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Jul

Meizu MX 4-Core Review: It's Like Sticking A V10 In A Ford Pinto

Posted by David Ruddock in Meizu, MX 4-Core, Phone Reviews, Reviews

The Meizu MX 4-Core is a truly interesting phone. And as an extention of that, Meizu itself is an interesting company. Founded by Jack Wong, it gained international notoriety when its M8 smartphone drew unwelcome comparisons to Apple's iPhone, particularly from Apple's lawyers, resulting in an early end to its production run.

Meizu claims to be fully vertically integrated - manufacturing, marketing, and selling its phones, a start-to-finish philosophy that results in decreased overhead and more control over its products (it should be noted that Meizu does not actually make all of the components in its phones, however). And the reason it has gone that route is probably obvious to everyone at this point: Mr.

Jul

HTC DROID Incredible 4G LTE Review: DROID Doesn't

Posted by David Ruddock in 4G, HTC, Incredible 4G, Phone Reviews, Verizon Wireless

If Verizon's DROID brand is the Alamo (and at this point, it sure seems like it is), then the Incredible is Davy Crockett's trusty rifle Old Betsy (yeah yeah, I know he didn't he use it at the Alamo.)

The original Incredible was the best Android phone available when it stormed onto the scene in April of 2010. The follow-up Incredible 2 was still a hot-shot, though its 4" display and lack of 4G had it outgunned from the start, relegating it to a "high end of the mid-range" role in Verizon's Android lineup. And now, the Incredible 4G LTE is riding in with reinforcements - a modern S4 Snapdragon dual-core processor and Verizon's 4G LTE.

Jun

LG Optimus 4X HD Review: The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Posted by David Ruddock in LG, Optimus 4X HD, Phone Reviews, Reviews

LG has never been a company particularly well-known for its smartphones. And the occasional notoriety the company has received for its Android-powered hardware has rarely been positive. The original Ally, for example, despite its Iron Man-marketing and substantial launch hype, turned out to be an unremarkable, painfully slow phone. The next handset from LG to attract much attention (in the US, at least) was the G2X (or Optimus 2X, internationally). It too failed to gain much in the way of critical acclaim, and customers found the phone laden with major usability bugs. Then came the Revolution, a device that, as it turns out, did not have a very fitting name at all.

Jun

HTC One V Review: Can A Cheap Phone Really Be Cheerful?

Posted by John Thompson in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, One V (Primo), Phone Reviews, Reviews, Three UK

There are many cheap Android phones on the market today. Most of these devices will have a single core processor clocked at around 1GHz, and there won't be an awful lot of RAM to speak of either. This remains true of the HTC One V, but the latest budget phone to come out of the Taiwanese company has one key difference: it's running the latest version of Android.

That's right, you can finally own a budget device that doesn't ship with a version of Android that was released 2 years ago! Before you start celebrating too soon, though, you may want to take a look at some of the pros and cons that come with this phone and decide whether you want to take it on a 2-year contractual spin.

May

Huawei Ascend P1 Review: 110 Grams Of Mid To High-End Ice Cream Sandwich Phone

Posted by David Ruddock in Ascend P1/P1 S, Huawei, Phone Reviews, Reviews

If Toyota made a phone, it would be the Huawei Ascend P1. I don't mean that as an insult. It's an objective assessment of what the P1 is; namely, the Camry V6 of smartphones. It's not entry level - it's actually fairly beefy - but it's no cutting-edge speed-demon, either. It caters to the sense of pragmatism, rather than the lustful desires, of those who would buy it, all at a class-leading value.

If, for example, you were to line up a Galaxy Nexus, HTC One S, and a Huawei Ascend P1 (let's take network compatibility and the $400 GSM Nexus in the US aside, here), and force someone to buy one for its unlocked retail MSRP, I imagine almost everyone concerned with value would choose the Huawei.

May

HTC Evo 4G LTE Review: Sometimes The Ugly Ones Try The Hardest

Posted by Ron Amadeo in EVO 4G LTE (Jewel), HTC, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Sprint

Last Updated: June 14th, 2012

Hello and welcome! Allow me to introduce you to Sprint's next big boy phone: (deep breath) the HTC Evo 4G LTE.

This is Sprint's version of the HTC One X. HTC's much publicized "One" branding strategy survived a grand total of two carriers in the US - Sprint kicked it to the curb in favor of the aforementioned alphabet-soup-style naming convention. Keep in mind the original Evo was actually called the "HTC Evo 4G," so you're going to need to be detail oriented when talking about the Evo line. But hey, considering this is the same marketing department that birthed the novella known as the "Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch," we actually got off pretty light.

May

Samsung Galaxy S III First Hands-On

Posted by John Thompson in Galaxy S III, News, Phone Reviews, Videos

After months of rumors and teasers, we finally got the chance to see the Samsung Galaxy S III first hand last night, at the company's Unpacked 2012 event in Earl's Court, London. Following many (many) free drinks and canapés, Suzi Perry - who hosted the popular Gadget Show here in the UK - took to the stage to kick off proceedings and introduce JK Shin, President of Samsung's mobile division, who officially introduced the new Galaxy to us.

By now, I'm sure you're all familiar with the specs of Samsung's new iPhone crusher, but just in case you need a little refresher, here's what you can expect when it ships to Europe in May…

Hardware

First impressions were mixed when we first saw the Galaxy S III; the phone is modeled off the shape of a pebble (nature was a big theme at the event last night, with Samsung donating $100 to the WWF for everyone in attendance), with rounded corners and just two capacitive buttons at either side of the physical home button.

May

HTC One X For AT&T Review: The First Of The Next Generation Of Android Phones

Posted by David Ruddock in AT&T, HTC, One X (Endeavor), One XL (Evita), Phone Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: May 3rd, 2012

That's a lofty claim, isn't it? Isn't there a new "next generation" every year? Well, to answer that last question, not always. But technology is evolving at such a rapid pace in the mobile world that we can scarcely buy a phone today without something better coming out a month later. And today, just days from Samsung's announcement of the next Galaxy phone, everyone is watching with bated breath to see what comes next.

But in the here and now, HTC's One X will be within your wallet's reach in those same, few short days. The "next big thing" won't be around, likely, for months.

Apr

T-Mobile HTC One S Review: The Future Is Now

Posted by David Ruddock in HTC, One S (Ville), Phone Reviews, Reviews, T-Mobile

Last Updated: April 30th, 2012

An Android phone is like a Leatherman Tool. It does a lot of things - without a doubt, a triumph of function over form. Android is the world's most versatile mobile operating system, the most tweakable, the most adaptable, and the most fully-featured. It just does more than any other comparable product out there. But if Android is a Leatherman, the iPhone is the basic Swiss Army Knife - compact, simple, iconic, and good enough for the vast majority of people, even if it does do a little less.

Building on that analogy, Android users, even die-hard fans, actually look at their phones more like tools.

Apr

LG Lucid Review: The Budget Smartphone, Evolved

Posted by David Ruddock in LG, Lucid, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Verizon Wireless

Last Updated: April 30th, 2012

Budget smartphones are a lot like those miniature cans of Coca-Cola you'll find on supermarket shelves - cheaper by the half-dozen than their higher-volume counterparts, but with the obvious catch that you're getting less sweet, delicious corn-juice for your dollar. It doesn't take more than 30 seconds to stop, think about this, and realize that even if you won't finish the big 12oz can during your lunch (or don't want to drink that much soda), you're still basically paying more for choosing to buy less.

This is how budget Android smartphones often work, except they're more like buying a six-pack of those Coke minis with one can missing, and a couple more that have pretty obviously been dropped at some point.