G LTE phone address the shortcomings of Verizon Wireless’ earlier offerings? Read on for the full review.

The Inside

Reviewing Froyo phones isn’t getting any easier thanks to the countless offerings that have launched over the past year. While Google has since released two new versions of Android, Gingerbread and Honeycomb, new Froyo devices are still being pushed out to market more than one year following the build’s unveiling at Google I/O in May 2010. There is a reason for this, of course: building phone software is expensive.
Android might be free and open source, but R&D, engineering and testing are most certainly not free. Manufacturers like LG, HTC and others used Froyo as a base when building their custom UIs and making other tweaks to the Android OS. To carry these designs forward to new builds of the Android OS is a very costly and time-consuming process.

After the major investment made in Froyo, it seems as though cell phone makers have slowed down the development cycle with Gingerbread, especially with Google’s next major version of Android — Ice Cream Sandwich — looming on the horizon. This will be the build that unifies tablets and smartphones, merging the best of Honeycomb and Gingerbread into a single universal OS. Manufacturers have likely already begun porting their respective UIs to Ice Cream Sandwich, so devoting time and resources to Gingerbread is a double-edged sword.

LG’s Optimus UI on top of Froyo is tricky business. On one hand, it does its job fairly well and provides several nifty widgets that can be placed on any of the phone’s seven home screens. On the other hand, it often reads like a cheap, cartoony Sense UI knock-off. The app icons within the Optimus UI in particular are a bit too bright and cheery for me, and the stylized widgets are also not to my taste. To be clear, this is a cosmetic qualm and the issue certainly doesn’t impact function.

LG has included widgets that will take care of just about any need the typical smartphone user might have — from checking the time and weather to controlling music playback or viewing live stock quotes — and there are plenty of third-party widget options to fill in the blanks. The utility is definitely there, but styling is still an important factor that should be considered; this is a gadget you’ll potentially be looking at day in and day out for years to come. As far as my taste goes, I would place LG’s Optimus UI in between Samsung’s TouchWiz and HTC’s Sense, which still wears the crown by a long shot.

Where function is concerned, the LG Revolution can definitely keep up with the bulk of modern Android smartphones currently on the market. It doesn’t have a dual-core Tegra 2 processor, but its 1GHz Snapdragon CPU has yet to give me any real problems during typical usage. I did find that it slowed a bit under extremely heavy strain, but this is expected of any Android device at this point due to the free rein developers have with background processes. Again, however, bogging is most definitely the exception to the rule with LG’s Revolution, and most functions free of any real stuttering. There is some UI slowness at times, but this is an issue with Android and it can be seen even on the fastest dual-core smartphones on the market today.

Verizon Wireless users will be excited by the fact that data continues to come and go during voice calls, though the calls themselves will not be overly exciting. Call quality is mediocre at best, though the ear speaker volume is more than sufficient. I found the audio quality with speakerphone enabled to be sub par, and the distortion was simply unbearable with the volume turned up above approximately 60%. Callers on the other end of the phone weren’t impressed with call quality either, so I would definitely recommend investing in a decent Bluetooth headset if you intend to pick up a Revolution.

The Outside

When it comes to build quality, LG is hit or miss. Some of its devices feel like cheap toys that climbed out of the bottom of a cereal box, while others — like the G-Slate tablet, for example — feature top-notch materials and a solid build that can rival any device on the market. Thankfully, the Revolution falls into the latter of those two categories. The phone is a bit hefty at 6.06 ounces, but I like a phone that has a substantial feel. The front of the device is smooth glass that is noticeably devoid of an oleophobic coating, the bezel is a hard black plastic that feels very solid, and the back sports a smooth, slightly rubbery feel that greets the hand perfectly.

The top of the Revolution is home to a power/lock button and a 3.5-millimeter audio jack, and the bottom of the phone sports only a microphone. The left side features a covered microUSB port for charging and connectivity to a PC, while the right side is home to a volume rocker and an HDMI-out port.

The back of the phone features a second microphone for noise cancellation, which is accompanied by a black chrome strip down the center of the device. This strip holds LG, Verizon and “4G LTE” logos along with a 5-megapixel camera and an LED flash. A second camera is located on the face of the phone to facilitate video chats, and the four standard capacitive Android buttons are located beneath the display.

LG’s Revolution sports a 5-megapixel camera while the HTC ThunderBolt and Samsung DROID Charge feature 8-megapixel shooters. Anyone who owns a camera phone can tell you megapixels mean precious little in terms of the quality of the resulting images — I would take the 5-megapixel camera from Apple’s iPhone 4 or even 2-year-old Nokia smartphones like the N82 or N95 ahead of any currently available 8-megapixel cell phone camera. In the case of the Revolution, the images captured by its camera are at least on par with the ThunderBolt and DROID Charge, if not marginally more clear. Low light images are pretty bad, as they are with 99% of camera phones, but the Revolution’s camera performed quite well in daylight and in well lit rooms.

