Motorola RAZR XT910

Pros:Slim body; Excellent signal reception and voice clarity; Dual-core CPU; 4.3" Super AMOLED screen; 1080p video recording with image stabilisation.

 

Cons:Laggy interface; Too large for one-handed use; No physical shutter button; Battery not user-replaceable; Expensive.

Motorola RAZR XT910
MRP: Rs 36,000
Street Price (As On 05-March-2012): Rs 28,500 (Saholic.com; Letsbuy.com); Rs 30,000 (Flipkart.com)

Motorola has come a long way with its RAZR phones since it launched the first one in 2004. While that was the iconic flip-phone, the new Motorola RAZR XT910 Android phone resembles more of a tablet. This is the arguably the thinnest phone around, with the body being just 7.1 mm thick mostly, although it is wider at the top end. The 1.2 GHz dual-core device with a large 4.3" Super AMOLED Gorilla Glass screen is Kevlar-clad at the back to reaffirm its flagship status. Let us find out if it is really just as good in the performance department.

Design And Build Quality
The RAZR comes bundled with a detachable USB charger, a pair of in-ear earphones, and a couple of information booklets in addition to the warranty card. Surprisingly, no memory card is provided, and you have to rely on the 16 GB internal memory, which omes out of the box. Of this, only 8 GB is available for the user, while the remaining 8 GB is reserved by the OS and applications. As stated earlier, the front is dominated by a 4.3" large Super AMOLED screen with pixel dimensions of 960x540, protected against scratches by Corning Gorilla Glass. Readability is good in general even when using outdoors, although colours are a bit over-saturated. Images are not very crisp, as the pixel density is not very high. The microphone is placed on the lower part of the glass, while another outlet is present at the back for noise-cancellation. A stainless steel frame with gun-metal finish runs along the sides, which is slightly curved near the top and bottom corners.

The thin part of the body at the rear is mostly coated by bulletproof Kevlar fabric, although we must remind you that it cannot protect this phone from bullets for obvious reasons. Since it is sealed off, the battery is not user-replaceable. The wedge-like shape lets you easily carry it in your front pocket, although it is too large to carry in the back pocket. The large size of the phone is a result of the wide bezel around the screen, and tt is therefore is not comfortably safe for one-handed use. Rather, we ended up holding it with one hand and using the other for navigating the UI. Things could be different with you if you have a really large pair of hands, but most people don't. The overall build quality seems to be strong except for the faceplate covering the camera, which seems to be flimsy.

The three physical buttons on the phone are a tacky Lock button on the top right, and the volume up and down buttons just below it. Like many other Android devices these days, the Options, Home, Return, and Search buttons situated at the bottom of the display are capacitive and backlit, although the backlighting doesn't work when you need it the most.

An 8 MP camera with LED flash, boasting of 1080p 30fps video recording supported by image stabilisation is present, along with a front 1.2 MP camera with 720p recording for video calling. A physical shutter button would have really made things a lot easier, although Motorola seems to think otherwise. Like most other phones these days, this one also supports micro SIM. It supports up to 32 GB microSD card. There is some really powerful hardware under the bonnet with a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, although that doesn't necessarily translate into a superlative real-world performance as we will explain later. A microUSB port is present at the top, along with a 3.5 mm audio socket, and there is also a micro HDMI port to play movies directly to a big-screen external display device.

UI And Applications
The UI based on Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) has been completely revamped, which brings some good things and some bad. One of the welcome changes can be seen right at the Lock screen, where you are provided with two slider buttons, one on the left to unlock the phone, while the other on the right launches the camera. A ringer toggle has been added at the middle so that you can mute \ unmute the phone even when it is in the locked state. There are five homescreens you can scroll through and the animation has a certain 3D depth to it. The last of the homescreens has quick-toggle widgets for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Data, and GPS.

The notification, on the other hand, is completely unmodified. The dock at the bottom of the screen has four shortcuts. The last of these launches the apps drawer and cannot be modified, while you can customise the remaining three. Google Maps work well with navigation support, thanks to the highly responsive GPS module assisted by A-GPS and digital compass. The Places app shows places or interest near your current location.

