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- iPhone 5 Preview – Shiny Mess, Not Much of an Upgrade (Video)
- Microsoft “Surface” Windows Phone 8 Handset in the Making for 2013?
- ASUS Padfone 2 Uses 2140 mAh Battery With Integrated NFC
- BlackBerry 10 Handset Aristo Leaks, is Finally High end: Quad Core Chip, 2GB of RAM
| iPhone 5 Preview – Shiny Mess, Not Much of an Upgrade (Video) Posted: 03 Oct 2012 02:16 PM PDT
The iPhone 5 has one attribute that I’ll confirm right away: it glitters beautifully in bright sunlight… and that’s kind of it. It may feel light in the hand, it’s very thin and looks pretty, but that’s where the novelty stops. It’s an upgrade from the iPhone 4S, it’s longer with around 1 cm and we have more details from our detailed preview below.
We’ll be back with a full review later on, but these are the first impressions after spending an entire weekend with the device. First of all, it totally impresses on the audio side, at least through the EarPods. They fit perfectly in the ear and sound fantastic, both in volume and bass. The clarity is at its peak and the headphones somehow manage to deliver deafening sound without deafening you. The bad thing is that the speakers are actually pretty disappointing. The tunes sounds a bit… off and the back of the phone vibrates when the volume hits the peak. As far as Siri is concerned, the update may bring stuff like being able to type on Facebook or Twitter via voice, but Google Now is still a superior service. So, you want to know what Siri can do? It provides movie reviews, posts to Twitter, Facebook, opens the camera app and gives you detailed sports information. Passbook is a new feature from iOS 6.0, that gathers your passes, vouchers, documents and other minor documents and pieces of paper/tickets in digital format you have laying around.
As far as Apple Maps go, in the area where I tested it there was a black/white stripe, actually a pretty long one, that seems like uncharted land. If you select the 3D mode you’ll see that some buildings in my area are wavy for some reason. I have to admit that the turn by turn features of the app area pretty cool and the Flyover feature looks fantastic, at least in London. However, the lack of a decent transit option for the maps and lack of POIs and entire settlements makes the app feel unfinished and rushed.
The iPhone 5 is 20% lighter than the iPhone 4S, weighing 112 grams and it also provides a 16:9 aspect ratio on the 1136 x 640 pixel display. The screen is crisp, very bright, has good viewing angles and that’s all we could find in the first days of contact. The handset measures 7.6 mm in thickness and may even feel flimsy at times, since it’s so thin, compact and light. The aluminum back offers a decent grip and you won’t drop the phone… too often. The 1440 mAh battery is actually a pleasant surprise, since I did a lot of YouTube video watching, some game playing and browsing and I was only able to deplete around 70% of the battery in a day of casual use. There’s no trace of lag whatsoever and my first contact with the camera came with a pleasant surprise: it handles lowlight and indoor situations well. Taking a picture at night indoors results in some nice shots, with vivid colors and decent brightness. That’s all we have for now, this is the preview we have for the handset priced starting at $199 on contract in USA.
We even compared the Apple Maps solution with Google Maps on the Xperia Tablet S and as you can see the graphics are more detailed, buildings (and not only) have all the details around them clearly drawn on Google Maps while Apple Maps has some trouble with rendering such areas or showing the center of a small town. We’ll be back with a full review ASAP. And no, our unit didn’t have scuff problems and upper backlight bleeding issues. Related posts:
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| Microsoft “Surface” Windows Phone 8 Handset in the Making for 2013? Posted: 03 Oct 2012 02:33 AM PDT
A Microsoft-branded phone has been in the rumors for a while now, with some mockups and leaks pointing towards its existence. Now some BGR sources are confirming the authenticity of the device and saying that MS is still thinking about the release, but in 2013 and not now.
A release now would cool upcoming handsets with WP8, the likes of Samsung Ativ S, Nokia Lumia 820 and 920, plus the HTC 8S and 8X. The idea is to sit back, let the sales of Windows Phone 8 devices roll in and then when it’s time for the second wave of phones with this OS on board, Microsoft may release its masterpiece. Expectations are great and if they follow the lead of the Surface Tablet, we may end up with a magnesium case handset, with a quad core Snapdragon S4 CPU and a HD or even better screen. MS must be cautious about this, since they tried to make and launch their own phones before, the ones called Kin, but they failed miserably, even though the maker of Sidekick helped them. The good thing here is that Microsoft can analyze what people loved the most about the Lumias, Ativ S and HTCs and incorporate those elements into their flagship for 2013. Related posts:
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| ASUS Padfone 2 Uses 2140 mAh Battery With Integrated NFC Posted: 03 Oct 2012 02:30 AM PDT
ASUS Italy distributed invitations to an Italian press even for the official presentation of ASUS Padfone 2 , the second generation smartphone/tablet hybrid. The event is set to take place thursday, the 16th of October – 2012 in Milan (IT) and Taipei. In the meantime leaked box contents revealed the upcoming device’s specs.
So far we know that the Padfone 2 will be powered by a quad core Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset with 2 GB of RAM. It will have a a 4.7-inch Super IPS+ Display at a resolution of 1280×720 pixels and a 13 MP rear camera capable of taking photos at a resolution of 4032 x 3224 in a 5:4 aspect ratio. The Padfone 2 is powered by a huge 2140 mAh battery and the device is LTE enabeled.
Latest news come from Taiwan, the second market where the new gen Padfone will be announced and launched. Though it may seem a minor detail, the Padfone 2 is in fact NFC capable as the chip in included in the large capacity battery. It’s only a few weeks to go until the official presentation in Milan, where we will be to give you all the details about the new device. Related posts:
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| BlackBerry 10 Handset Aristo Leaks, is Finally High end: Quad Core Chip, 2GB of RAM Posted: 03 Oct 2012 02:00 AM PDT
This week’s leaks of BlackBerry 10 devices weren’t that impressive, especially because those models were midrange units by today’s standards. The likes of BlackBerry London, Lisbon and Laguna only packed TI OMAP and Qualcomm dual core CPUs, but now here comes a hotshot, the R081 Aristo handset, with BB 10 and a quad core ticker.
The handset adopts the much discussed Snapdragon S4 Pro 4 core chipset (1.5 GHz) and manages to be pretty slim, at 8.85 mm in thickness. BlackBerry Aristo features an OCTA Glass OLED 4.5 inch 1280 x 720 screen with 16:9 aspect ratio, plus LTE connectivity and an 8 megapixel camera with autofocus, flash and full HD 30 FPS capture. At the front there’s a 2 MP 720p shooter and other specs include 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of flash memory, a hot swap microSD card slot and WiFi. Micro HDMI out seems to be a big deal for RIM, since it included it on all of its future models and here as well, together with NFC, stereo speakers and big batteries. The Aristo has a 2800 mAh sealed battery with a non removable door. Face detection for voice calls and an altimeter are also mentioned on the leaked specs list. Apparently this device fits in the A Series, that will accompany the N Series and L Series in early 2013, in the first wave of BB 10 launches. Related posts:
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