The Upside

Speed, speed, speed. The biggest benefit of the LG Revolution over the majority of smartphones on the market is undoubtedly the 4G LTE network behind it. I regularly saw data speeds between 10 and 13Mbps down and 5Mbps or more up. Latency generally fell between 65 and 80 milliseconds, which is also quite impressive for a mobile network, especially considering latency was very consistent. This performance is far better than land-based broadband service from many ISPs. In fact, it’s even better than services offered by some of the country’s top Internet providers. I use Time Warner Cable, for example, and while my download speeds of up to 30Mbps far exceed Verizon Wireless’ LTE, my real-world tests of Verizon’s 4G upload speeds were over 10 times faster than by cable Internet, which is capped at a laughable 500Kbps.

What am I supposed to do with all that speed? Good question. Having access to this kind of speed on a mobile phone has limited utility in the real world for the time being. It can still definitely come in handy, however. The LG Revolution ships with a Netflix app that I’ve not yet been able to trip up a single time. I have started to stream movies while downloading giant email attachments, for example, and I couldn’t even get the Netflix app to choke for a fraction of a second. There is also a YouTube app, a link to download Bitbop, Slacker Radio, a link to download Blockbuster’s app, a link to download Rhapsody and several V Cast media apps on the device, just begging users to stream as much media as possible.
Then there’s the mobile hotspot function, of course, which supports up to eight concurrent connections while covered by 4G. Here is a test I performed yesterday evening with a MacBook Air tethered to the LG Revolution via the integrated mobile hotspot feature:

“Faster than 88% of US.” Enough said.
Of course don’t expect the mobile hotspot feature to take you very far unless you have a charger and an outlet near by. Also, I found that it sometimes took me quite some a while before I was able to move data once connected to the Revolution via Wi-Fi. Even while I could send and receive data on the phone itself, connected devices such as my laptop, a Galaxy Tab 10.1 and a BlackBerry PlayBook were unable to send or receive data until they were connected for about 90 seconds. Then, other times, I was able to connect to the Internet just fine within a few seconds of negotiating an IP address.

The Downside

Just as I would place the Optimus UI between HTC and Samsung’s competitive offerings, battery size is another area where the LG falls squarely in between HTC and Samsung — the revolution’s 1,500 mAh battery sits directly between the ThunderBolt’s 1,400 mAh battery and the DROID Charge’s 1,600 mAh offering. To the end user, this hardly matters. What does matter, however, is a smartphone’s ability to manage battery life and perform its various functions without leaving the user worried about having his or her phone die. In this regard, the LG Revolution fails miserably.
With 4G enabled, I could barely get the Revolution to idle for a full day without running out of juice. With regular usage, the phone would cough and sputter by the early afternoon and with heavy usage, I was lucky to get a few hours out of the Revolution. In a day and age where people rely on their smartphones more than ever, this is simply unacceptable.

For reasons unknown, Verizon and LG have chosen not to give users a simple way to enable and disable 4G LTE. I can understand that 4G is novel for Verizon and it wants users to bask in the glow of its blistering data speeds, but when that glow only lasts a few short hours per charge, common sense needs to be exercised. I use a third-party app called “LTE Switch” to enable and disable LTE on my Revolution review unit, and it works like a charm. The device needs to reboot every time you switch LTE on or off, but I was able to get just about a full day of usage out of the phone when I disabled LTE often. I shed a tear when subsequent speed tests rang up at below 1Mbps down, but whenever I needed a boost I just fired up LTE and let the Revolution soar.
My only other major issue with this smartphone is the display. The giant 4.3-inch display consumers can’t seem to get enough of on Android phones just so happens to be my least favorite thing about the Revolution’s hardware. It’s bad. The size is great, the backlighting is sufficiently bright, the resolution is decent at a now-baseline 480 x 800 pixels… but the panel itself just doesn’t do it for me. The viewing angle is terrible, colors are very washed out and graphics just don’t pop compared to more modern displays.
Also — and this may be an issue with the UI as much as it is with the screen — color gradients are particularly terrible on the Revolution’s display. On a better screen like one of Samsung’s offerings or Apple’s Retina Display, colors fade very smoothly from one to the next on UI elements, and this really enhances the look of the graphics. On the Revolution, this effect cannot be pulled off. Gradients that fade from black to dark gray, for example, render as horizontal or vertical bars that are aligned in progressively lighter colors. The transition is not smooth and seamless, as it should be on a modern smartphone display.

