SPG - All Reviews

REVIEW: Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:40:28 +0000

Introduction

We have been seeing a continuous stream of Android smartphones being released by Sony Ericsson recently. 2011 saw the release of the Xperia Arc, the Xperia Play, the Xperia Neo, the Xperia Mini, the Xperia Mini Pro, the Xperia Ray, the Xperia Neo V & then the Xperia Arc S & Xperia Active… Phew, that's quite a few in a single product line…

Here at SmartphoneGurus, we've been fortunate to get our hands on the Xperia X10 Mini Pro and the Xperia Play and now thanks to Citizen Brando, Sony Ericsson's UK PR company, we also have the Xperia Arc S. So, what are our thoughts on this next generation Arc device, read on to find out…

What's in the box?

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S
Greenheart Charger
Dual Charging & USB Cable
Wired Stereo Headset

The Specifications

Specifications taken from GSM Arena

The Aesthetics

The Xperia Arc S is a pleasure to behold. Svelte & thin, at 125mm x 63mm x 8.7mm & 117 grams in weight, it looks like the supermodel of the Android device world. I don't usually favour white devices, but the svelteness of the Arc S minimises the expanse of white on show from the front. The device is neatly refined with an aluminium like strip that runs all the away around the edge, giving a look of exceptional quality. Sony Ericsson have also done an excellent job in keeping the bezel minimal, and the device is literally all screen from the front.

As you can see, the Arc S is indeed one of the thinnest Android smartphones that we have been fortunate enough to review at SmartPhoneGurus. Only the Galaxy S II beats it by .2mm.

Top

From left to right along the top of the device we find the power button. The button itself is quite recessed and I sometimes found it difficult to press. By difficult to press, I mean I don't always hit the button itself first time. This is no bad thing as it means that the device is not inadvertently activated in my pocket, which hopefully reduces power usage from the screen being activated too often. Moving on we come across the micro HDMI socket. This is one thing I can confirm as working, but more about that later in the review.

Bottom

Continuing the left to right theme, we first come to a dual-slot microphone, and boy, the slots are quite large in comparison to other phones. In the middle we find a fingernail shaped cut-out, and indeed, this is where you insert a fingernail to remove the back cover from the device, which is exceptionally easy!! Over on the right there is another smaller circular hole in the casing, which I'm assuming is the Noise Shield system to reduce background noise, but for the life of me I couldn't confirm this point anywhere!!

Left

The left hand side of the device only sports the 3.5mm headset socket at the top. Move along…

Right

Flipping to the right hand side and moving from top to bottom, firstly we come to the micro USB socket. As with most devices this is used to both charge the device and provide cable connectivity to a PC of your choice. In conjunction with a Sony Ericsson live dock, the device will also support USB host. Just below the USB socket is the volume rocker switch. One thing that is immediately apparent is that the volume rocker switch is incredibly small compared to other machines, but to be honest, I've not had a problem with that so far. Right at the bottom of the device, there is a camera button. I like the inclusion of a physical button as it gives one the feel of using a proper camera, and the Arc S certainly lives up to that, but more later.

Back

Moving from top to bottom we start with the camera lens, with an LED flash slightly below to the left. Continuing the journey there is another small pin hole in the case; why, at first I did not know, but removing the back cover revealed a second microphone underneath, so maybe this delivers the Noise Shield feature. Next up in the centre of the back is the now familiar Xperia logo, followed by the Sony Ericsson badge. Finally we come to the speaker slot at the bottom. No grille over the slot, but there is one over the speaker internally, seems an odd way round to me!

Front

The most impressive thing about the Arc S is how the screen dominates the front of the device itself, the bezel at the left & right edges is the most minimal of any device that I have had in my hands to date. The top & bottom bezel are merely large enough to contain the call speaker, sensors & front-facing camera and the physical buttons. It truly is amazing.

I am still a fan of the physical buttons at the bottom of any device. I find them so much more easier to use! Is that an age thing, maybe, but I will go on harping on about how the physical buttons are better than the capacitive ones!

Construction

The Arc S feels solid in the hand, despite the 4.2" screen it is easy to hold, well, it is for me and yes my hands are fairly large. There is a little creaking from the back, if the device is pressed, I put this down to the incredibly thin plastic panel that spans the entirety of the back. Overall, though, the Arc S is well constructed, furthering the feel of quality.

The Screen

The screen is glorious, a TFT panel at 4.2" sporting 16K colours driven by Sony's Mobile Bravia Engine. At 854x480, the resolution doesn't match that of the display on the iPhone 4, but it is very crisp, sharp & bright. It is superb. The panel has been given the title of Reality Display. Maybe that is to match the iPhone's marketing of the Retina Display; who can tell. I usually consign it to marketing speak and leave it at that. Rest assured, Sony Ericsson certainly do know how to make a screen, that's for sure.

The Keyboard

As with the Xperia Play, the on-screen keyboard is very iPhone like in appearance. I guess this is no surprise as both devices are from the Sony Ericsson Xperia stable. As per normal with most devices, I persevered with the Arc S standard supplied keyboard until I could take no more. It's not that it is bad, it's just that I find the Swiftkey X keyboard much easier to use and I seem to achieve greater accuracy with it. So, sorry Sony Ericcson, I moved to another keyboard again.

The Camera

Standard Mode

The Arc S it kitted out with an 8.1 megapixel camera complete with LED flash. As we are told, and I'm no expert, it's not just resolution that counts, but the quality of the lens and software as well. The camera on the Arc S features Ericsson's Exmoor R CMOS sensor and also offers image stabilisation, Auto Focus, an f/2.4 Aperture, Smile detection, Face Recognition, 16x Digital Zoom & not to mention 720p HD video recognition. In the cold light of day, the pictures the Arc S delivers are pretty good, take a look at the pictures below:

3D Mode

The camera functionality doesn't stop there! The Arc S also offers a 3D panoramic mode, although to really take advantage of this you need a 3D TV and the relevant spectacles to go with it. Unfortunately, I have neither, but, I did get the chance to see the Arc S and its 3D panoramic splendidness in the flesh at a Sony Ericsson event in London, and I must say, I was pretty impressed.

Taking a 3D panoramic picture seems to be some what of an art-form. Maybe that's just me as it took me multiple tries to actually get a shot, at first I was too fast, then I was too slow and the Arc S regularly accused me of panning in the wrong direction! Eventually I did get the hang of it!

The Connectivity

The Arc S provides all the usual connectivity standards, GPRS, EDGE & HSDPA. I don't actually get a 3G signal at home, which is where I spend most of my time. But in those places where a 3G or HSDPA signal was available, the Arc S performed well, not forgetting that data speeds are usually at the mercy of the network, and the load on that network from a particular location.

DLNA, the ability to share media on your device across your WiFi network is also supported. Unfortunately, once again, my TV does not have this feature, so I have been unable to put it to the test directly, but that didn't stop me from using Windows Media Player on my Media PC, which is connected to my TV via HDMI, to stream pictures, video & audio files directly from the device. That was one function that did work very well!

Other connectivity options included HDMI out, it was absolutely staggering to be able to utilise the Netflix Android application and watch the output of my TV.

The Battery

As with all my reviews, I try to look at the battery from a real-world perspective and as luck would have it, I had a meeting in London during the review period. The Arc S was taken off charge at around 06:00, yes, 06:00! Early starts are the only problem with living out in the sticks like I do.

06:00 Arc S off charge.
06:55 Audio playback (podcasts) 2 hours outbound, Google latitude active, Calls - 2 to home, Text - 7 text messages out and 7 text messages in. Data - Twitter using tweetdeck with 3 columns set to 1 hour refresh. Wi-Fi switched on all day and connected to Three Mi-Fi.
09:15 - Arrived at work
18:35 - Left work (well, OK, I left the pub eventually after work!)
18:44 - Audio playback (podcasts) Calls 2 hours homeward bound.
20:00 - battery down to 36%
20:44 - Battery down to 26%
21:55 - Battery down to 17%

So as you can see, the Arc S lasted out a full day for me, doing what I do with a device for the most part. As with all phones, the battery life has varied over my time with the Arc S, usually depending on network conditions. The battery does indeed run down faster in areas of limited network availability.

The User Interface

As with all Xperia devices I have had the chance to use, the Arc S sports the UXP user interface. Once again, it is very minimalist in terms of presentation, giving a new user a very good starting point in their journey of Android customisations. For the purpose of reviewing, I tend to leave the standard home screens in place. My usage on all devices is fairly standard, I usually only use 2 home screens, one displaying the Time, Date & Weather, and another with frequently used application shortcuts. I'm an app guy, so I always tend to use apps rather than widgets on Android to get the data I want.

Being honest, once I'm fully into the review and have used the device as standard, I do then tend to remove the original widgets that were on the home-screen, in this case Timescape & Google Search. I do replace them, but usually just with a Weather Clock from Beautiful Widgets, one of my earliest Android Market purchases.

As with the Xperia Play that I reviewed, the Arc S also sports the nifty feature that allows easy selection of a target home screen based on the widgets… Simply place two fingers on the screen & pinch them together. On the pinch, all your widgets miraculously appear on the screen at once, bubbling around, well, like bubbles. Simply tap the widget you want and you are taken directly to that screen. This is one feature of the Sony Ericsson interface that I really do like.

The Apps

The Sony Ericsson value-add applications are as follows:

Timescape
Video Unlimited
Support
TrackID
Sync - Now discontinued from the 29th December
3D Camera
Xperia Hot Shots
Connected Devices
FM Radio
WisePilot
3D Album
Music Unlimited
McAfee Security
NeoReader
Music & Videos
Get Apps
Get Games
Office Suite
UEFA.com
PlayNow Store
Update Center
Games & Apps
Flash Player
WhatsApp - Comes pre-installed by default

I won't go through all of the apps, but I'll pick out a salient few worthy of a mention…

Connected Devices

This application turns your Xperia Arc S into a media-hub. Based on the DLNA standard, it allows other devices that support the DLNA protocol stream media stored on the device. Initially, you have to authorise any connecting devices, which can sometimes be hard to identify from just their MAC addresses, but once done, you can stream to your hearts content. I successfully used Windows Media Player on my Media PC to connect to the Arc S and stream pictures, video & audio content direct to my HDMI connected TV in the lounge. It is pretty awesome!!

FM Radio

I know there have been many devices that sport an FM radio, our very own Cyclist swears by (I think she still does!) . One thing I noticed about the implementation on the Arc S was the ability to use a link to the TrackID service to identify the currently playing tune. It worked very well, and I found it quite useful. It's the first time I've seen the ability to identify music integrated at this level.

Oh yes, the Radio worked pretty well too. It used the wired headphones as an aerial, nothing unusual there. The sounds output was good and the RDS feature worked well at identifying KLFM, the local radio station in these parts.

McAfree Mobile Security

Security is at the forefront of nearly everything we do these days. The Arc S is the first device I have seen that has a security solution installed by default. In this case, the vendor is that well known Anti-Virus company, McAfee. It should be noted that it is only a 7-day trial version, but it is enough to give you a taster of how it works.

Registration is quite straightforward, you provide your email address and create a pin, followed by verification of your mobile number. An SMS is sent to your phone and the application automatically uses that to verify the information provided is correct. McAfee Mobile Security offers the following features:

Security Scan. It was funny to watch a virus scanner at work on the device!
Data Backup. Does what it says, offers the ability to backup SMS, Call Logs, Contacts & Media
Data Restore. Fairly self-explanatory
Lock Device. Manual Lock using the McAfee application
Wipe Data. Erases everything, including any SD card
SiteAdvisor. Stops you visiting dodgy websites in the mobile browser!

The application definitely works, I set-up a buddy in the buddy list and then inserted a new SIM into the Arc S. True to it's word, it locked the device up tightly & sent an SMS to the number in the buddy list informing them that the Arc S may have been stolen. Short of a hard reset, I couldn't find anyway around the device lock that McAfee Mobile Security put in place. Well, I could find a way around it, but that's because I had the unlock PIN!

I did a bit of digging, and I believe the full version of the application costs $29.99 for a year. Would I buy it? At that price, even though I know it is relatively cheap over a year, I must say no I would not!

WhatsApp

Interestingly, the WhatsApp application is pre-installed on the Arc S. For those that haven't heard of it, What's App is a messaging application that is available cross platform; currently supporting Android, iOS, Blackberry & Windows Phone. The app allows you to send and receive messages to other users or 'contacts' outside of any SMS messaging plan, using your data bundle instead. It works fairly much like a text, as the receiver doesn't need to action the message straight away, it will persist just like an SMS message. I haven't used it fully myself, as checking into the detail for this review I discovered that you can also group chat as well as the ability to send video, images & audio via the application, making it even more useful than I first thought!

Messaging

I don't usually mention the standard apps in a review, as they tend to be the same across all Android phones. But I thought I would mention the Messaging app in this review as with previous Android smartphones I have always had difficulty positioning the cursor inside any body of text, especially when using SMS and wanting to correct my erroneous typing. On the Xperia Arc S I have had no such problem, the device pops up a nice big cursor, which I found very easy to use. Maybe it's an eyesight thing? I am getting old now! I'm not sure if this is particular to the Arc S, or just the later versions of Android Gingerbread.

The Phone

As with the other SE devices, the call quality on the Xperia Arc S proved to be excellent for me, both using the device itself and with it connected to my Sony Ericsson MW600 Bluetooth Headset & the Bluetooth Car Kit built into my car. In fact, the Xperia Arc S has shown the best signal acquisition of any device that has been brought into my house so far. The Arc S managed to hold a signal in the lounge, a notable deadspot, an area that tests all devices to the max.

In Use

The Arc S has been quite a workhorse for me, becoming my constant companion, day in day out in my recovery time after an operation. But all was not rosy; I noticed some slowdown in operation over my time with the device exhibiting lag on occasion!! A bit of digging revealed what I believe to be the answer. To my surprise I had installed multiple applications; I actually got carried away and filled up the internal memory. I created more space by using the built-in Gingerbread ability to move applications to the SD card, releasing valuable internal storage.

The size of the screen made the device a joy to use for messaging, which for me is an integral part of my smartphone usage. This covers Email, SMS, Facebook Chat & Instant Messaging via apps such as WhatsApp. That being said, I did install another keyboard to improve my accuracy, it's something I can't get away from on most phones these days.

The Audio quality was excellent, but that is by my standards and I am definitely not an audiophile. The Arc S served me well for listening to podcasts and the odd music track. Video playback from Youtube, usually from links in Twitter were handled with ease and displayed in excellent quality. Skype video calls worked extremely well, but that was over Wi-Fi to my kids on my home network.

Pro's & Con's

Pro's

Excellent Screen
Extremely Thin & Pocketable
FM Radio
HDMI out (Micro-HDMI)

Con's

It's White!! Although I shouldn't really hold that against it as it is available in other colours.
I can't think of any others

Conclusion

I must say I do like this phone a lot, which you can tell by my inability to generate many cons for it, although it is white, I know I know, I keep going on about that! At 4.2 inches, the screen is a lot larger than the current crop of smartphones that I own and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I always shied away from the big screen devices because they were usually like house bricks, but the Arc S is just so svelte it just doesn't feel overly large in my hands. Not to mention the extra screen real-estate making the device so much more usable from a text-entry perspective.

It may not have a dual or quad-core processor, but the Arc S has coped with everything I have thrown at it & dealt with it in style. From SMS to WhatsApp, from phone calls to Skype, from Podcasts to YouTube, from Facebook to Twitter & not forgetting Foursquare, the Arc S has delivered them all for me. That in itself, is worth its weight in gold to me! If I had the monies spare, I would buy myself one tomorrow!!

Attached Thumbnails

Review: Nokia Lumia 800

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:22:09 +0000

When Nokia announced their intention to form a commercial relationship with Microsoft, planning a range of smartphones running the Windows Phone 7 operating system, a great deal of interest and comment was generated within the mobile community. Nokia's intention was to time the release of their first models with the release of Microsoft's 'Mango' Windows Phone 7.5 update. This OS version was due to address a number of issues with the initial release, and allow some evolution of it's core features. Late last year, Nokia announced the release of the Lumia 710, and the more up-market Lumia 800 models. Smartphonegurus were kindly offered the opportunity of using a Lumia 800 for a few weeks and publishing our views on it.

Thanks to Nokia UK, and to Ruvina Uppal of Next15 who organised our review phone.

Product:
Nokia Lumia 800

Colours:
Available in Cyan, Black and Magenta

Price:
Around £400 SIM Free or available from all major UK mobile operators

OS:
Microsoft Windows Phone 7.5

The Nokia Lumia 800 combines a new hardware platform with a significantly revised version of Windows Phone 7. As such this review will be the subject of some comment regarding both the hardware and software as the relationship goes deep into the workings of the device though I will try and relate comments specifically to the Lumia 800 where possible.

Device main specification

3.7" curved AMOLED screen with Corning Gorilla Glass
480*800 screen resolution with PenTile RGBG layout and anti-glare polarising filter layer.
8Mp camera with Carl Zeiss lens and dual LED flash and 720p video recording
1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 CPU
512MB RAM
16GB ROM (13.9GB available)
1450mAH fixed battery
FM Radio
142g weight
MicroSIM card format

Full specifications available from Nokia.

In the Box

Nokia Lumia 800 phone
Soft cover in same colour as phone
Nokia stereo headset
Mains plug and USB charger
User guide and documentation

Unpacking and setting up

I collected the Lumia 800 from Nokia House in London just before Christmas, and was impressed with the service offered by Emma who led me through the basics of the Lumia itself and Windows Phone in general. Although familiar with the software myself, this was a useful introduction. One thing I had forgotten was that the Lumia 800 uses a micro SIM card, and I only had my full sized SIM to hand, so I did not go through the full setup at the time.

The phone comes in a 'Nokia Blue' box in a blue outer carton and is well packed. Apart from the phone and the usual charger, USB cable and headset, Nokia include a silicone case which covers the phone apart from the screen. This is apparently the same colour as the phone itself- in my case black. Cyan and Magenta phone/case combinations are also available.

