Mobi Hunter

Sony Ericsson Xperia neo

2012-02-02T00:05:00.001-08:00

Do we cancel the show if the star is not available? This one must've crossed some minds over at Sony Ericsson when the Xperia Neo had to be discontinued. But no, they didn't cancel it. The crew was told to take five instead while they skimmed the B-list for a possible substitute.

The Xperia neo V is not an upgrade of the original Neo. It’s actually a downgrade forced by circumstances. The only difference is the camera sensor - down from 8 to 5 megapixels - and the more recent Android version. Sounds so little, doesn't it? That's the price for saving the Neo.

The deadly Japan earthquake took lives and brought the local electronics industry to a halt. Sony was affected too and, with a shortage of 8 megapixel camera sensors looming, someone had to take the hit. That someone was the Xperia neo. This is the story told by a company insider, who we have no reason to doubt.

It's the same phone, different camera and the lower price makes sense. And it should be clear by now the V is the Roman numeral for five, not a letter. Could there be a victory sign anywhere in the picture?

Key features

Quad-band GSM /GPRS/EDGE support
3G with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
3.7" 16M-color capacitive LED-backlit LCD touchscreen of FWVGA resolution (480 x 854 pixels) on Sony Mobile BRAVIA engine
Android OS v2.3.4 Gingerbread
1 GHz Scorpion CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 chipset
512 MB RAM
5 MP autofocus camera, LED flash, geo-tagging, 3D Sweep Panorama
720p video @ 30fps, continuous autofocus with continuous autofocus and stereo sound
Front facing VGA camera, video chat (Google, Skype)
Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
GPS with A-GPS
microSD slot (32GB supported, 2GB card included)
Accelerometer and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
Stereo FM radio with RDS
microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
Voice dialing
Adobe Flash 11 support
microHDMI port
Deep Xperia Facebook integration

Main disadvantages

Forced camera downgrade to 5MP
Display has poor viewing angles
The competition has dual-core CPUs, 1080p video
No smart dialing
Loudspeaker has below average performance
Very limited video codec support
Memory card slot under the battery cover

HTC Explorer

2012-02-02T00:01:00.001-08:00

Ever since the Aria, HTC have had a petite Android on offer and the HTC Explorer is the latest in the line. With an affordable price tag, the plucky little smartphone will appeal to people looking for a compact set or users who are just about getting started in smartphones.

The Explorer's outer shell is made of patterned plastic that has a rubbery feel to it - creating an impression of ruggedness to match its name. The plate of brushed metal at the center of the rear backs that up too. The phone is not actually shock proof but we still appreciate the tough feel.

The HTC Explorer earns extra points for handling too thanks to its compact size. The diminutive body and rounded corners make it feel like a pebble in the hand.

Small as it is, the Explorer has Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread with Sense UI 3.5 on top, just like its elders. Here are the rest of the specs along with the downsides.

Key features

Light and compact

Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support

14.4 Mbps HSDPA, 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support

3.2" 256K-color TFT capacitive touchscreen of HVGA resolution (320 x 480)

600MHz Snapdragon S1 MSM7227A chipset, Cortex A5 CPU, 512MB RAM, Adreno 200 GPU

Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) with HTC Sense 3.5 UI

Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with hotspot functionality

GPS with A-GPS connectivity

3 MP fixed-focus camera, geotagging, face detection

VGA video @ 24fps

microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v3.0

microSD slot (up to 32GB)

Standard 3.5 mm audio jack

Accelerometer, proximity sensor

Stereo FM radio with RDS

Turn-to-mute, lift-to-tone-down, pocket mode, flip for speakerphone

Smart dialing

DivX/XviD video support

HTCSense.com integration

Adobe Flash support

Ultra-fast boot times (if you don’t remove battery)

Main disadvantages

Slow CPU
Modest retail package
Fixed-focus camera
No Document viewer
No secondary video call camera

LG Nitro HD

2012-02-01T23:57:00.001-08:00

The LG Nitro HD for AT&T Wireless comes with some seriously heavy expectations to meet. It was back in August, when we first reported about the award winning AH-IPS screen with HD resolution, developed by LG. The unit is reportedly better than anything else on the market, including Samsung’s Super AMOLED Plus displays, and the Nitro HD is the first device to feature it in the United States. It also stands out as the first device in AT&T’s impressive smartphone lineup to feature an HD screen.

It is the end of 2011 and all the cards are on the table. The LG Nitro HD is the last major player to enter the uber-smartphone competition. It surely has a spec sheet up to snuff: an HD screen to marvel at, LTE network capacity, 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 8MP autofocus camera, etc. The list is long.

Spec sheets are something we’ve come to expect in the price category, where the LG Nitro HD will compete. It is the way that the components are integrated together and the user experience they create which counts. This is what we’re going to try and find out in this review.