The Bottom Line

Every time we mention Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network here on BGR, we write about how ridiculously fast it is compared to the competition. At this point in time, it really has no rival. Those looking for a new smartphone who value blazing fast data speeds above all else really have three choices, and they’re all Verizon phones. LG’s Revolution is the newest of the three, and while it can’t match the gorgeous Super AMOLED Plus display on the DROID Charge or the sleek and stylish Sense UI on the ThunderBolt, it easily features my favorite design and build of the three devices. The Revolution also features the same Android 2.2 OS as the Charge and the ThunderBolt, so it is essentially just as capable.
The trade off with an LTE phone, of course, is battery life. There’s just no way to sugar coat it… battery life on the LG Revolution is abysmal, just like it is on the ThunderBolt and the DROID Charge. Those seriously considering any of these smartphones should be prepared to purchase several additional wall chargers and a car charger in order to have access to power as often as possible.

Source: BGR.com

Perhaps the lack of available apps has been a bit of a hindrance, but I view Palm’s release strategy, its horrible marketing strategy and its sub par hardware as having played the biggest roles in preventing webOS from finding stardom. In terms of hardware, I had high hopes when HP announced it was buying Palm; webOS might finally have a vessel worthy of consumers’ attention. Discounting the Pre 2, which should never have been allowed to ship, the Veer is HP’s first webOS smartphone to reach store shelves. The phone is undoubtedly unique and it features the latest version of the Palm team’s software platform, but is it the vessel webOS needs so desperately? Hit the break for my review of the HP Veer 4G — or, as I have come to call it, the Palmagotchi.

The Inside

AT&T’s version of this cute little critter ships with version 2.1.2 of webOS, the latest version available to the public. Compared to older 1.x versions of webOS, the most important changes in my eyes all revolve around performance. Under Palm’s rule, the webOS operating system was gorgeous but it was anything but smooth. On the original Pre, the OS would choke regularly and stutter constantly. Then webOS 2.0 brought the cavalry and smoothed out webOS significantly.

As much as we love tossing specs around, particularly where processor speeds are concerned, savvy users know there are many factors that impact a device’s performance. Of course the processor will play a large role, but memory, component quality and software optimizations are just as important when painting a complete picture. The Veer 4G’s 800MHz single-core Qualcomm processor, for example, is dwarfed by the blazing fast dual-core offerings found in new Android phones, and yet the UI on the Veer is often much smoother and more fluid than many Android phones I have used. Even with a dozen apps open, flicks and taps are typically just as smooth as they are on a fresh boot. Booting the phone, by the way, takes forever.

There are times when the Veer gets bogged down, however, and the culprits are often familiar ones. The Google Maps app, for instance, has always been a tough pill for webOS to swallow. On the Veer, Google Maps takes a very long time to launch and render maps. This, in turn, slows other functions down and can cause hiccups. The contacts app is another constant culprit, and the phone seems to slow down a fair amount whenever contact or email data is syncing.
The webOS team at HP also added some other great new features to webOS 2.x, such as enhanced multitasking. My original Palm Pre would often bog with just two or three apps open, and that is not the case on the Veer 4G. Save for a few exceptions as noted elsewhere in this review, apps remain responsive while background processes tied to other apps are running. So streaming Pandora Radio while downloading Twitter updates and playing Angry Birds is no problem at all, for example.
Other new features include “Just type,” which is a global search much like Spotlight on the iPhone or universal search on BlackBerry phones; stack support, which allows users to group similar cards into stacks; and support for Adobe Flash. Synergy has also been refined, providing more control and more supported account types. For those unfamiliar with it, Synergy is a webOS feature that combines contact information from multiple account types — Gmail contacts, Facebook contacts, and so on — and merges everything into one entry. So, for example, the single contact entry I have for BGR President and Editor-in-chief Jonathan Geller contains data from his entry in my Exchange contact list, his entry in my Gmail contact list, his Facebook profile, his LinkedIn profile and his AIM account.
Phone calls placed using the Veer were loud and clear on AT&T’s network, and callers on the other end of the phone said the quality was terrific. The speakerphone function is also nice and loud on the Veer, though there is a fair amount of distortion as volume levels approach max. As far as battery life is concerned, this is another area where specs can be deceiving. At only 950 mAh, the Veer has the smallest battery of any smartphone I have tested in years. With solid software and such a tiny display to power, however, I was easily able to get a full day of moderate usage on a single charge.

The Outside

Unlike its grandfather, the Palm Pre, HP’s Veer features a very solid build. While I personally far prefer metal or soft-touch plastic to hard plastic, the Veer 4G feels very solid and comfortable in the hand. The phone is quite light but it still manages to feel substantial in the hand, and the slider mechanism is very well constructed.
The Veer is also very, very small.
Measuring just 3.31 x 2.15 x 0.59 inches, HP’s Veer 4G is easily the smallest smartphone available from a U.S. carrier. It’s not terribly thin, but it is very short and very narrow compared to other cell phones. The face of the device is home only to a 2.6-inch touchscreen display and an ear speaker. The display sports a 320 x 400 resolution, which would be quite low if they weren’t all crammed into such a tiny screen. The result is bright and vivid, however, and if it wasn’t so tiny it would be a pleasure to use.

