The chassis

The HTC one has been enjoying acclaimed reviews regarding its aluminum unibody design that have the dimensions of 137.4×68.2×9.30 mm and weighs 143 g. The aluminum chassis gives it very beautiful and distinct look. Its battery comes fixed and is non-removable due to the zero-gap construction.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 appears similar to its predecessor S3 with enhanced sleeker and slimmer chassis. It features the plastic body that doesn’t add the premium feel, but keeps the weight at only 130gm and dimensions 136.6×69.8×7.90 mm. It also has a removable back cover to help you replace the battery whenever necessary and allows you to use the microSIM and microSD card slots.

The Sony Xperia Z uses a plastic and glass in its construction, making it look attractive and appealing when gazed from the distance. The best things about Xperia Z are its water and dust resistant features. Hence, it has a non-removable battery and all the ports have been layered with protective covering.

The Nokia Lumia 925 is an upgraded version of Lumia 920 in terms of design and camera. It has a gorgeous metallic frame with dimensions of 129 x 70.6 x 8.50 mm and 139 gm of weight. This handset also supports wireless charging via a cover that is available in various funky colors like Yellow, Red, etc.

The BlackBerry Z10 has a usual plastic body with rubberised back for providing grip. The design doesn’t excite much with its dimensions which is 130 x 65.6 x 9mm and a weight of 137.5 gm.

Screen technology

When it comes to screen technology, HTC One features a 4.7 inch display with a Full HD resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels along with the pixel density of 469 ppi. Hence, the screen is bright enough to offer good viewing angles.

As far as Samsung Galaxy S4 screen is concerned, it is blessed with 4.99 inch screen that supports Full HD resolution at a 441 ppi. The AMOLED technology on its screen offers good display even in bright sunlight. Moreover, the Gorilla Glass 3 technology rugged on its screen makes it a scratch resistant device.

Xperia Z, like S4, exhibits a 5-inch screen and supports Full HD resolution with a pixel density of 441 ppi. However, in the case of Xperia Z, the screen is rugged with Gorilla Glass 2 technology.

The Lumia 925 comes with 4.5 inch PureMotion HD+ screen with 768 x 1280 pixels resolution and pixel density of 334 ppi. The display proffers a sharper and clear view that can be easily observed form all viewing angles and like Xperia Z, the screen is equipped with Gorilla Glass 2 technology to make it scratch-resistant gadget.

BlackBerry Z10 sports 4.2 inch screen with display resolution of 768 x 1920 pixels, which means a pixel density of 355 ppi. As compared to others, the screen offers good viewing angles.

The performance does matters!!!

HTC One is powered by 1.7 GHz quad-core qualcomm snapdragon processor that comes with Adreno 320 graphic processor and paired with a 2GB of RAM. This configuration makes the multitasking a delightful experience. It comes with an internal storage of 16GB or 32 GB with no option for external memory. It is backed by 2300 mAh Li-ion battery.

Samsung Galaxy S4 comes in two variants. Both differ on the number of cores in the processor, i.e., 1.6GHz octa-core processor and a 1.9GHz quad-core processor with a PowerVR GPU. The processor is paired with 2GB of RAM ensuring swift performance. Further, it has internal storage of 16 GB that can be externally expandable up to 64 GB via microSD card. In terms of battery, it is backed by massive 2600 mAh Li-ion battery.

Xperia Z is fuelled by a 1.5GHz quad-core Krait processor along with Adreno 320 graphic processor. It is equipped with 2GB of RAM that ensures buttery smooth performance. It has an internal memory of 16GB which is further expandable up to 32GB via microSD card. It has a 2330 mAh battery consisting a STAMINA mode feature.

Lumia 925 is configured with dual-core 1.5 GHz qualcomm snapdragon processor and Adreno 225 GPU. It has 1GB of RAM which is much lesser than its competitors but still it’s enough for performing everyday tasks. It comes with internal storage options of 16 GB or 32 GB which is unfortunately inflexible. It’s fueled by 2,000mAh Li-ion battery.

Blackberry Z10 is powered by dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and Adreno 225 GPU. It is paired with 2 GB of RAM. This perfect combination enables the device to perform well. It comes with 16 GB of Internal memory that can be further expandable to 64 GB via microSD card. It comes with 1800 mAh Li-Ion battery.

Camera

HTC One camera features 4MP sensor which is smaller, although it has much larger pixels and hence for this reason it is being called ultrapixel. However, the camera is below average for normal day light or night condition when compared to 13MP or 8MP cameras. It also has a 2MP front-facing camera.

Samsung Galaxy S4 offers a 13MP rear camera with LED flash and auto-focus. The camera works great for all lighting situations and offers advanced camera features like face and smile detection, geo-tagging, etc. Samsung has added a lot of features to make the photography a wonderful experience. The device is also equipped with 2MP secondary camera for video calling purposes.

Akin to S4, Xperia Z also has a 13 MP camera with auto-focus and LED flash. It comes with various advanced camera features like Image stabilization, HDR, geo-tagging, etc. It also lets you record videos and images simultaneously. Like others, it also has 2MP front-facing camera.

Lumia 925 has an 8.7MP rear camera with dual LED flash and Carl zeiss lens. The camera works great even in low-light conditions. It also comes equipped with various advanced camera features like Burst mode, motion focus, action shot, etc. Nokia have also introduced ‘Smart Camera’ app for taking images.  Unlike others, it comes with 1.2MP front camera.

BlackBerry Z10 houses an 8 MP primary camera that is capable of recording videos at 1080p@30fps. The camera is decent, but doesn’t surpass the quality offered by its contenders. It also consists of a 2MP secondary camera, which can be used for video calling.

Software and Extra Features

The HTC One, Galaxy S4 and Xperia Z runs latest Android 4.1 JellyBean OS, however each of them have their own features and specialties.

HTC One is bolstered with a skin called as Sense on the home screen, lock screen and even for default apps.

Samsung Galaxy S4 comes loaded with a plethora of apps and features that are just an attention-grabber. It also features eye tracking technology through Smart Scroll and Smart Pause. It also supports the user’s gestures for various functions.

Sony Xperia Z comes bolstered with Sony’s own customizations. It has an ingenious option of Small Apps, which provides you with a minimized version of some repeatedly needed apps like Alarm, Calendar, etc. As a consequence, without opening the app, user can still get their chores done.

Lumia 925 runs latest Windows Phone 8 (OS) and comes with plethora of Nokia’s optimizations. They’ve added Nokia Drive, Nokia Here and Nokia City Lens which provide map-reading facilities. It also comes with Nokia Music that allows streaming of music directly through internet.

Z10 is supported by BlackBerry’s new gesture-based 10.1 OS. It has various utilities like BlackBerry Balance, BlackBerry Hub, and many others to make one’s life prolific and productive.

Price

The main point of comparison between these handsets is their price. You can browse Naaptol.com and compare the prices of these handsets. You will find that Xperia Z price, the Nokia Lumia 925 Price and Galaxy S4 price comes somewhat under the same price range. However, Z10 is more expensive one. You can also look for HTC One price and thus make the right choice as per your need and budget.

This is the Guest post by Alisha Singh, She work with Naaptol

The post Top SmartPhones of 2013 : Galaxy S4 vs Xperia Z vs Lumia 925 vs HTC one vs Blackberry Z10 appeared first on Androcid.

• Dual SIM Support
• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS
• 4.3-inch LCD capacitive touch screen display
•  800 x 480 (WVGA) Pixels resolution
• 129.30 x 67.60 x 8.95mm
• 124 gms in weight
• 1.2 GHz dual-core processor
• 5MP primary auto focus camera with LED Flash
• 0.3MP VGA front-facing camera
• 1GB RAM
• 8 GB internal memory(expandable up to 64GB using microSD)
• 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v 3.0, GPS,USB 2.0
• 1800 mAh battery with talk time up to 9 hours

Read More About Samsung Galaxy Core

The post Samsung Galaxy Core (GT-I8262) Spotted Online on Samsung India Portal appeared first on Androcid.

Full Specifications

• 4.7 Inch Super LCD3 Screen, 1920 x 1080 pixels, 446 PPI, Gorilla Glass 2 Protection, Capacitive 10-Point Multitouch
• 1.5 GHz Quad-Core Processor, Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, 4 x Krait CPU, Adreno 320 GPU
• 2 GB RAM, 32 GB Internal Storage, No Micro SD Card Slot
• 4 MP ‘Ultrapixels’ Camera, Optical Image Stabilization, Full HD 1080p Video Recording @ 30FPS, HTC Zoe, HDR [Images + Videos]
• 1.9 MP Front-Camera, 88 Deg Field Of View, Wide Angle Lens
• Android 4.1.2, HTC Sense 5 UI
• Wi-Fi ac/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, A-GPS, Micro USB [MHL], 3.5 mm Audio Jack, IR Port For Remote Control
• 9.3 mm Thin, 143 Grams, 2330 mAh Battery

Design

Industrial design of their devices is something that has always been front and centre at HTC. Last year’s HTC One X and HTC One S were already one of the best and with Aluminium uni-body, HTC One is second to none, not even to the Apple iPhone 5 which was once considered as the best. The HTC One feels very solid when you hold it in hand and the Aluminium is stronger than the one used in the iPhone.

The dual speakers on the front of the device have laser cut holes and sides are chiseled to make it look no less than some kind of jewellery. Just rub your fingers on the back of this device and you’ll feel how expensive and up-market this device is. Although a downside are the buttons, which in spite of being solid, are not protruded outwards so you need a bit of effort to feel them and click them.

The back of the devices has 2 plastic inserts with HTC’s advertised, ‘Zero Gap’ technology which is said to improve the Wi-Fi and cellular signal reception considerably. Overall, the HTC One is no less of a perfection although it lacks the durability such as the likes of Sony Xperia Z. But that is not a bad thing as the Sony Xperia Z does not look and feel as luxurious as the HTC One.

Screen

Generally not known for screen quality, HTC upped its game with the use of screens in its devices last year with the use of Super LCD 2 in the One X. HTC One has a successor to the screen used last year. This device uses the Super LCD3 technology with Gorilla Glass 2 protection.

The 4.7 inch screen has a resolution of full HD 1920 x 1080 pixels and take its screen sharpness to a whopping 446 pixels per inch. Of course, you can’t see any pixels even when you stick your eyes to the screen.

The screen is bright and has excellent black levels considering the fact that it is not a variant of AMOLED screen which are known for their perfectly black levels.

The screen is perfectly visible even in daylight and has near perfect viewing angles. This screen is the best screen we have ever used in a mobile phone. PERIOD.

Camera

HTC tried to buck the trend of increasing the megapixel rating go the other way round. The HTC One comes with just 4MP camera, but they are advertising it as 4 ‘Ultrapixels’ which, in simple terms, means that each pixel in this camera sensor is 3 times bigger than other smartphone cameras.

It also has Optical Image Stabilization Lens which helps reducing the jitters when your hand isn’t stable while clicking images or while video recording. You can notice the shakes to be smoother while video recording due to this OIS lens. Combine it with a F/2.0 lens, and you get a camera that can take amazing low light images, where you are mostly supposed to click them, such as while a dinner with your friends in a restaurant or indoors in your home with your family.

There is a stark difference between low light performance of HTC One and its competitors. Only Nokia Lumia 920/925 could come close to low light performance of HTC One. However, such stark difference isn’tt visible when the camera is used in day-light where its images can just be deemed just as ‘Good’. The images might sometimes feel a bit cold and may not wow you like from the ones of iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4. Also, some times you can feel that 4 MP resolution of the images are a bit on low side. Even though HTC tries to explain that most of your images would end up on social networking sites, you would feel that a bit more resolution would have been helpful when you try to print them.

There are inbuilt photo effects so you won’t be heading towards Instagram as much as you do in your current smartphone. The HDR mode in photo as well as video recording helps in areas with tricky lighting situations. The Panorama images came out pretty well as they were stitched with near perfection but the 360 Panorama is missing. HTC Zoe allows you to take GIF like animated images, choose best shots or remove some things from your images.

The audio recorded in the videos have amazing clarity and depth due to dual high frequency microphones used in the One. The HDR images come out well but the HDR videos are not as vibrant as you might expect, same was the case with the HDR videos from the Sony Xperia Z.

UI & Other Features

The HTC One currently runs on HTC Sense 5 built upon Android 4.1.2 but the Android 4.2.2 must be rolling out soon. The whole UI is smooth and you won’t crave from stock Android experience. In our experience, this is the best designed custom Android UI with elegant design and smooth animations as well as performance. The multitasking UI is also better as you can see 9 recent apps with screenshots where as you get to see only 4 recent apps in stock Android UI. You can also create folders within the application launcher. There is smart dialing where you can type a name and it suggests the person’s contact but typing some starting numbers won’t do the same. There are custom Mail, Contacts and Clock apps which are very easy to use.

You get Notes, Tasks, Polaris Office and PDF viewer apps by default. The Notes app syncs with Evernote, Tasks syncs your data with Google Tasks which seems a very good addition.

The HTC One comes with a lot of extras such as IR Blaster which you can use to control almost all the standard equipments that can be controlled with an IR remote control. The HTC One uses the same ‘Peel’ technology that is used in the Samsung Galaxy S4. But the HTC One has a slightly stronger IR transceiver which means you can control the devices with longer distance in comparison to Samsung Galaxy S4.

The HTC Blinkfeed is a Flipboard like News Reader but completely managed by HTC. You can add updates and feeds from various websites and social services. Its design resembles very close to the Windows Phone Tiles but that may not be a bad thing. The bad thing although is, if you are not a ‘News & Updates’ person, there is no way you can remove HTC Blinkfeed from the home screen. But you can change the default home screen other than the Blinkfeed so you that it does not hit you in face whenever you unlock the home screen or hit the home button.

The gallery is also a unique experience with the HTC One as it shows you short clips even before you touch it which is called as ‘Highlights Reel‘. It also shows you HTC Zoe short videos so that you can instantly know what an album is about.

There is also a ‘Transfer Content’ option under the settings which helps you in transferring content such as contacts, calendar, images, etc from your old smartphone or Android phone. There is also a Kids Mode where there are some learning, painting and playing stuff for your kids. You can select particular apps which your kids can use and restrict them from messing around private data.

Performance

Coming to performance, the 1.7 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor used in HTC One is one of the fastest processor around and keeps up pace with everything you throw at it, be it multi-tabbed web browsing or heavy gaming. We installed Nova 3 in the HTC One to test it out and it performed admirably without breaking a sweat, although, like all other phones, it gets hot while gaming. 2 GB of RAM keeps the multitasking at ease and the phone absolutely flies while multitasking.

There is no micro SD card slot, so you can’t use more than internal 32 GB of storage. The Wi-Fi and signal reception is excellent and it performed better and managed to receive 3 bars in areas where we get a single bar of Wi-Fi reception in our Galaxy Nexus and iPhone 4. The sound in the earphones as well as stereo speakers are excellent, thanks to Beats Audio and dedicated dual audio amplifiers. The front dual loudspeakers give stereo sound effects and some amount of bass which is rare to imagine in a smartphone.

Battery Life

With all these high end stuff, you would imagine that the 2330 mAh battery wouldn’t last a day but the HTC One performed really well as it managed to last one full day even when we were trying out all the features.

There is also a battery saver mode which helps you get through the day when your battery isn’t keeping up with your tasks. The battery optimization option is present which learns your usage patterns and tries to optimize it that way.

Conclusion

Although it may not defeat the Samsung Galaxy S4 in synthetic benchmarks, but it deals with bigger problems like low-light photography, audio quality and the UI is much better as the Sense UI tries to keep away from gimmicky features. The battery life is excellent and performs as well as Samsung Galaxy S4 and better than Apple iPhone 5. The HTC One is one of the best phone in the world right now for us although some may argue that title to iPhone 5 or Galaxy S4. It is still not a perfect smartphone, a higher resolution camera could have made it perfect. Also, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is priced lower than HTC One, which means that HTC needs to reduce the price if it wants to compete with Galaxy S4 in terms of sales.