On picking the phone up for the first time, initial impressions are very positive. It feels sturdy in the hand and at 142g for a 3.7" device is quite weighty. This is not in any way a criticism- the feeling is of solidity and quality. The body is made of Polycarbonate which is apparently well resistant to scratches and is self coloured meaning small daily use abrasions are unlikely to show much. The Gorilla Glass screen has a gentle curve at the top and bottom and it fits seamlessly into the body on all its edges. The two sides of the body are gently radiused but the top and bottom are flat and square.

If required, the rubber skin case can be fitted and removed quite easily, though there is a knack to it! A colleague suggests locating the bottom of the phone first, then the top right corner, followed by the top left. With the robustness of the body, and the sleek design I wonder how necessary this is? It adds bulk and makes the phone less 'wieldy' in the hand. Fitting it or not is of course up to the owner and Nokia are to be commended for at least supplying it. Personally I don't like them so have left mine 'bare' !

Configuring for use

When I got home I installed the micro SIM from my secondary phone account, which I used for most of the remainder of this review. It was with this that I encountered my first annoyance. This secondary phone account is PAYG Vodafone; although the SIM was recognised and SMS and phone features worked immediately, the GPRS services would not connect. Essentially, this Nokia does not recognise and configure the Vodafone PAYG service and I had to go online to look up the APN to use, then enter it manually. This is in contrast to my previous HTC phones which have all correctly sensed the SIM card type and configured the connections accordingly. The result of this could be that a new user would be unable to access any online services until they had use of another device for looking up the necessary connection parameters, or they had a valid WiFi connection available.

Once a WiFi or GPRS service is accessible, the Lumia 800 follows the normal Windows Phone setup process. This requires a Windows Live ID, or an XBox Gamertag to validate any Marketplace purchases, and set up Hotmail etc. Any associated services are automatically configured from there, so in my case my Twitter and Linkedin accounts were there from the outset. The same is true of Facebook, though I don't have a FB account to test this with. My Microsoft Exchange email, calendar and contacts were configured as expected and within a very short space of time I was up and running with a full and valid set of PIM data.

Initial impressions

As mentioned above, the Lumia 800 has a high quality feel in use and handling. This is reinforced when turning it on- the screen is beautifully clear with the usual AMOLED attributes of deep colours and 'proper' blacks. White screens are not quite so impressive, as they tend to have a mild yellowy tinge rather than the pure whites of S-LCD screens but unless you are comparing side by side this is unlikely to be very noticeable. Nokia have advised that this is a generic issue with their AMOLED screen and that it becomes less apparent when the screen brightness is turned up, which i can confirm. This type of AMOLED screen uses the PenTile RedGreen-BlueGreen configuration rather than true Red-Green-Blue which can introduce a little colour variance though it's pretty imperceptible on smaller screens. Interestingly Nokia have opted for a true RGB AMOLED screen on the forthcoming Lumia 900.

As Microsoft are explicit in how the physical operation of Windows Phones is conducted, the Lumia has the requisite buttons below the screen for Back, Home and Search. In this case they are all capacitive buttons with high sensitivity. The only other buttons are on the right side of the phone, and are volume up and down, power and camera. These are physical buttons as expected and the camera has a two stage button action. Personally, as a left hander I do find the power button placement to be an annoyance- it is too easy to press when you are just picking the phone up, even after four weeks use. I'd prefer a traditional top edge button, but I'm sure most users are happy as it is.

The left hand edge is completely bare and the bottom edge houses the internal speaker. The top edge has a 3.5mm headset socket, a flip-up cover concealing the microUSB port and a slot-in carrier for the microSIM card. The SIM carrier is released by sliding it to the left once the USB cover is opened, from where it pops up on a spring.

When the SIM card is inserted or changed, it is necessary to perform a soft reset, following which the new SIM will be operative. As I said previously though, it may be necessary to enter the GPRS settings manually.

The Lumia 800 has no notification LEDs for battery charge or messaging.

Software and Apps

As this is a Windows Phone device, there is a certain homogeneity to the available software- essentially Microsoft dictate the software available to the end user to ensure a consistent 'user experience'. This does not preclude a device builder from installing a set of default Apps, but Nokia have taken their agreement a stage further with the provision of some unique Apps not available to other users.

Default Build:
In addition to the core set of WP7 Apps, Nokia have pre installed a few Apps into their default build. These are Apps that are available to all, generally free of charge, from the Windows Phone Marketplace. These are British Airways, Tripadvisor, Ministry of Sound, Ebay and Sky News. The purpose of having these specific programs pre installed escapes me somewhat, as they could be considered of specialist interest. Many would be less generous and call it Bloatware! Thankfully they can all be removed and their storage space recovered.

Nokia Specific Apps:
Nokia have a set of four unique Apps available to their customers. These are Nokia Music, Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive and App Highlights.

Nokia Music
This is an alternative to the built-in Zune music player though I think it still uses the same playback engine. It has the addition of some useful features though these require registration with the Nokia Music service to get the most out of. This is free but needs to be done via a PC. It would be nice if Nokia could include a Nokia Music account sign up from within the mobile device.

The enhancements Nokia Music provide over the default Zune app are:

MP3 store: This is vastly superior to the Zune offering being comparable in scope to the iTunes Store, and can be used to purchase individual tracks or albums

Gig Guide: Seeks out local gigs using your location as the focus. Not particularly comprehensive at this stage, but can be useful nevertheless, and hopefully will improve in scope with time.

Mix Radio: This is a fantastic facility which allows you to listen to all manner of music free of charge. This can be via a stream if you have an unlimited data feed, or a limited number of mixes can be downloaded to the Lumia for listening offline.

Mix Radio has additional capabilities for those who have a free subscription to the online Nokia Music system. Once registered, the user can ask Nokia Music to interrogate a PC with music content, uploading a profile to the Nokia Music servers. Once this is done, Nokia Music on the Lumia has the facility to listen to a personalised mix based on your musical tastes. The Personalise screen lists the genres your music falls into, showing its percentage of your total library above which is a Play button to access music based on that genre, and your personal content. This is for streaming only and these mixes cannot be downloaded, but they are very nice to have. I've found that this option plays me a mixture of tracks I already own, other material by the same artists or some similar ones from other artists.

The other screen within Mix Radio is 'Create'. This works the same way as Personalise, but your selections are entered manually as lists of favourite artists, which you can save for later access. The streamed mix is then based on those artists and their genres.

One small anomaly within the music system, is that if you leave the Nokia Music app and want to adjust the volume, or pause or skip tracks, you access the music controls as general in Windows Phone by pressing one of the volume buttons. Tapping the track details takes you back to Nokia Music as long as the track is a Mix Radio track. If it is already in your own local library however, tapping the track details opens Zune Music rather than Nokia Music. If you want to ensure returning to Nokia Music, use the task switch facility instead by a long press the 'back' button.

The supplied headset is pretty average, with a very small and fiddly button for play/pause. It does not have a microphone for telephone use and pressing the button does not accept an incoming call, nor redial an outgoing call. Essentially if you wish to make a phone call, you need to unplug the headset or use a Bluetooth device.

Nokia Maps
This is an alternative to the Windows Phone Bing powered Maps app, though for some reason the Microsoft version is on the home screen not the Nokia version. The similarities between the two are marked though they do differ in features.

For everyday use, at least in my part of West Essex, the Microsoft version is far superior, in that it's list of 'Places' far exceeds the Nokia Maps version. Both can locate me quickly using GPS and cell triangulation, but my two test 'Searches' give very different results. For no particular reason, I choose 'Pizza' as one search term, and also my own profession of an Osteopath as another one.

Bing Maps pulls up many more local 'Pizza' places than Nokia, which has its nearest hit six miles away, when Bing shows at least ten within three miles. More worryingly, my 'Osteopath' search with Nokia fails to find either my own, or five other practices in the vicinity, citing one eleven miles away as the nearest. Again, Bing finds me as the nearest and all the other ones in the region, with Nokia's offering not even making it to the page of results.

Once a search is successful, both offer the ability to select an entry from the list and contact by phone or email, or get directions to the result. Nokia Maps usefully includes a public transport option as well as walking and driving where Bing only has walking or driving. Bing has the advantage in being able to scroll the list of directions, which results in the location on the map showing the actual map detail for that turn. Tapping the screen goes back to the current location.

As both apps are included, it is a matter of personal taste which one to use for any given situation. I would, however, like to know how Nokia derives its search results- it's obviously not from Bing or Google.

Nokia Drive
This is one of Nokia's flagship Windows Phone apps and is a full turn by turn navigation system with spoken commands. A degree of internet connectivity is needed when planning a route, because the location selection and initial route planning are done on Nokia's servers then delivered back to the phone. The maps however are stored locally so once progress is underway there is no need of an online connection, even when rerouting is required.

The interface is excellent with directions and information clearly set out. The actual routing is another matter however; I have found that on a number of journeys the route taken is far longer than necessary in both time and distance. Slightly modifying the destination can give a more representative route, but that is hardly the point of a navigation program if you are unfamiliar with the destination itself. As a matter of example, I can set a route to my home postcode, which Nokia Drive selects as 27 miles and 50 minutes. This is 6 miles and 15 minutes longer than the actual journey should be. Moving the destination to a junction just 400 yards up the road sees pretty much the correct route being selected.

Facilities are limited, as may be expected with a free program. There is no multiple destination setup nor any traffic or safety camera information.

For a fuller assessment of the capabilities of Nokia Drive, please see my specific review of a comparison of this and two other current Windows Phone navigation apps. This is my overall summary in that review: "For a free program, Nokia does the job, and it has a very easy interface. Its maps and graphics are clean and modern. It can be forgiven its lack of features though the routing issues are more cause for concern. As some of this is done online I'm sure Nokia will be able to adjust some of the parameters. Fast app switching is instant, which suggests Nokia integrates well with the WP7 OS."

App Highlights
This is a sort of spotlight facility showing a selection of Apps from the Windows Phone Marketplace. It is comprised of 'cool stuff', 'top apps', 'top games' and 'starter kit' which are all pretty self explanatory. Selecting any of the listed apps opens its page in the Marketplace from where all the usual details can be seen.

One small novelty is that there is a small icon at the bottom of most screens which turns on the 'Shake your phone to be surprised' feature. A quick shake of the phone moves one of the other apps in the list to the top spot under the 'Surprise Me' heading.

App Highlights has a live tile on the homescreen with a flip side showing a different app on each flip. Tapping the tile opens App Highlights with that app as the selected suggestion.

The Lumia 800 in use

Telephony
For many people their smartphones have become information centres combining media, social networking, organisation and entertainment. For many though, the main function continues to be making phone calls and texting. So, how does the Lumia 800 stack up in everyday use? Wherever possible I will ignore the limitations imposed by the Windows Phone platform, such as the lack of Quick Dials, the awkwardness of finding a contact to ring or text and such other matters.

As I mentioned at the start, I prefer not to use the supplied skin sleeve as it adds bulk and weight. The 'bare' device has an excellent feel. The curvy sides fit into the hand well and the squared off ends offer a more firm grip when holding the phone. The 3.7" screen form factor is pretty much perfect as a telephone. It is small enough to be discreet and easy to hold to the ear for an extended conversation, but not so small that it becomes difficult to find the buttons, or that the microphone and speaker become too far from the ear and mouth.

As there is no LED indicator, it is impossible to tell if one has a missed call or voicemail. It is necessary to get into the habit of checking the device by switching it on from time to time to see if the home screen has any alerts. For those that keep their phones in pockets or handbags this could be seen as a bit of a nuisance.

Call quality is excellent, as one may expect from Nokia. I have made and received a number of calls and have not had any adverse comments from callers about voice quality. The phone speaker has a good volume and appears to be very clear. If needed the main phone speaker can be turned on using the speaker phone facility, though I never needed to do this in everyday use. The proximity sensor for preventing unwanted screen taps when held to the ear works well. The Lumia lacks the enhancements we have seen on other devices such as 'pocket mode' where the ringer is louder when the device is in a pocket, or 'flip to silence' for an incoming call, but this is a relatively small point.

Battery Life
One of the results of the Lumia's sleek unibody design is that it has an inbuilt battery which is not accessible so a quick swap for a fully charged spare is not possible. A criticism of the Lumia 800 has been related to its battery life which was compounded in some models by the battery circuitry incorrectly reporting its full capacity, further diminishing battery life. This latter problem has now been fixed by Nokia with their recent online update.

Overall I've found battery life to be no more than adequate. Even with no usage at all during the day, apart from being left on standby, I've seen the battery charge drop from 100% in the morning to 30% by 8pm. Some phone calls, web surfing and a few texts in the course of a day plus use of an Exchange email account have seen it drop down to 15% by early evening. I would anticipate that any extended use of Nokia Music or location based services would see the battery expire before the end of a working day. For me, it's not really a problem as I have a mobile power pack which can charge it up by 50% within about one hour, but some will find it more of an issue.

Screen
The AMOLED screen on the Lumia 800 is very nice to look at. It may not go as bright as S-LCD equivalents, but the colours are deep and lustrous and blacks are truly black.

One area where this type of screen has a distinct advantage is when the phone is being used as an alarm clock using a third party app. One of the limitations of WP7 is that once the screen goes into standby, running apps can get shut down. The inbuilt alarm function is basic to say the least, and it uses a fixed volume the user cannot alter which can create difficulties. Therefore although a third party alarm app can have superior functionality, it needs the phone to remain switched on and attached to a power source to avoid running the battery down and to allow the app to access its full functions.

The Lumia's AMOLED screen is perfect for this as it does not have any backlighting causing 'glow'; my HTC Titan is poor in this respect as the screen emits a significant glow due to the backlighting even when turned right down. The lack of a charging LED also helps the ambient light situation at night!

If I have one criticism of the screen, it is that it can be oversensitive to touch. Capacitive screens respond to a finger touch or drag for various responses, for instance when selecting a tile from the home screen, or scrolling the screen. With the Lumia, I often find I'm selecting things when I want to scroll. This can be annoying as it then needs the 'Back' button pressing to return to the previous screen. A specific instance of this is in the TV Guide app's settings, when selecting channels to display. This is done via a scrolling list of channels with check boxes; try as I might, I need a few attempts to scroll the list without selecting a check box by mistake.

While we're on the subject of capacitive response, I still dislike the capacitive function buttons. It is too easy to brush one by mistake and cause an unwanted action. This is most noticeable for me when using the camera; I find I can touch the 'Search' button by mistake, which opens the search screen and ruins the photo I was composing! Note this is NOT specific to the Nokia Lumia, but afflicts all the Windows Phone devices I've used.

Camera
I am not much of a mobile phone camera user, but with the advent of online photo synchronisation via Microsoft Skydrive, I've found occasions when it can be handy. The Lumia has a well specified camera with 8 megapixel resolution via a Carl Zeiss lens and dual LED flash. It is also capable of shooting 720p videos.

In the course of testing, I've noticed a few issues with the camera. Firstly the software defaults to Macro mode rather than normal shooting. A quick adjustment in the settings fixes this and Nokia have advised that there will be a fix in the next update. All the other settings are set for Normal or Auto by default so should not cause issues.

In my first round of tests I tried some indoor shots at home and in my office; taken without the flash in slightly less than optimal light conditions showed a distinct pink tinge in the centre of the shot. This was present on screen during composition and also in the exposed shot. A little background reading on the matter showed that I was not alone in seeing this. Indeed I had seen it previously in an older Windows Mobile device, the HTC HD2 which needed a ROM update to correct.

Click to view photo in native resolution

I must stress that this pink spot is only apparent in certain specific light conditions when shooting a light background subject. Nokia have been very helpful in trying to get to the bottom of it, but even a replacement review device showed the same characteristic. Colleagues in Smartphonegurus with Lumia 800's have seen the effect to a much lesser extent so it may be related to a particular hardware batch.

In decent light conditions the Lumia is capable of some very good photos for its resolution. The flash is a little under powered being LED, but is just about adequate. My old HTC Mozart with its Xenon flash was a lot better, but Xenon flashes seem to have disappeared from the current crop of phones!

Here are some daytime shots taken last week in good bright daylight. Please click the text under the photos to open them in full native resolution. To my eye, the colours are natural and resolution shows some good detail.

Click to view photo in native resolution

Click to view photo in native resolution

Click to view photo in native resolution

The autofocus works well, as can be seen by the shot through the railings into the courtyard. In common with other Windows Phone devices, the Lumia has a 'touch to focus and shoot' facility- tapping the subject on the screen can cause the focus to centre and then expose the shot automatically. Alternatively a half press on the camera button sets the focus and a full press takes the shot.

Pros and Cons

Form factor as a phone
Build quality
Nokia exclusive program additions
Sound quality
Camera quality in good light
Screen characteristics

Form factor for reading and web browsing
Camera performance in some light conditions
Touch screen can be over sensitive
Battery life
Lack of notification LED
Poor network setup for some providers

Conclusion - NeilM

The Lumia 800 is a very important phone for both Nokia and Microsoft. Nokia have placed a great emphasis on their transition from Symbian to Windows Phone in their smartphone sector and Microsoft needed a strong partner to push Windows Phone 7 to newer markets.

I'm sure both are happy with the start that's been made. The Lumia 800 is a classy phone which has excellent build quality. For the first time ever, I've had people see me using the phone and without prompting say 'That's a nice phone- what is it?' allowing me to show off the Nokia and Windows Phone 7 to them. It's actually happened to me twice and neither time was it a 'phone geek' making the comment!

As a phone the Lumia does everything asked of it. Call quality is good; general sound quality for music is very good, especially with decent earphones and as I've said in the review it feels really nice in the hand. There are some drawbacks- these relate to both the Windows Phone operating system, and some specific device characteristics.

For me, the biggest device related problems are the battery life and the camera issues. It is pretty certain that a hotfix will solve the camera problems but I'm not sure about the battery. I'll just keep a top up charger handy for heavy use days!.