The top of the phone holds a SIM slot and a mute toggle, the left side of the device is home to the volume rocker and the right holds the power/lock button as well as a proprietary connector port. The phone ships with a magnetic adapter that fits on this port and allows a headset to connect to the phone. The USB cable that doubles as a charger has this special fitting as well, since there is no microUSB port on the device. In other words, if you plan to buy a Veer, invest in a Bluetooth stereo headset and a touchstone charging dock. The port and adapter were necessities since the device is so tiny, but having to worry about losing the adapter would be a huge turn off for me. HP’s inductive Touchstone charger technology is awesome and Veer 4G owners should plan to make use of it.

An HP logo, an AT&T logo, a loudspeaker and a camera with no flash are located on the back of the Veer. Plainly put, images captured using the Veer’s 5-megapixel camera are very disappointing. They’re grainy, colors are washed out, and even images captured in bright daylight are eyesores. Also on the rear of the device when the keypad is slid open, is a mirror.
The last item of note on the Veer’s exterior is the QWERTY keypad, which to me, is easily the most surprising thing about this smartphone.

The Upside

I was as shocked to determine this as you undoubtedly will be to read it, but the Veer’s keyboard really isn’t that bad. In fact, it’s pretty ok. While that might not seem like much of a compliment on the surface, consider that this QWERTY keyboard is by far the smallest I have ever used on a cell phone. While I don’t have giant hands, I fully expected to find the keyboard laughable the first time I slid the phone’s display skyward. But after typing a sentence I found my smirk starting to fade. After making it through a second sentence, and then a third with no errors, I’m sure a puzzled expression stuck to my face for at least a few beats.
This keyboard isn’t half bad.

I wouldn’t call the typing experience enjoyable, really, but it’s not as bad as you might think. If you have giant hands, don’t even bother. Those with small to average-sized digits will almost certainly be able to manage on the Veer’s QWERTY, though, as the rounded shape of the buttons provides more separation than you might think. I would say that I made no more or less errors while typing on the Veer 4G than I do while typing on the iPhone 4 or a Windows Phone, which house my two favorite keyboards. I definitely type a bit slower on the Veer than on the two aforementioned devices, but not by much.

Beyond the keyboard, there isn’t much else to cover in this section I’m afraid. The device’s biggest strength is its operating system, of which I am a huge fan. The UI is gorgeous, the card interface is brilliantly intuitive and the feature set is all there. But…

The Downside

Where to begin?
As a phone, the HP Veer 4G is more than adequate. As a smartphone, the Veer is very capable and fairly smooth for the most part. And yet at the same time, I’m unable to take it seriously.
My real question, jaded though it may be, is simply: why is this phone so small? It serves no purpose. It is a gimmick and nothing more. And it’s not even a good gimmick, in my eyes. Tiny phones had their day in the sun, but that day has passed — and the tiny phone craze didn’t even occur in any of the Veer’s launch markets.

The Veer 4G would be a blast to use if it was the size of a normal phone. Professionals might enjoy it more if they were actually able to see the text within emails. Children might enjoy in more if they were actually able to see the birds as they are flung toward pigs. Commuters might enjoy it more if they were actually able to see videos as they play (or listen to music without needing an adapter to connect their ear buds). Instead, 20/20 vision doesn’t even cut it with this minuscule mobile phone, and the expense HP incurred to build and ship it might not even be wholly recouped.
This concept of “build it small and cute” is one more thing that spilled over from the pre-acquisition Palm team that most definitely should not have. People didn’t bite with the Pixi and they won’t bite with the Veer.

Beyond that — though I’m not sure there really is a “beyond that,” unfortunately — there are some things that really cause the phone to choke, as I mentioned previously. Google Maps, the Contacts app and email are a few examples, but the Web browser is another area where the Veer can definitely use a boost. Even while connected to my home Wi-Fi network with download speeds in excess of 30Mbps, web pages sometimes feel like they take forever to load. Even mobile versions of sites, built specifically so low-performance browsers can pull them up quickly, have trouble loading on the Veer 4G. This is a problem, of course, and it’s compounded by the fact that the webOS App Catalog is still quite light.

The Bottom Line

In the end, I’m having a hard time figuring out who HP built this phone for. It’s obviously not for power users, so to think of it from the perspective of a tech savvy smartphone lover is a waste of time. Is it for tweens and teens? Maybe. AT&T’s $15 smartphone data plan makes this phone a great affordable option for parents looking to save some money but still get a cute and capable smartphone for their child. Is it for high school or college students? Possibly.

