Apple iPhone 4S Review

Apple iPhone 4S

Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
		HSDPA 1700 / 2100 / 1900 - for Telus
	Announced	2011, February
	Status	Available. Released 2011, April

Body	Dimensions	125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm
	Weight	116 g
		- Touch-sensitive controls

Display	Type	Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	480 x 800 pixels, 4.3 inches (~217 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
	Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass
		- TouchWiz UI v4.0

Sound	Alert types	Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes, check quality

Memory	Card slot	microSD, up to 32GB
	Internal	16GB/32GB storage, 1 GB RAM

Data	GPRS	Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
	EDGE	Class 12
	Speed	HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot
	Bluetooth	Yes, v3.0+HS
	NFC	Optional
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0 (MHL), USB On-the-go

Camera	Primary	8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, check quality
	Features	Geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization
	Video	Yes, 1080p@30fps, check quality
	Secondary	Yes, 2 MP

Features	OS	Android OS, v2.3.4 (Gingerbread), upgradable to v4.x
	Chipset	Exynos
	CPU	Dual-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9
	GPU	Mali-400MP
	Sensors	Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
	Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS
	Browser	HTML, Adobe Flash
	Radio	Stereo FM radio with RDS
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
	Java	Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
	Colors	Black, White, Pink
		- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - TV-out (via MHL A/V link) - SNS integration - MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player - MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player - Organizer - Image/video editor - Document editor (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF) - Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa integration - Voice memo/dial/commands - Predictive text input (Swype)

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1650 mAh
	Stand-by	Up to 710 h (2G) / Up to 610 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 18 h 20 min (2G) / Up to 8 h 40 min (3G)

Misc	SAR US	0.16 W/kg (head)     0.96 W/kg (body)
	SAR EU	0.34 W/kg (head)  While Samsung Galaxy S II owners in the United States awaited their promised update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, many are waiting for the next Samsung Galaxy, the Samsung Galaxy S III which many thought would be announced in February at Mobile World Congress.  Here's a round-up of rumors from all over the globe. Mother May I Say April Instead of May Please? For a while many thought the Samsung Galaxy S III would be released in May.  In fact all Samsung officially has reported is a second quarter(Q2) release date. Then Samsung's Greater China president Kim Young-ha at Samsung Forum event in Beijing said in order to "increase sales' Samsung is considering releasing the Samsung Galaxy S III in April. Some contend that the release could be coming away to steal away not the HTC ThunderBolt but HTC's thunder when it releases the HTC One X in April and makes it announcement in New York, April 4. Just a Chip off the Old Exynos Techeads and bloggers who quoted a unammeed Samsung executive who said tha the Samsung Galaxy S III will have a quad-core Samsung Exynos processor with built-in LTE and WDMA radios.  Earlier reports claimed that the new --- will have 1.5GHz quad-c0re Samsung Exynos processor, 4.8" HD touchscreen, 8MP camera, ceramic case, front-facing camera and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Samsung Galaxy S III Smiles for the Photoshopping  Weber Shandwick, a PR firm's logo was seen along with a rendering of the Samsung Galaxy S III.    A similar rendering showed up as wells as GSM Helpdesk image.  The design on the mock-ups looks exactly like screens on the Samsung Galaxy S II. These two leaks could be chalked up to Photoshopping.  Today, there an actual photograph of what is referred to as the Samsung GT-i9300 that is buttonless and follows the numbering of the Samsung Galaxy S II  Samsung Galaxy Nexus which which were GT-i9100 and GT-i9250.  The model number previously was associated a lower resolution screen.  Whatever it is, it does show the Samsung Logo. Inducted in the Hall of Wireless Charging A translated Korean website revealed that the Samsung Galaxy S III will have wireless conductive charge built-in.  This would mean to charge the phone you won't have to connect it to a cord it will charge with out conductive mat, as far as two-to-three feet away.

Samsung Galaxy S 2 i9100 review.