As a smartphone, for me the Lumia 800 is just a little too small. The 3.7" screen is beautiful to look at, but I've come to like larger screens for their ease of reading web pages, ebooks and so forth.

For a first generation device from a manufacturer new to a platform this is an excellent start. I'm looking forward eagerly to see what Nokia can come up with next!

Section from 'The Guru'

O2 Specific branding

We've also been lucky enough to be provided with a Nokia 800 from O2 which exhibits a few special touches from O2 which include:

The O2 coloured theme - which interestingly enough if you choose to select it the Nokia 800 advises against being used. This is of course as the 800 has an AMOLED screen which means that any black pixels shown on the display are actually turned off and use no battery power. As the O2 theme is pale blue on white which uses more power the phone recommends that the dark colour scheme is used which will extend battery life.

O2 Also provide you with their two custom Applications; The O2 app and O2 Priority Moments.

The 'O2' app allows you to access:

My O2 - Shortcut to the 'O2 Active' mobile web portal
O2 Home - Erm right, this is yet another shortcut to the 'O2 Active' mobile web portal
O2 Gurus - Access to the O2 Gurus whereby you can book an appointment with a Guru, access hints and tips via the 'O2 GuruTV' video system
Priority Moments - Takes you to the 'O2 Priority Moments' app in the marketplace
Priority Tickets - Gives you the opportunity to purchase concert and other tickets at subsidised rates
More From O2 - Shortcut to the 'More from O2' mobile web portal. You can access O2 Broadband, O2 International, O2 Rewards, O2 Shop, O2 Think Big, or O2 Recycle
News - Latest news from O2's UK business Blog

The 'O2 Priority Moments' app allows you to configure and access:

Preferences - Access your location - On / Off
Offer expiry reminders - On / Off
Live Tiles enabled - On / Off

View all moments - The 'moment's or offers are split down into categories:

Saved
Shopping
Entertainment
Food and Drink
Travel
Health and Beauty

This allows you to access O2 specific deals and offers that are geographically close to you.

Conclusion - The Guru

Having used the Nokia 800 for over 5 weeks now I consider it my favourite WindowsPhone so far. When used 'naked' without the rubber skin it feels svelte and slight in the hand with the polycarbonate giving you a warm comfortable feeling when in use. Couple that with a stunningly bright AMOLED screen and you have a phone that you enjoy holding and looking at. For me the form factor is a little small, but as Windowsphones are relatively lo-res as to the screen it works. The Live Tiles appear clear and sharp and the whole phone oozes quality - it's gained quite a few 'wow' comments from colleagues at work - and we are taking regular folks here not uber geeks.

In operation the N800 is smooth and slick and at no time does the system lag or fail to perform. Voice quality is also good with no distortion or lack of volume. Music playback is good, both from music stored on the phone as well as streamed via the Nokia 'mix' service.

The added Nokia specific apps work very well indeed and on two occasions Nokia Drive has produced a route for a journey with more accuracy than Navigon. There is room for improvement with the apps, but as these are first generation I'm sure those improvements will come.

Personally I find the screen wonderful for eBook reading and viewing holiday photographs (even in bright sunlight), etc and the phone a positive pleasure to use. The only flaw for me in the design is a lack of a front facing camera and the somewhat flimsy hinged protective cover over the micro-USB port.

I can agree with Neil that I've seen the pink spot issue with the camera but on my machine it seems to be much less of an issue, occuring only in poorly lit indoor conditions.

The 800 serves me well as a stylish and pocketable phone that with or without the protective sleeve fitted feels robust and capable of surviving the rigors of modern life. Mine has been dropped accidently onto a concrete floor from a height of about three feet and survived without a blemish.

Pros and Cons

Form factor
Build quality / construction
Nokia exclusive program additions
Sound quality
Clear well lit screen

Camera performance in some light conditions
Battery life
Lack of notification LED

Attached Thumbnails

Review: HTC Rhyme (O2)

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 07:31:30 +0000

One of the more popular Android smartphones launched earlier this year was the HTC Desire S, which maintained the number one spot in a fair number of tech-web site ranking systems. HTC have now released a newer updated model, which seems aimed squarely at the fairer sex (due to its purple colour), which has some pretty cool enhancements - the new model has been given the name of the HTC Rhyme.

Manufacturer: High Tech Computer (HTC)
HTC Code name: HTC Bliss
Supplier: Telefonica UK (O2 UK)
Product Name: HTC Rhyme
Price: Varies depending on contract

The Rhyme continues to have all the great functionality that the Desire S had on board but has a nicely updated specification; a newer version of Sense, larger battery, increased internal storage, new widgets, as well as some really cool hardware accessories that ship with it in the box. The differences in specification are shown below:

EXTERNALS

The body has been re-engineered compared to the Desire S, and the controversial 'lip' has been removed to give a much flatter front face, but it is still composed of a single machined aluminium housing which gives a great deal of strength to the body of the machine. It should be plenty rugged enough to withstand wear and tear and also the occasional slip from the hand. The 'uni-body' construction serves to give good protection to the internals but also aesthetically enhances the design as there are no join lines separating the two halves of the device. The matte coating on the aluminium gives the impression of smoothness, yet manages to produce a surface finish that is not unduly slippery.

In the hand the Rhyme feels tiny and svelte with the smooth lines and purple colouration serving to making it appeal to the ladies out there. This is the first smartphone that I've reviewed that my other half has been interested in and would consider using - she loves the form factor and the stylish colour!

The right hand side of the body holds the volume rocker controls, with the left hand side containing only the micro-USB port. The port is actually covered (which makes a welcome change on HTC phones) with a small hinged protective cover. This has possibly been implemented with the thought that the Rhyme may spend time in a ladies purse or handbag and therefore the port needs protection from intrusive makeup powder leaks?

The base is featureless apart from the 'pin prick' hole in the bottom of the device which serves to give sound entry into the microphone. The top again is of a clean design with the housing incorporating the 3.5mm jack plug for the headset, while further towards the right hand side is the power button. This is nicely placed so that it can be activated by the index finger (when held in the left hand). It is raised slightly from the body and does require a decent amount of pressure to activate the control, however it may have been better if it was recessed to prevent accidental operation while in the pocket, gadget bag or handbag.

As has already been intimated the Rhyme is smooth and sleek, this is carried over design wise onto the front of the machine where HTCs designers have striven and succeeded to carry on the minimalist look. The upper part of the device sports the speaker used for telephone calls with the front facing VGA camera located to the lower right of the speaker grill.

The mainstay of the front face is of course the 3.7" 480 x 800 WVGA screen which is flush mounted to eliminate any bezel around the screen, this gives a smooth surface to operate and interact with - just what is needed for a touch orientated device. The screen itself is bright and lively with no banding visible at all, readability in sunlight is good despite this being a regular TFT screen and not AMOLED.

Below the screen are the four touch operated activation buttons, which are back lit with bright white LEDs (when needed), and as standard on Google Android phones the usual functions are present; Home, Menu, Back and Search. Pressing and holding the Home button brings up a short list of icons showing recently used applications.

Internally the Rhyme runs Android 2.3.5 and on top of that HTC have further enhanced system with their latest 'Sense 3.5' interface bringing additional finger friendly widgets and customisation into play. As well as the software the hardware has been upgraded with storage memory being taken up to a massive 4Gb. Battery life has been improved with the larger 1600 mAh capacity battery.

On the back of the Rhyme the uni-body is pierced in two places, at the upper end of the device there is the HD video capable camera, the loudspeaker and the LED flash. This also has a very small hole (almost a pin prick) to the right of the speaker, I believe that this is the noise cancellation sensor used to reduce background audio noise during a phone call. More interestingly below the camera lens are three copper contacts which are used to connect the Rhyme to the docking station (see later).

The lower end of the Rhyme contains the back cover which can be slid downwards away from the housing (moderate pressure being applied), once this has been removed the SIM and micro-SD cards can be inserted. The battery is non-removable and cannot be changed out or replaced. Within the back cover there is a copper contact which mates with matching contacts within the body of the machine, these are actually part of the antenna system and if the battery cover is left removed you'll not get any signal. Once the cards have been inserted the back cover can then be slid into place where a frictive lock holds it firmly in position.

My own usage of the machine which includes social networking, e-mail (3 x push accounts), eBook reading as well as occasional phone calls tend to leave me with around 60% of charge left at the end of the working day. This is excellent indeed and gives the Rhyme a much longer useful working life on a single charge than most recent phones I've used.

The back face camera offers HD (720p) recording capability and a front VGA camera is present to support video calling.

You may want to share any videos on YouTube so the 3G connection speed is a goodly 14.4Mbps / 5.76Mbps to give the best performance on a 3G connection. If you wish to share those videos (or photos) with the family and if your TV supports the DLNA protocol then you can wirelessly stream the content straight to the TV!

INTERNALS

Sense improvements include:

The Quick Settings control within the Notifications Panel has been enhanced to allow the Wi-Fi controls to be accessed more easily. The > symbol on the screen allows these additional functions to be accessed.

Additional 'Accounts' can now be added including one for Evernote for HTC Sense', which allows you to synchronise your Evernote notes to the Rhyme, which can be displayed in the HTC Notes widget.

A new HTC Tasks widget ties back into the Exchange (or Google Tasks) system to allow you to quickly interact with any defined tasks.

The Personalise options have now been split into three sections; Add to Home (Widget, App, Shortcut, Folder), Display (Scene, Skin, Wallpaper, Lock Screen Style, Lock Screen Shortcuts) and Sound (Sound Set, Ringtone, Notification Sound, Alarm) which makes the configuration much smoother to adjust.

The camera application has been updated to include a focus indicator to show you where the focus point is, and includes a new shake detection indicator to warm of shaky grip. Facial recognition and focus adjust are also included. One big enhancement is the Panorama photographic mode whereby directional arrows and screen guides take you through taking a 'continuous' photo of a panorama where the final result is produced from stitching together all the recorded shots taken while in that mode. There is also a 'Backlight HDR' Scene available which disables flash and allows you to take HDR photographs. Finally the Action Burst mode allow you to take five successive shots of your subject.

The Gallery application has been enhanced to allow you to give basic editing and the adding of post-production effects. Video can also be cropped from the start and end of video recordings.

Lockscreen: HTC have again used the lockscreen first seen on the Sensation it being a customisable interface designed for ease of use. The default lock screen that is in place on the Rhyme consists of a blank screen which shows the current wallpaper and below this sit four rounded 'Quick Launch' icons for: Phone, Mail, Camera and Messages. Where applicable these icons also have number indicators for item counts such as unread new e-mail. Finally at the bottom of the screen is a half-buried silver ring that rises from the bottom of the screen, that sits on top of a converse silvered bar. To unlock the screen one can tap and hold on the half ring shape and drag it upwards onto the screen, it then follows the finger and becomes a full loop centered on the fingers touch. When the ring is released the device is unlocked. Cool enough as it is the system becomes even more impressive when one taps and holds one of the 'Quick Launch' icons as if any one of these are dragged and dropped over the buried ring it rises up to accept the dragged and dropped icon. Once the icon has been swallowed by the ring the Rhyme unlocks and switches immediately to the application that was quick launched. This works impressively both with respect to functionality as well as eye candy.

Finally HTC take the lockscreen system one step further as they offer various alternatives to the vanilla Wallpaper lockscreen. Alternatives provided are:

Wallpaper - See your wallpaper and open your favourite shortcuts
Weather - Displays a beautifully animated screen showing the current locational weather conditions
Friend Stream - Displays a screen of flying updates from the Sense social system and allow you to scroll through the latest entries
Stocks - Displays a screen of floating stock update information
Clock - Shows a large animated timepiece
Photo Album - Shows flying enlarging and shrinking images from a selected gallery album

The system has one more customisation that makes it even more useful. You can change the shortcuts which appear on the lockscreen - you can replace these with any application shortcut you choose to configure.

The Sense Launcher consists of seven launch screens with the central screen considered to be the home screen, all screens are pre-loaded with HTC widgets. These are:

Shortcuts & Clock
Google Search & People
Locations
Blank
Show Me Tips
Watch
Friendstream

Mail
Messages
Music
Camera
Market

The right hand side of each icon can be tapped upon, and once activated a side bar from the icon pops out offering either added functionality or help on how to use the system. For example the music icon extends to give you quick music playback controls, and the camera to show thumbnails of recently taken photographs.

The 'Shortcuts & Clock' widget can be edited and you can choose which icons / functionality you wish to have in place. The widget also contains the time, date, location and weather in the bottom right hand corner. A very useful widget - the only drawback is that it does take up the entire screen leaving no room for other widgets.

The Sense program launcher; this is activated by tapping the left hand bottom screen button on the main screen. Once in the launcher you have the primary screen itself which can be vertically swiped through. Each swipe moves a single screen of icons, instead of the continuous movement seen on the older Sense incarnations. At the bottom of the launcher are three mode indicators; the left showing you all icons, the centre star shaped icon takes you to a subset list of those icons you most commonly use, and the third icon serves to show you the applications that you have downloaded.

Needless to say the star icon becomes a great time saver as it allows you to locate those favourite or commonly used icons without scrolling through what can be a large number of screens - very handy as your use of the Rhyme continues.

The right hand bottom button on the main screen now takes you into one of the newly enhanced functions of Sense, and this facility allows you to really customise the look and feel of the machine, the same functionality can also be accessed by tapping and holding on a spare location on screen.

If a pinch is performed on the launcher screen this brings up an overview of the individual screens for fast access, but it can also be used to reorder the screens themselves as they can tapped, held and then dragged into new locations. Screens can also be deleted if they are no longer needed.

HTC continue to use their Sense enhanced dialler on the Rhyme. When the Phone application is first entered you are presented on the lower part of the screen with a finger friendly numeric dial pad which shows the numbers in black with the alpha equivalent shortcuts underneath. At the top of the screen the system creates shortcuts to contacts that you have recently been in communication with; the lower part of the list shows your regular contacts in alphabetic order. The list can be expanded and the dialler hidden by pressing the icon at the bottom left of the screen. If tapped again this serves to reinstate the dialler. Quick search is in effect so that typing the name of a contact on the dialler keys will filter the contacts list to the contacts whose name(s) match the alpha pattern of the keys tapped.

Tabs at the bottom of the screen give you access to:

Phone
People
Groups
Call History

If the menu key is pressed whilst at the dialler access is given to:

Speed Dial
Settings
Blocked Callers
Tips
Edit Tabs

As with previous HTC phones the Rhyme supports silent mode whereby flipping the machine upside down when a call comes in serves to mute the call. This can also be achieved by pressing the volume up (or down rocker) or the power button. Also supported is the Quiet Ring feature that automatically lowers the ring volume when you pick up the machine and Pocket Mode whereby it automatically detects if the phone is in your pocket and increases the volume of the ringer accordingly. The Speakerphone can also be engaged by placing the Rhyme face down during a call.

HTC Sense has also been used to replace the standard Android notification system and HTC have split the notification system into two parts; notifications present on by the left hand portion of the screen and a right hand section which contains commonly used quick settings such as toggling on and off regularly used functions like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS etc.

As the Rhyme starts to be used the upper portion of the notification system also shows the recent applications used in icon form which adds an additional way of quickly launching your often used applications.

HTC have added a number of other new widgets on the Rhyme:

Facebook Chat
Notes
HTC Shortcuts & Clock
Show Me
HTC Tasks
HTC Watch
Endomondo

with others being available to download directly from HTC within the 'add widget' application.

USAGE MONITOR

One useful application added to the Rhyme is a Usage Monitor application which operates in the background as you use your phone. Within the application are three tabs which allow you to flick between monitoring of:

Mobile Data
Minutes
Messages

Alas though you can only reset the counters or set an auto-zero date you can't set your particular individual limits as per data, minutes, messages etc. It does give you the opportunity to keep an eye on your usage though and it is certainly better than nothing at all!

CAMERA

With the Rhyme there are two applications shortcuts; the Camera for taking photographs and a Cam which is specifically used for recording videos. Both however link to the same core application, just operating in different modes:

Camera Controls available on screen are:

Zoom bar (digital zoom control)
Shake Detection indicator (only when shake is detected)
Photo / Video - Front / Main mode switch
Flash Button - on / off / Auto
Shutter Release
Effects Button - None / Distortion / Vignette / Depth of field / Dots / Vintage / Vintage warm / Vintage cold / Grayscale / Sepia / Negative / Solarize / Posterize / Aqua
Gallery Button
Scenes - Auto / portrait / Landscape / Action Burst / Panorama / Backlight HDR / Whiteboard / Close Up / Low Light

Tapping the Menu button brings up the following settings:

Self Timer - Off / 2 Seconds / 10 Seconds
Image Adjustments (all between -2 / +2): Exposure / Contrast / Saturation / Sharpness
White Balance - Auto / Incandescent / Florescent / Daylight / Cloudy
ISO - Auto / 100 / 200 / 400 / 800
Resolution : 5M (2592x1552) / 3M (2048x1216) / 1M (1280x768) / Small (640x384)
Review duration - no review / 3 seconds / 5 second / No limit
Widescreen - resolution - 5:3 / 4:3 - on / off
Geo-tag photos - on / off
Auto-enhance - on / off
Auto-focus - on / off
Face Detection - on / off
Shutter sound - on / off
Grid - on / off
Auto-upload
Reset to default

Once a photograph has been taken the Review Screen offers:

Share
Set As
Delete

READER

Of course everyone needs a little downtime and the Rhyme provides that via video watching using the HTC Watch application (where you can rent or buy movies) or read for a while with the Reader eBook reading application. This utilises the popular ePub book format and any book located on your micro-SD card are added automatically to your library.

The Book Reader can be accessed handily by adding the 'My Shelf' widget to a free home screen page, whereby you will be presented with a list of imported eBooks. Once a book has been accessed and reading commencing that book will rise to the top of the list.

It should be noted that the widget appears to have a limit of around 20 eBooks if any more than that are found they are not shown within the widget. The good news is that if the Reader is loaded via the application icon then all books that are present on the SD card are shown within the library list.