On the gloomier side, it seems to find it difficult to run at times with noticeable lag and framing as we delve deeper into the UI. This is shockingly evident even when you open a web page in the native browser and begin scrolling. It is really surprising, considering the fact that the hardware is sufficiently powerful to handle this version of Android. It therefore points to the lack of optimisation. Lastly, the default theme is quite gaudy and loud, but you can always replace it with a sober one.

Multimedia
The Gallery app shows the photo contents of your memory card as a stack, although you cannot choose any of them by tapping. For that, you have to open the Camera roll, My library, Online, Friends, or MotoCast app. Swiping across photos seems to run smoothly, but zooming in and out is terribly laggy, once again pointing to a lack of optimisation.

The video player is capable of playing up to 1080p movies as long as they are DivX, XviD, MP4, or X264 files. Yes, it plays MKV files with the above codecs. Thankfully, movie playback is smooth as it should be. Since it is a plain vanilla media player, you don't get options such as viewing subtitles, changing display settings, or choosing audio track. For more format support and better control, you can always opt for one of the free third-party players from the Android Market.

The Music app has a lot of customisable options. These include several effects profiles to change the way the audio sounds, surround effects, and five equaliser presets. However, custom equaliser setting is not available. Podcasts and internet radio are also supported through this app and it can even connect to DLNA servers on your home network. While the audio is generally decent, it is plagued by plenty of crosstalk, which will turn off any serious listener. For those who are concerned, the RAZR does not feature an FM Radio receiver.

The 8 MP camera has a simple UI with a on-screen shutter or record button on the right, and a retractable row of shortcuts for options at the bottom. It supports touch-to-focus, which mostly works well, but can sometimes be unresponsive. There is a remarkable lag between shutter press and actual shot taken, thus you are most likely to miss out on capturing the action as you intend to. Various shooting modes are supported, just like any standard camera. Shooting in 16:9 aspect ratio is restricted to 6 MP, while the full 8 MP is available only for 4:3 shots.

The camera does a decent job with good colour capture, though the image quality is not anything out of the ordinary. The single LED flash is only good enough to light up subjects as close as a metre from the camera. Shooting in low-light environments produces grainy results in still as well as video shoots.

Full HD video shooting mode comes with image stabilisation that actually works and compensates for jerky hands. The camera focuses before the recording begins, but there is no automatic focus thereafter. Files are recorded in the MP4 format. However, you can manually focus while recording by tapping on the screen. The quality of the recorded video is good, with no noticeable frame drops, as long as it is shot in sufficient lighting conditions. Of course, it is still nowhere near a standard camera that can record 1080p.

 

Telephony And Messaging
Signal quality is good, and you will rarely lose reception using a Motorola handset. In our call voice quality experience, it is the hands-free that seems to work the best, followed by the speaker-phone, while the in-built earpiece in the handset tends to distort sound.

The keyboard is a standard Gingerbread affair, so we have nothing new to talk about.

Battery And Verdict
The 1780 mAh Li-Ion battery of the RAZR does a good job at keeping the device alive for 6 hours 40 minutes, which is pretty good for a dual-core phone with such a large bright screen under heavy usage. Conservative usage allowed it to be used for over a day without recharging.

The Motorola RAZR is definitely made to look different and it does make heads turn. It is a good device as far as telephony is concerned and the ramped up multimedia features give it a few more brownie points. However, the laggy performance issues need immediate attention. Being a flagship product, it is priced at Rs 33,500, which combined with the lacklustre performance, takes away most of the fun. You are rather better off with a Samsung GALAXY S II, if you are paying a premium price. On second thoughts, the Nokia Lumia 800 suddenly seems to be a lot more attractive ever since its price has dropped sharply.