Sony Xperia S

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 - LT26i
	Announced	2012, January
	Status	Available. Released 2012, February

Body	Dimensions	128 x 64 x 10.6 mm
	Weight	144 g
		- Touch-sensitive controls

Display	Type	LED-backlit LCD, capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	720 x 1280 pixels, 4.3 inches (~342 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes, up to 10 fingers
	Protection	Scratch-resistant glass
		- Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine - Timescape UI

Sound	Alert types	Vibration; MP3 ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes

Memory	Card slot	No
	Internal	32 GB storage, 1 GB RAM

Data	GPRS	Up to 86 kbps
	EDGE	Up to 237 kbps
	Speed	HSDPA, 14.4 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.8 Mbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
	Bluetooth	Yes, v2.1 with A2DP, EDR
	NFC	Yes
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0

Camera	Primary	12 MP, 4000x3000 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, check quality
	Features	Geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, 3D sweep panorama, image stabilization
	Video	Yes, 1080p@30fps, continuous autofocus, video light, video stabilizer, check quality
	Secondary	Yes, 1.3 MP, 720p@30fps

Features	OS	Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread), planned upgrade to v4.0
	Chipset	Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon
	CPU	Dual-core 1.5 GHz
	GPU	Adreno 220
	Sensors	Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
	Messaging	SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, IM, Push Email
	Browser	HTML5, Adobe Flash
	Radio	Stereo FM radio with RDS
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS
	Java	Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
	Colors	White, Black
		- MicroSIM card support only - TV launcher - SNS integration - HDMI port - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player - MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV player - TrackID music recognition - Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk - Document viewer - Voice memo/dial/commands - Predictive text input

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1750 mAh
	Stand-by	Up to 450 h (2G) / Up to 420 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 7 h 30 min (2G) / Up to 8 h 30 min (3G)
	Music play	Up to 25 h

Misc	SAR EU	1.30 W/kg (head)     0.80 W/kg (body)	Sony Xperia S reviews are getting praise from everyone. 12MP smartphone has been launched in India for Rs 32549‎ Sony Xperia S is one of new premier Android handsets from the Japanese tech firm. Sony, which recently bought out Ericsson from the celebrated phone brand Sony Ericsson, removed curtain on Xperia S at the Consumer Electronics Show 2012 in Las Vegas. Xperia S has grabbed headlines for its large High Definition display, 12-megapixel rear camera and lots of other outstanding features. The Xperia S is now one of the best Android handsets we can find in stores. Sony Xperia S tech specs Form factor: The 4.3-inch Sony handset comes with a moderate size and weight. Featuring the dimensions of 128 x 64 x 10.6mm, the Xperia S weighs 144 grams. The device will steal the hearts of customers with its perfect and simple design, which is certainly typical Sony style. Display screen: The Sony handset advances up with a 4.3-inch LED-backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen. The screen has better screen resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels at a superb 342 ppi. The multitouch display, which can support up to 10 fingers, is protected by scratch-resistant glass and the Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine makes it further excellent. Timescape UI adds to the smoothness of the Android 2.3 Gingerbread handset. Processor, RAM & GPU: On the board, Sony has housed a 1.5GHz dual core Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon processor, Adreno 220 graphical card and 1GB of RAM for the neat performance of the handset. Storage: The Xperia handset sports 32GB of internal storage, which is enough for most of mobile users to store their documents, songs, movies and other data. However, the Xperia S misses a microSD slot for additional memory. Operating System: Android 2.3 Gingerbread is the on-release firmware of the Xperia S. Even though, it is upgradable to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of the operating system from Google. Camera: A 12-megapixel rear camera with massive 4000 x 3000 pixels is one of the chief selling points of the Xperia S. Thanks to Sony’s long-year expertise in camera technology, the company has embedded a high quality camera on its new Xperia phone. The device further touts features like autofocus, LED flash, check quality, geo-tagging, 3D sweep panorama, image stabilization and much more. The rear camera can capture video at 1080p@30fps and there is a 1.3-megapixel front camera on the device. The front camera can shoot video at 720p@30fps. Connectivity: All significant connectivity options are there on Xperia S. You have GPRS, (up to 86kbps), EDGE (up to 237kbps), HSDPA (14.4 Mbps), HSUPA (5.8 Mbps), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 and a microUSB 2.0 on the Xperia phone. Further, it has the much-touted features like Near Field Communication (NFC), Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA and Wi-Fi hotspot for connectivity. Battery: The Li-Ion 1750 mAh ensures 8 hours and 30 minutes of talk time on a single charge. What makes it great? The Xperia S is certainly a superb Android handset. In several aspects, it triumphs over many of its competitors in stores. To count a few, the Xperia S is identified for its features such as a fantastic screen, NFC, high quality camera, large internal storage and good overall design. What makes it not so great? Well, you might have noted that Xperia S comes sans a microSD slot, which is a big shortcoming as customers largely wish to see vast storage option. The sleek and chic design of the handset makes it vulnerable for easy dropping. Finally, the lack of Android Ice Cream Sandwich is yet another downside of the Sony handset. What others say? “The Xperia S is a great device. The display and the speaker are absorbing and addictive. The battery life is excellent, the processor is a good fit and the absence of expandable storage shouldn’t weigh too heavily if you get the 32GB option,” says Engadget’s Sharif Sakr. “With a great HD screen, 12MP camera and a few quirky extras, the Sony Xperia S should be right up there with the best of the rest, but it doesn’t quite come together. The screen isn’t quite as good as we’d hope and the camera is well below expectations. Meanwhile the design, although quite nice, doesn’t really wow us. It is still an excellent phone, just not the barnstormer it could’ve been,” notes Trusted Reviews’ Edward Chester.