The Reader itself works very well in that sideways finger glides allow swift navigation backwards and forwards between pages, and as expected the search key allows one to locate text within the book. The font size can be varied to suit the reader and if required bookmarks can be set. Needless to say the last read position is remembered when an eBook is re-entered.

The program also supports the purchase of eBooks via the Kobo book purchasing web site.

The only real critique of the application is that one cannot vary the margin sizes, the current margins set are acceptable but in an ideal world I'd be looking to reduce them to give more room to the main text of the book.

HTC Sync:

HTC supply the free to download HTC Sync application as PC companion software for all their Android phones including the Rhyme. Once installed this serves to allow the machine to connect to the PC via USB cable and synchronise content.

You can use HTC Sync to:

Sync your contacts between your Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express and your phone.
Sync your calendar events between the Outlook or Windows Calendar and your phone.
Sync your photos, videos, documents, songs, and play lists (Media Player or iTunes) to your phone.
Easily import your captured photos and videos from your phone to your computer.
Store the same bookmarks on both your computer and phone's web browser.
Install third-party mobile phone apps (not downloaded from Android Market) from your computer.

ACCESSORIES

The review Rhyme was provided with:

'Charm' accessory
Slip case
micro-USB / PC / Sync cable
HTC Power adaptor
Docking station

The charm is intended for the ladies out there and is designed to plug into the headphone jack on the Rhyme. Once in place it can be configured via the 'Settings / Charm' control where it may be set to trigger on receipt of messages or incoming or missed calls. The Charm will glow with a rosy light to indicate the designated notification. The Charm is designed to allow you to store the Rhyme deep inside a handbag with the charm peeking out through the fastening whereby the cube can be allowed to glow and signal if needed.

Docking Station - this has to be one of the coolest accessories that HTC have ever developed for a phone. The Dock should be plugged into a micro-USB power source (PC or mains power via the adaptor), and then the Rhyme can be placed into it. Once in position those three copper contacts on the back of the Rhyme align with matching contacts within the dock. Once the connection is made the Rhyme automatically turns on the Bluetooth Radio and switches into Dock Mode.

Once Dock Mode is activated you can:

Use the Playback buttons to control music playback, tap the album cover to open your music library, or adjust the media volume
Tap the Clock widget to open the Clock application where you can set alarms or view the time in other cities
Tap the Weather information to open the Weather application and check the forecast
Tap the Photo Frame to view photos on your storage card as a slide show
Tap the icons at the bottom to open your defined applications

When playing back music the Dock acts as an enhanced speaker.

This is such a cool accessory - HTC should bring out similar systems for their other phones. As well as being functional it also serves to charge the Rhyme without it just being plugged in and say on the desk. Plus with there being no cables to unplug to un-dock the Rhyme you can just grab and go!

General Use:

The Rhyme has been used as my main phone and in constant use for around 2 weeks. During this time it has served and acted as my all-purpose device performing all manner of tasks: morning alarm clock, social networking tool, e-mail response device, eBook reader, star gazer, etc. During that time it has performed well and the only real critique is that the 1GHz processor may be a little slow compared to other phones on the market. However the large battery in conjunction with the WVGA screen and that slightly slower processor do give the Rhyme exceptional battery life!

Signal Strength and Voice Quality - The new 900mHz frequency in Manchester was used to obtain a HSPDA connection which was stable and solid, achieving 5 bars of connectivity at home and work. Phone call quality is excellent with no callers reporting any distortion in voice phone quality at all.

GPS - The phones has an embedded A-GPS system within to assist the navigation system in locating the satellites and gaining a fast GPS lock. The Rhyme obtained a 10/10 or 8/8 (variable) lock in 21 seconds, and maintained a 6/8 lock indoors.

Volume - HTC have ensured that the Rhyme has a loud well amplified speaker system so that alarm sounds are loud enough to wake one from slumber.

Internet - The Rhyme performed well on web browsing tasks. As an example the Engadget page loaded in 13 seconds, the BBC main UK site in 7 seconds. Flash animations that were used as check points played back without any issue. The WVGA display meant that all text was very small text but with 'tap to zoom' was clear to read. Added functionality is available in the browser whereby if you press on the screen to highlight text and then hold you gain a pop up offering you the options of 'Copy, Quick Lookup and Share' the Lookup option gives you the choice to research the phrase or word on Google Search, Wikipedia, YouTube Google Translate, or the Google Dictionary.

Applications:

The following Applications listed below are included on the Rhyme::

Adobe Reader
Calculator
Calendar
Call History
Camcorder
Camera
Clock
Connected Media
Dock Mode
Downloads
Dropbox
Endomondo
Facebook
FB Chat
Flash Player Settings
Flashlight
FM Radio
Friend Stream
Gallery
Gmail
Google Search
HTC Hub
HTC Likes
Internet
Latitude
Locations
Mail
Maps
Market
Messages
Mirror
Music
Navigation
News
News & Weather
Notes
O2
People
Phone
Places
Polaris Office
Quick Lookup
Reader
Settings
Setup
Show Me
Stocks
Talk
Task Manager
Tasks - links into Exchange and Google Tasks
Teeter
Transfer
Twitter
Usage Monitor
Voice Recorder
Voice Search
Watch
Weather
Wi-Fi Hotspot
YouTube

Conclusion:

I have to say that the Rhyme is a sweet device, giving good battery life, with a reasonably responsive interface and of course made easy to use by HTC's Sense enhancements. The styling and colour does appeal to the ladies that I've shown the device to although for myself I'd prefer it to be available in either a charcoal colouration or if I had to be adventurous in dark green. The revised version of the Sense home screen with the 'Shortcuts & Clock' widget works well for me. Battery life is incredibly good and one can easily get through the longest of working days with the power provided. The colouration itself does stop me using it as a regular device, but I do get tempted back to using it due to the docking system which is completely awesome. The 'charm' I have no need for myself but my good lady advises me that it is very useful for use with the Rhyme in the handbag and charm left outside - it does ensure that no calls are missed! So it may not quite be my perfect machine but it will certainly draw the eye and tastes of the ladies!

Pros & Cons:

Pros:

Good battery life
Massive amount of internal storage
Fast and smooth in operation
HTC Sense enhanced
eBook reader included
Numerous HTC widgets included
Fast locking and reactive GPS system
Good voice clarity
Enhanced connectivity via DLNA and 3G / Wi-Fi hotspot
Custom skinning system (scenes and skins)
Handles multiple Exchange accounts
Strong uni-body construction
720P video playback and recording
High speed Internet connectivity
Stylish modern design
viable noise cancellation system during phone calls
Sense enhanced notifications and reminders
Good quality intelligent keyboard
HTC Watch progressive video system
HTC Locations with Premium Content Navigation
Bluetooth 3
HDR photographic mode
Action Burst photographic mode
Panorama photographic mode
Gorilla Glass screen
HTC Sense account for download of additional widgets, feature restore, etc
Android 2.3.5
Sense 3.5
Included awesome docking station
Included 'charm' for notifications

Cons:

Non-removable battery
Pink colour may not appeal to male users
No 1080P video recording / playback

Example Photography:

The following two shots taken from the Rhymes camera on a wintry afternoon in December. The first is taken using default standard camera settings, and the second taking using the panorama mode (three shot combination).

Each of the photos are thumbnails onto original full sized pictures from the Rhyme with confidential EXIF data stripped out.

[All images in this review have been processed using Snagit by Techsmith]

Attached Thumbnails

Review: HTC Sensation XL (O2)

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:04:11 +0000

Firstly our thanks to our friends at O2 who have given us the opportunity to review the HTC Sensation XL. The XL builds on the prior Sensation incarnations, the original machine and the Beats audio enhanced XE. With this new variant HTC have changed both the internals and externals of the machines design and in effect it is a new machine in its own right and not a part of the original Sensation family.

Manufacturer: High Tech Computer (HTC)
HTC Code name: HTC Runnymede
Supplier: Telefonica UK (O2 UK)
Product Name: HTC Sensation XL
Price: Varies depending on contract

HARDWARE

The construction uses the same architecture as that of the HTC Titan which uses the WindowsPhone operating system, and indeed one could state that this is the Android incarnation of the same machine.

One of the XL's biggest external changes from the other Sensation models is the screen, the 4.3" qHD (540 x 960) screen seen on the other machines has been replaced with a massive 4.7" WVGA (480 x 800) screen that is incredibly bright and clear. Even though it is not an AMOLED screen the colours are sharp and clear and the display noticeably brighter than that on the Sensation XE. The screen displays well in all variations of lighting, both artificial and natural light and readability is even retained in direct sunlight. Colour balance is good with whites appearing clean and crisp with blacks looking deep and truly black with no grey tints seen on displays of lesser quality.

The housing itself is of a different design to the rest of the Sensation range with the livery being predominantly white instead of black (and red on the XE), with silver being used to colour the back lit front facing buttons, the majority of the back cover and the physical control buttons. The curved screen is also gone with the front face of the XL being completely flat and smooth. The flat face is likely a design change made to help the operator slide the thumb across the touch sensitive screen as that screen is a large amount of real-estate to operate single handedly and any raised edges would only impair operation. Even though the XL appears large (it is 132.5mm tall by 70.7mm wide) this is mitigated by the rounded edges of the body and the somewhat minimal thickness of 9.9 mm. This allows the XL to feel relatively secure in the hand even though it can only be gripped comfortably by the back edge of the palm and the finger tips. One design improvement HTC could have made here is to make the back cover from a less slippery material - that swathe of silver may look good on the battery cover but even though it is a matte covering it is not conducive to maintaining a good grip. You will need to make sure you keep the XL gripped tightly at all times.

With front face of the XL being dominated by the screen it tends to somewhat submerge the other features found on the front of the machine, these being the front speaker, which again is covered by a fine metal mesh, and below it are the notification LED (masked by the housing plastic and invisible unless active), the HTC logo, the light sensor and finally the 1.3Mp front facing camera. Underneath the screen are the standard touch sensitive Android controls: Home, Menu, Back, and Find.

The notification LED shows:

Solid green light when HTC Sensation XL with Beats Audio is connected to the power adapter or a computer and the battery is fully charged.
Flashing green light when you have a pending notification.
Solid orange light when the battery is being charged.
Flashing orange light when the battery level reaches very low.

The base of the XL contains only the unlock control for removing the back cover as well as the pinhole which gives sound access to the phones microphone. The left hand side holds only a micro-USB connector for either charging the machine or linking it to the PC. The right hand side contains the volume rocker control. Finally the top holds the wake / sleep (on / off) button, the 3.5mm jack socket for a headphone and another pin hole sized sensor used for ambient sound detection and noise cancellation.

If the power button is pressed and held the Power Options screen pops up giving you the choice of:

Power Off
Airplane Mode
Restart

The back of the XL holds the 8MPixel camera which has a F2.2 lens, dual LED flash and a BSI sensor, all designed to take photographs in all conditions including low light photography. The back cover surrounds the camera with a raised bezel which assists in protecting the camera lens as that is slightly inset within, and also allows an air gap between the desk and the rear speaker which is to the right of the camera. The lower white portion of the back cover sports the red Beats Audio logo which confirms that the device has been constructed in line with the partnership undertaken by HTC and Dr Dre.

Removal of the cover is accomplished by:

Securely hold the XL face downwards.
Press and hold the release latch at the base of the phone, and then slightly lift the back panel.
Gently pull the back cover away from the XL

Once the cover has been removed a fingernail can be inserted at the side of the battery which can then be withdrawn to allow the SIM card to be fitted into its silo.

Within the battery cover there are four copper contacts which mate with matching contacts in the housing, these are actually part of the antenna system and if the battery cover is removed you may get a signal but it will be a lot weaker than anticipated.

Internally the XL again differs from the other Sensation models with the processor now being a single core 1.5Ghz model instead of the dual core chip, internal storage memory has been bumped to to 16Gb, and RAM is 768Mb. Alas though there is no facility to use a mSD card so you are unable to expand the storage in any way. Wi-Fi now covers wireless N as well as the older B and G 802.11 protocols ensuring that the XL can connect to most networks. DLNA is of course present allow streaming on media to a TV or computer (the separate MLN adaptor is required). Bluetooth 3 is also included to allow inter-connection and linkage to most modern Bluetooth enabled accessories.

The 1600 mAh rechargeable Lithium-ion battery is user replaceable. HTC quote 410 / 710 minutes talk time dependant on WCDWA or GSM connectivity. My own usage of the machine which includes social networking, e-mail (3 x push accounts), eBook reading as well as occasional phone calls tend to leave me with around 34% of charge left at the end of the working day.

SOFTWARE

The XL has also been updated software wise and now sports Android 2.3.5 and Sense 3.5. The main changes are with the Sense engine which has been revamped and streamlined in a number of areas. These include:

Pressing the Home button still brings up the multi-screen leap view, but you can now use that to add (or delete) screens that are used within the navigation system.

The Quick Settings control within the Notifications Panel has been enhanced to allow the Wi-Fi controls to be accessed more easily. The > symbol on the screen allows these additional functions to be accessed.

Additional 'Accounts' can now be added including one for Evernote for HTC Sense', which allows you to synchronise your Evernote notes to the XL, which can be displayed in the HTC Notes widget. Similarly a Tango account can be configured for video calling via the pre-loaded Tango client.

A new HTC Tasks widget ties back into the Exchange (or Google Tasks) system to allow you to quickly interact with any defined tasks. This is the first time that task synchronisation has been supported on HTC Android phones.

The Weather widget has been updated to a new Accuweather driven version that includes forecasts for Now, Hourly, and 4-day weather views. The live displays include video and aural indications of the weather. Such indications are also seen on the main home screen when the device is unlocked.

The Messaging client has been enriched to support priority flags for indicating important messages.

Unwanted bottom screen Tabs, seen in some applications like Contacts, can now be tapped and held and then hidden.

The Personalise options have now been split into three sections; Add to Home (Widget, App, Shortcut, Folder), Display (Scene, Skin, Wallpaper, Lock Screen Style, Lock Screen Shortcuts) and Sound (Sound Set, Ringtone, Notification Sound, Alarm) which makes the configuration much smoother to adjust.

The camera application has been updated to include a focus indicator to show you where the focus point is, and includes a new shake detection indicator to warm of shaky grip. Facial recognition and focus adjust are also included. One big enhancement is the Panorama photographic mode whereby directional arrows and screen guides take you through taking a 'continuous' photo of a panorama where the final result is produced from stitching together all the recorded shots taken while in that mode. There is also a 'Backlight HDR' Scene available which disables flash and allows you to take HDR photographs. Finally the Action Burst mode allow you to take five successive shots of your subject.

The Gallery application has been enhanced to allow you to tag your Facebook and Flickr friends as well as allowing basic editing and the adding of post production effects. Video can also be cropped from the start and end of video recordings.

Lockscreen: HTC have again used the lockscreen first seen on the original Sensation it being a customisable interface designed for ease of use. The default lock screen that is in place on the Sensation XL consists of a blank screen which shows the current wallpaper and below this sit four rounded 'Quick Launch' icons for: Phone, Mail, Camera and Messages. Where applicable these icons also have number indicators for item counts such as unread new e-mail. Finally at the bottom of the screen is a half-buried silver ring that rises from the bottom of the screen, that sits on top of a converse silvered bar. To unlock the screen one can tap and hold on the half ring shape and drag it upwards onto the screen, it then follows the finger and becomes a full loop centered on the fingers touch. When the ring is released the device is unlocked. Cool enough as it is the system becomes even more impressive when one taps and holds one of the 'Quick Launch' icons as if any one of these are dragged and dropped over the buried ring it rises up to accept the dragged and dropped icon. Once the icon has been swallowed by the ring the Sensation XL unlocks and switches immediately to the application that was quick launched. This works impressively both with respect to functionality as well as eye candy. This launch method vies with Windows Phone 7 for quick camera launching and all applications launch very quickly indeed.

Finally HTC take the lockscreen system one step further as they offer various alternatives to the vanilla Wallpaper lockscreen. Alternatives provided are:

Wallpaper - See your wallpaper and open your favourite shortcuts
Weather - Displays a beautifully animated screen showing the current locational weather conditions
Friend Stream - Displays a screen of flying updates from the Sense social system and allow you to scroll through the latest entries
Stocks - Displays a screen of floating stock update information
Clock - Shows a large animated timepiece
Photo Album - Shows flying enlarging and shrinking images from a selected gallery album

Sense:

The personalise system allows you to change the screen with respect to the scene in use, the wallpaper displayed and the skin applied to the interface. It also allows you to add widgets, application icons, shortcuts and folders.

There are a goodly number of Scenes and Skins already pre-loaded along with the most popular HTC Widgets, however more of each type are made available by HTC and these can be downloaded via the HTC Hub application. To gain access to the additional skins, widgets etc you will be guided through a wizard which takes you through the steps of gaining an HTC Sense account (www.htcsense.com). As well as being a source for additional applications and widgets this gives you control of your Sensation XL remotely with respect to:

Setting call forwarding
Setting message forwarding (SMS and E-mail)
Playing a sound at full volume (to help you locate a misplaced phone)
Lock your device (remotely lock your device and present a custom message which you can personalize)

Each skin and scene on offer can be scrolled through using the preview system which gives you a wonderfully clear idea of what the screen will look like when the previewed setting is applied. Once you have decided on your choice the entire Sense system in effect reloads with the new configuration in place, this takes around 3-4 seconds.

HTC have enhanced the Android widget configuration system. On most Android devices removal of a widget is achieved by tapping and holding it until it selects and then dropping it onto the rubbish bin which appears at the bottom of the screen. Sense has two bottom screen options; at the right hand side you still have the 'Remove' option, but on the right an 'Edit' option appears. If the widget is dragged over the edit icon the button glows green (if the icon supports editing), and if over the remove button that will glow red. The Edit function is used to change the function of a widget, for example the People widget can be edited to change the order of the contacts displayed, or the E-mail icon modified to use a different account as a data source.

