hands-on

Jul

Samsung Galaxy S II Review: Modern And Powerful, But Will Samsung Keep It That Way?

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Galaxy S II, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Samsung

Last Updated: February 8th, 2012

Samsung's original Galaxy S was undoubtedly a great success for the company. One could say it was their first serious smartphone, and its core was widely dispersed around the globe, appearing as the i9000 in Europe and Asia, and - perhaps more familiarly - the AT&T Captivate, Sprint Epic 4G, T-Mobile Vibrant, and Verizon Fascinate in the USA. While we have yet to see firm plans for a repeat of this four-pronged attack with the successor to the Galaxy S, the Galaxy S II i9100 (aka the Samsung "It's Over 9000!") is already widely available throughout the rest of the world and is making waves while at it.

Jun

[Video] Sony S1 and S2 Get A Quick Hands On

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, S1, S2

While Sony broke the news of its upcoming S1 and S2 tablets back in April, there has been little info surrounding the pair since then - until today, that is. German blog Golem got some hands on action with the duo, and even took the time to grab a really quick video of the S2. Before I go any further, have a look:

As anticlimactic as that is, it does give a better idea of the form factor of this dual-screened oddity. Golem compared the feel to a Nintendo DS, and noted that it includes an obvious Playstation logo, suggesting that this device is designed for mobile gaming.

May

[Hands-On and Initial Review] Xperia Play: The PlayStation Phone Hits The U.S.

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Phone Reviews, Reviews, Verizon Wireless, Xperia Play (Zeus, PlayStation Phone)

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Note: Most of the pictures in this hands-on were taken by a second Xperia Play unit, so you can use those to judge the quality of the camera.

The saga of the PlayStation phone has been a long one, but we finally have the device in our hands. Some I/O attendees received their own, but now Verizon customers can get the device for themselves. A full review will be available in the coming days, but for now, here are my initial thoughts on the Xperia Play.

First, a refresher on the specs:

4.0" LCD, 854 x 480 display
Android 2.3.2
1 GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon processor
5 megapixel camera with flash
Front-facing camera
512 MB RAM

The first thing I noticed when holding the phone was the thickness and weight.

May

[Video Hands-On] HoopsAR Creates An Augmented Reality Basketball Game Right In Your Lap

Posted by Matt Demers in Applications, Game Reviews, News, Reviews, Videos

Last Updated: August 2nd, 2011

Earlier today, a tip about a new augmented reality game called HoopsAR hit our inbox. Since augmented reality is a relatively new and kind of cool subject, I decided to take a deeper look and go hands-on. Before I could play the game, I needed to print out a basketball "ticket" which serves as the game board. The phone's camera then scans it and overlays the court on top of it in 3D.

If you're still a bit confused about how it works, don't worry - I whipped up a quick video hands-on in order to explain the overlay function and simple controls that make this game worth checking out.

May

[I/O 2011] First Deep-Dive Look And Hands-On With The Limited Edition Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android Tablet

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Galaxy Tab 10.1, News, Reviews, Samsung, Tablet Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Wow, what a day! Music, movies, APIs, alliances - the list of exciting announcements from Google I/O 2011 goes on and on today. While the rest of the Android Police crew is blasting through the bulk of the new stuff, I decided to unpack and play with the "Oprah moment" Limited Edition Galaxy Tab 10.1 that everyone here at I/O received as a gift. And let me tell you, this baby is fast, sleek, slim, and gorgeous. Let's see what we've got here, shall we?

This 32GB Galaxy Tab 10.1 is running a 1GHz dual-core processor - from the looks of it, it's the Tegra 2 rather than the Exynos, at least according to the Quadrant benchmark, which reports an NVIDIA GPU (see towards the bottom).

Apr

Unboxing & First Hands-On With The HTC DROID Incredible 2

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in HTC, Incredible 2 (Vivow), News, Verizon Wireless

I awoke this morning to the UPS delivery guy dropping off a package at my house; lo and behold, it was a DROID Incredible 2 (Dinc2) review unit. As an EVO owner, I'm fairly familiar with what has fast become HTC's modus operandi - high quality, good price, and higher-end specs. With that in mind, I was looking forward to my time with the Dinc2, and tore into the box immediately (I didn't even put a shirt on first... sorry, UPS guy).

Let's state the obvious right up front: the Dinc2 isn't going to break any records. We've already got dual-core phones with more RAM, we've seen handsets with bigger and better screens, and it's not packing 4G.

Apr

Wirefly Unboxes HTC DROID Incredible 2, Confirms Global Radio And April 28th Release Date

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in HTC, Incredible 2 (Vivow), News, Verizon Wireless

Verizon hasn't officially added the DROID Incredible 2 to its Android army yet, but don't tell Wirefly that - the online smartphone retailer just put up an unboxing video for HTC and Big Red's latest handset.

You won't find much that we didn't already know from past leaks, but the vid does provide a nice recap of the phone's specs:

4-inch WVGA (800x480) TFT display
8MP camera with dual Xenon flash
768MB of RAM
8GB micro SD card out of the box
3G connectivity on Verizon's EVDO Rev. A network (no LTE, unfortunately)
Global (GSM/CDMA) radio with Verizon/Vodafone SIM out of the box
1420mAh battery

As for the box's contents, you'll find a smorgasbord of charging adapters, a microUSB cable, and...

Apr

HTC Incredible 2 Press Shots Surface, Evince DROID Branding

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in HTC, Incredible 2 (Vivow), News, Rumors, Verizon Wireless

Like all good things Verizon, the HTC Incredible 2 didn't remain hidden from the public's eye for long; following the release of a leaked RUU and a Big Red roadmap confirming the device's impending launch, PocketNow got its paws on the following triad of press shots:

From the looks of it, the Incredible 2 will be virtually identical to HTC's popular Incredible S, with the exception of a Verizon logo and the inclusion of a CDMA radio. In fact, Android Central reports that it'll sport the same 8MP camera, Android 2.2.1 firmware, and HTC Sense keyboard.

Also noteworthy is that, as shown by the eerie red robot eye, the Incredible 2 will most likely belong to Verizon's DROID family.

Mar

Samsung Galaxy S II Gets In-Depth Preview: Just As Thin And Powerful As We Hoped

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Galaxy S II, News, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Samsung

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Ever since its unveiling at MWC, the Samsung Galaxy S II has generated plenty of hype. But with no release date in sight, there's no telling how long it will be before we can get our hands on the device. Fortunately, Ukrainian site gagadget managed to get a preliminary version of the phone, and while it isn't clear how much is finalized, it does give us a good idea of what to expect from Samsung's next flagship handset.

The review starts off by listing the all-important specs, though most have been already been made official:

Dual-core 1GHz Exynos processor
4.3" 800x480 Super AMOLED Plus display
Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
TouchWiz 4.0
1GB RAM
116 grams
8 megapixel camera with LED Flash and 1080p video capture
2MP front-facing camera
1650mAH battery

The device's build quality is a huge improvement over the original.

Mar

Hands-On Video And Photos Of The HTC EVO 3D

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in EVO 3D (Shooter), EVO View 4G, HTC, News, Sprint

After the Sprint press conference officially ended, they quite literally pulled back the curtains to reveal a large viewing area, with a team of Sprint and HTC employees available to demo the HTC EVO 3D and View 4G. While we weren't allowed to get our mitts on the EVO 3D, we were allowed to play with the View 4G a bit. In both cases, the employees on the floor provided a quick hands-on of the devices. We managed to snag some HD video of the demonstrations for both devices, as well as a few photos.