Archive for January, 2011

Samsung announces new Galaxy line

Just like it happened a few days ago when Sony Ericsson was hugging all the news, this time around it seems that it’s Samsung’s time to take over this little section of our humble webpage. Just after taking a quick look at the Samsung Giorgio Armani Galaxy S I decided to shed some light on the latest additions to the Galaxy line. Samsung has to be happy with how well the Galaxy S did, considering that it did sell in over 10 million units during the course of 7 months, and considering that people come to like the line and what it stood for, it’s good to see that they will be investing some more time and effort into further developing this line.

For anyone who had any doubts regarding the success of the Galaxy series, 4 new Android smartphones with the Samsung logo will be appearing in the near future as Samsung did announce that these devices will be grabbing the spotlight in February at the Mobile World Congress. Samsung claims that these new devices are being launched to cover all the holes, read as people to own a Samsung smartphone, which the Galaxy S left unfilled. I am sort of intrigued by this decision of Samsung to head for more of a mid-range series with these 4 new Android powered devices. This comes mainly as LG, the other big manufacturer in South Korea, has been in the spotlight recently thanks to their new series of high end devices coming out and apparently moving a touch away from the mid-range sector.

These new handsets are the Samsung Galaxy Ace, Galaxy Fit, Galaxy Gio and Galaxy Mini. By taking a closer look at each one of these devices it’s easy to spot that they will be mid-range devices targeted at a much more specific clientele than the Galaxy S. The Samsung Galaxy Ace will come with a 3.5 inch HVGA TFT-LCD display with a resolution of 320 x 480, a 5 MP camera with LED flash, an 800 MHz processor and Android 2.2 Froyo. Samsung Galaxy Fit is set to come out with a 3.3 inch QVGA TFT-LCD display, which will have a native resolution of 240 x 320, a 5 MP camera and a 600 MHz processor to power it along.

The Samsung Galaxy Gio seems rather similar to the Ace, as it will come with a 3.2 inch HVGA TFT-LCD display with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels and an 800 MHz CPU, but this time around with a 3 MP camera. The last one, but not the least, of the line is the Galaxy Mini which will see the light of day wearing a 3.14 inch display capable of 320 x 240 pixels and a 600 MHz processor. All of these devices will be running Android 2.2 Froyo and will have Samsung’s TouchWiz UI and will have support for micro SD cards of up to 32 GB.

Samsung claims that it will be launching all of these devices in Europe, China, India and Russia. As I said it earlier, it’s obvious that Samsung is trying to cover all the holes which were left by the Galaxy S. I for one am rather intrigued in what this new line will bring and what the pricing for these devices will be. Considering that the LG Optimus One P500 can be bought for around 170 Euros (230 US Dollars) contract free, these new devices will have quite the opponent for the mid-range sector. Until next time, start putting away some money if you do wish to enter the world of Android smartphones.1

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January 30th, 2011 Catalin Mengheris

Posted in Android News

Samsung Giorgio Armani Galaxy S

Some time ago I do remember when looking around the “interwebs” that I was in a way annoyed by the fact that all Android smartphones and that smartphones in general look the same. There is no manufacturer out there ready to push the envelope, ready to innovate, mainly because they all work on the same premise – if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. That’s probably the main reason I did enjoy the Samsung W899 previewed some time ago, I think it was in December, which did bring something new to this world of black slabs. This is the main reason I enjoy any device which manages to stand out from the crowd even if the changes seems small at the beginning. Taking a simple look at the Sony Ericsson Arc would put my point into perspective.

As such, I was intrigued initially when they first announced the Samsung Giorgio Armani Galaxy S because for some awkward reason I was hoping for a completely new smartphone to come out. Alas I was somewhat disappointed when I saw that the main change was the fact that they stamped a “Giorgio Armani” logo on it. Sure some of the curves and lines have been redone, but it’s nothing worth mentioning mainly because once you go past the skin you will find the same specs underneath it.

Talking about specs, we have HSDPA 900/ 1900/ 2100 network support along with EDGE/ GPRS 850/ 900/ 1800/ 1900. The display remains unchanged, and I don’t say that as a bad thing, in that it’s the same 4 inch Super AMOLED with mDNIe (Mobile Digital Natural Image engine). The main camera is still the 5 MP cam which we had on the simple Samsung Galaxy S device, with auto-focus, action shot, cartoon shot and smile shot options, so nothing new here either. Video player and recorder can go up to 1280 x 720 at 30 frames per second and support a pretty large array of formats. The operating system has remained unchanged, being that it’s Android 2.2 Froyo and here I do have some nagging to do as Gingerbread is much better optimized for Super AMOLED displays, so I wonder why they didn’t at least update that one.