The Sense enhancements are everywhere within the ROM on the Sensation XL and are even extended to the connection dialog screen presented when the machine is connected to the PC. This has now been revamped with the new Sense incarnation and is now primarily icon based. It offers you the choices of:

Charge Only - Charge the phone over USB
Disk Drive - Mount as a Disk Drive
HTC Sync - Sync contacts and Calendar
USB Tethering - Share phones mobile network with PC
Internet Pass through - Connect to the Internet via PC

One does gain the impression that a lot of the power of the machine is needed to generate the animations used throughout Sense and that these have been implemented at the expense of some speed, but you do gain a high class modern polished interface.

HTC Sense - eBooks and HTC Watch

The Book Reader can be accessed handily by adding the 'My Shelf' widget to a free home screen page, whereby you will be presented with a list of imported eBooks. Once a book has been accessed and reading commencing that book will rise to the top of the list.

It should be noted that the widget appears to have a limit of around 20 eBooks; if any more than that are found they are not shown within the widget. The good news is that if the Reader is loaded via the application icon then all books that are present on the SD card are shown within the library list.

The Reader itself works very well in that sideways finger glides allow swift navigation backwards and forwards between pages, and as expected the search key allows one to locate text within the book. The font size can be varied to suit the reader and if required bookmarks can be set. Needless to say the last read position is remembered when an eBook is re-entered.

The program also supports the purchase of eBooks via Kobo (not surprisingly as it is based around the Kobo eBook reading engine) and Adobe.

The only real criticism of the application is that one cannot vary the margin sizes, the current margins set are acceptable but in an ideal world I'd be looking to reduce them to give more room to the main text of the book.

HTC Watch is one of HTCs new flagship applications designed and offered on newer HTC devices. It is comprised of a widget and main application, the former allows you to view films in your library and preview new releases. The application itself offers the same functionality as well as the option of signing up for a HTC Watch account (not the same as your HTC Sense account) associate a credit card with it and then purchase, or rent, and download premium content offered for sale by HTC.

A number of recent film and TV shows are available and these can be downloaded to your phone progressively using a Wi-Fi connection. The progressive download feature means that as soon as you have bought your video and the download has started you can watch right away while the download completes in the background.

Film and shows are available from prices varying from £1.49 for a TV show to £9.99 for a high status new movie. Some films can be rented for a lesser one-off price. HTC Watch purchases should be shareable across 5 HTC devices at one time.

Playback using the Watch player works well indeed; the widescreen qHD screen works wonderfully with the 16:9 format used for most common movie releases that is no black bars at the edges of the film. Playback is excellent and the definition pin sharp, as clear as a film played back on the iPhone 4. On screen controls allow you to pause a film and restart it, and there is a jog bar to allow you to navigate positionally within the film. If you exit a film part way through and then reload the application later the film does restart from the last watched position.

Sound quality when playing back a film through the speakers is good but improves significantly via the headphones especially if the SRS virtual sound system (not available via Bluetooth headset) or HTC 5.1 surround system is turned on.

The only annoyance with the system is that the library has no facility to import your own films into the system; it is for handling purchased content only. Movies stored in the internal memory can of course we watched using the media player within the Gallery application.

Launcher:

The Sense Launcher consists of seven launch screens with the central screen considered to be the home screen, all screens are pre-loaded with HTC widgets. These are:

HTC Weather
Mail (SMS)
Friend Stream (Twitter and Facebook interaction)
Weather Clock
Google Search / People
News
Tips

The screens can be flicked between with a sideways movement of the finger and work in a round robin, that is when you get to the last screen it continues round back to the first screen in a continuous loop. In fact if one 'spins' the screens faster and faster they transition into a fast smoothly rotating carousel! Mind blowingly impressive fast smooth graphics that are both eye candy and useful as the rotation can be slowed with the touch of a finger to allow you to choose the page you wish to access.

As is probably expected from HTC the central screen that you meet when first accessing the Launcher contains the well-known 'Weather Clock'. This has been used by HTC since they first started producing widgets. This shows the current location's time and below it the current weather. If the 'Weather Clock' is enabled and the Sensation XL turned on after the unlock process completes a weather background animation triggers which plays an overlay of the weather the entire screen. This is complete with sound effects and lasts for a few seconds and then fades away. For those who wish a more lasting weather experience HTC have designed a Live Wallpaper which can be used to have the weather on permanent display; as a screen background. This can however be somewhat annoying as it is complete with sound effects.

One enhancement that has been made is to the Sense program launcher; this is now activated by tapping the left hand bottom screen button on the main screen. Once in the launcher you have the primary screen itself which can be vertically swiped through. Each swipe moves a single screen of icons, instead of the continuous movement seen on the older Sense incarnations. At the bottom of the launcher are three mode indicators; the left showing you all icons, the centre star shaped icon takes you to a subset list of those icons you most commonly use, and the third icon serves to show you the applications that you have downloaded.

Needless to say the star icon becomes a great time saver as it allows you to locate those favourite or commonly used icons without scrolling through what can be a large number of screens - very handy as your use of the Sensation XL continues.

The right hand bottom button on the main screen now takes you into one of the newly enhanced functions of Sense, and this facility allows you to really customise the look and feel of the machine, the same functionality can also be accessed by tapping and holding on a spare location on screen.

If a pinch is performed on the launcher screen this brings up an overview of the individual screens for fast access, but it can also be used to reorder the screens themselves as they can tapped, held and then dragged into new locations.

Audio:

The Sensation sported SRS virtual sound for use with the wired headphone. On the Sensation XL this has been replaced with 'Beats Audio' which works in conjunction with the provided headset. That is one of the major bonus aspects of the XL; it comes as standard with a pair of custom designed Beats headphones. These appear to be a slightly down-styled variant of the 'ibeats' headset which retails at around £79.99. The headset includes a multitude of differing ear buds so that they accommodate most ear sizes and shapes and the red cabling is thicker than usually found on headsets and designed to be self-untangling (which does work in most cases). The headset comes complete with a very nice snap-shut carrying case which is roomy enough to accommodate the headset itself as well as the ear buds.

Dialler:

HTC have based their dialler on the existing Sense engine used on previous phones and have enhanced and tailored it for the Sensation XL. When the Phone application is first entered you are presented on the lower part of the screen with a finger friendly numeric dial pad which shows the numbers in black with the alpha equivalent shortcuts underneath. At the top of the screen the system creates shortcuts to contacts that you have recently been in communication with; the lower part of the list shows your regular contacts in alphabetic order. The list can be expanded and the dialler hidden by pressing the icon at the bottom left of the screen. If tapped again this serves to reinstate the dialler. Quick search is in effect so that typing the name of a contact on the dialler keys will filter the contacts list to the contacts whose name(s) match the alpha pattern of the keys tapped.

If the menu key is pressed whilst at the dialler access is given to:

People
Call History
Speed Dial
Settings
Blocked Callers
Tips

The bottom right hand button serves to bring up the call history screen - on this there are icons which allow you to view; any contact groups which are present within your contacts as well as viewing a summary list of all contacts. The left hand icon immediately below the contacts list serves to activate the voice dial facility.

If the menu key is chosen whilst in the call history screen one is offered the choices of:

Add contact
View
Delete
Import/Export
Send Contacts
More - which leads to Blocked Callers and Linked Contacts

The View Command allows you to filter which contacts are shown (Google, Twitter, Exchange, Facebook, and SIM) which gives you great flexibility over which contacts the dialler will work with.

All in all a very flexible and controllable communications interface. As with previous HTC phones the Sensation XL supports silent mode whereby flipping the machine upside down when a call comes in serves to mute the call. This can also be achieved by pressing the volume up (or down rocker) or the power button. Also supported is the Quiet Ring feature that automatically lowers the ring volume when you pick up the machine and Pocket Mode whereby it automatically detects if the phone is in your pocket and increases the volume of the ringer accordingly. The Speakerphone can also be engaged by placing the Sensation XL face down during a call.

Email:

HTC have enriched their e-mail client with Sense 3 and offer a clear message inbox interface which can be used for viewing individual e-mail accounts or a combined inbox view showing what is new in all accounts. Each message in the list is shown in date order with the title of the message, the date received as well as a preview of the e-mails content. To the left of each message is a tick box area where a message can be ticked and selected for operation on a group basis, whether it is marking it as read or for deletion.

Underneath the message view are a number of tabs which allow one to switch through the various view modes which are:

All messages
Conversations
Favourites
Unread
Marked
Meeting invitations
Attachments

The Conversation view is particularly useful for reducing clutter on large inboxes. The views can be resorted by Date, Priority, Subject, Sender or Size (in either order) and options within the menu structure allow the access of less used features such as Out of Office or Meeting requests.

Camera:

With the XL there are two applications shortcuts; the Camera for taking photographs and a Cam which is specifically used for recording videos. Both however link to the same core application, just operating in different modes:

Camera Controls available on screen are:

Zoom bar (digital zoom control)
Shake Detection indicator (only when shake is detected)
Photo / Video - Front / Main mode switch
Flash Button - on / off / Auto
Shutter Release
Effects Button - None / Distortion / Vignette / Depth of field / Dots / Vintage / Vintage warm / Vintage cold / Grayscale / Sepia / Negative / Solarize / Posterize / Aqua
Gallery Button
Scenes - Auto / portrait / Landscape / Action Burst / Panorama / Backlight HDR / Whiteboard / Close Up / Low Light

Tapping the Menu button brings up the following settings:

Self Timer - Off / 2 Seconds / 10 Seconds
Image Adjustments (all between -2 / +2): Exposure / Contrast / Saturation / Sharpness
White Balance - Auto / Incandescent / Florescent / Daylight / Cloudy
ISO - Auto / 100 / 200 / 400 / 800
Resolution : 8M (3264x1840) / 5M (2592x1456) / 3M (2048x1152) / 1M (1280x720) / Small (640x368)
Review duration - no review / 3 seconds / 5 second / No limit
Widescreen - resolution - 5:3 / 4:3 - on / off
Geo-tag photos - on / off
Auto-enhance - on / off
Auto-focus - on / off
Face Detection - on / off
Shutter sound - on / off
Grid - on / off
Auto-upload
Reset to default

Once a photograph has been taken the Review Screen offers:

Share
Enhance
Delete
Go to Gallery
Add Effects
Trim video

Weather:

HTC go for gold with respect to weather functionality on the Sensation XL, you have: the Weather Clock, live wallpaper, lockscreen, launcher animation and finally the weather application itself, this is launched either via its icon or by tapping on the weather portion of the Weather Clock.

When first opened the application runs through a background animation of the weather, the Live Wallpaper in fact, so you get a rich animated representation of the weather along with a few seconds of sound sample. While this is playing the top right portion of the screen shows the current weather conditions: temperature (current & min / max), general forecast, real feel temperature, along with humidity, winds, visibility and finally sunrise / sunset times. One can flick up and down the screen to change the weather location viewed. A number of global cities are loaded as a default (London, Taipei, Barcelona, Tokyo, Seattle, Paris) but you can easily replace these with your own up to a maximum of 16 locations.

The Menu button brings up the options of:

Refresh - refreshes the weather for all locations
Edit - Allows you to remove locations or re-order them
Add - Add a new locations
Demo - Demonstrates each different animation available
Settings - Update when opened toggle, Scheduled sync toggle, Update schedule (1, 3, 6, 12 hours or once a day), Temperature (Celsius / Fahrenheit), Sound Effects on / off toggle

Top left of the weather screen is the name of the location and top right the local time (useful). At the far top right position is an 'expand' icon which allows you to view more weather details on screen. You are immediately taken to the 'Now' view which changes the animation to a more immediate mode as well as restricting the information on the screen to temperatures and the current forecast. The lower portion of the screen now displays a graph showing the conditions and temperatures for: Today, Tonight and Tomorrow. Apart from the 'Now' tab at the bottom of the screen there are two further tabs; 'Hourly' and '5-day'. The first brings up a graph of the hourly temperatures likely to be seen (with mini-icons on the bottom) and the latter a rather more useful display of icons showing the weather for the next 5 days.

The system of how HTC handle weather works well apart from the same issues seen since they first incorporated weather into Sense many years ago. These are that the locations available only seem to be major global cities. The holiday locations I tend to visit are rarely available to use as locations for the forecast, and that the weather source (Accuweather) can be somewhat inaccurate as far as UK weather is concerned.

Keyboard:

The XL uses a traditional QWERTY keyboard as the default input method with alternative Phone and Compact layouts available. Alternate number and special character keys are available via secondary alpha-numeric views of the keyboard as well as via tapping and holding on the regular keyboard. Full predictive text is available which works very well at interpreting and suggesting both corrections in spelling and the target word. For a native keyboard it is very good, fast and highly intelligent in its prediction.

Locations Navigation:

One big bonus built into the Sensation XL is that of the Locations system, accessible both via widget or directly via application shortcut. Locations allows you to search for places of interest, get directions to places you want to go to, and drive using turn-by-turn GPS navigation. This is based on free of charge map data, which covers many global regions, and has to be downloaded to your phone via Wi-Fi before the system can be used. The data is provided by TomTom and the navigation engine designed by Route 66.

The system uses your current location to look for places of interest (POIs), which are listed in order of distance, or allows a search for any establishment, street or city you may wish to locate. Once a destination has been located, if you so wish, you can invoke the 30 day trial of the Premium Navigation system and test out the turn-by-turn GPS navigation system. This has been tested briefly and on the journeys it was used on worked well.

The application has within it 'Footprints' system whereby you can take a geo-tagged photo of a location you wish to remember and store in in the Footprints list. The Footprint can be enhanced with description, notes and other personal information. The system uses .KMZ files and these are fully compatible with those used on the HTC Hero, HD2 (and other older HTC phones), this means that any old footprints you may have stored away can be imported into the current system and still used!

One useful feature is that the phone system has been merged into the application and Answer / End Call buttons appear while navigating to allow you to take the call without interrupting your journey.

Internet explorer

The XL performed well on web browsing tasks. As an example the Engadget page loaded in 10 seconds, the BBC main UK site in 5 seconds. Flash animations that were used as check points played back without any issue. The large display on the also meant that very small text was clear to read although somewhat pixelated.

Scrolling of pages is lightning fast and all the expected operations such as pinch-to-zoom worked well as did tap-to-zoom. The speed in browsing the web is smooth and speedy.

Added functionality is available in the browser whereby if you press on the screen to highlight text and then hold you gain a pop up offering you the options of 'Copy, Quick Lookup and Share' the Lookup option gives you the choice to research the phrase or word on Google Search, Wikipedia, YouTube Google Translate, or the Google Dictionary.

Extra Applications:

The Extra Applications listed below are included on the XL as extras loaded by HTC:

Adobe Reader
Dropbox
Facebook
FB Chat
Flashlight
FM Radio
Friend Stream
Gallery
HTC Hub
HTC Likes
Locations
Navigation
News
News & Weather
Notes
O2
Polaris Office
Reader
SoundHound
Stocks
Tango
Task Manager
Tasks
Teeter
Transfer
Usage Monitor
Voice Dialler
Voice Recorder
Watch
Weather
Wi-Fi Hotspot
YouTube

HTC Sync:

HTC supply the free to download HTC Sync application as PC companion software for all their Android phones including the Sensation XL. Once installed this serves to allow the Sensation XL to connect to the PC via USB cable and synchronise content.

You can use HTC Sync to:

Sync your contacts between your Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express and your phone.
Sync your calendar events between the Outlook or Windows Calendar and your phone.
Sync your photos, videos, documents, songs, and play lists (Media Player or iTunes) to your phone.
Easily import your captured photos and videos from your phone to your computer.
Store the same bookmarks on both your computer and phone's web browser.
Install third-party mobile phone apps (not downloaded from Android Market) from your computer.

General Use:

The XL has been used as my main phone and in constant use for over 4 weeks. During this time it has served and acted as my all-purpose device performing all manner of tasks: morning alarm clock, social networking tool, e-mail response device, eBook reader, star gazer, etc. It has performed well with only a few niggles which I'm hoping will be addressed in the next ROM updates.

Signal Strength and Voice Quality - The new 900mHz frequency in Manchester was used to obtain a HSPDA connection which was stable and solid, achieving 5 bars of connectivity at home and work. Phone call quality is excellent with no callers reporting any distortion in voice phone quality at all.

GPS - The phones has an embedded A-GPS system within to assist the navigation system in locating the satellites and gaining a fast GPS lock. The Sensation XL obtained a 10/10 or 8/8 (variable) lock in 16 seconds, and maintained a 8/8 lock indoors.

Volume - HTC have ensured that the XL has a loud well amplified speaker system so that alarm sounds are loud enough to wake one from slumber. The raised / contoured back of the phone serve to hold the speaker clear of the desk and therefore avoid any problems of muffling.

Dropbox - One very nice added extra with the XL is that if you decide to use Dropbox and sign in with the pre-loaded Dropbox application you are awarded an additional 3Gb of additional bonus storage fort the next 12 months

Issues:

There is only one major issue that I've come across whilst using the machine and this concerns the synchronisation of appointments. I use the Office 365 variant of Exchange and that works without issues on all machines other than the XL. On the ROM in the XL HTC have a bug built in whereby all appointments, irrespective of their setting, sync onto the device with reminders set. Therefore be aware that you'll never miss any appointments on the XL!

The problem has been reported to HTC and no doubt in due time a fixed ROM will be available for the machine.

Conclusions:

The XL is a difficult machine to summarise as it has mixed advantages and disadvantages. The large screen is fantastic for data readability for such items like calendar viewing or eBook reading, but at times it does make the machine feel slightly too large and cumbersome. The WVGA screen although fast at movie playback and launcher transitions can look pixelated when examined closely. One would expect that the single core processor would be significantly slower than that of the XE but the machine actually seems to run about 15% faster than the XE, possibly due to that lower res screen requiring less CPU processing to drive it.