Sony Xperia S Review

HTC One X

Latest technology news…

HTC One X

We have been waiting for this ever since the phone was announced at the Mobile World Congress by HTC but we finally have the majestic HTC One X in our hands. The first quad-core smartphone to launch in the country, the HTC One X has a brilliant 4.7-inch 720p Super LCD2 HD display, 8 megapixel camera
with 1080p video recording, and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, all in a beautiful unibody design.
But before we give you the full review (which we are working on), here is quick hands-on with the HTC One X.

The HTC One X uses a gorgeous unibody design. The entire phoneâ?™s surface is made from two parts, one is the polycarbonate shell and the Gorilla Glass at the front. Being made out of one single block of plastic makes it feel very strong and sturdy, but it does come with some disadvantages such as the inability to remove the battery. The Gorilla Glass on the front is completely flat but thanks to curved sides, it gives the optical illusion of the glass itself being curved.
Underneath that Gorilla Glass sits a stunning 1280 x 720 resolution IPS LCS. The high pixel density makes the display look very sharp and the large size and the bright colors make it a joy to behold. Unfortunately, thanks to the large size of the display, it makes the phone itself pretty large and we found it rather difficult to use it single handedly. It may not be as big and unwieldy as the Samsung Galaxy Note but itâ?™s not exactly comfortable to use either.

On the hardware front the One X comes with a 1.5GHz Nvidia Tegra 4 processor. It uses the new 4-PLUS-1 configuration, where the CPU has four performance cores and one companion cores. All your usual tasks are generally handled by the companion core, which consumes far less battery power and only when things get too demanding does the processor seamlessly switches over to the performance cores. Apart from that, there is also a 12 core GeForce GPU for 3D applications and games. Then there is 1GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory of which 25GB can be seen when the device is mounted on the PC and about 2GB is reserved for apps. Unfortunately, there is no microSD card slot.
On the software side, the phone comes with Android 4.0.3 with Sense 4.0. Unlike the previous versions, Sense 4.0 us much lighter and cuts down on a lot of the frivolous animations, such as the spinning homescreens when you do a quick swipe. It also looks a bit more understated, with some matte finishes instead of glossy icons. Some of the older frivolities have given way to new ones, such as the 3D cube animation when you scroll between the category tabs at the bottom and or the splitting of the list when you try to scroll at the end of the list. Weâ?™ll cover these more in the review.

At the end of the day, though, despite its improvement, Sense is still an unnecessary extra that exists solely because HTC wants to differentiate its products from other Android phones out there. Personally, weâ?™d take stock Ice Cream Sandwich over this anyday. HTC should at least offer an option for people to choose if it must put Sense on its phones.
Performance-wise the One X is really good, with everything from scrolling through the homescreens and opening and switching between apps being really quick. We tried some graphically heavy games like Dead Space and ShadowGun and they all worked really well.

One small problem is that because the One X does not have a dedicated menu button, older apps that are not optimized for Android 4.0 and that donâ?™t have the on-screen menu button (which would be almost all of them) tend to show up a bar at the bottom of the screen with just the menu button in it. This can be really annoying because a decent portion of your display gets wasted. Hopefully developers will update their apps to take care of this problem.