Powering this device is the same 1 GHz processor and as for storage goes, we have 16 GB onboard storage which can be increased via a micro SD card of up to 32 GB. There have been some modifications when looking at the UI and considering that most carriers are giving it away for free with 2 year contracts, it might be a good step up, but other than that, if you do have a Galaxy S, you are not missing out on anything. If you are in the market wanting to get a new device, you can pick up the Samsung Giorgio Armani Galaxy S for free with 40 £ subscription at Vodafone UK. These plans will give you roughly 1200 minutes and 3000 texts a month along with 750 MB of internet traffic.

Rounding this all up, I might say that this seems like a pretty decent buy and it is a high-end device which has proven it’s worth over the last few months but if you have already a high-end smartphone, you can hang on to it since this doesn’t offer anything new or intriguing. If you are in the market for a new phone and would like a powerful and reliable tool, than you could give this one a try. Until next time, I’ll be busy playing with a Galaxy S and sticking Prada stickers on it while claiming that it’s now worth 500 Euros – I might grab some new device if it goes through J.1

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January 30th, 2011 Catalin Mengheris

Posted in Android News, Android Phone

Sony Ericsson Vivaz 2 Preview – Part 2

Welcome back to the preview of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz 2. Upcoming next it’s time to check out the back of the device. Here we can find the smartphones main camera with LED flash. The camera has 8 MP and can record video with up to 720p. The reproduction and recording works flawlessly really on this little handset. This pretty much shows SE’s dedication to keep up the standards in this aspect high. Back when the Xperia series first came out, the camera did manage to set it in a class of its own when compared to the competition and this time it’s not different either.

Still keeping to the back of the phone, we can find the speaker here as well which does a pretty decent job, yet the issue remains that in case you have a touch larger hands you will be covering the speaker. Staying on the subject of connectivity and plugs which go into the device, yes I was very professional at this past statement, we do notice a tendency of placing the buttons mainly on the right side. Here we will find the volume rocker, the camera key and the power/lock button. I did enjoy the choice of putting it there as most Android smartphones have that one somewhere at the top so this does make for a easier use of the handset with one hand. MicroUSB, there for charging the phone or connecting it to another device, mini HDMI port and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

The screen has some really impressive figures attached to it. As such not really Super AMOLED class, but in a world where every single detail can make a difference, SE is pushing towards the media aspect. As such they claim that the Bravia system developed for this new series of device will enhance image and video quality, which to some extent is true, yet the quality is still below what we get to see in Samsung or Apple. Still overall the display works well and delivers pretty decent colors and it works pretty well in direct sunlight as well so you won’t have to worry about not seeing a thing on it once you get out of your house.

When looking under the hood we will find the device rocks 512 MB of RAM along with Qualcomms MSM 7630 going up to 1 GHz. The GPU is the new and improved (yes, everyone says that about their products) Adreno 205. While being a mid-range chipset from Qualcomm as a chipset, the GPU used in this device offers almost twice as much performance as the one used in the X10 series. This, alongside the fact that the processor has a much wider range of scaling options for the speed of the CPU, will give increased performance and greater battery life than before. Speaking of which, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz 2 can go up to 2 days without needing a charge. This alone is a pretty impressive feat considering that it will do those 2 days with moderate usage, something a lot of high performance device won’t manage. Even if you go overboard with using all of the features the phone won’t crack only after a day.

So as a round-up of all the specs and features of this newest mid-range device from SE, I can say that I can’t wait for it to come out. It’s got some seriously cool specs, it looks really well and it does give off a high-quality feel. Despite the fact that it’s aimed at a mid-range clientele, it’s got some serious build quality and some serious specs hiding under that nice exterior. Until next time, make sure to gather up 320 Euros, that’s 435 US Dollars, and get it while it’s hot for it will be coming out sometime in April os this year.1

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January 28th, 2011 Catalin Mengheris

Posted in Android News, Android Phone

Sony Ericsson Vivaz 2 Preview – Part 1

It’s always fun to see how a manufacturer is getting things done. In case you don’t know what I mean, just look around the archives and you’ll catch my drift. Sony Ericsson has been going through a rough phase in a way with a lot of users bashing them for the lack of support they are showing towards the Sony Ericsson Xperia series. They’ve been busy working on that with the Arc series which will be coming out pretty soon and although some of the specs might not really be up to the task of the top devices out, they sure make up for it with some smart design choices and some pretty cool new features they plan on introducing.