The battery is of adequate size to give reasonable life and you will survive throughout the working day. As always though with any modern powerful smartphone ensure you have plenty of chargers around if you plan on a lot of extended use.

However if media activities like movies watching, eBook reading or listening to music, with a high bass content, is what flips your lid then the XL is the machine for you!

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

Large 4.7" WVGA (480 x 800) screen
Sense 3 enhanced for ease of use and glitz
768Mb internal RAM
Fast and smooth in operation
eBook reader included
Numerous HTC widgets included
Sense enhances notifications and reminders
Fast locking and reactive GPS system
Good voice clarity
Enhanced USB functions
Enhanced connectivity via DLNA (wireless streaming to TV, etc) and 3G / Wi-Fi hotspot
Custom skinning system (scenes and skins)
Handles multiple Exchange accounts
720P video recording
720P video playback
8 megapixel camera with F2.2 lens, dual LED flash, and BSI sensor
Gorilla Glass screen
HTC Sense account for download of additional widgets, feature restore, etc
Reasonable quality 8 megapixel camera with good colour balance
Good quality intelligent keyboard
HTC Watch progressive video system
HTC Locations with Premium Content Navigation
Bonus Dropbox storage
Android 2.3.5
Sense 3.5
16Gb NAND internal storage (12.64 max free)
Bluetooth 3
Beats Audio enhances sound
HDR photographic mode
Action Burst photographic mode
Panorama photographic mode

Cons:

Large 4.7" WVGA (480 x 800) screen
Average battery life
Bug with appointment / reminder synchronisation
No additional storage via mSD card
No 1080P video recording / playback
WVGA screen

Example Photography:

The following two shots taken from the XL's camera on a wintry afternoon in December. The first is taken using default standard camera settings, and the second taking using the panorama mode (three shot combination).

Each of the photos are thumbnails onto original full sized pictures from the XL with confidential EXIF data stripped out..

[All images in this review have been processed using Snagit by Techsmith]

Attached Thumbnails

Review: Snapshot of Windows Phone Satellite Navigation Apps

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:04:41 +0000

One of the fastest growing application areas for smartphones has been satellite road navigation. The form factor, touch screens and recent ubiquity of GPS receivers in these devices has seen their usage soar in this market. When Windows Phone 7 was released last year, one of it's many failings was the inability to offer turn by turn navigation due to the manner in which it handled memory and running programs, essentially meaning that only one non-system program could be running at any one time.

Windows Phone 7.5 Mango has addressed that issue and applications can now run in the background allowing a navigation program to continue operating even if a phone call or SMS text message comes in. This ability has now prompted the release of a few satellite navigation programs. This month's release of the Nokia Lumia series has added some frisson to the market, being a free of charge program, while others cost in the range of £30 to £73 to buy from the Marketplace.

The first commercial turn by turn navigation program to be launched was Navigon, and this is the one I purchased for my HTC Titan, at £55 for the European version (though the price has now risen to a whopping £73). In the last two weeks, GPS Tuner have released Navigation Europe and Navigation UK and Ireland at £31 and £35 respectively. This is available as a free trial allowing 24 hours use following the first route to be planned.

Although Nokia Drive is a native Nokia application, some of the ROM chefs have been able to extract the necessary files, making them available for installation on most developer unlocked WP7.5 phones. There is likely to be a tightening up of the encryption of this application in due course to ensure it's uniqueness to the Nokia platform but in the meantime many users have installed it. At present, I have installed the Nokia Drive XAP file on my Chevron unlocked Titan and it appears to work fine.

This brief review is aimed at giving my own personal perspective on these three programs. Bear in mind that much of the testing has been brief, especially with the 24 hour limitation of the GPS Tuner trial version. Hopefully it will stimulate some discussion and readers may provide some additional feedback on features I may have missed. I shall try to give a side by side comparison of these products within each area of interest. I have called the programs Nokia, Navigon and Navigation throughout the review.

Installation
The two mainstream programs are simply loaded from the WP7 Marketplace. Navigon cost a heady £72.99 with no trial version. Navigation Europe by GPS Tuner costs £37.50 and the UK and Ireland version £30.99. Nokia Drive, as mentioned earlier is not commercially available except to owners of the new Nokia devices. In terms of file size, Navigon is a full 2.3GB with no option for breaking down the installation. Navigation is 170MB for the UK map with other Eu maps downloadable at will for the full Eu version. Nokia Drive needs 230MB for the UK version. Each of these installs the base program which can be loaded over GSM or WiFi, then prompts the user to connect to WiFi when the program runs for the first time, to download the required maps.

Navigon Nokia

GPST Navigation

Multi Tasking capability
For the sake of regularity, I tested each of these programs for any issues when receiving a phone call or SMS message during an active navigation session. I am pleased to report that all of them passed the test, allowing a phone call to be taken, or an SMS to be read before using the back button to return to active navigation. In fact after a phone call, the navigation screen reopened automatically with all three apps. There were some differences in hand over speed, with the Nokia being immediate, Navigon about three seconds and Navigation about five seconds.

Planning a route
There are some significant differences in the manner and accuracy of entering the desired location. One matter of disappointment for me is that none of these offers the ability to use a specified starting point, so pre planning, for instance a holiday route in advance, is impossible. All use the current (or last known) GPS position as their starting point. Neither of the commercial programs has the facility for entering seven character UK postcodes. You can only enter the initial five characters to populate the rough location. From there you will need to know the street name or the road number to hone down the eventual location. Another negative is that none of the programs caters for multi stop trips, so each leg will have to be treated as a new journey.

Navigon

These two programs also show differences in how a location is entered by name. I live in a small village called Radwinter near the town of Saffron Walden. With Navigon I can enter Radwinter as the town, then select a local street. With Navigation, Radwinter is not recognised so it is necessary to enter Saffron Walden as the town, then a combination of street name/village to get the full address. One interesting error is that both incorrectly list Ashdon Road as Ashdown Road. Likewise near my office both incorrectly name Potters Mews as Potters Muse so presumably they use the same mapping data.

Nokia

Nokia does accept and recognise full UK postcodes. The downside of this one is that it needs a data connection to obtain location information before planning the route. The other two work fully off line.

GPST Navigator

Navigon has the ability to select a destination via the map screen. When in the 2D map, zooming/scrolling to a location, then tapping the top icon allows the centre of the screen to be set as the destination. The middle icon of the same screen shows the whole route in overview.

Navigation is the only one to include a proper turn by turn Itinerary. Tapping each location of the Itinerary shows the selected turn in the top half of the screen.

To accept a destination all have a Go button or similar. With Nokia you can swipe between matching address choices if a postcode search has not been used. The right pane shows the address and the left pane shows a map of the selected location, which can be committed by touching the Start button. Once a location has been selected it is not possible to reposition the location marker with Nokia.

Navigon Nokia
GPST Navigation

Navigon is the only one that shows a choice of three routes; pressing the colour coded graphic commits the route. Navigation simply has a Go button to start navigating.

In Use
One of the requirements of a satellite navigation program is that it gets you to your destination in a timely manner. Despite the lack of postcode search, both commercial programs managed to select what I consider an acceptable route for the 21 mile journey from my office to home, which usually takes 35 minutes. Nokia on the other hand went for a really wild option routing me for 27 miles at an estimated 48 minutes. Undaunted, I decided to test it by taking my usual route and seeing if it re-routed me. After 5 miles, it still hadn't re-routed and now showed my home journey as 31 miles and 57 minutes. Cancelling the route and redoing it succeeded in choosing the correct journey from its new starting point. Interestingly, the reverse journey used the correct routing. Some commentators have said that Nokia uses an online connection to plot the route as well as locate the destination. That might account for what I saw, as the chosen route was so different from my optimum route; maybe it was unable to re-route itself. Whether or not this is a true reflection of its capability is unknown, and one errant journey is not enough to prove a consistent problem.

All three have excellent spoken directions, giving timely warnings of upcoming turns. Navigon is the best here as it is the only one to use TTS voices which announce road names or numbers with the instruction. Navigon's spoken commands are a little more precise as well.

Nokia and Navigation use a dedicated part of the screen to show route instructions and driving information. Navigon uses a small area above the screen for the driving information and the turn information is superimposed on the main map screen. The driving information is, frankly, useless as the font is too small to read when the device is mounted on the dashboard, even with my HTC Titan. The other two are very readable at the expense of a smaller map display.

Navigon GPST Navigation

Nokia

Nokia and Navigon have options for 2D or 3D map displays, and both are good. Navigation is 2D only which makes it look a little dated. None have elevation or topographical overlays.

Navigon Nokia

Navigon has an 'block'feature which allows a route to be automatically replanned to avoid a variety of distances ahead should there be delays or roadworks etc.

Other Features
All three have the ability to navigate to Points of Interest. Navigon has a menu for navigating to a Contact from your main contact list, but in use I found this very unreliable. Even contacts with full postcodes often gave options up to 100 miles away (and often omitted the correct contact!); this is probably a function of the poor postcode implementation for UK addresses.

Navigon has a 'reality scanner' feature in which the phone's camera shows the view ahead, with any available POIs being displayed in a band across the centre of the screen according to their direction and distance. Pressing the arrow button opens an info screen with an option to navigate to the selected POI.

Navigon also includes live traffic information and safety camera locations within the purchased product. I have seen valid traffic warnings but not yet encountered how they work on a valid route.

Navigon and Navigation both have options screens from where features such as routing types, vehicles and voices can be set. Navigation has a Map screen to select which map(s) to download.

GPST Navigator

Navigon

Overall
Each of these three programs has much to commend it but none of them meets my ideal. For a free program, Nokia does the job, and it has a very easy interface. Its maps and graphics are clean and modern. It can be forgiven its lack of features though the routing issues are more cause for concern. As some of this is done online I'm sure Nokia will be able to adjust some of the parameters. Fast app switching is instant, which suggests Nokia integrates better with the WP7 OS.

GPS Tuner Navigation is competent and has a couple of features missing from the others. It looks good graphically but doesn't integrate with the Metro interface. Screen redraws are slower than the others. The 2D interface is a little old fashioned. Routing is accurate however and spoken directions are clear. The 24 hour trial period is very handy.

Navigon can be frustrating but overall has the most to offer, albeit at a much higher price than the others. It includes the whole of Western and Central Europe but lacks the ability to download individual countries. The 2.3GB file size may be a bit tight on some 8GB devices. The inclusion of such features as live traffic, safety cameras, contacts navigation and the 'reality scanner' add value, but one wonders why core features such as full UK postcode search, and offline route planning are not part of the package.The display of driving information also needs a serious rethink- speed, ETA and distance to destination are simply too small to read without compromising safety. Navigon has the best 'look and feel' integration with the Windows Phone Metro interface.

So, that's my potted opinion, based admittedly on limited use, especially for GPS Tuner Navigation due to the expiry of the trial period. If I've missed or misinterpreted anything, please post your views.

User Review: AKG 450 portable headphones

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:44:20 +0000

I have been looking for some high quality, lightweight, on-ear travel headphones to use on the train and on planes with my HTC Sensation.

The main requirements were a compact size for storage, comfort for long periods of wear and a closed back design to shut out background noise. I also looked for reasonably low impedance drivers which could easily be powered by the modest audio output from a Smartphone such as the Sensation.

I do have a pair of high quality in-ear monitors, the Sure E4c’s, but these can be hot and tiring to wear plugged into your ears for long periods. I also have a pair of Sennheiser PX-200’s on-ear phones which have done good service for a few years now.

The AKG 450’s interested me as they get good reviews, being What Hi-Fi magazines headphones of the year for 2011 and have recently had a major price reduction from a retail of over £100 down to around half that. I purchased mine from Richer Sounds for £49.50.

The AKG 450’s have a clever design that fold flat and in on themselves to create a smaller package for travelling and come with a small rigid carrying case for protection. They come supplied with both a short (60cm) and a long cable (110cm) and adapters for both 2.5mm jack plugs and the larger 6.3mm hi-fi plugs.

They are very comfortable on-ear for long periods and isolate you from the noise of the outside world quite well.

Like all headphones, the sound does mature once they have been used for 10 hours or more and i did deliberately leave them to “burn-in” connected to my home hi-fi for a full day before using them.

When it comes to evaluating the sound, i will try to keep it short and to the point, as hi-fi is such a subjective area.

Some people like headphone with large amounts of Bass, for dance music – this often comes at a price of masking finer details. Other people like very clear and detailed treble, which often comes at a price of having little or no bass which gives a thin, weedy sound.

I particularly like these AKG’s as the sound is somewhere between the two extremes, with a fairly full bass, but also a clear, detailed midrange and sweet treble. Music does sound “musical” with them. In the short time I have had them i find them good for a variety of music and, perhaps more importantly, they are physically and sonically comfortable for long periods. The Sensation is able to drive them easily to loud, undistorted volumes using no more than 75% volume.

I like these and think they would compliment any portable device well.

Attached Thumbnails

Review: HTC CR S490 Desktop Cradle for HTC Sensation / Sensation XE

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 19:59:17 +0000

Well for various reasons I've been wanting a desk cradle for the Sensation for a while, and noted that MobileFun has stock of the HTC CR S490 Desktop Cradle for HTC Sensation / Sensation XE so I decided to order one.

Very impressed so far, sits nicely on the desk and allows drop in charging with USB connection to the PC.

When in dock mode it displays:

Time
Next alarm due time
Weather (Location, max / min temps, current temp, current conditions) as well as the background showing the weather animation
Latest social media information.

and has shortcuts to:

Exit
Photoframe
Connected media
Calendar
Dimmer

Dock mode can be disabled of course which leaves you with sense. Annoyingly though Sense does not rotate to show any landscape version.

The button on the back allows the dock mode to be toggled on and off without touching the screen controls.

Attached Thumbnails

Review: HTC Sensation XE (O2)

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:17:48 +0000

Back in mid 2011 HTC released the Sensation, a new high specification Android device running a dual core processor and an awesome qHD screen. HTC have now built on the success of that model and brought to the market an enhanced model, the Sensation XE. This is aimed squarely at those users who enjoy using their device for audio or movie playback as the XE is the first fruit from the partnership that HTC have formed with Dr Dre of Beats Audio.

Manufacturer: High Tech Computer (HTC)
Supplier: Telefonica UK (O2 UK)
Product Name: HTC Sensation SE
Price: Varies depending on contract

The Sensation XE has been styled somewhat differently to the original model with the housing colouration enhanced with deep red highlights on the speaker grill and camera bezel with the final touch being that the control buttons are now red instead of white.

Physically the only other change is that the weight has increased from 148 grams to 151 grams, this is likely to be due to the change in the battery specification. The charge capacity has been increased from 1520 to 1730 mAh, giving (according to HTC) an increase in battery life from 500 minutes talk time to 550 minutes (GSM), 420 to 445 on WCDMA. Standby time is also reportedly increased from 285 hours to 310 hours GSM (525 hours to 540 hours WCDMA).

In our review of the original Sensation it was found that the battery reached critical charge levels after around 8 hours usage; with the Sensation XE (under the same usage conditions) the charge lasted a good 10-11 hours. It should be noted however that the battery life limits originally recorded were impacted greatly by Tweetdeck being allowed to refresh on the default interval of 15 minutes for each column. If this interval is eliminated by using manual refreshing then the battery life on both machines was greatly extended. On the XE the battery now lasts a good 18-20 hours before reaching critical charge levels.

This is good news as on the Sensation XE the Dual Core Processor (Qualcomm MSM 8260 Snapdragon processor) is no longer down-clocked to 1.2GHz as it was on the original machine, but is allowed to run at its full 1.5GHz capacity. However those users expecting a noticeable speed increase on the XE are likely to be disappointed, as running the Quadrant benchmark program over 16 cycles resulted in an average benchmark figure of 1699 compared to 1978 on the original model. After resetting the machine a number of times and repeating the benchmark the figure did increase to around the level of 2100-2028 but this is still no great speed increase. Alas in operation it is clear that while HTC Sense still offers a very usable interface to the user the graphical overhead does still greatly impact on the performance of the machine.

The other final internal change to the machine is again down to the partnership with Dr Dre. The Sensation sported SRS virtual sound for use with the wired headphone. On the Sensation XE this has been replaced with 'Beats Audio' which works in conjunction with the provided headset. That is one of the major bonus aspects of the XE; it comes as standard with a pair of custom designed Beats headsets. These appear to be a slightly down-styled variant of the 'ibeats' headset which retails at around £79.99. The headset includes a multitude of differing ear buds so that they accommodate most ear sizes and shapes and the red cabling is thicker than usually found on headsets and designed to be self untangling (which does work in most cases). The headset comes complete with a very nice snap-shut carrying case which is roomy enough to accommodate the headset itself as well as the ear buds.

When the headset is plugged into the XE its presence is automatically detected and the 'beats' logo pops up in the notification tray. If the tray is swiped downwards then you have the option of disabling the Beats Audio system if you so wish. There is a massive amount of difference listening to audio with the supplied headset and the Beats Audio drivers engaged - audio gains a tremendous boost with respect to both bass, depth and expansion of the sound. The sound difference is also very noticeable if watching a movie on the XE, the action becomes greatly enhanced as special effects gain depth and spacial clarity.

The Sensation XE continues the success of the original Sensation being well designed and constructed with a smooth Sense enhanced interface which should meet the needs of most users, from e-mail handling, connectivity, media, social network sharing, as well as less hectic activities such as reading a book or watching a movie.

The Sensation XE serves to build and enhance the Sensation design and if audio quality is something that matters to you then the XE model is the machine to go for!