Affordability is still a huge factor with that demographic, and the Veer can can definitely keep up with a fast crowd, though the lack of apps could be more of an issue here. Is it for young professionals? That’s doubtful. WebOS is strong where productivity and PIM are concerned, but the tiny display on the Veer 4G is not good at all when it comes to email and other text-heavy functions.
As a fashion accessory, the Veer is great. It’s a cute phone phone that will definitely attract attention when it’s pulled out. The problem is that people looking for a smartphone and a fashion accessory typically opt for the iPhone, and I’m not sure there are many valid arguments for the Veer 4G over an iPhone in the eyes of a consumer looking for a fashion accessory.

The display has been upgraded from a baseline screen to a qHD display, and software customizations and enhancements have been made as well. Did one of my favorite Android handsets get even better? Hit the full review after the break to find out.

Hardware / Display

The Motorola DROID X2 is very competitive in the specs department. It’s powered by a dual-core 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 CPU, Android 2.2, it has 512MB of RAM, an 8-megapixel camera capable of shooting 720p HD video, 8GB of built-in storage, and the usual Android accouterments like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, digital compass, and an accelerometer.
If you’ve used the original Motorola DROID X, the X2′s hardware is practically the same as the original. Though the DROID X2 is a tad bit darker than the previous iteration, it uses the same metal casing with a soft touch finish. Unfortunately there was one thing removed from the first DROID X and that’s the camera button, which many people will miss.

On the flip side though, the DROID X2 features an HDMI-out port positioned right next to the microUSB port, something that I think hints at accessories that the DROID X2 can dock into, possibly like the Motorola ATRIX’s laptop and multimedia docks.

The four Android buttons at the bottom of the display on the D2 bother me immensely. Aside from being narrow, if you don’t hit them perfectly right on, your key presses won’t register and it’s annoying. I would definitely have preferred touch-sensitive keys over the physical buttons.
The display is good, and it looks like the same exact display used in the Motorola ATRIX. The resolution is there, but unfortunately the screen looks pixelated to me despite bumping up the original model’s 480 x 854-pixel resolution to 540 x 960. Colors, however, are accurately displayed and the qHD screen on the Motorola DROID X2 is bright and vivid.

The resolution is close to the Retina Display on the iPhone 4, and while that looks great on paper, once you’ve compared the two, well, there isn’t a comparison. Outdoor readability was very good on the DROID X2′s display, though, and the 4.3-inch screen is great for web browsing and multimedia.
There are four physical buttons below the display, as mentioned above: menu, home, back, and search. On top of the device are the 3.5mm headphone jack and power button. The left side houses the microUSB and HDMI ports, while the right side features a volume rocker. The camera is located on back next to a dual-LED flash, and though you can see a front-facing camera above the display on the right side, it’s not activated for video calls or self-portrait images just yet.

Software

Motorola’s BLUR UI has been ever so slightly updated on the DROID X2, and while there are some nice touches here and there, there’s one thing I just can’t move past: when you tap the application icon in the bottom app icon bar, the app drawer doesn’t immediately appear. It’s like Motorola’s design and UI team just forgot about one of the most important parts of your smartphone experience… accessing apps. While this isn’t a deal-breaker at all, it’s just another UI inconsistency that shows how little some Android manufacturers seem to value not just the user interface, but user enjoyment.

There are some enhancements that I do appreciate, however, like the ability to press the home button twice to show card views of all of your seven home screens (dear Android manufactures: seven home screens is excessive), and I like how the drop down notification window is now semi-transparent — it’s a nice touch, and it Smurfs up the phone pretty nicely.

Motorola’s BLUR UI on the DROID X2 actually seems to weigh pretty heavily on the dual-core processor, as it stutters occasionally which is something I haven’t seen on a Tegra 2 Android smartphone very much before. With the dual-core CPU comes support for HD video playback and recording, however, in addition to HDMI out. Much like the Motorola ATRIX, the DROID X2 can power full 1080p HD from a connected HDMI cable including mirroring which is impressive, and the playback on a 55-inch LED display was buttery smooth.

Phone / Battery

Using the DROID X2 as a phone, well, is just plain great. Reception is fantastic, callers on the other end of the phone sounded perfect, and even though speakerphone wasn’t as loud as I would have liked, it did the trick. Motorola’s noise cancellation works well, though it can make your voice sound a bit hollow in some settings, callers told me.
After spending more than a week with the Motorola DROID X2′s battery, it’s proved to be a solid handset that can go toe to toe with the latest Android handsets on the market. Motorola seems to have come close to perfecting battery optimization because the 1,540 mAh battery the device ships with performs extremely well. With moderately heavy sporadic usage, the DROID X2 can last up to three days under my reign of terror, and just in standby mode it should last nearly a week. With consistant heavy usage, I was also able to power through an entire day on the DROID X2, which a lot of other Android smartphones have trouble doing.