HTC made a big deal of the camera on the One series phones. The deal was actually made about the speed of the camera rather than the outright image quality. Everything from the time taken to start the camera app to the focussing speed and the time taken to save the image have been greatly received and all this was possible by a dedicated image processor that HTC calls ImageSense. All we can say is that this is the fastest mobile phone camera we have ever seen. As for the actual image quality, it was only above average with the cameras from the Galaxy S II and the iPhone 4S putting on a far better show. Same is true for the 1080p videos as well.
We are still using the phone and putting it through our usual battery of tests and benchmarks. We should have the full review for you to read shortly. Stay tuned.

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
	Announced	2012, February
	Status	Available. Released 2012, April

Body	Dimensions	134.4 x 69.9 x 8.9 mm
	Weight	130 g
		- Touch-sensitive controls

Display	Type	Super IPS LCD2 capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	720 x 1280 pixels, 4.7 inches (~312 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
	Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass
		- HTC Sense UI

Sound	Alert types	Vibration, MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes

Memory	Card slot	No
	Internal	32 GB (26 GB user-available) storage, 1 GB RAM

Data	GPRS	Yes
	EDGE	Yes
	Speed	HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
	Bluetooth	Yes, v4.0 with A2DP
	NFC	Yes
	USB	Yes, microUSB (MHL) v2.0

Camera	Primary	8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
	Features	Simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, face and smile detection
	Video	Yes, 1080p@30fps, stereo sound rec., video stabilization
	Secondary	Yes, 1.3 MP, 720p

Features	OS	Android OS, v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
	Chipset	Nvidia Tegra 3
	CPU	Quad-core 1.5 GHz
	GPU	ULP GeForce
	Sensors	Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
	Messaging	SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email
	Browser	HTML, Adobe Flash
	Radio	Stereo FM radio with RDS
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
	Java	Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
	Colors	Gray, White
		- MicroSIM card support only - Beats Audio - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - TV-out (via MHL A/V link) - SNS integration - MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player - MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV player - Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk - Document viewer/editor - Voice memo/dial/commands - Predictive text input

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Po 1800 mAh

HTC One X Review

Samsung Galaxy Y S5360

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 900 / 2100
	Announced	2011, August
	Status	Available. Released 2011, October

Body	Dimensions	104 x 58 x 11.5 mm
	Weight	97.5 g

Display	Type	TFT capacitive touchscreen, 256K colors
	Size	240 x 320 pixels, 3.0 inches (~133 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
		- TouchWiz UI - Touch sensitive controls

Sound	Alert types	Vibration, MP3 ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes, check quality

Memory	Card slot	microSD, up to 32GB
	Internal	180 MB, 290 MB user available RAM

Data	GPRS	Yes
	EDGE	Yes
	Speed	HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Hotspot functionality
	Bluetooth	Yes, v3.0 with A2DP, HS
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0

Camera	Primary	2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels
	Features	Geo-tagging
	Video	Yes, QVGA@15fps
	Secondary	No

Features	OS	Android OS, v2.3.5 (Gingerbread)
	CPU	830 MHz ARMv6
	Sensors	Accelerometer, proximity, compass
	Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
	Browser	WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML
	Radio	Stereo FM radio with RDS
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
	Java	Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
	Colors	Metallic gray, white / changeable back covers in pearly white, dark black, fruity orange, bubblegum pink and silver platter
		- SNS integration - MP4/WMV/H.264 player - MP3/WAV/eAAC+ player - Organizer - Image/video editor - Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa integration - Quickoffice document viewer - Voice memo/commands - Predictive text input (Swype)

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1200 mAh
	Stand-by	Up to 850 h (2G) / Up to 540 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 17 h (2G) / Up to 6 h 20 min (3G)

Misc	SAR US	0.57 W/kg (head)     0.64 W/kg (body)
	SAR EU	0.66 W/kg (head)

Samsung Galaxy Y S5360 Full Review

Nokia N9

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100
	Announced	2011, June
	Status	Available. Released 2011, September

Body	Dimensions	116.5 x 61.2 x 12.1 mm, 76 cc
	Weight	135 g

Display	Type	AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	480 x 854 pixels, 3.9 inches (~251 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
	Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass
		- Anti-glare polariser

Sound	Alert types	Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes, check quality
		Dolby Mobile sound enhancement; Dolby Headphone support