As always, we’ll kick things off with the key features and main disadvantages of the smartphone.

Key features

Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G support

21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 HSUPA support

LTE network connectivity

4.5" 16M-color AH-IPS LCD touchscreen with HD (720 x 1280 pixels) resolution; 326ppi

Android OS v2.3.5 with LG custom launcher

1.5 GHz Scorpion dual-core CPU, Adreno 220 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, 1GB of RAM

8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash; 1MP front-facing unit

1080p HD video recording

Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n support; Wi-Fi Share app

GPS with A-GPS connectivity

4GB internal storage, microSD slot (16GB card included in the retail package)

Accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor

Standard 3.5 mm audio jack

Stereo Bluetooth v3.0

Document editor

Rich video format support

Ability to remove preinstalled apps from AT&T out of the box

Main disadvantages

No dedicated camera button
Battery performance is questionable
LG’s custom UI might not fit all tastes

Nokia Lumia 800

2012-02-01T23:54:00.001-08:00

It will take crowds erupting in delight to silence the ring of the "burning platform" speech in the Nokia Lumia 800's ears. The speaker being Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and the burning platform Symbian.

As Nokia are starting over, the Lumia 800 would do well not to look back. It's certainly beyond the ifs and buts. A shadow still lingers though. And there are people out there - loyal Nokia users too - who would've jumped in the fire with MeeGo rather than the freezing waters of Windows Phone.

But it was for others to decide. The N9 was ordered to share its impressive unibody design with the Lumia 800. Good decision by Nokia - not saying fair - to give its WP7 pioneer a strong start. There are some Windows Phone mandated changes like the touch-sensitive Back, Menu and Search keys and a hardware shutter key. The screen lost 0.2" and 54 pixels in height to make room for the capacitive controls. The oddly positioned secondary camera is gone as well. Still, the image quality of the screen seems unchanged - and we quite liked that AMOLED unit.

What else has changed? Well, there's a new chipset, among other things. To make this short, here're the pros and cons of the Nokia Lumia 800.

Key features

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support

Quad-band 3G with 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.7 Mbps HSUPA support

3.7" 16M-color AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of 480 x 800 pixel resolution

Scratch resistant Gorilla glass display with anti-glare polarizer

8 megapixel autofocus camera with dual LED flash, 720p@27fps video recording and fast f/2.2 lens

Windows Phone 7.5 OS (Mango)

1.4GHz Scorpion CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8255 chipset, 512MB of RAM

Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n

Non-painted polycarbonate unibody, curved screen

GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigation

Digital compass

16GB on-board storage

Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic

Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor

Standard 3.5 mm audio jack; FM Radio with RDS

microUSB port

Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and EDR

Impressively deep and coherent SNS integration throughout the interface

Main disadvantages

Display is much dimmer than the N9's display
No Flash or Silverlight support in browser
No USB mass storage (file management and sync pass only through Zune)
No video calls and no front-facing camera either
Non-user-replaceable battery
No memory card slot (and no 64GB version like the N9)
microSIM card slot
No native DivX/XviD support, videos have to be transcoded by Zune

Samsung I9103 Galaxy

2012-02-01T23:48:00.001-08:00

The Samsung I9103 Galaxy R rode in on the NVIDIA Tegra 2 platform and became the first affordable dual-core smartphone from the South Korean company. With a bright SC-LCD screen and brushed metal back, the Galaxy R is just different enough from the Galaxy S lineup to stand on its own.

Samsung has so many variations of their models that sometimes it's hard to say when one model stops and another begins. Take the Samsung I9103 Galaxy R, positioned somewhere between the Galaxy S II flagship droid and the mid-range Galaxy W.

Not that we're complaining - having more options available is always a good thing and all dual-core droids from Samsung were only top of the line so far (S II and its variations, the Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy Note phoneblet).

This is where the I9103 Galaxy R steps in in - it offers tangibly better specs than the Galaxy W, while staying a step below the top dogs in specs and price. Here's a summary of what you get with the Galaxy R and some downsides.

Key features

Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support
21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support
4.2" 16M-color SC-LCD capacitive touchscreen of WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) resolution; Scratch-resistant glass
Android OS v2.3.3 with TouchWiz 4 launcher
1 GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU, ULP GeForce GPU, NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipset, 1GB of RAM
5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash, face and smile detection
720p HD video recording at 30fps
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n support; DLNA and Wi-Fi Direct support
GPS with A-GPS connectivity; digital compass
8GB internal storage, microSD slot
Accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
microUSB port
Stereo Bluetooth v3.0
FM radio with RDS
Great audio quality
1.3MP secondary video-call camera
Document editor
File manager comes preinstalled

Main disadvantages

SC-LCD has poor black levels
Tegra 2 falls slightly behind Exynos in CPU and GPU performance
No dedicated camera key
Non-hot-swappable microSD card