Conclusion

Here’s the thing… the Motorola DROID X was one of my favorite phones on Verizon Wireless when it was released. I usually don’t prefer larger displays on devices, but the DROID X made it work for me. It was fast, I actually liked a lot of Motorola’s customizations (especially the keyboard), the device was thin, and the phone was a keeper. On Motorola’s second go, though, the DROID X2 updates don’t do enough to push the new DROID into the limelight. Compared to other handsets like the Samsung Galaxy S II, the DROID X2 feels like it should be running a Weight Watchers app as it’s just too thick to be competitive in that department. And without 4G, there’s not much incentive to buy the new DROID. It’s a better phone than the first one and I really do like it a lot, but since the goal post has moved so much since last year, a simple refresh isn’t going to cut it. It’s not a bad phone by any means, but I would just hold off for at least a couple months and see what else Verizon offers in the same vein — I’m sure we’ll all be pleasantly surprised.

Hardware / Display

Most people love or hate Samsung’s hardware, but I find myself uncharacteristically on the fence. On one hand, Samsung pumps out solid hardware that has always been widely adopted around the world. On the other, there appears to be a little separation, at least where the U.S. market is concerned, on what people really consider to be a quality product. There’s a fine line between making a device extremely light, and one that feels cheap and unworthy of a $200 price tag. The Samsung Galaxy S II is the thinnest smartphone I have ever tested, and it’s also one of the lightest. It’s even thinner than the iPhone 4, and it’s much lighter.

One of the reasons the device is lighter, however, is due to Samsung’s continued use of what feels like a low-cost glossy black plastic for the handset’s shell. The saving grace on the Samsung Galaxy S II, however, is that the rear battery cover isn’t a typical high-gloss Samsung extravaganza, but a textured matte-finished cover.

On top of the device you’ll find a 3.5mm headset jack with secondary mic for noise cancellation. On the right side is a power button and the volume rocker is on the left. Around front there’s a 2-megapixel camera for video chat, and three of the four typical Android navigation buttons. Samsung hasn’t included a dedicated search key, though in daily use, I rarely found myself hunting for it. The home button is a physical rectangular key, and the back and menu keys are capacitive and work quite well. A nice touch is that they light up for a short period of time when the screen goes on, and then they dim and blend back into the black facade of the Galaxy S II.

As far as specs go, the Samsung Galaxy S II is, for lack of better works, a beast. We’re talking about a 1.2GHz dual-core Orion processor, 1GB of RAM, Android OS 2.3 Gingerbread, an 8-megapixel camera with LED flash and 1080p HD video recording, and 21Mbps HSPA+ support.

The Samsung Galaxy S II also features Samsung’s Super AMOLED Plus display, and it’s one of the best screens I’ve ever seen, easily besting the display on the Google Nexus S. Black levels are incredible, colors are vibrant, bright, and the display is very sharp. Viewing any sort of content with a black background will melt into the black front case around the display and make it difficult to tell where the screen starts and the case ends — it’s that good.

The Galaxy S II is also the fastest Android phone I have ever used, hands down. It’s evident across the entire OS, with web pages loading at desktop-like speeds. There’s absolutely no lag while zipping around from app to app or screen to screen, and it makes the entire Android experience much more enjoyable.

TouchWiz

Let me just get it out of the way: I’m a stock Android guy. I don’t care for any custom UI from any manufacturer on my Android device at this point. With that said, TouchWiz has it’s ups and downs. I’m not a fan of Swype or Samsung’s keyboard so I replaced the keyboard with the stock Gingerbread keyboard. I’m also not a fan of the email app and the calendar app also looks like Times Square at 2:00 a.m. — I’m just not feeling all the use of black backgrounds here. I do, however, like how you can edit the number of home screens on your device — I like three, not seven, home screens — and while I don’t use any of Samsung’s widgets, I appreciate the creativity some of them showcase.

For the average user, it’s certainly possible TouchWiz could help more than it hurts. It’s definitely more lively than what stock Android is, and it could be more straight forward to the general consumer.

Battery

Battery life typically isn’t a strong point on Android handsets, but the Galaxy S II performs very well thanks to its large 1,640 mAh battery and no doubt thanks to its power sipping dual-core Orion processor as well. Standby time lasts days — up to around three days with corporate push email on and various background apps. The Galaxy S II should no doubt be able to power you through a normal day’s worth of usage as well.