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Sense 3 enhanced for ease of use and glitz
Good amount of internal RAM
Smooth in operation
eBook reader included
Numerous HTC widgets included
Sense enhances notifications and reminders
Fast locking and reactive GPS system
Good voice clarity
Enhanced USB functions
Enhanced connectivity via DLNA and 3G / Wi-Fi hotspot
Custom skinning system (scenes and skins)
Handles multiple Exchange accounts
1080P video recording
1080P video playback
Dual Core processor
qHD screen
Gorilla Glass screen
DLNA for wireless streaming to TV, etc
HTC Sense account for download of additional widgets, feature restore, etc
Reasonable quality 8 megapixel camera with good colour balance
Good quality intelligent keyboard
HTC Watch progressive video system
HTC Locations with Premium Content Navigation
Beats Audio system for enhanced sound

Cons:

The boot loader is security locked preventing custom ROM installs
The Sense system does somewhat slow the performance of the system

Attached Thumbnails

Review: HTC Titan; Initial impressions and day to day report.

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:00:12 +0000

With the release of Windows Phone 7.5 'Mango', Microsoft are attemptimg to boost the platform from its mediocre start into a genuine contender for the smartphone crown. At the same time, a number of manufacturers are releasing new hardware to take advantage of the latest features. Amongst the first of these, as ever, is HTC. As I was keen to move back to the MSFT fold, the new HTC Titan seemed a good opportunity to fulfill this objective. Over the coming days and weeks I will add to the review as I become more familiar with its features, so pop back from time to time to see how I'm getting on!

Device:
HTC Titan

Supplier:
The Smartphone Centre

Price: £479.99

With thanks to The Smartphone Centre for supplying this review sample.

Introduction
The smartphone market moves in strange ways sometimes. Until a couple of years ago, Microsoft ruled the roost with Windows Mobile in its various incarnations, particularly with the 'enthusiast' market- and you did need to be an enthusiast to get the best out of it. In 2007 the Apple cart was well and truly upset with the arrival of the iPhone and the rapid manner in which it became the aspirational phone device to own. Latterly, Google have gained massive ground with the popularity of its Android operating system, leaving Microsoft licking its wounds. Their evolution of Windows Mobile into Windows Phone 7 was a mixed success with many lamenting the poor feature set and lack of customisation ability. The first week of October 2011 saw the release of Windows Phone 7.5 'Mango' and the first samples of new ranges of hardware to run it.

I had previously been a staunch Windows Mobile user, so when Windows Phone 7 came out last November I was quick to obtain a phone running it. Although the HTC Mozart was a nice device, the operating system simply didn't offer the features I need as a personal and business user. Relucantly I moved on to an iPhone 4, which does most things very well indeed. It does lack some character though, and I was becoming a little bored with it. The promise of the updated WP7 and some interesting new smartphones persuaded me to dip my toe back into the Microsoft water.

Packaging and contents
Last week, dead on cue, my new package was delivered and I eagerly opened the box to get an initial charge under way. The packaging follows the recent HTC trend in being a black box with slide out tray holding the phone, with the accessories in the recess beneath. As is usual now, these comprise simply a charger plug, a USB cable for connection and charging and an HTC wired handsfree and headphone set. The latter is the generic HTC model which is adequate; no Sensation XE type enhancements here! As I use my Zagg earbuds for music, the supplied ones will stay in the box!

Initial impressions after the iPhone are that this is a big device. Its 4.7" screen dominates, but the bulk has been minimised by the very thin bezel. The overall depth of 9.9mm also makes it feel very manageable in the hand. I was interested in looking at some size comparison figures. One of our all-time favourite smartphones was the old HTC XDA II and IIi range. The new Titan is within 2mm of the height and width of that phone though is exactly half the depth. Maybe that will put into perspective how the Titan feels in use.

Before charging it is necessary to remove the back of the phone and take out the strip of insulating paper from behind the battery. A small button on the bottom edge allows the whole back to lift off giving easy access to the SIM card slot and the battery. I took that opportunity to install an old PAYG SIM card pending the arrival of a microSIM converter for my main contract SIM card. The battery was about 50% charged on arrival but I gave it another three hours before starting to use it.

Appearance and build
As mentioned above this is a slim, but relatively wide and tall device. As is standard with WP7 phones, there is a row of three touch sensitive buttons below the screen and a small 1.3Mpix camera to the top right above the screen for video calls. The edge of the screen housing stands proud of the casing by 1mm or so. This is not, as some reviewers have commented as a criticism, the screen edge itself; it is a plastic protective rim into which the screen locates to about half the height of the rim. This serves to protect the screen when placed face down on a desk or other hard surface.

The Titan has HTCs familiar unibody appearance, though in this case the aluminium back is a removable panel. The lower quarter has a rubberised coating giving it a similar appearance to the Mozart and Legend models. The release button is on the bottom edge along with the microphone aperture. The left hand side simply has the microUSB port (with contradictory reports that this doubles as a microHDMI port as well- not even HTC are clear on the matter!); the right side has the hardware camera button and the volume rocker, and the top edge houses the 3.5mm headphone/headset socket and power switch plus a small pin hole which I assume is a secondary microphone for the noise cancelling system for phone calls. I do find the power switch awkward to use. It is very shallow and sits on the bevelled lip of the top edge; this means that operating it with a finger of the hand holding the phone is less precise than pushing it with the other hand; I'm sure it is just a case of familiarity. At least it should prevent unbidden power switch pushes. A long press of the power switch prompts the 'Power Off' facility for extended power off times or to execute a reboot.

The rear panel has a large lens for the 8Mpix camera plus the twin flash LEDs which double as light emittors when using the Flashlight application.

Initial impressions.
The HTC Titan certainly feels well built. There is none of the plasticky feel of some of its forebears and competitors. The ultra slim depth makes it feel really easy in the hand and this does mitigate its overall bulk a lot. As I mentioned, it is pretty much identical in height and width to the XDA IIi so it doesn't look anywhere near as 'techy' as the HTC Universal or Athena of old. I can say with fair certainty that there should be none of the 'wally' factor when using this as a phone!

Once the initial startup has completed, with the mandatory requests for Windows Live credentials, time zone and other preferences, you are presented with the familiar Windows Phone Metro interface. I initially encountered a few 'cannot connect' messages which were down to the phone failing to recognise that my Vodafone SIM was PAYG. A quick visit to the HTC Connection Setup utility soon fixed that. Interestingly once I had my contract SIM installed, it also failed to prompt a new connection wizard and I had to use the utility to manually select Vodafone Conteract settings.

The right arrow on the Metro screen or a swipe left leads to the programs list in alphabetical order. Interestingly, after installing the HTC Dock application, the programs list added index letter headers. Tapping an index letter opens a full screen index for quick access to a particular letter if you have a lot of programs installed. I'm not sure if that was part of the HTC Dock feature set or I just missed it before!

One of the main features of the Titan is the 4.7" screen and there is no doubt this this makes reading the screen a real joy. Add the S-LCD depth of colour and the power of the 1.5GHz processor, and everything just flies. Maybe the native resolution should be been qHD but the 800*600 resolution gives clarity to text and browser based operations.

The screenshots here of SPG show that IE9 Mobile renders the full site very well. Scrolling operations are instant and pinch to zoom works well to zoom into and out of smaller text items. Likewise the usability of the Amazon Kindle application. The size of the screen means text can be set at a reasonable but still viewable size, reducing the number of page 'swipes' needed.

To date I have made little use of the phone functions. Calls I have made have been extremely clear but I've not had the chance to try it in noisier environments to test the noise cancelling features.

Media capability
It's early days for me yet, and I have not got around to adding any media. I usually carry a few gigabytes of music in my devices, but rarely any videos. I have not yet taken any daylight photographs, but did take a few shots in a dark concert hall at the weekend. This will warrant some definitive attention over the coming few days and weeks. One thing I was pleased about was the lack of 'overdrive' in a short video I shot during the concert. Previous HTC devices (and the iPhone) have all suffered serious distortion even at acoustic concert events. The sound on the Titan seemed very much better though I have yet to listen using headphones. This is a clip- bear in mind the hall was very dark and I was about 25ft from the stage! Also, I discovered in retrospect that the video default in the Titan is VGA so the quality of this clip is not representative of the HD capabilities!

I'm not a phone based 'gamer' and don't possess a console so can only accept Microsoft's assertions about XBox Live compatibility. I did download the trial of Need for Speed which appears to run really fast and smoothly. I don't have any test facilities but have seen a figure of 40fps mentioned, and this would seem to be fairly near the mark visually.

As I did have a WP7 phone before, I have a few applications I had purchased from the Marketplace. As yet there is no way to get those listed automatically, but Zune can show you the list, though not actually install them. From there it is necessary to search for each App individually and install it. You shouldthen get a message confirming the prior purchase, and the option to reinstall without needing to buy again.

So far, I'm suitably impressed with the HTC Titan. Battery life has been unexpectedly good. From fully charged at 6pm, I took it to the concert, took some photos and about eight minutes of video, then next day about two hours of general web browsing and program use. All the while, push email was turned on for my Exchange account, and WiFi and Location services were also running. By 8pm the following evening it was still showing 30% charge. I will keep an eye on it for a few days, as inevitably there will be some settling down.

So- that's it for the first instalment! Further experience and work commmitments allowing, I'll add more over the coming days!

2nd Instalment

I've been using the Titan as my primary device now for three days, and I'm getting used to the strengths and weaknesses of the new OS and the device itself.

I bought a new Exomount car holder for it, as I can't afford to keep buying Brodit holders for my swiftly changing mobile devices! I also bought, on a whim, an MHL cable to test HDMI output.

The latter first, I'm sorry to say did not work. I know HTC have hinted that HDMI might be a feature and a compatible cable might become available, but I really don't see that they would use yet another pin layout from the current MHL standard supported by the Sensation (and the Galaxy SII). We wait with bated breath!

The Exomount car holder is very good. The suction pad has a sticky material which gives it a secure fix even on uneven surfaces. My car dashboard has been a no go for all manner of previous mounts but this one seems to be very secure. The 'stickiness' does not leave a residue and the holder is equally at home as a desk stand. This is a generic holder and can support devices up the 5" screen size.

With this in place, I can now use my WP7 phone as a proper satellite navigation device, using the newly released Navigon Europe program. My experiences trying to install Navigon are in the specific thread elsewhere; suffice to say once the pain of installation is over, the program itself looks very good apart from the lack of UK7 postcodes.

Once the Metro-like interface is mastered and the tendency for menu items to become available only once certain other features are operative, Navigon seems to be an extremely good navigator. Add the traffic and safety camera features as standard and the value seems good. No word yet on how often the safety cameras will be updated. I am pleased to report that my 'test' journey from work to home, which includes a number of alternative routes was handled perfectly. It avoided a town (at the expense of three miles extra distance) and also selected some back roads home, which I know to be the quickest route. It did this using default settings unlike some competitors on other platforms!

I have still not got around to taking any daylight photos or videos- that may have to wait for the weekend!

Other things I have investigated have been adding email accounts and configuring Groups for SMS messaging. As before, email setup is a doddle and all four of my accounts are now set up and working.

Boz asks below what, for me, are the advantages of WP7 Mango. The above features really sum it up; turn by turn navigation, Exchange Inbox server searching and group SMS are all major improvements. The server search was a deal breaker for me in the previous version and I'm very pleased it now works as it ought.

Now some specifics of the Titan as opposed to WP7.5. For navigation, obviously the large screen makes for very easy viewing of the screen and upcoming turns. The overall build quality continues to impress me. Phone call clarity and volume is very good indeed, as is signal strength.

I've only had a chance to play music and videos for a short time, but what I have heard has been stunning. Using good headphones and a compatible video (such as the intro to the Need for Speed game) the Dolby 5.1 sound (OK- virtual Dolby!) is awe inspiring. The sound is clear but bass just hits you without any distortion. This is using my Zagg Earbuds which are good anyway, but the Titan obviously has a great sound chip.

For 'normal' music there is the option for SRS or Equaliser. I have to admit to not particularly liking either but in some circumstances they can add impact; the basic system is very good indeed though.

Battery life continues to be impressive. I last charged the Titan 22 hours ago since when it has been used for 40 minutes of satellite navigation without external power, three or four two minute phone calls, continuous Exchange connection and probably 90 minutes of general usage, downloading etc. The battery is still showing 35% charge so should make the end of the working day without difficulty. This means that even a heavy day's usage should be possible if starting the day fully charged.

That's it for this episode; more in due course, but please keep asking questions!

Addendum to today's episode!
In the course of playing around with the Marketplace I came across the Web based version on the PC. As that was something I'd not seen with my original foray into WP7 I decided to try the 'Push' style installation. On the PC I chose the trial version of a game, and used the 'Send to my device' option.

I had expected some sort of notification like an SMS or email, but none came. So, after one minute I checked the Titan, and lo & behold the App was already installed and ready to go. My newly provisioned 20Mbit BB connection must have helped a lot as the App was 30MB in size. That is very impressive all around, especially as the Titan was not physically connected to the PC at all, though WiFi was enabled.

Day 3 Update

Just a quick update today

I fully charged the phone at 7pm yesterday then did some random browsing and about 30minutes playing with a flight Simulator(Infinite Flight) and three short phone calls. Today have made another three short calls, three SMS and received about 20 emails.

I've been using Excel Mobile and Board Express a bit then a few minutes of Navigon plus about 30 minutes of general browsing etc. Now, at 8pm it still shows 23% charge, which is pretty impressive.

I'm not so impressed with Excel Mobile. I downloaded a simple spreadsheet from my Dropbox account (and also tried emailing it to myself ) in order to work on it over lunch. It doesn't have any fancy formulae or formatting, but Excel Mobile won't let me edit it at all. Had to go back to Docs to Go on iOS which edited without a problem.

Update:
This was proving to be a big problem. The Guru suggested I upload/download from Skydrive (in a later post below) but still no ability to edit, even a very simple single column worksheet. I then tried opening a Word document from Skydrive and had the same issue. However, Word Mobile has a slightly more useful error message when trying to edit a document and it told me it was unable to edit a Word 1997/2003 document.

So, the penny dropped. My saved files were all in the older format. WP7 needs files in Office 2010 to allow editing. Resaving my files in the newer format restored the ability to edit them, whether from Skydrive, Dropbox or via an email attachment. My bad, but it isn't made very clear that you must use Office 2010 files.

Overall the experience with Mango and the Titan is very good though.

REVIEW: Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:27:20 +0000

Introduction

Sony Ericsson have produced a number of handsets over time, the most recent models focusing on Android as a software platform. We all know the Playstation, Sony's gaming console, which is now on its third iteration. Why am I mentioning the Playstation, well; Sony Ericsson have now released the Xperia Play, dubbed the Playstation phone.

How does the Xperia Play shape up? Read on to find out!!

Many thanks to Brando, Sony Ericsson's UK PR company for supplying the review unit on a long-term loan.

What's in the box?

Xperia Play
Charge Adapter
Sync/Charge Cable
In-Ear Headset

The Specifications

General

2G Network: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network: HSDPA 900 / 2100
HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 / 800

Size

Dimensions: 119 x 62 x 16 mm
Weight: 175 g

Display

Type: LED-backlit LCD, capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size: 480 x 854 pixels, 4.0 inches (~245 ppi pixel density)
- Touch sensitive gaming controls
- PSP like gaming buttons
- Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate
- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
- Multi-touch input method
- Timescape UI

Sound

Alert types: Vibration, MP3 ringtones
Loudspeaker: Yes, with stereo speakers
3.5mm jack: Yes

Memory

Phonebook: Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
Call records: Practically unlimited
Internal: 400 MB, 512 MB RAM
Card slot: microSD, up to 32GB, 8GB included

Data

GPRS: Yes
EDGE: Yes
3G: HSDPA, HSUPA
WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
Bluetooth: Yes, v2.1 with A2DP
Infrared port: No
USB: Yes, microUSB v2.0

Camera

Primary: 5 MP, 2592х1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, check quality
Features: Geo-tagging, image stabilization
Video: Yes, WVGA
Secondary: Yes

Features

OS: Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread)
CPU: 1GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon
Messaging: SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
Browser: WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML
Radio: No
Games: Yes + downloadable, motion & gesture gaming
Colors: Black, White, Stealth Blue (for Play 4G)
GPS: Yes, with A-GPS support
Java: Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
- Dedicated game store
- SNS integration
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- Digital compass
- MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player
- MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV player
- Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk
- Track ID
- Organizer
- Document viewer/editor
- Flash Lite support
- Voice memo/dial/commands
- Predictive text input
Battery

Type: Standard battery, Li-Ion 1500 mAh
Stand-by: Up to 425 h (2G) / Up to 413 h (3G)
Talk time: Up to 8 h 25 min (2G) / Up to 6 h 25 min (3G)
Music play: Up to 31 h

The Aesthetics

In my opinion, the play is a very nice looking device. The design is very much of the black slab variety, clad in shiny black with metallic silver sides, it is pleasing to the eye. From a front view the device does look incredibly business-like in appearance, but as you may guess, there is more to this little beast than meets the eye.

Top

Looking at the top of the device, we are presented with only the power button to the right hand side.

Bottom

The bottom is completely spartan, there's nothing but a slot that you slip a fingernail into to remove the back of the device to insert your SIM & SD cards.

Left

Along the left hand edge of the play is the 3.5mm audio jack, used to connect a wired headset or other audio cable. This is followed up by the Micro-USB port, which as with most smartphones is used to both synchronise & charge the device.

Right

Moving to the right hand-side yields more interesting results on the Xperia Play. Here we find to large controller buttons marked L & R, left & right respectively. Those of you that have used either a playstation or an XBOX will recognise these as game control buttons. Neatly tucked in between the controller buttons is the volume up/down rocker switch.

Back

Moving from top to bottom on the back of the device, we find a small hole, the function of which I'm not sure at the moment. This is closely followed by an LED flash for the camera and then the camera lens itself. The only other features on the back are the product name range 'Xperia' and the Sony-Ericsson logo.

Front

Again, moving from top to bottom on the front of the device, we find a front facing camera. This is a great bonus as the Xperia Play is one of the handsets supported by Skype for Android at the current time. Moving down we have the Sony Ericsson company name followed by the rather gorgeous 4 inch screen. Below the screen we have something that I have praised before in other reviews, and that is physical buttons!! I do like a good physical button to press. As the device is Android, all the usual suspects are present; Back, Home, Menu & Search.