Memory	Card slot	No
	Internal	16/64 GB storage, 1 GB RAM

Data	GPRS	Class 33
	EDGE	Class 33
	Speed	HSDPA, 14.4 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.7 Mbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
	Bluetooth	Yes, v2.1 with A2DP, EDR
	NFC	Yes
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0

Camera	Primary	8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, dual LED flash, check quality
	Features	Geo-tagging, face detection, touch-focus
	Video	Yes, 720p@30fps, check quality
	Secondary	Yes

Features	OS	MeeGo OS, v1.2 Harmattan
	Chipset	TI OMAP 3630
	CPU	1 GHz Cortex A8
	GPU	PowerVR SGX530
	Sensors	Accelerometer, proximity, compass
	Messaging	SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
	Browser	WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML5, RSS feeds
	Radio	Yes (Via third-party app)
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support; Ovi Maps
	Java	No
	Colors	Black, Cyan, Magenta, Glossy white
		- MicroSIM card support only - SNS integration - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - TV-out - Dolby Digital Plus - MP3/WAV/eAAC+/WMA/FLAC player - MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player - Document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF) - Video/photo editor - Voice memo/command/dial - Predictive text input (Swype)

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1450 mAh (BV-5JW)
	Stand-by	Up to 380 h (2G) / Up to 450 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 11 h (2G) / Up to 7 h (3G)
	Music play	Up to 50 h

Misc	SAR US	1.18 W/kg (head)     1.18 W/kg (body)
	SAR EU	1.16 W/kg (head)	Powered by Windows Phone 7, Nokia's slick Lumia 800 marks a return to form for the struggling handset giant. With iOS and Android putting Symbian to shame, Nokia took a leap of faith last year and abandoned the Symbian smartphone operating system in favour of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7. The resulting long transition period gave the competition an even bigger head start, but now Nokia is back in the game with the slick Lumia 800. The $699 Lumia 800 has curves in all the right places, replicating the look and feel of the N9's smooth polycarbonate unibody design. Tipping the scales at 142 grams, the Lumia 800 is a delight to hold with curved edges and gently tapered ends. Even the screen has a slight curve and feels remarkably smooth to the touch. Fashionistas will be pleased to discover the handset comes in a choice of cyan, magenta, black and white -- looking stylish but not garish. Fire up the Lumia 800 and you're presented with a vivid 3.7-inch “Clear Black” AMOLED display. It's a capacitive touchscreen display protected by tough Gorilla Glass. The 800x480 resolution is nothing to get excited about, but it still looks crisp and the black levels are very deep. As you would expect from AMOLED, the colours are vivid but the trade-off is a slight blue tinge in the whites. It's still a welcome change from the mediocre TFT displays found on the first generation Windows Phone 7 handsets. Turn the phone over in your hands and you'll find volume and power buttons along the right edge. Below is a dedicated camera button, positioned to be under your right pointer finger when holding the phone sideways. Across the top of the phone you'll find a headphone jack along with slide-away covers revealing a micro-USB port and micro-SIM slot. As with the iPhone 4 and 4S, you can't drop in a standard-sized SIM card but your telco should happily transfer your number to a micro-SIM. It still could be a deal-breaker for those who like to hotswap SIM cards when they travel. The non-removable battery will also frustrate some people but that’s the price you pay for the elegant unibody design. Also missing is a micro-SD slot (one of Microsoft's many strict hardware requirements), leaving you with only 16 GB of onboard storage to play with. In terms of connectivity the Lumia 800 offers a 14.4 Mbps HSDPA, so it's no slouch but you're denied the speed boost of LTE, DC-HSDPA or HSPA+. It's worth noting that it's not a quad-band 3G device, so you’ll get either an 850 MHz or 900 MHz-compatible handset depending on which telco you buy it from. The Lumia 800 looks the part, but it also delivers the goods thanks to a slick Windows Phone 7.5 implementation. Under the bonnet you'll find a single-core 1.4 GHz processor with 512 MB of RAM. This doesn't sound impressive compared to the Android superphones but seems more than enough to keep the phone purring happily (once again thanks to Microsoft's strict hardware requirements). The WP7 home screen is built around "tiles" --  blue squares which are actually live widgets. Moving away from the idea of standalone apps, it merges various features and data sources into six "hubs" -- people, pictures, music + media, games, office and market. It sounds complicated but it's actually elegant, responsive and mostly intuitive once you learn the basics. Thankfully you can also call up a full list of apps. Across the bottom of the screen you'll find dedicated Back, Home and Search buttons to assist with navigating the menus. One of WP7's selling points is tight integration with Microsoft services such as Office, SharePoint, SkyDrive, ZunePass and the Xbox 360 ecosystem. On top of this, Nokia offers a few extra features such as Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive satellite navigation and the Nokia Music store. Considering it's the flagship WP7 device, it's a shame this is one of the few WP7 handsets still waiting for an update to enable Wi-Fi Hotspot features. So what's the verdict? Nokia's Lumia 800 is certainly a thing of beauty that will turn heads. Yet for serious smartphone users it's what's on the inside that counts. The question is whether or not you're ready to make the leap to Windows Phone 7. Microsoft has developed a solid foundation and you could be happy with the Lumia 800 if you live a Microsoft-centric lifestyle and the WP7 fledgling app store currently meets your needs. But it will take time before WP7 commands the same respect from developers as iOS and Android. Meanwhile Lumia 800 users will often be forced to wait for new apps and services to trickle down to WP7. It's the price you'll pay for backing the dark horse in the smartphone race. Tagged with: Microsoft, Android, Nokia, Windows Phone, iOS, Nokia Lumia 800