Features: 4.5/5
Design And Build Quality: 4/5
Performance: 2.5/5
Value For Money: 2.5/5
Mojo: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

SOURCE TECH TREE

Meet Aisha. Micromax’s Siri for the Gingerbread powered A50 Ninja

Ever since the Siri announcement during the unveiling of the iPhone 4S last year, there have been a slew of voice-based assistant apps for Android. And though I am yet to find one that performs as well as it claims to, there’s no denying the marketing potential of them.
This makes the focus on Aisha in the publicity material for Micromax’s latest device for the Indian market, the Superfone A50 Ninja, understandable. First things first, the phone aims at the extreme low end, costing only Rs 4999 (USD 95). It runs Gingerbread on an undisclosed 650 MHz processor, packs a 3.1 inch screen and a 2-megapixel camera.
Considering the price, it’s pretty impressive that Micromax has chosen to offer such a pre-loaded app. AISHA, which stands for Artificial Intelligence Speech Handset Assistant, was developed by Dexetra, the developer behind another voice-assistant, IRIS.
I personally expect the phone to do well. It’s already the cheapest Android smartphone that I’ve heard of in the Indian market (I might be wrong about this since there are so many lower-end devices over here that it’s tough to keep track of). The presence of AISHA will undoubtedly make the A50 Ninja stand out.

Featured: Android Game Review – Mysteryville 2

Game Name: Mysteryville 2 by Nevosoft

Description: The heroine from the first game, Laura Winner, returns to Mysteryville this time for some needed relaxation after her exploits in the (excellent) first game - with a visit to her friend Bill. However, this is Mysteryville and as such, Bill has gone missing only days before an art auction, organised by the town’s new Priest, is to be held. Could this auction and Bill’s disappearance – both strange for the small town of Mysteryville – be connected? It’s up to Laura to find out once again. Laura will have to once again, put her detective hat on and get down to hunting for clues in order to stop yet another tragedy from occuring. You can watch the trailer below.

How It Works: Mysteryville 2, like the first game before it, is essentially a classic clue-finding game. These games will take you from place-to-place to interact with a good variety of characters before having to fulfil tasks that will lead you to finding your all important clues. The game’s mechanic, whilst relatively simple, remains excellent gameplay, the game will have you finding alsorts of items from glasses to house keys, you’ll be very busy indeed. All you need to do is, once you’ve found one of the items from the list on the left, is touch it on the screen and it’ll disappear – clearing the path for you to find other items and eventually the main clue. The game has a timer up top that counts down to zero as you complete each stage, giving you an added challenge as you scour the stage for all the items. You can also post to Twitter and Facebook after you complete each stage meaning, your friends can track how you’re getting on and vice-versa – something that seems to be a big hit with Mobile gamers.

One feature that stood out to me as particularly good is the penalty you’ll be given if you randomly tap around the screen you’ll be given a 20 second time penalty, something that I feel is one of those little additions that makes a lot of difference. It’s something that will stop players ruining their own experience by rushing through stages.

Opinion: I hadn’t really played many games like this before, I’m more of a console gamer myself, so I try to stay away from onscreen controls and the like. This, however was a great change of pace for me, it’s casual yet engaging at the same time, I was able to sit down with a cup of coffee and go through a couple of stages comfortably on the couch, something that console games and ports for Android really don’t offer. My Girlfriend is an absolute mystery lover, she’s watched all the CSI’s and the Criminal Mind types of shows you can name, as such she was my perfect guinea pig, she’s played a few detective games that are on the Play Store and the first thing she said about Mysteryville 2 was that it looked unique and engaging. I think it’s the variety of interesting characters and scenes that keeps the game fresh.
Tips:-

• Take a good look at the scene before you dive in, memorising item locations helps a lot and makes the game flow nicely.
• Try not to tap randomly in one area – you’ll be given the penalty mentioned earlier – you’re only cheating yourself out of a challenge.
• Keep a close eye on the list of upcoming items on the left, focussing on one might slow you down.
• Don’t play all the levels at once, it plays out more like a mystery novel if you take your time – a good one at that!