The Construction

The Xperia Play is heavier in the hand than say the Desire S, but you get used to this after handling it for a while. The device feels sturdy and well built. No squeaking or creaking in my handling tests.

As this is dubbed the Playstation Phone, the device should be capable of taking a great deal of repetitive handling. The slide mechanism was good and solid with a very reassuring action during the course of my review. There was no play at all whilst sliding out the control pad. I have had my grubby paws on the Play for around a month now, and it seems that Sony Ericsson have done an excellent job on the construction as it has easily survived living in my pocket for all that time. The slide is still as solid as when I received the device.

The Screen

As mentioned earlier, the screen is lovely, the picture doesn't really do it justice. The screen is one of the hardest things to convey in any device review. Larger than the Desire S and filling out the device with a very minimalist bezel to interfere with it, at 4 inches, it is both clear and bright. Response to the touch is good, as you would expect with a capacitive display. The screen is one of the best features of the Play.

The Keyboard

The on-screen keyboard itself is visually reminiscent of the iPhone keyboard, but alas, not the usability. The main issue I had was that I couldn't seem to get used to it, with the result being that I made plenty of mistakes. I also couldn't get the haptic feedback to work, which I'm fairly sure didn't help my accuracy. With that being said, it did grow on me a little, but not that much. Whilst my accuracy did improve with use, I couldn't really get to grips with it. I persevered with the keyboard, but in the end moved over to Swiftkey X, my Android keyboard of choice!!

The Camera

(click on images to enlarge)
The camera application perplexed me. I could find no way to to zoom on any pictures I took. I couldn't find any reference to zoom functions on the internet at all, so settled for zoom not being available. There is no physical camera button, I was surprised by how much I missed a physical button to press. Taking a picture on the play requires a tap of the on-screen button, at which point the Play will focus and take the snap.

Connectivity

The Xperia Play comes equipped with all the usual suspects in terms of radio, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth & HSDPA on the data front. As mentioned in previous reviews, I don't get much of a 3G signal at home on my personal carrier of choice, O2, but that can equally said for Orange, Vodafone & T-Mobile as well. The Play excelled while I was on holiday in Spain & France, I got a good HSDPA signal and the mobile coverage in the areas I stayed was fantastic, which isn't bad considering the first week was spent half-way up a mountain on Olerdola, near Barcelona and the second in a remote traditional farmhouse converted into holiday apartments between Toulouse & Carcassone. GSM signal acquisition is excellent, the Play is the first phone that I have actually been able to use downstairs in my house and hold on to a call.

In fact, this portion of the review is being written in Evernote on my iPad using the Xperia Play's mobile hotspot functionality to provide access to my notes whilst travelling along a Spanish motorway en-route to France. Now that's cool & not to mention a good use of time; at this point I guess I should mention that I wasn't driving.

The Bluetooth seems pretty weak. I had issues with it connecting to my Bluetooth Stereo Speaker. This manifested itself as interrupted audio on playback, and the phone was with 2 feet of the speaker. I deleted the pairing, soft-reset the Play & tried again, definitely inconsistent results with Bluetooth that I haven't experienced on other phones.

The Battery

Day 1.

The Xperia Play was taken off charge at 07:40. My day followed the following pattern:

5 text messages send and 5 text messages received.
1 hour of podcast playback on the train into London.
Updating this note in Evernote, which was downloaded & installed over mobile data.
Multiple Facebook updates.
Foursquare check-ins.
Tweetdeck use.
Unusually, no calls at all!

The rest of the day came and went; at 22:15 the battery was showing 39% as I made my way back on the train to my resting place for the night.

More podcast playing

At 23:00 I checked the battery level again, which registered 36% after about 15mins of listening to podcasts. 45 minutes later the battery level was down to 30%. At 00:20, I was down to 26% and finally it was bedtime.

Day 2.

I realised at the start of day 2 that the phone had been delivered set to GSM only. So, in the interest of equality, I turned on 3G.

The Xperia Play was taken of charge at 09:45. My day followed the following pattern:

6 texts sent & received.
3 telephone calls, averaging around 10 mins each.
Multiple Facebook updates.
Multiple Foursquare check-ins.
Tweetdeck use.
Google+ Updates
2.5 hours of podcast playing in the car, without the phone being connected to power.
1 hours use of Wi-Fi in the morning and

When I arrived home at 21:00, the battery level was down to 18%

A few more texts

At 23:12, the battery was down to 16%.

All in all, I found the battery life to be very reasonable on the Xperia Play. It always lasted at least the day, which is good news when relying on a phone.

The UI

Sony Ericsson have once again layered their own UI on top of Android. Known as UXP, the UI differs from that on the X10 Mini Pro in that it does not have the four corners functionality for apps, in fact, UXP is quite minimal in its approach. It gives you the standard type home screen to load up your widgets, and with a launcher bar set at the bottom of the screen for your frequently used apps. There don't appear to be any configuration options for the launcher dock, so you are limited to 4 icons.

UXP has a nifty feature to allow the selection of your target home screen. Simply place two fingers on the screen & pinch them together, and this pops up a single screen of widgets from all your home screens bubbling around. Simply tap the widget you want and you are transported to the screen that hosts it. I found that this feature worked well allowing me to jump between screens rather than swiping based on widgets alone.

The Apps

As with most Android devices, the Play comes with a set of applications pre-installed. Many of the apps are common across Android devices, so in this part I'm going to focus on those not usually found elsewhere...

WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a messaging application that I have seen in the past. Unusually, it ties itself to your phone number rather than an email address. I haven't used it extensively and for some reason I couldn't get past the screen for entering my name to enable the app to interact with those using the iPhone version....

Sync

Is a service provided by Sony Ericcson. I'll admit to not setting up an account. So I can't really comment on the application or its operation with the Sony Ericsson service.

YouTube

Even though Android supports Flash, I always find the YouTube application yields better results on videos, so I tend to stick to it when viewing any kind of Youtube media.

Playstation Pocket

I had to do a little digging on Playstation Pocket; the app itself didn't really tell me what it is about. Playstation Pocket is a front-end for acquiring Playstation 1 games for your device. Clicking the search icon brought up a list of games, clicking on one of those games took me directly to the Android Market in the Arcade & Action category. Most of the games seem to be priced at £3.99. As I was only reviewing the device, I decided not to purchase!!

News & Weather

News & Weather is an application that does exactly what it says on the tin by providing you with News & Weather. The app is laid out into a weather tab and for news tabs, Top Stories, UK, Sport & Entertainment. It was good to see the application pre-configured for the UK market. In settings there are further headins of World, Business, Sci/Tech & Health. Quite a good range. Tapping on any of the news item links jumped you out to the news website that provided the story. The news data seems to be harvested from a number of places, I couldn't tell what was being used as a stream source.

The weather location was picked automatically for me, I must have been nearer to Marham at the time, as the location now shows King's Lynn when I check the app. In the settings; you have the choice of both automatic location discovery and choosing your location manually.

Postcard

Postcard is an application that allows you to take any of your photos that are locally on the device and send it as a physical postcard to any address in the world. I decided to give it a try.. I picked a photo and went through the process to get a view of what the cost would be. At £1.49 I t decided it was cheap enough to try out. I must admit it was quick and painless to do. The proof will be in the postcard turning up at my house! We shall see, I ordered the postcard on the 29th August!! It duly turned up a couple of days later, and the quality was extremely good!!

OfficeSuite

The Xperia Play comes with limited productivity tools pre-installed. Office suite enables one to open Microsoft Work, Excel & Powerpoint and not to mention PDF files on the device, but open and view them is all it can do. You do not have the ability to edit any documents. Office suite rendered the documents I loaded on to the SD card very well, so definitely no issues with viewing office documents on the go. You can always opt to install another office compatible application set from the Android Market, my particular favourite is Documents to Go from DataViz.

Xperia Play

Xperia Play is the application loaded when you slide out the Play's game controller. It gives you access to both currently installed and further games to buy, essentially a central hub for your gameplay. You can of course load games individually from the app launcher screens. Tapping the More Games tab takes you to titles that are available & tapping any of the games can take you to the Android Market or other stores for games purchases. One of the games I tapped took me to Gameloft's store. I didn't actually purchase so cannot comment on the purchase process itself. Some games are direct purchase, whereas some games such as Dead Space allow you to download a free trial, which in my mind is a good thing.

Voice Search

Well, it's voice search. It works as well for me as any other Voice Search on any other device does. By that I mean not very well!

Media Server

Media Server does exactly what it says on the tin, it turns your Xperia Play into a mini Media Server. I duly turned on Media Server and went to the network area in Windows Explorer, sure enough, after a few seconds, R800i (Must be Sony Ericsson's internal name for the Play) appeared in the network connected Media Devices section... Double clicking on the icon loaded Windows Media Player and the R800i name appeared in the library list. Clicking on the device name then allowed me to view media files stored on the device. I found that I couldn't play them at first. But I soon discovered that there was a notification in the Android Notification pane asking me to approve my Laptop's access to the Media stored on the Play through the Media Server. Once that was done, I could play Music and view my pictures to my heart's content. One of the great things about Media Server is that I could also use the Media Extender capabilities of my XBOX to view the content on the device. I must admit, I was more than well impressed with this functionality, especially as the Play was connected to my network over Wi-Fi.

The quality of audio & video playback was very good. No stuttering or stopping at all.

Playstation Pocket

Similar to the Xperia Play application. Playstation Pocket offers up a selection of Playstation classics for your phone. Crash Bandicoot comes pre-installed and the application offers you a selection of other Playstation original games to purchase. Clicking on the links took me to the Android market. Once again, the fact that I wasn't keeping the device was a deciding factor in my not purchasing any titles, sorry readers!!

BBC iPlayer

I guess everyone knows about the BBC iPlayer. The Play comes with the Android version of the application installed. The app itself on Android seems a little less fluid than the iOS version, but the quality of playback on the Xperia Play's excellent screen is good. As you can see, I watched an episode of My Family.

Liveware Manager

Liveware Manager gives the ability to launch applications when certain types of accessory connect to the device. You can set an application to launch on the connection of a headset, headphones or the device charger. You can also set an application to launch connection of accessories via Bluetooth. I duly selected my favourite podcast application, Doggcatcher, to load on the connection of the Xperia Plays headset. Once done, I plugged the headset in and boom, Doggcatcher loaded without a hitch.

Timescape

The last time I used Timescape was on the Xperia X10 Mini Pro, at that point in time I suggested that the interface may be a little cluttered if you enabled all services. This appears to have been addressed on the Xperia Play. The Timescape app now allows you to cycle through your feeds individually, allowing you to take in a feed at a time. If you still want everything in one list, you can select that option as well. A timescape widget is included on the default home screen, although I could only see that it used the complete view, I couldn't find any way to select an individual feed. Tell a lie, I just discovered that the Widget uses the setting in the Timescape app, so if you select an individual feed there, the Widget will only show that feed on the homescreen.

I couldn't find any way to delete text messages via Timescape. To me, this is a bit of an omission, as it would have been very handy to be able to do that.

Software Update

Just I got near to the end of completing the text for my review, the Xperia Play notified me that there was an update available and ready for download. The update was available Over The Air, so I duly set it going and sat back to watch the TV. The update took about 20mins end to end. The download completed and the Play asked me if I wanted to install, I clicked on OK and the phone then rebooted. A status screen displayed the progress of the update, and when it completed the phone reboot again. The great thing about the update was that the current configuration and my installed applications all remained intact.

The update actually caused me more work, I noticed some UI changes and additional applications that appeared, I'll run through them now:

First thing to note was that a few application icons changed, along with the application names. The postcard application name changes to 'Touchnote', underneath, the application is exactly the same as it was previously.

Timescape Widget

The Timescape Widget that has graced my Homescreen on the Play has gotten a facelift. The rather clunky 'update network status' bar across the top has gone, being replaced by a collection of 3 interesting icons. The heart-monitoresque 1st icon takes you to the services menu, allowing you to configure Facebook, Twitter or search for Timescape extensions. On delving into the extensions, you are taken to the Android Market, where I discovered the extensions are provided by third-party developers as well as Sony Ericsson themselves. Notable extensions were Foursquare & LinkedIn, which I duly tried to install. Unfortunately I kept getting a shared-library error, something I couldn't resolve.

Bluetooth

As mentioned earlier in the review, I had issues with the Bluetooth audio connection to my external Bluetooth speaker. Since installing the update I'm pleased to report that those issues have completely disappeared. Now when I use the speaker, therre are no gaps or breaks in playback, which definitely reduces the annoyance factor when listening to a podcast whilst in the shower!! (What, you mean that not everybody does that?).

New Apps

The Xperia Play update installed some new apps! Read on for details;

Data Monitor

There isn't really much to say on this one. It is an application that monitors your data usage on the device. Good news that one is included by default, but there are plenty in the Android Market.

Friends & Music

This application interfaces with Facebook and lists out those Music & Videos shared by your Friends. Clicking on any of the entries shows you comments & likes, as well as letting you play the media itself. You can also post your comments directly from the app itself, without having to go to the Facebook application.

Neoreader

Neoreader is a barcode scanning application. Simply point the Play's camera at the barcode of your choice and the application allows you to search the internet based on the information decoded. I tried it out and it does work pretty well. Unfortunately I couldn't get a screenshot of the camera scan in action, as each time I tried to take one, the camera part just remained blank.

Music Unlimited

Initially a web-link, which opens a web page giving you information about the service itself and the option to download the Android application. You do need a subscription and the web page mentions both a basic & premium version via Qriocity. Both Qriocity & Playstation Network come under the Sony Online banner. A basic 30 day subscription costs £3.99. You can sign up for a free trial of the Premium service for 30 days. If you don't upgrade to a basic or premium subscription, you only get to listen to 30 seconds of any track that you may select.

Music can be playback through your account at http://music.qriocity.com or on the Android application on your device. The Android app supports streaming over both Wi-Fi & 3G. Unfortunately, unless you subscribe to a plan, you can't actually use the Android application!!

Xperia Hot Shots

Another link to an application in the Android Market. Installing the application was a straight forward as ever. The application itself follows selected tennis stars, strangely all women. You can view twitter posts, videos and game statistics for each player, as well as news, fans & videos. Fans mainly shows how many likes each player has on Facebook. I must admit, this application was not for me!

Get Games

Another type of gamestore application. Pretty similar to the Playstation Pocket & Xperia play applications. Selecting any of the games takes you to a website allowing the purchase and download of them. One good thing is that it does warn you about download costs should you decide to download games over the mobile data connection.

Update Center

The update center application just does exactly as its name suggests. It checks for phone software updates and I will assume that it offers you the options to install said update if there are any. I can't comment any further as the application appeared as part of the update, therefore I've not had a chance to test it as the phone software is now up to date.

The Gaming

As you may have guessed, the Xperia Play is sold as a gaming machine. How does it live up to that expectation..? For me, it did pretty well. But it should be noted that I could be classed as fair-weather as opposed to a hardcore gamer. My game of choice on the Xperia Play was Star Battalion, I do like the space shoot-em up type games, and Star Battalion offered a goodly playtime.

Gameplay on the Xperia Play is very good. The graphics are excellent & clear, easily equaling that of other platforms, although I must admit that I have never played a game on the iPhone 4's retina display, so cannot really make comment on a comparison there. In fact I was totally taken by how smoothly the games played. In the device I had I saw no lag at all whilst playing any of the games that were pre-installed on it.

On my review device, the following games were pre-installed:

Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior

FIFA 10

Star Battalion

The Sims 3

Crash Bandicoot

Crash Bandicoot is one of the games that was originally for the Playstation itself, and plays in the Playstation Emulator that is present on the Xperia Play, as can be seen below.

I also downloaded the trial for Deadspace, which I must say, was a thoroughly enjoyable platform based game.

All the games played out with the same fluidity, the keypad reacted well during gameplay, although I must confess to be absolutely hopeless on FIFA 10. I never could play those football games!! Well, in fact I was pretty hopeless at Bruce Lee Dragon Warrier and the Sims 3. I had a reasonable level of success on Crash Bandicoot and Star Battalion!

As a games machine, I was very impressed with the Play, as I mentioned, I'm not a hardcore gamer, but day to day when I had some time to kill, the Play proved most useful in filling those slots. The 'shoulder' buttons were slightly difficult to access, mainly because when open, the screen is still flush against the joypad, had there been a little elevation a la original Touch Pro II design, I think the access to the buttons would have been a lot easier.

Pro's & Con's

Pro's

Excellent screen
Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread
Battery life

Con's

Bulky (But you would know what you are buying with this phone!!)
Default On-Screen keyboard

Conclusion

Even though I'm not a fervent or hard-core gamer, I was very very impressed by the Xperia Play. Not just for the games but also in using it as my day-to-day device. Thanks to Brando, I had the Xperia Play on what I would call a long-term test. I have used the Play as my main personal phone for about a month now. It has been keeping me company day in day out, and in that role the Play has performed well and I have been happy to carry it with me.

The big selling point for me is the big screen, which on the Play is excellent. It's very clear, providing a great media playback & web-browsing experience. The UI is not intrusive and I didn't feel the need to load a replace launcher. In fact, I quite like UXP on the Play, it worked well for me.

I won't make any bones about it, the device is quite thick due to the inclusion of the Playstation controller keypad, the good thing was that I soon got used to the size and it was quite comfortable to just slip the Play in a pocket. I wouldn't say I played games on it all the time, but it was definitely handy in rare spare moments.

The Play performed flawlessly as a phone, the phone audio was nice and clear though the ear-piece, headphones & my in Car Bluetooth kit. The one thing I couldn't really get on with was the default on-screen keyboard, I tried to like it and I did persevere, but in the end I had to change it for a better keyboard. Once I had done that my keyboard experience improved remarkably.

Would I buy an Xperia Play, probably not, but only for the reason that I've already mentioned, I'm not an avid gamer, but it does make the Xperia Arc S appear as a very probable Android candidate for me!!