Nokia N9 Review

HTC Google Nexus One

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 900 / 1700 / 2100
		HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 - for AT&T, Rogers Wireless
	Announced	2010, January
	Status	Available. Released 2010, January

Body	Dimensions	119 x 59.8 x 11.5 mm
	Weight	130 g
		- Touch-sensitive controls

Display	Type	AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	480 x 800 pixels, 3.7 inches (~252 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
		- Trackball navigation

Sound	Alert types	Vibration, MP3 ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes, check quality

Memory	Card slot	microSD, up to 32GB, 4GB included
	Internal	512MB RAM, 512MB ROM

Data	GPRS	Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
	EDGE	Class 10, 236.8 kbps
	Speed	HSDPA 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g
	Bluetooth	Yes, v2.1 with A2DP
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0

Camera	Primary	5 MP, 2560х1920 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, check quality
	Features	Geo-tagging
	Video	Yes, D1 (720x480 pixels)@min. 20fps
	Secondary	No

Features	OS	Android OS, v2.1 (Eclair)
	Chipset	Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon
	CPU	1 GHz Scorpion
	GPU	Adreno 200
	Sensors	Accelerometer, proximity, compass
	Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
	Browser	HTML
	Radio	Factory locked by default, can be enabled
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
	Java	Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
	Colors	Brown (teflon coating)
		- Active noise cancellation with dedicated microphone - Dedicated search key - Google Search, Maps, Gmail - YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa integration - MP3/eAAC+/WAV music player - MP4/H.263/H.264 video player - Voice memo

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1400 mAh
	Stand-by	Up to 290 h (2G) / Up to 250 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 10 hours (2G) / Up to 7 hours (3G)
	Music play	Up to 20 hours