Ratings:-

• Speed (3/5) – The game has a gentle pace and is great for a casual play whilst relaxing, fans of Riptide GP and faster games might find it a be slow though.
• Features (4/5) – Mysteryville 2 has a variety of challenges focussed around the object finding genre, ranging from a frantic find all to the odd anagram, there’s a nice gamut of things to do.
• Theme (4/5) – As much fun as a good mystery novel is, parts of the game can seem a bit farfetched, over all it plays out well with some welcome twists.
• Overall (4/5) – There’s a lot to love in Mysteryville 2 – much like there was in the first game - from crisp detailed graphics more like art than backdrops, unique characters and easy, accessible gameplay for all it’s well worth the asking price.

Pros:-

• The graphics really are something to look at, they scale well to tablets and generally look great on whatever you play it on making the whole experience a breeze to look at.
• A strong variety of characters throughout it all keeps things fresh and interesting right from the get go.
• Accessible gameplay makes for a frustration free experience to enjoy at your own pace.

Cons:-

• Sometimes there is a lot of time left on the countdown making it seem a little too easy.
• Some of the dialogue from the characters can seem a tad farfetched but then again this is a mystery game.
• Some levels take longer than others which can drag a little.

Conclusion: I like a change from what I’m used to and Mysteryville 2 was certainly the change I needed, after playing fast paced games with finicky onscreen controls being able to use the touchscreen for exactly what it’s meant for was welcome. Like I’ve said, being able to play this game in comfort wherever and whenever was a big hit for me, meaning I could spend more time than I normally would on a game. It’s also good to play with someone else – my girlfriend and I ended up making a pretty good team spotting all the items and clues the other didn’t – something I hardly ever do side by side anymore.
It should be noted that it worked perfectly well on both my Nexus S and my Iconia Tab A100 both running ICS with no issues, making the A100 a perfect partner on the sofa these last few days.
You can find Mysteryville 2 in the Play Store

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 dispels any doubt about the return of the stylus - the S Pen transforms the tablet into something that will appeal to artist and business types alike. It's a very different experience, one that other tablets cannot match. It's not just the level of precision no finger can provide, the bundled software really extends the functionality.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 official pictures
The tablet itself can be seen as a special edition of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 - the body is slimmer (8.9mm vs. 9.7mm), the chipset is more powerful (both in CPU and GPU terms) and the front-facing camera is much better.
We won't waste too much time comparing the Note 10.1 to the Tab 2 10.1, we'll leave that comparison for the complete review. For now, here's where the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 stands.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 at a glance:

• Form factor: Tablet
• Dimension: 256.7 x 175.3 x 8.9 mm
• Weight: 583g
• Display: 16M-color 10.1" PLS LCD capacitive touchscreen of WXGA resolution (1280 x 800 pixels)
• OS: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, TouchWiz UI
• Chipset: 1.4 GHz dual-core processor, Mali-400MP, Exynos chipset
• Camera: 3.2 MP autofocus camera with 1080p video recording; 2MP front-facing camera
• Memory: 16/32/64GB of inbuilt storage, expandable via a microSD card slot
• Connectivity: Voice and data connectivity with quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and quad-band (850/900/1900/2100 MHz) UMTS, 21 Mbps HSDPA and HSUPA 5.76 Mbps support, video calls, dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Assisted GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, 30-pin connector
• Battery: 7,000mAh
• Misc: Gyro sensor, accelerometer sensor for automatic UI rotation, ambient light sensor, Adobe Flash Player 11 support, DivX/XviD support, TV-out (adapter required), USB host (via an adapter)

We can only dream of what the Note 10.1 could've been like with a tablet-sized Super AMOLED screen, but the PLS LCD used here offers pretty good image quality too. The 1280x800 resolution is the standard. It isn't much in terms of numbers, but it's perfectly alright in terms of actual image quality.
The tablet runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich imbued with TouchWiz magic. The Mini Apps that float around like windows improve the multitasking capabilities. The preloaded Photoshop Touch app is a premium addition. The note taking apps are on the level too - jotting down a memo on the Galaxy Note 10.1 is as easy as on an actual notepad.

LG Optimus 3D Max smartphone made officially

The LG‘s second generation 3D Android smartphone has just officially announced. The handset is known as the LG Optimus 3D Max and currently shipping in Europe. Amazon Germany is also already offering the LG Optimus 3D Max smartphone starts €494 (some $650).