Considering that they’ve sold over 43 million units last year alone, I think they are doing some things right. In this aspect it’s good to see what they are preparing for those of you who want a decent mid-range device. This is another element which I do find rather intriguing as a mid range device used to have pretty run-of-the-mill specs but this time around it seems Sony Ericsson is preparing something quite fun for those of you wanting an Android smartphone but don’t want to sell a kidney to afford one.

In this aspect SE is preparing the launch of the Vivaz 2, also known as MT15i, a mid-range device which is to step in as the upcoming mid-range device from SE to follow the Vivaz. The first device wasn’t bad, but because of a series of short comings in the OS department, it never really managed to catch on. Considering that the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc will have to fight some seriously though competitors, the LG Optimus 2X or the upcoming Motorola Atrix, the Vivaz 2 seems to have some easier opponents. Now the only question that arises is – will it be up to the task? Read on and find out!

The first thing you will notice with the Vivaz 2 is its overall size and shape. Compared to its precursor, the Vivaz 2 is a touch thicker, bigger and heavier. You must not think that it’s a lump by any means, but because of the added size it does have a better feel overall. In this aspect it’s rather different from the Sony Ericsson Arc which lost weight compared to its predecessor. On the outside the Vivaz 2 is designed following a lot of the trends SE has been heading towards. The plastic is glossy and will get covered in finger prints in no time, but the quality of the materials is what we’ve come to expect from Sony Ericsson as of lately – top of the notch.

When looking at the display, we’ll notice that it has gotten bigger since the first Vivaz came out and thanks to the higher resolution support which comes with Android the screen does give off a better vibe than the previous model. The buttons we find on the device are the same as on any other SE smartphone lately, with the back, home and options hard buttons. On the top we can notice the light sensor, which will help with automatically adjusting the brightness according to the surrounding light (which at this point isn’t yet supported by the software). There is also a front facing camera which seems rather large compared to other models but offers in return rather acceptable results.

If you want to read more about the Sony Ericsson Vivaz 2, check out part II of the preview !1

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January 28th, 2011 Catalin Mengheris

Posted in Android News, Android Phone

Acer 7 inch Android Tablet Preview

I know that I’ve been constantly nagging you about this but you have to admit that Android tablets have been increasingly more powerful and better made overall. My great love still remains the highly customizable Viewsonic 10 inch gTablet reviewed last year in November mainly because despite all its faults it did rock a dual core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor and once you started hacking away at it and once you managed to get it customized, you were playing with one of the best value for money devices launched in the past year.

Still it did have its flaws, most of them because of poor optimization for the dual-core CPU but once you got right down to it, it was truly a diamond in the rough. This time around though, we do get to take a sneak peak to Acers 7 inch Android tablet and a tablet which does really foretell the future of Android devices out there. This device really shows that Apple does need to come out with something better if they want to keep their top spot with the iPad as in my opinion this is the first noteworthy contestant along with the Galaxy Tab and Motorola’s upcoming Xoom tablet.

First of all you must note that this is a preview of the tablet and by no means a review. There are things which will be changed once the product sees the light of day, but so far so good really. The device comes with a 7 inch WXGA display, with a native resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. At the time of the preview it was still running Android 2.3 Gingebread, but Acer was quick to respond and claim that once it will be out it will see Android 3.0 Honeycomb running on it. This alongside the fact that it will also be running Acer’s custom UI, the Acer UI 4.5, make for a truly interesting device. The biggest selling point in my opinion is the 1.2 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor powering this little beast. Alongside the blazing fast CPU, the device will also come with the Adreno 220 GPU ready to power it through the fastest, most graphic intensive games and applications out for the Android platform.


The front of the device is rather simple, and I do like that, only the Home capacitive button being at the bottom of the device. You must note that once it will be running Android 3.0 Honeycomb most buttons will become obsolete, so this simple face it received can only bring joy to my heart (I do take these small changes rather seriously J). The overall design is based on simplicity and the plastic used on the front of the device does rather lose some of its charm but once you flip the tablet you will be welcome by a nice surface which will give very good grip and confirm the premium feel of the device.

Make sure to check out IntoMobile!.

Considering that most of the device still is saying that it’s work in progress I can’t wait to see once it will be out and running about. The overall feel of the Acer 7 inch Android Tablet is top of the notch and I can’t but congratulate them on their work for this device. Until next time, make sure to check out more hands on with the device to confirm that it’s not only me enjoying the device and also to confirm that I’m not alone when rejoicing for the upcoming launch of this little contestant for the iPad.1

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January 28th, 2011 Catalin Mengheris

Posted in Android News
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