Misc	SAR US	0.37 W/kg (head)     0.74 W/kg (body)    've been living for with HTC's One X for a week now - trying to find fault - but I give up. There are other phones that do certain things better, but as an all-round package this has to be the best smartphone on the market. And what a market it is. While many areas of tech have become commoditized, it's good to see smartphones constantly innovating and introducing new features which make the last best-thing-ever look instantly old. That's particularly important in a product category where people tend to mould their lives around a device. While phone reviews have a habit of wildly differing depending on who's doing the writing and what their prime requirements are, I suspect that the One X's are likely to agree more than usual. From my own point of view, I'm lost without my phone and so I expect it to excel at day-to-day functions while I care less about gimmicky features. In short HTC's new flagship 3G phone has an impressive 4.7-inch screen, has an outstanding eight-megapixel camera, runs the latest version of Android (version 4 - aka Ice Cream Sandwich), the latest version of HTC Sense (also version 4) and is superfast thanks to its Tegra 3 1.5GHz quad-core processor. It also has a Near Field Communications (NFC) chip meaning you can exchange data just by tapping it against compatible objects plus it has enhanced audio playback thanks to "Beats" compatibility. The only potential hiccup is battery life, but this depends on usage. Design and screen The white chassis is carved from a single piece of white polycarbonate andhas a curved black screen sitting on top with the display appearing very close to the surface. In these regards it's similar to Nokia's Lumia 800 which actually edges ahead due to its amazingly high-contrast 'borderless' screen seemingly floating on the surface along with its colourful chassis options. Indeed, the One's white chassis (also available in black) got a bit grubby and required regular cleaning. However, the One's larger screen still offers superb colour reproduction and gets very bright: it's easily viewable outside on bright Aussie days. The chassis is uncluttered thanks to volume buttons on the right, a power button on the top and its USB port on the left. The headphone jack is on the top which will please those put off by chief rival, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus' bottom-mounted jack. Compared with the 4.65-inch Nexus, which phone looks better will depend on personal preference. But the One wins through thanks to its more-solid build quality and brighter, more-colourful screen. You can't open the back and replace the battery on the One, however, and neither have an SD card slot to boost the built-in storage. However, the One wins again thanks to having 32GB of on-board memory compared to the Nexus' 16GB. Both screens have a 1280 x 720 resolution. The One's screen certainly seems incredibly sharp. It can't quite match the sharpness of the market-leading iPhone Retina display's (pixel density: 330ppi versus 312ppi) but it's not far off. More importantly, the iPhone's 3.5-inch screen is much smaller and has a lower resolution (640x960). The One also leads the (glass-encased) iPhone in that it's less likely to fracture when dropped on a hard surface and the lack of sharp edges makes it more friendly to tight trouser pockets. It feels light at 130 grammes and the sub-9mm thickness is amazing considering what's inside. Combined with the 135mm x 70mm footprint it's surprisingly easy to hold and use in one hand despite the large screen size. Ultimately, while its screen facets don't quite top the charts across the board they're top two by almost every significant measure and this makes it an overall winner in this area. Speed and usability Some reviewers give the HTC Sense application a hard time, but the improvements it offers over the basic Android operating system are a boon. Being able to swipe to unlock and go directly to your Mail, Messages, Camera and Phone apps is something I've always found particularly useful. Now, however, the combination of Sense 4, ICS and the speedy Tegra 3 chipset means doing so is near instantaneous. What little lag existed in HTC's previous flagship phones has all but disappeared with the One X - it just flies along in almost every application. It's very hard to slow down and going back to slower phones, even those with minuscule lag times, has already proved annoying. Another huge winner for Sense is its best-on-the-market contact management. Its ability to automatically link contact information from Facebook, Twitter, Linked in, SIM card, phone contacts and Google accounts, while avoiding duplication, is seamless and incredibly useful. It's something that Apple especially should take a long hard look at. As day-to-day apps go, Twitter is illustrative. Recent feature-enhanced versions of the app have seen smooth scrolling replaced with jerky, less-responsive movement through large Tweet streams. With the One X (for the most part at least) it's smooth again. Lag is incredibly rare. This is easily the fastest phone on the market right now. One area that I had issues with, though, is the new button layout that comes with ICS. Previous HTC Android phones have had four touch buttons below the screen - Back, Home, Search and Menu. ICS encourages the use of just three - Back, Home and Recently Opened. While three buttons might look neater, it's something of a retrograde step in my book. I still never use the Recently Opened button, which scrolls between different apps, because Android already makes it simple to find your favourite apps. Also, the ICS system of displaying menu buttons more-visibly within apps is hit and miss - the menu button changes size, jumps from top to bottom of the screen and sometimes isn't present at all. Annoying. However, at least the nav buttons are always visible on the One X. On the Nexus, where they take up part of the screen, they too-often disappear leaving you to guess where they are and remember what order they're in. Samsung makes