handson - 5/9 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Oct

T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II Initial Impressions

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Galaxy S II, Hercules, Samsung, T-Mobile

Last Updated: August 2nd, 2012

The FedEx man brought me a lovely little gift yesterday: The T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II. This is the last stateside arrival of the Galaxy S II family. The review will take a bit to get out the door, so until then I figured I'd whet your appetite with some initial impressions.

First of all, this thing is big. Really big. I have to say though, I love the design of it. It feels sturdy and very well made. Like Samsung really knows what they're doing. The plastic back has a wonderful texture to it that almost makes it feel like leather.

Sep

Motorola Edison (Possible Successor To The Atrix 4G) Gets A Hands-On Preview - Set To Bring High-End Specs, Smooth Form Factor To AT&T

Posted by Liam Spradlin in AT&T, Motorola, News

A new Motorola phone, codenamed "Edison" and headed for AT&T, has been in the rumor mill for a while now, but today it got in front of the camera when This Is My Next published a hands-on preview of the device.

TIMN speculates that this phone may be destined to replace the Motorola Atrix in AT&T's lineup, and its design hints at similar webtop capabilities confirmed by special webtop options found in the device's settings.

The Edison seems to be closely related to the Droid Bionic, set to bring many of the Bionic's best features to AT&T. Speaking of features, the Edison is no lightweight in the specs department.

Sep

Initial Impressions And Hands-On With The Samsung Epic 4G Touch For Sprint

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S II, News, Samsung, Sprint

Last Updated: September 16th, 2011

The Samsung Galaxy S II (SGSII) has been one of the most highly anticipated devices in recent memory - perhaps second only to the annual new iPhone. There are two very good reasons for this: first, the original Galaxy S devices were hailed as some of the best on the market. Second - and more importantly - from its start as an on-paper proof, to its run on the trade show circuit, through its international release, the Galaxy S II been hailed as one of (if not the) best phone on the market.

Unfortunately for those of us in the States, we've had to wait quite a bit longer than our European counterparts to get our mitts on the hottest piece of Android kit ever to hit the market.

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: