Huawei are one of the biggest telecommunications equipment companies in the world. They are huge in China although their kit is used the world over. Chances are if you are a BT Broadband customer you are using modems build by them. Huawei make no bones about their desire to become one of the biggest smartphone manufacturers in the world, and a couple of years ago they started their assault on the European market. I reviewed the G300 and found it to be a stunning budget range phone.

The Huawei Ascend P1 raised quite a stir when it was originally unveiled in CES 2012. Yes. 2012. Despite it taking the best part of a year to hit the UK, the P1′s sub 8mm thickness is still pretty impressive although it does use the magical thinnest part of the phone to stake this claim. At the base of the phone the thickness increases to a borderline obese 10mm, but who’s counting a couple of millimetres here and there? Coupled with its 110g weight, the Ascend P1 is easily manipulated in the hand, offering easy one handed navigation.

The undisputed star of the show however is the battery life. The P1 delivers the most impressive power management functionality I have ever seen on a recent Android which is in part thanks to its 1670mAh battery and a very effective ‘Battery Saver’ mode. This mode effectively underclocks the processor to between 700 and 950MHz depending on tasks from its native 1.5GHz speed. In most normal instances this has little bearing on the operation of the phone, if only because most tasks rarely draw the full might of the processor and only becomes an issue when trying to game for long periods of time. It is not seamless and introduced a less fluid experience overall but most people will not notice this if they stick with the vanilla Android launcher and eschew the ’3D’ interface – pointing this out is nitpicking.

Despite the overly plastic exterior, the P1 is a very svelte device.

I managed to obtain a very decent 3 days usage from the phone with a mixed range of tests. I didn’t hammer it too hard and used it for music, watched an hour of video and a half hour gaming session with the included Riptide GP. But that said this is a phone that will last you more than a day quite easily, and if you are the sort of person that want a smartphone for pure email and telephony the P1 is lightyears ahead of rivals in terms of battery longevity.

Only the camera lens bulge and rear chin at the base spoil the very slim plastic chassis.

GPS use naturally kills the battery off faster with a 30 minute jog reducing the battery by around 8% from a full charge. This is still pretty impressive and supports the notion that the P1 could serve as an all in one device for those that want one device for all their communication and media needs.

Benchmark wise, the P1 is a good performer. With Battery Saver engaged it pulled in an aggregated 8052 from AnTuTu and 3492 from Quadrant. In both sets of tests the reduced processor speed has has the effect of reducing the maximum scores by around 15%. These scores will not bother top end devices such as the Nexus 4 or the Galaxy S III but does illustrate a basic level of performance which allows Android to shine. There is little lag in using the P1 even with battery saving mode enabled, and the device moves to become silky smooth in operation with it disabled.

The P1 comes with 1GB of RAM and 4GB storage as standard. This unfortunately translates to only 1.32GB of usable storage out of the box which makes a microSD card mandatory. While microSD cards are cheap, it still represents a clear area of cost saving that has been made by Huawei.

Software

A decent array of apps form part of the usable bloatware to create a well rounded package for a change.

Huawei include a native Android skin as well as their own 3D version.

Other apps included of real use are the All-Backup, a passable music app and a flashlight. It is good basic functionality which stands up as offering useful content without becoming bloated although new users may find it confusing why there are two music apps on board. Other aspects such as the App Installer to pull saved files from an SD card also point to a more advanced target audience than the average consumer. There is also a DLNA app included imaginably titled “DLNA” which will be a boon for those with home network shares for media files.

Huawei P1 Music App confuses a little, exiting next to Google Music.

Huawei bundle a keyboard which has a nifty swipe feature to change layout between letter and number mode. Generally it works well although I did notice that the screen sensitivity seems slightly off on occasion. I had difficulty typing and was more prone to errors than I find with use of the Nexus 4. The major differentiation is the screen width, which is of course bigger on the Nexus. But even using the stock Android keyboard did not prove more accurate. The screen sensitivity was also noticeable when playing games with on screen controls; although hardly a deal breaker it did annoy every once in awhile when you had to retap the screen.

The camera does not improve proceedings either, giving an adequate performance with colours appearing washed out. Exterior shots have a tendency to be quite muted while interior pictures with little low light can offer a visible imbalance of colour.

Indoor camera shot have a tendency to get washed out.

Exterior pictures without HDR mode are again muted and washed out with poor contrast.

HDR saves the day with much better definition.

The HDR mode works wonders when you have a scene with little movement taking pictures that are very usable. The difficulty was getting the lens to respond quickly enough to take advantage. Increasing the ISO settings rarely seemed to make a difference apart form introduce visible noise at the highest levels. All in all it is a snapper that will do the job but a far cry from the likes of the iPhone 5 or HTC One.

The End All

Huawei Ascend P1 Android Phone Review by John on AndroidGenus

The rumour mill is winding up again regarding a dedicated Facebook phone. The New York Times (via the Verge) stages that an upcoming event may hint the release of a new dedicated handset with a “new home on Android”. Does this mean a new phone or a new app? Facebook have indicated that a dedicated branded handset made by HTC did not make sense but a partnership is still on the cards. The important question is whether Facebook are working on skinning Android to add a social network layer or forking the operating system akin to what Amazon did for their Kindle Fire line of devices.
The latter would be problematic for Google who are still finding monetising the Android platform difficult which is made more difficult by other companies taking the core system and manipulating it for their own ends. My take is that forking then platform is akin to moral theft. It might be legal but it is doing damage to an ecosystem for personal gain. As it stands the Amazon App Store serves anyone with an Android phone.
There is no reason why Facebook could not emulate that approach but the real question is why? There seems little gain opposed to a core Android device based on Jelly Bean that has an in depth social layer baked into the phone launcher. Samsung have very successfully created a usable and quite customised version of Android with TouchWiz that gives them brand identity. If Facebook seeks to emulate success it should be Samsung they mimic and not Amazon.

Facebook to reveal custom version of HTC made Android? by John on AndroidGenus

Dodgeball: hardly a Good Friday treat for your kids.

Google have gone Easter bonkers with a range of Easter Deals for the annual holiday. Funnily enough there is no deal on The Passion of the Christ (mainly because it is unavailable on Google Movies) but there are family favourites such as Matilda, The Muppets Take Manhattan and the Easter themed Hop naturally. There’s also Dodgeball and The Breakfast Club.

No, I am not telling you fibs: the curators at Google so seem inclined to think that movies with phrases such as “c*ck flavoured lollypop” in them are suitable as Good Friday treats for the kids. Make no mistake, I love Dodgeball as a movie (despite the Lance Armstrong scene which now leaves a nasty taste in the mouth) but it should not be in that list next to Daddy Day Care or Elmo In Grouchland.

Come to think of it, the deals themselves do not actually exist. The price for Annie to buy has not fluctuated from the £7.99 that it was last month. I should know as “Hard Knock Life” is indelibly ingrained upon my psyche thanks to my daughter.

The Easter bank holiday is more or less just another shameless cash in for online retailers hoping to fool you that there is fresh value to be gained from making a purchase. That in itself is not a major problem if Google Play would only lie to me sweetly. But they cannot even compile a list of family films properly without revealing they don’t give a hoot.

Google’s Easter specials may offend by John on AndroidGenus

Gamers rejoice! Samsung’s mooted Game Pad controller will hopefully see the light of day this May according to Know Your Mobile. Although primarily designed for the new Galaxy S4, the Game Pad works via Bluetooth and can take devices up to 6.3 inches in size.

Samsung’s pad has dual analogue controller sticks, a D-Pad, and six buttons in the familiar X-Y-A-B configuration  with side triggers. The controller is AA battery powered. Alas there is no pricing available but it is said that up to 80 games will be compatible from launch.

It will not however offer much in legacy support for older Galaxy S devices such as the Note 2 or S3 which is very odd. Samsung does like to bake in additional functionality but I would imagine that enterprising coders will be hard at work to provide an app that bridges the gap of any such functionality. As a general rule, Android devices running version 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or later have decent Bluetooth compatibility.

Up until now Bluetooth game controllers have been a niche market. It could well take Samsung to give it a boost which would open up the untapped potential of Android phones becoming dedicated gaming devices.

Samsung Game Pad Launching May by John on AndroidGenus

Make no mistake: the Archos Titanium 80 is cheap as chips. But the common differentiator over the last couple of years is that in 2013, cheap and cheerful is not analogous to crap. Hallelujah.

But does that mean the Archos is a good investment? Well….maybe.

The Brass Tacks

The Archos Titanium 80 is clearly gunning for the iPad mini with its 8 inch screen and so 2010 screen resolution of 1024 x 768. It eschews the wide screen aspect ratio of most Android tablets with a more traditional 4:3 aspect. At 10mm thick it is far from chunky and it’s aluminium back does add a welcome sign of good build quality.

Archos Titanium 80 – Hard to handle.

But it’s iPad pretensions do not end there (although the comparisons sort of do) as the Archos Titanium 80 is far from as svelte. The Titanium 80 weighs in at 440g compared with the size zero 308g of the iPad mini and 340g of the Nexus 7.

Thanks to Archos’ decision to ape the iPad, this translates to an awkward device to use in one hand. While I have no problem getting my paws around the Nexus, both the iPad mini and Titanium 80 gave me trouble. The weight difference adds insult to injury meaning this is a two handed device through and through. Physical ergonomics are further hampered by the rather uncomfortable hard plastic band around the outside of the tablet which is not nice to hold for prolonged periods unless you are prepared to rest the device between two hands.

For those with smaller hands, the tablet definitely requires a couple of paws to make use of it and during testing it proved more than ever that one handed operation with a device of this size is impossible (iPad mini included). 7 inch widescreen ratio devices pretty much push the limit no matter what Apple will try an tell you.

Archos holds it’s weight against the Nexus 7. And sorry about the spelling mistake…

The performance is very good with the 1.6GHz dual core processor ticking over very nicely. Nothing slowed it down from half an hour of Asphalt 7 to watching 1080p content. This is borne out by the benchmarks which put it a mere a sliver behind the Nexus 7 in the AnTuTu benchamrk, and positively trounced the Asus competition Quadrant. The Archos’ Mali 400 GPU might be arachaic but it certainly still performs well.

Archos is usually a very media literate company but in this case some things that we take for granted like AC3 surround sound from DVD rips requires additional plugins (and additional cost). Film content looks great though and with the resolution the screen content is very watchable. Default settings of the tablet feature the font size set to large which minimises the impact of the screen resolution when reading text, which is a change I welcome.

The screen is also very responsive with swipes between pages that react in a swift but controlled manner. MicroSD memory expansion is present which is a welcome addition to supplement the 6GB of usable memory from the 8GB model.

Conversely, the surface of the IPS panel is a finger print magnet that requires  a good scrub to get clean. I man a real good scrub. It might be worth investing in a screen protector for this one.

Clearly specification is not everything as I found with the Samsung Galaxy Tab review. The fact that the Titanium 80 is not cutting edge does not mean it is poor by any stretch. For the money you cannot fault the display quality and performance is excellent.

Clearly specification is not everything

The Archos 80 Titanium is packed to the gills with connectivity options including microSD expansion to compliment the 6GB of usable storage, miniHDMI socket, microUSB and a headphone jack. The tablet has a dedicated Home button and volume switch on the left flank, and the power/sleep button on the top left. The switches themselves are somewhat hard and angular and not pleasant to use due to the play in the mechanism, but they do work at least.

Soft Options

There is also no automatic brightness setting available which will become tiresome for some users. In short, the cost saving measures really do have an impact in usability which is a shame. And don’t get me started on the camera or the speakers which are appalling.

There are some additional value added apps bundles such as Archos’ own video player although Archos chose to omit the codec pack negating its usefulness. The app does offer good connectivity settings with shared folders and can build a database of posters and additional meta data for your content, bookmarks facility and automated downloading of subtitles from opensubtitle.org.

The music player is also fairly decent, and also has a nifty shared folder setting if you have a media server on your home network. On their own, they are both accomplished apps worth checking out regardless of whether you own an Archos tablet as they can be bought on Google Play individually. The Files app is also a cut above the usual file managers and Archos have also included a task killer System Monitor, Archos Remote Server, a copy of OfficeSuite 7 and a full version of Angry Birds.It is a decent package that does not go over the top, nor impregnate your device with useless bloatware.

The excellent music app is worth a look for all Android users.

 

Vanilla Jelly Bean on show.

 

Comparing the Archos Titanium 80 (top) with a Nexus 4 (bottom) reveals just how pointless tablet cameras generally are. Poor white balance, lack of colour and detail are the hallmarks of camera’s on most Android tablets.

 

Archos Titanium 80 Tablet Review by John on AndroidGenus

Samsung have launched their new top tier Android phone, the Galaxy S4. On top of despatching with the Roman numeral naming convention, the S4 is more of an iterative refinement of its predecessor opposed to a brand new handset. From a distance, it looks largely the same and without closer inspection you would wonder what the fuss is about.

The big changes are the 5 inch screen which is housed in a shell that is actually smaller than the Galaxy S III. It is a sliver thinner at 7.9mm but manages to pack more screen in with a minuscule bezel. Early reports also indicate that while the polycarbonate (i.e. plastic) shell is still in use, Samsung seem to be answering naysayers with a more premium feeling product. It certainly looks smart with the metallic band that surrounds the edge. Just like the S III, the new device will initially be available in two colours: ’White Frost’ and ‘Black Mist’ with more to follow.

The other news is the Samsung Octacore processor clocked at 1.6GHz. Why you need 8 cores is beyond me although Samsung are clearly looking to push the S4 as a gaming device with the impending Game Pad bluetooth controller. The introduction of the headline 8 cores seems more akin to keeping up with the Joneses before the Joneses even move in. The added 2Gb of RAM keeps in line with the competition from Sony and HTC and will come in 16gb, 32gb and 64gb storage options depending on territory. The emerging 4G market in the UK will also get a boost with a LTE variant to cover all bands used across the globe. In short, it is a Hell of a good specification and Samsung are not leaving anything to chance.

the headline 8 cores seems to keep up with the Joneses before the Joneses even move in

Samsung have also introduced a load of software features on top of its TouchWiz skin which are listed below. Some sound great such as the auto scrolling features when reading while others are a little bit niche. The dual picture functionality where you can take an image from both cameras at the same time seems to be of little use to anyone who is not on a rollercoaster and needs a silly shot of their face.
The S4 will be available across the world from the end of April and will probably sell by the bucket load. As for those who have just had their SIIIs? Hard lines: you have to work hard to keep up. And have deep pockets.
 

Samsung Galaxy S4 specifications

• Network 2.5G (GSM/ GPRS/ EDGE): 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz, 3G (HSPA+ 42Mbps): 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 MHz, 4G (LTE Cat 3 100/50Mbps): up to six different band sets (Dependent on market)
• Display 5 inch Full HD Super AMOLED (1920 x 1080) display, 441 ppi
• Processor 1.6 GHz Octa-Core Processor
• OS Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
• Camera Main (Rear): 13 Mega pixel Auto Focus camera with Flash & Zero Shutter Lag, BIS, Sub (Front): 2 Mega pixel camera, Full HD recording @30fpswith Zero Shutter Lag, BIS
• Video Codec MPEG4, H.264, H.263, DivX, DivX3.11, VC-1, VP8, WMV7/8, Sorenson Spark, HEVC
• Recording & Playback Full HD (1080p)
• Audio Codec MP3, AMR-NB/WB, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, WMA, OGG, FLAC, AC-3, apt-X
• Dual Camera Dual Shot / Dual Recording/ Dual Video Call, Drama Shot, Sound & Shot, 360 Photo, Cinema Photo, Eraser, Night, Best Photo, Best Face, Beauty Face, HDR (High Dynamic Range), Panorama, Sports
• Additional Features Group Play: Share Music, Share Picture, Share Document, Play Games, Story Album, S Translator, Optical Reader, Samsung Smart Scroll, Samsung Smart Pause, Air Gesture, Air View, Samsung Hub, ChatON (Voice/Video Call, Share screen, 3-way calling), Samsung WatchON, S Travel (Trip Advisor), S Voice™ Drive, S Health, Samsung Adapt Display, Samsung Adapt Sound, Auto adjust touch sensitivity (Glove friendly), Safety Assistance, Samsung Link, Screen Mirroring, Samsung KNOX (B2B only), Google Mobile Services Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Latitude, Google Play Store, Google Plus, YouTube, Google Talk, Google Places, Google Navigation, Google Downloads, Voice Search
• Connectivity WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (HT80), GPS / GLONASS, NFC, Bluetooth® 4.0 (LE), IR LED (Remote Control), MHL 2.0, Sensor Accelerometer, RGB light, Geomagnetic, Proximity, Gyro, Barometer, Temperature & Humidity, Gesture
• Memory 16/ 32/ 64 GB User memory + microSD slot (up to 64GB)
• RAM 2GB
• Dimensions 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm, 130g
• Battery 2,600 mAh

More for less with the Samsung Galaxy S4 by John on AndroidGenus

The annual Mobile World Congress event has been and gone for another year and without Samsung or Google to take the limelight, it was left for Sony to clean up in the Android stakes with the excellent Xperia Tablet Z. It seems the biggest news was how big MWC actually got with over 72,000 geeks lining the halls. In previous years we have seen the titans of tech slug it out on the exhibition floor, but now it seems the likes of Samsung and HTC think they are too big for it and announce their own events in or around the same time period for flagship models.

Regardless, MWC still has a tale to tell as indicated by another infographic from the team at phones4u. They seem to have time on their hands over there…

Mobile World Congress: an infographic by John on AndroidGenus

Infographic time chaps! This one is looking at the clash of the tech titans that is Samsung vs Apple. It has some nice facts but you need to also be aware that Samsung is a very diverse company. For example, they build ships which is a little different from Apple who focus purely on technology and have a much more finly honed ability to squeeze all the money out of your pocket.

Detractors would say quantity versus quality and I would not argue. Samsung have more smartphones on the market than I have had hot dinners…

Can Samsung take down Apple? by John on AndroidGenus

Scope has grown up just a little bit with their new version. And grown some ads too. Unlike competitors who offer a one time fee to remove advertising, Social Scope employs the subscription model which appears to be getting all the more common.
$9.99 per year to go ad free is a significant step up from the 69p app while most Social apps themselves tend to cost a couple of pounds.
Is this move an indication that apps such these are no longer sustainable by charging pennies? Maybe, but what concerns me is will the buying public be prepared for such a hike? I have my doubts.

We are used to paying for social network with our personal data. But unlike the native Facebook or Twitter apps, developers aren’t cut into the funding streams of the networks that they facilitate interaction with. As the above reply from Google Play states, keeping an app like Scope going will cost money and it is fair and proper that users will have to pay in some way for the privilege.
Does this mark and end to the cut price app? And will we now see a return to the higher cost of software we have with the Windows PC platform? Maybe.
If you subscribe to something like Scope for a few years, you will end up spending sums of money that are not insignificant. Expectations should also increase because if I commit to this, I do not want to have to use alternative apps for key bits of functionality. Will small development teams be able to cope with the increase in customer support that will be required? Some will but some won’t.
I am in two minds about this and we will see as I use it exclusively over the next few months. My previous foray into a subscribed social app was Ubersocial and unfortunately that has stayed dormant on my phone for the best part of three months. I am wary…

Scope grows ads and a subscription model by John on AndroidGenus