Conclusion

Hands down, the Samsung Galaxy S II is the greatest Android smartphone available on the planet… if you can get past TouchWiz. It’s the fastest smartphone I’ve ever used, it features one of the best displays I have laid eyes on, it offers great signal reception and audio performance on AT&T, it has a great camera, it’s very thin and light, and even better, it’s free from any carrier’s wrath (restrictions) since it’s the unlocked global version. The downside is that it’s not subsidized so it’s going to run you around $800 — for reference, a 32GB iPhone 4 without a contract runs $699. Of course we expect the Galaxy S II to launch under various names on all four of the major U.S. carriers, so those who don’t mind branding and bloatware will have the option of picking up this phone from your carrier of choice soon enough.

While I would have preferred to see stock Android on the Galaxy S II, the phone is so good that TouchWiz doesn’t hold it down too much, at least for me. In fact, Samsung is going to have trouble getting this one back. And who knows? Maybe I’ll even switch to Android as my primary daily carrier just for this device. Well, probably not.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Looks And Design

At a first glance the phone very the same in design as that of Xperia X10. Both the handsets looks very much similar to each other. The phone is pretty light weighing just 104 grams and is pretty sleek measuring just 99 x 54 x 15 mm. The phone is made up of plastic and the plastic is fingerprint-proof. The phone sports a 3 inches TFT capacitive touchscreen which is capable of displaying of 16 M colors of resolution measuring 320×480 pixels.

The display has a scratch resistant suface and is equipped with accelerometer and proximity sensors. The display offers good enough brightness and contrast and the image is pretty crisp. However, in sunlight the display suffers to some extent. The sensitivity of the screen is quite good and it responds to the slightest of touches. Overall we were quite happy with the design and construction of the device.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Applications

The phone is equipped with several in-built applications such as Google Search, Gmail, Google Talk etc. Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Youtube application helps users to steam Youtube videos in your phone. Users can also download several other apps in their phone.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Gallery

The gallery of the phone automatically detects images and the gallery supports finger scrolling. Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 has one finger-zoom and supports double tap zoom.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Specifications

The phone offers an internal storage of 128 MB and comes with a 2GB of memory card. The memory can be increased to 16GB with the help of a microSD card. Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 OS is Android 1.6. However Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 OS upgrade can be pushed to 2.1. The phone is powered by a 600 MHz ARM 11 processor. Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 keypad is QWERTY in nature.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Camera

The phone is equipped with a 3.15 MP camera which is capable of clicking pictures of resolution measuring 2048×1536 pixels. The camera is equipped with geo-tagging feature. Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 camera quality is quite decent but lack of autofocus and flash tuned out to be quite disappointing. Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 video is recorded at the rate of 30 fps. The video recording is not that impressive.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Connectivity And Multimedia

Connectivity is solid with Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Android. The phone has support for 2G as well as 3G. There is also support for GPRS, EDGE, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP profile. Presence of Micro USB 2.0 and 3.5 mm jack further enhances connectivity of the phone. The phone has an FM raido with RDS which will be loved by music lovers. Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 sound quality is loud and good enough.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Accessories

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 box contents are pretty standard. The box contents of the phone are a micro USB cable, wall charger, 2GB micro SD card, wired hadsfree and user guide.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Colors

The phone is available in several colors such as white, dark blue/, aqua blue/white, Pink/White and Silver/White.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Battery Life

The phone is equipped with standard Li-Po 1200 mAh which offers talktime of around 4 hours when the phone is operated on 2G and 5 hours when the phone is operated on 3G.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Cost

Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 price in India is approximately Rs 10,000. Xperia X8 is a great phone if you are looking forward for Android experience at a cost effective price point.

LG Optimus T Design And Looks

At a first glance you wil find that LG Optimus T T-Mobile looks pretty much the same as that of LG Optimus S. The phone is constructed of soft-touch, burgundy colored plastic which makes it look pretty good. You will find the same silver accent band as that of Optimus S around the edges of the phone. The phone feels solid on hand. LG Optimus T dimension measures 113.5 x 59 x 13.3 mm  which makes it sleek and lets it easily slip into the pocket. The phone weighs 129 grams which is in lines with weight of several other smartphones.

LG Optimus T sports a 3.2 inches TFT capacitive touch screen which displays 256K colors of resolution measuring 320×480 pixels. The display is equipped with accelerometer and proximity sensors. The display offers good viewing angles and the tiniest of texts are displayed sharp. The display suffers greatly in direct sunlight but is pretty responsive and responds to the slightest of touches.

LG Optimus T Apps

Google Talk, Gmail, Google Search etc are some of the in-built apps in the phone. LG Optimus T Youtube application allows users to enjoy Youtube videos on their device. Users can also download several applications of their choices from the Android market. The phone also has preloaded Facebook and Twitter application which allows users to hook onto the social networks and keep in constant touch with their family and friends.