The post HTC One Hands-On Review appeared first on Androcid.

Android Evolution

Source

The post Evolution of Android over the years appeared first on Androcid.

On Google Play, prior to installations, we can see a list of things that the app does. More often than not, the list consists of strange requests such as a random game wanting to access the contact list on your phone. Sometimes, certain permissions are very extensive; which is quite unusual.

A few apps request access to the device camera, but the app may not even need it (e.g. a banking app). When the user grants access to device camera, it indirectly means that the app is allowed to turn on the camera and use it without the knowledge of the user. It is essential to make sure that the app has a legitimate reason for wanting to use the camera; else Make sure the app has a legitimate reason for wanting to use the camera, or else it means that you are allowing it to unscrupulously spy on you.

Using its Clueful service, the antivirus software BitDefender has identified some frequently downloaded apps on Google Play which seemed to have some doubtful permissions.

Bad Pigs

It was observed that a game Bad Pigs was impersonating to be the sequel of Rovio’s Bad Piggies. Even though the original game is called Bad Piggies, this one had a slightly different name. This app requested an massive number of permissions , which included the ability to alter some of your device setting, and full location access.  If you were one of the many victims that were deceived, delete the app right away.

Sally’s Nail Salon

BitDefender’s Clueful app signaled Sally’s Nail Salon (version 1.1.3|13) from NuttyApps as an unsafe app on Google Play. This app uploads the Android ID to api.vungle.com, a mobile video advertising network, to track the user’s location and behavior across multiple apps.

It also shares the user’s phone number with an ad network called AirPush.

Zombie Dress Up Game

As stated by BitDefender, Zombie Dress Up-Zombie Game collects and sends even more user data to AirPush servers. With the Device ID, the app also sends the user’s phone number, email-id, and location

Other trojanized apps include “Fruit Chop Ninja” as a sequel to Fruit Ninja, and “Paper Toss 2”.

If you are one of the thousands who have been tricked by these apps, uninstall them ASAP and save your device.

Source

The post Apps and permissions on your Android device appeared first on Androcid.

The post Images of Samsung Galaxy S4 Active with AT&T branding Leaks appeared first on Androcid.

Key Features of HTC Butterfly S :

• Android Jelly Bean, Sense 5
• 5-inch, 1080p display
• 1.9GHz quad-core, Snapdragon 600
• 2GB of RAM
• 16GB of built-in storage
• 2.1 MP front camera
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/​​ac/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS,Remote control modules
• 3,200mAh battery

It is scheduled to be launched in July next month accompanied by a NT $22,900 (roughly $766) price tag. Currently there is words regarding its foreign availability.

Source

The post HTC Butterfly S announced, Packs 1.9 GHz snapdragon 600 processor and Android Jelly Bean appeared first on Androcid.

You can purchase this smartphone for $140.99 with discounts on bulk orders.

Key Specifications of BigFone F2 :

• Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
• 1.2Ghz Dual Core Processor
• 5.2-inch with screen resolution of 800*480 Pixels
• 148 x 77.5 x 9.6mm
• 512MB RAM
• 4GB ROM
• Bluetooth 2.0,WIFI/WAPI (802.11 b/g/n),GPS
• 0.3MP Front camera
• 5MP Rear camera with flashlight

Buy Now

The post BigFone F2 with 5.2-inch multi-touch screen and Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean launched appeared first on Androcid.

The post [Rumor] Samsung Galaxy S5 to have a metal bodied design appeared first on Androcid.

This feature might not be a new concept but one would really wait to see how LG brings this service in smartphone. This feature would certainly bring benefits in certain settings or environment. Like, in a case where one is driving vehicle and such safety feature would allow user to work with key functions without requiring them to touch the screen un-necessarily.

The post LG working on ‘Always On Voice Command’ Smartphone appeared first on Androcid.