Reviews - 4/69 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

Real Boxing Review: A Beautiful, Clunky Mess That Delivers An Uppercut To Your Wallet

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in Games, Reviews

Real Boxing has garnered quite a bit of success on iOS, and with a little help from NVIDIA, it's grabbed headlines on its way to Android as well. Though the game was first spotted running on the Shield hardware, it's now available on other Tegra devices. With a title as pretty as this, it would be a shame to run it on anything less than the most advanced hardware out there - too bad we'll have to settle for a Tegra 3 for the time being.

Though Real Boxing is superb as far as the graphics are concerned, the rest of the game falls flat.

Mar

Chromebook Pixel Lightning Review: The Best $1300+ You Can Spend On A Web Browser

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Google, Other Reviews

Yeah, we know – it doesn't run Android, and really, it has nothing to do with Android. But it is a Google product, so by default it's at least tangentially related - call it Android's cousin. It's also Google's statement that ChromeOS is important, that it's not just some side project. It's saying that we should all pay attention. That ChromeOS is the real deal, and the Chromebook Pixel is the best experience that ChromeOS has to offer.

And what an experience it is. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill, $250 Chromebook. Far from it, in fact – the Pixel is jam-packed with some of the best hardware on the market (rivaling most Ultrabooks), and has the most beautiful display I’ve ever laid eyes on.

Mar

Sony Xperia ZL Review: Dangerously Close To Smartphone Greatness, But Not Close Enough

Posted by David Ruddock in Phone Reviews, Reviews, Xperia Z, Xperia ZL

The Xperia ZL is the 'little' brother to Sony's recently-unveiled Xperia Z, and to get the most pressing question out of the way immediately: what's the difference between the two? Well, the ZL isn't waterproof (and thus has a different chassis and design), has a hardware camera button, and uses a minutely larger (by 40mAh) battery. That's really it. The display, the chipset, the camera, and the software are all near as makes no difference identical to those on the Z.

Why make the ZL, then? Well, Sony has talked up things like different design direction and regional marketing strategies, but the reason this phone came to be is really quite simple: the ZL is slightly cheaper than the Z.

Mar

The Conduit HD Review: Automatic Shooting Is Not Automatically Fun

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Apps/Games, Games, Reviews

The Nintendo Wii suffered throughout its life from a lack of good games. The Conduit aimed to bring a solid first-person shooter experience to that console a few years back, and now the game has been ported to Android as a Tegra exclusive. Can a Wii game from 2008 offer the kind of experience we've come to expect on Android? Let's find out.

Gameplay And Controls

In this game you play as Secret Service agent Michael Ford, who is recruited by a shadowy government agency to take out a supposed terrorist group. What follows is a somewhat convoluted and unimportant plot.

Mar

Hands-On With Google Keep For Android: Notes, Checklists, Voice Notes, Pictures, Widgets, And Voice Actions Integration

Posted by Ron Amadeo in App Reviews, Applications, News

The Google Keep Android app is out, and it is way more functional than the sparse web site. Allow me to show you around.

There are two different views to Keep, a multi-column view and a single-column view. Multi-column is "pretty typography mode" and single column is all business. You can switch views with the menu button.

There's about a million different ways to take notes: plain text, a checklist, a voice note (which transcribes and saves the audio), or you can take a picture with the camera. Check list items have little draggable handles on them.

Just like Gmail, archiving a note is as easy swiping it away, and, just like Gmail, there's a handy "undo" popup.

Mar

Handy Photo From Developer Of TouchRetouch Makes Photo Editing Too Good To Be True, Reality Is Now Adjustable On A Phone [Updated]

Posted by Cody Toombs in App Reviews, Applications, News

There's nothing better than finding one of those rare apps that seems to do the impossible. Every time I try a piece of software, I have a tiny hope that it will be so good that I'll want to describe it as magic. As a photo editor, Handy Photo is definitely invoking some kind of witchcraft. This impressive app comes from ADVA Soft, the brilliant team responsible for TouchRetouch. Many of the same amazing powers have made their way into this new entry, but it goes much further. Let's just start with the video, which despite the marketing speak in the beginning, is pretty mind-blowing.

Mar

JayBird BlueBuds X Deep Dive Review: Ultraportable Perfection Comes At A Price

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Accessories, Other Reviews, Reviews

I have a confession to make: I'm obsessed with wireless portable audio gear. Bluetooth earbuds, headphones, and portable speakers excite me more than they probably should. And I'm OK with that. My wife, however, gives me "the look" every time a new gadget arrives, rolling her eyes so far up her skull she could have easily become a soap opera star or an extra on The Walking Dead. She doesn't get it - she's not a geek who loves to get to the bottom of every feature, spot every miniscule detail, and figure out if we have something special on our hands.

Mar

Bladeslinger Review: More Than Just A Pretty Face

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Apps/Games, Games, Reviews

Bladeslinger is one of those games that makes a splash with impressive trailers and promises of console-level gaming, but how often have we been left heartbroken by similar titles? This game sets out to tell a story, so at least it has that going for it. William Glaston is just your average cowboy with a revolver-gun and robot arm, but things get weird when he returns to his home town of Hammer's Peak to find it overrun with monsters that used to be the townsfolk. The story unfolds as Glaston wanders the seedier parts of Hammer's Peak in search of his brother, and the cause of the corruption.

Mar

PSA: These $4 Magnetic Nexus 7 Cases From Amazon Are Actually Pretty Awesome

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Nexus 7, Other Reviews

Since there's no shortage of good, name-brand cases for the Nexus 7, it's generally not a bad idea to be wary of the cheapies. But after getting a heads up from Bob Severns (the guy who presses the buttons on our podcast), I decided to give a pair of $4 Nanum cases a go. Having never heard of "Nanum" before, I was skeptical of how good this extremely affordable duo would be. But much to my surprise, both of these cases are pretty great.

I ordered both the Multi-Angle Stand case and Ultra Slim Fit case, and while there are a few different colors available, I decided to get both in white.

Mar

[Lightning Review] Favi SmartStick: Turn Your HDTV Into An Android-Powered SmartTV For A Meager $50

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Other Reviews

While this isn't the first time we've looked at one of those "plug this in your TV and make it better!" Android-powered gadgets, it is the first one that can add some interesting features to your existing set for such a small price. Also unlike other solutions, the SmartStick is – as its name suggests – merely a stick that plugs into the HDMI port of your television.

In short, it's a stick that puts Android (and a custom skin) on your TV. And it's surprisingly not awful.