Ok folks I’ve had an ample chance to review LG’s Ally, LG sent me the device to review a few weeks ago. First lets run down the basics, Its a mid-range slider for Verizon featuring a 600MHz processor and a 3.2″ Capacitive touchscreen. While it is a little small the screen size isn’t too small, I will say browsing the web is a little difficult but no more difficult than browsing on the 3.7″ screen on the Droid (My daily use phone), Compared to the Current 4″ and 4.3″ screens they both seem small and a little hard to use but nothing extremely difficult. I think its great that LG has taken the step into Android territory and released this phone at 2.1, There are currently plenty of phones that are being released now (some 3-4 months after the Ally) with 1.5 and 1.6 which is absolutely not acceptable. Simply put Manufacturers are being lazy when LG comes out of the gate with their first Android phone at 2.1 relatively shortly after the OS was released it is totally inexcusable for others to try and pass of these devices with outdated software. LG take a bow! You have done your customers right and I hope you continue the trend!
Features:
Android 2.1 (LG has confirmed an upgrade to 2.2 FroYo but no timeline)
600MHz MSM7627 ARM11 Qualcomm CPU
1500mHa Battery rated @ 7.5hrs of talk time 500hrs Standby
3.2in 480x800px Capacitive Touchscreen
3.2 Mega-pixel 640x480px VGA Camera with LED Flash
256 MB Ram/512 MB ROM
4GB MicroSDHC Card included (Expandable to 32GB)
802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 and S/A-GPS
I really enjoyed using the device, I didn’t experience any lag or other issues with the phone I also really enjoyed the keyboard, Compared to my everyday phone (Motorola Droid) the LG Ally keyboard is hands down the winner. Battery performance was great it ran perfect with moderate to heavy use you can expect to get a full day without worrying about recharging. All in all its a slick competitor in the crowded Verizon smartphone game and with its current price of $49.99 with a 2yr contract its REALLY hard to overlook this device.
Samsung was kind enough to send me one of their Galaxy S variants for AT&T the Captivate, What a wonderful device. The first thing that jumps out at you with these phones is the Super AMOLED screen, No picture or video can do this screen justice its simply amazing. Samsung has really created a game changing piece of hardware with the Super AMOLED screen. Apple’s Retina display doesn’t compare, Samsung’s previous generation AMOLED screen doesn’t come close, The only possible contender is Sony’s Super LCD which I haven’t had the chance to see in person yet. The screen is great and most certainly one of the standout features but it isn’t the only thing that makes this device great. Samsung’s version of the ARM Cortex A8 called the Humming bird running at 1GHz as well as the Dedicated graphics processor and so much more make this really nice phone, Especially for those that are on AT&T and looking for a real smartphone alternative to the iPhone. Continue reading “Samsung AT&T Captivate Review – Video” »
Samsung was nice enough to provide me with a review unit. After about 2 weeks with Samsung’s Galaxy S variant for T-Mobile the “Vibrant” I’ve been really impressed with the screen, the battery life and overall quality of the phone. Today I have a 2 part video review for you, I’ll start off with a little bit of the standard specs and walk through.
Features:
Android 2.1 at Launch with 2.2 (Froyo) promised in the near future.
1 GHz Hummingbird CPU (ARM Cortex A8 Family CPU).
PowerVR SGX540 Dedicated Graphics Processor.
5 Mega-pixel Camera (No LED Flash, I don’t see a problem with this personally).
720p HD video recording capability.
MicroSDCH slot with support for up to 32GB (Comes with a 2Gb card featuring a DRM protected full copy of James Cameron’s Avatar).
The Sony Ericsson Xepria X10 Mini Pro is tiny, small heck you can even use the term minuscule compared to todays standard 3.7″-4.3″ screens. Check out the Unboxing if you haven’t already. This phone and its brother (the X10 Mini) are not available directly from a carrier in the US however you can purchase them from various online retailers unlocked to work on either AT&T or T-Mobile. Some people may think this phone is too small and I have a tendancy to agree, however once you sit down and start playing with it you can really start to understand the design and intended uses for the phone, First and foremost it is designed to be used one handed. You can long press to zoom when looking at pictures, There are customizable icons on the 4 corners of the home screens. Sony’s UI design is focused on providing quick and easy access to the device and its functions, Sony has added the Timescape widget which aggregates your social networking feeds like most custom UIs, They went a step further with Timescape and added text messages and missed calls to the mix. Being a custom Android user experience will put a fair amount of Android power users off but you also have to remember this phone isn’t designed to be, Cell/Smartphones are used very differently in Europe and Asia (where I might add the X10 Mini and the Mini Pro are very good sellers). The biggest problem with the X10 Mini series at this point is that it is still running Android 1.6 with that I find it very hard to recommend purchasing what is now 2 major releases behind. I should note though that the interface doesn’t lag for the most part, I have seen it stutter a couple of times but for the most part you get a smooth experience with the handset.
Being a Motorola Droid owner I love hardware keyboards, Many would think that with the X10 Mini Pro being so small it wouldn’t have a decent keyboard, That couldn’t be farther from the truth, While its no 5 row Qwerty its a great keyboard, The tactile feel of the buttons and their functionality is leaps and bounds above the Droid I don’t feel like I have to use my fingernails or be careful when typing on the X10 Mini Pro. While I have been running Swype on my Droid for some time it has pretty much relegated my hardware keyboard to only being used when flashing and in recovery I have grown accustomed to the X10 Mini Pro’s keyboard and really enjoy text messaging with it and even writing emails works smoothly.
I’ll be using this more over the next couple of weeks trying to get a better feel for the device and how it stacks up against some of the new phones being released on the market so stay tuned for a full review sometime next week or early the following week!
Ok so I took the Galaxy S phones to the park yesterday and did a quick video shoot to show you the differences between them and the Droid. Note Samsung has added an option called “Outdoor Visibility” to the camera settings, I chose to test it with the videos so I have 3 Videos one from the Droid, One from a Galaxy S with the “Outdoor Visibility” setting enabled and one with it disabled… I also too several still shots from the Droid, Galaxy S and my Nikon D40 DSLR. I tried to replicate the shots as best I could with all 3 devices. I also have some shots of the Galaxy S Screen in daylight compared to the Droid so that you may see how it looks outdoors in the sun though I will say it was mostly overcast not super sunny yesterday, Which is good for me I would have lost 20lbs!