LG Optimus T Features

LG Optimus T offers 5 home screens, but you can expand to 7. The phone allows you to sync your address book with various social networks. LG Optimus T keyboard is QWERTY in nature and text can be inputted in two ways. You can either use the Android keyboard or the Swype keyboard. The phone also offers easy setting of emails and from the Android market you can get access to various other services.

LG Optimus T Specs

LG Optimus T offers internal memory storage of 170 MB. There is a 2GB memory card included in the device. With the help of microSD card slot, the memory can be increased to 32GB. The phone runs on Android 2.2 (Froyo) OS and the operations are stepped up by the presence of 600 MHz processor.

LG Optimus T Camera

LG Optimus T Android is equipped with a 3.2 MP camera which clicks pictures of resolution measuring 2048×1536 pixels. The photographs produced are not that stunning but are decent enough. Absence of LG Optimus T flash in the camera makes taking picture in the dim light a bit of a problem. LG Optimus T video is captured at 18fps.

LG Optimus T Connectivity And Multimedia

Connectivity is seamless with LG Optimus T mobile with the phone supporting both 2G and 3G networks. There is also support for GRPS (Class 10) and EDGE (Class 10). LG Optimus T USB 2.0 along with support for 3.5 mm audio jack enhances the connectivity of the device. Local connectivity is also consolidated with the presence of Bluetooth 2.1 with support for A2DP profile. The phone is also equipped with an FM radio which will be loved by music lovers.

LG Optimus T Call Quality

The call quality of the phone is good enough with reception good enough in most of the areas. We did not feel drop in call in most of the areas. LG Optimus T sound quality is also quite decent.

LG Optimus T Battery

The phone is equipped with a standard Li-ion 1500 mAH battery which provides a talk time of around 5 hours.

LG Optimus T Accessories

During LG Optimus T unlock we found the phone to be equipped with standard accessories such as wall charger, microUSB cable, stereo headset, user guide and the phone itself.

LG Optimus T Price

LG Optimus T on contract price is approximately $ 30 while LG Optimus T price in India is approximately Rs 13,500. The phone is a decent one which offers great value for money and if you want to experience Android at a cost effective price point then LG Optimus T is the one for you.

Samsung Chat 350 Looks And Design

At a first glance, Samsung Chat 350 looks pretty much the same as that of Samsung Champ 3300. The phone measures 99.5 x 52 x 15.5 mm and the stylish greyish silver color tone gives the phone a chic look. The curved rounded edges of the phone help it to held easily on hands and provides a good grip. Considering the budget of the device we did not expect the construction of the device to be out of the box. The phone is equipped with a 2.4 inches TFT resistive touch screen which is capable of displaying 256 K colors of resolution measuring 320×240 pixels. The colors and contrast of the screen is more or less decent enough but becomes an issue in direct sunlight.

Samsung Chat 350 Features

One of the standout features of Samsung Chat 350 mobile is sliding QWERTY keypad. The keys of the keypad are spread well enough which is facilitates messaging. The phone supports Java 2.1 and boasts of Touch Wiz Lite 2.0 UI and SNS Integration.

Samsung Chat 350 Specifications

The phone boasts of internal memory storage of 20 MB. The memory can be increased to 8GB with the help of a microSD card.

Samsung Chat 350 Camera

The phone is equipped with a 2 MP camera which is capable of clicking pictures of resolution measuring 1600×1200 pixels. The camera, however, lacks advanced features like LED flash, geo-tagging etc. But since Samsung Chat 355 is a budgetary phone one cannot expect the camera to be that of a high end smartphone. Samsung Chat 350 videos are captured at 15 fps. The videos captured are at par with a budgetary phone.

Samsung Chat 350 Connectivity And Multimedia

Connectivity is one of the major issues with Samsung Chat 350. The phone supports 2G network, but there is no support for 3G. With 3G services launched in several countries of the world, lack of 3G support is one of the major disappointments. There is no support for Wi-fi either. However, there is support for GPRS (Class 10) and EDGE (Class 10). Bluetooth 2.1 with support for A2DP profile, microUSB 2.0 and presence of 3.5 mm audio jack makes local connectivity robust. There is also an FM radio with RDS which will be loved by music lovers. The interface of the radio is pretty simple and it catches the stations present nearby at ease.

Samsung Chat 350 Colors

The phone is available in three shades namely black, white and silver. Samsung Chat 350 launch date in USA has been somewhere in the month of February.

Samsung Chat 350 Battery

The phone is equipped with a standard Li-ion 960 mAh battery which provides a talk time of around 12 hours.

Samsung Chat 350 Cost

Samsung Chat 350 price in USA is approximately $ 70 while Samsung Chat in India can be snapped for Rs 6,000 (approx). Samsung Chat 350 is an ordinary phone best suited for heavy messaging and texting. There is nothing extraordinary about the phone to boast about. If you love messaging and texting, you can look forward to Samsung Chat 350.