great Android phones, but the tweaks that come with Sense suggest to me that HTC's software engineers love using their own phones: they seem to respond to criticism every release while constantly adding minor tweaks to remedy annoyances that stem from day-to-day, raw-Android usage. That said, there will always be many in the Android community who take exception at Sense doing anything differently. All in all, however, everyone should be pleased as Sense 4 manages to be both less-in-your-face while simultaneously providing numerous, discreet productivity enhancements. Camera If you just take a quick picture with the eight-megapixel main camera you'll be impressed at the near instant shutter, the sharpness of the image and the colour reproduction which rivals the best cameraphones on the market. However, thanks to a dedicated camera chip and a system HTC calls ImageSense, the camera soars away from the field. You can take 99 shots in a minute. Ninetynine! You can take photos while recording video. You can take photos while playing back video. As such you don't have to switch between camera and video mode, just pressing either button will instantly activate the shutter. It's so much more responsive than other cameraphones. The relatively-large lens has a wide aperture (f2.0, 28mm) and lets in more light than normal. Low-light pictures with the LED flash are impressive and even without the flash are more-usable than most competitors (expect heaps of grain though). But it's the effects that really stand out. The Panorama mode lets you take 180-degree, Ken Duncan-style panoramas just by moving the phone in one direction. The standard of stitching is not bettered elsewhere. But it's the speed that makes the difference. Normally, if you take many panoramas on a camera phone you'll feel it heat up as the processor maxes out and takes many seconds to complete the task. It takes five seconds to stitch a panorama on the One. The same goes for High Dynamic Range photos. Normally this feature involves taking three different photos using bright, medium and dark metering to produce a picture with no blown-out highlights and no dark shadow areas. It usually takes a few seconds to take the three pictures and holding a camera still while it does so is tricky. After that you then have a lengthy wait while the camera processes the images. On the One this all takes barely a second making for sharper pictures with superlative colours and dynamic range. This is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the battery doesn't get caned as much - due to a constantly maxed-out processor. However, because the system works so well, you can find yourself using it more and more often. As such, the processor could start warming up and affecting the battery. But that's a harsh complaint. Also noticeable is the speed at swiping through photos in the gallery. This can lag badly on other phones but it was a dream on the One. Video can be shot at an impressive 1080p (or 720p using the front-mounted, two-megapixel camera). Naturally, image quality at the front ain't all that. Battery It was only during image processing and 3D games that saw the phone warm up - all that parallel processing afforded by the quad-core processor makes for some efficient power usage. In general it lasted the full day that one would expect from a modern smartphone. As usual, much will depend on how different people use their phones. When I took heaps of pictures or spent longer-than-normal web browsing, I found it running low late in the day, perhaps slightly-more so than with other phones. It's worth noting though that the Tegra 3 quad-core processor actually has a fifth core. This special low-power core takes over when the phone is at rest to avoid keeping the quad-core monster ticking over. It's hard to say how well it works, but it's likely responsible for keeping such a powerhouse running during daylight hours. Other features The Beats Audio enhancement chip makes for better audio playback with better bass response. However, unlike the Beats-wielding HTC Sensation phones, the One doesn't come with high-quality headphones - just mediocre earbuds. BlueTooth 4 is catered for. You can also connect the phone to a TV using a special HDMI/USB cable (optional). Just remember that you won't be able to charge the phone while playing back video. The Near Field Communication chip allows for data transfer just by tapping the phone. However, it won't yet work with PayWave-like technologies so its usefulness remains to be seen. Value and alternatives Both Optus and Vodafone are offering the One X for free on their $59 plans. Online it's available outright for around $660 to $700 depending on where you buy it. This puts it firmly at the top end of the mobile market along with the iPhone 4S. The premium you pay is highlighted by the price drop of its main rival, the all-of-a-sudden-long-in-the-tooth Samsung Galaxy Nexus which can now be had for around $400. That's a great buy, but it's now distinctly second best. You can also get the much-larger Samsung Galaxy Note for around $500 but this hybrid-tablet 'phablet' is not for everyone. Also tempting is the $500 HTC Velocity which is worth considering if you need 4G performance. Personally, I'd wait for 4G to settle down and mature as it can murder a phone's battery life at present. Another old favourite is the HTC Sensation XL. However, the One X improves on this in every single way and makes the XL suddenly look expensive at $500. Elsewhere there's the impressive Nokia Lumia 800 - the top Windows Phone. It's good in its way, but not for everyone. That said, its $400 price tag represents good value. Conclusion The HTC One X is well designed, it's the fastest phone around, it has great software, has got the best all-round screen, sports a superb camera set-up and has some potentially-nifty features like Beats Audio and Near Field Communication. You're paying a premium but what you get is the best all-round phone on the market... at least until the next one appears. Battery life is the only concern for heavy users.