Coming in slimmer and lighter body than the previous Optimus 3D smartphone, the new LG Optimus 3D Max measures 126.8 x 67.4 x 9.6 mm and weighs about 148 grams. New 3D handset is powered by a 1.2GHz OMAP4430 dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of onboard storage, and runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS (update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich later).
As screen, LG Optimus 3D Max smartphone has a 4.3-inch touchscreen 3D WVGA display with Gorilla Glass 2, a VGA front-facing for video calls, and a 5MP dual-lens camera that functionality for 3D videos and photos. Other feature on Optimus 3D Max is a microSD card slot, HSPA+ 21Mbps, NFC (also LG Tag+), Wi-Fi, DLNA, GPS, HDMI, and a 1,520 mAh battery. In additional, it offers 3D Converter and 3D video editing.

NOKIA LUMIA CHALLENGED IN UK

NOKIA LUMIA IS FASTEST PHONE AS PEOPLE CHALLENGED IN UK.
SEE THIS VIDEO

NOKIA SAYS THAT THERE IS NO NEED FOR DUALCORE PROCESSORS AS SINGLE CORE IS ENOUGH THR IMPORTANT THING IS HUNGRY OS YOU ARE USING.

Asus Transformer Pad 300 vs Apple iPad 3: Specs and features comparison

Transformer Pad 300 shipping has begun in US. Many are comparing it with Apple iPad 3. Here we compare their specs and features
Taiwanese tech giant and an emerging powerhouse in tablet and smartphones Asus has started shipping its latest Transformer Pad 300 tablets in the US market. The tablet that is considerably cheaper than its previous and much appreciated Asus Transformer Prime is also better than its previous versions in more ways than one.
The new 10.1 inch tablet from Asus comes with many major improvements that will help it give tough fight to its market competitors including Apple’s highest selling iPad 3. Though it will be too early to call it an iPad 3 killer, as many said the same about its last Transformer Prime, but Asus’ own shortcomings prevented it from exploiting the demand.
Reviewers are unanimous that Transformer Pad 300 that comes with obvious price advantages over its competitors in the market has an edge over others. Its biggest strengths include Quad-core Tegra 3 processor that will help give users very fast processing powers. Another great advantage that it will have over not just its predecessor but also over its competitors is the fact that its camera produces a lot better results than the existing market rivals. Asus Transformer Prime was beset with wi-fi issues. But the latest Asus tablet has very improved and fast Wi-Fi performance. Another plus point for the Transformer Pad 300 comes with very responsive screen. Other advantages include Micro-HDMI and microSD slots besides obviously better battery life.
For around $400 price tag, the Asus tablet will become the hottest selling tablet in the market. Because its competitors including iPad 3 are considerably expansive than it and price conscious users will find it a lot affordable than very expensive iPad 3 or even its predecessor Transformer Prime.
Specs: The latest Asus tablet comes with very impressive 10.1-inch with 1280 x 800 resolution accompanied by 149 ppi. Here it lags far behind Apple’s iPad tablet that comes with retina display. Cupertino based tech giant’s iPad 3 comes with a very impressive 2048×1536 resolution, giving it as much as four times as many pixels than the previous iPad 2 and more than the typical HD TV set. It also comes with 264dpi resolution.
Processor: When it comes to processor Asus Pad 300 packs great power. It comes with a very powerful quad-core Tegra 3 processor and 1 GB of RAM. iPad 3 on the other hand runs on A5X processor. Though the Cupertino based tech giant says that it is many times more powerful than the A-5 that came with iPad 2, but there are reasons to doubt this claim. A reviewer says, …“there’s no difference in the standard compute power (though the RAM is up to 1GB – that’s half what you get on the lowest-spec MacBook Air; all the improvement is in the graphics processor”. Another reviewer has this to say, “The new iPad received a total Geekbench score of 756, essentially identical to that of the iPad 2, although Geekbench only tests processor and memory performance and does not address graphics capabilities that are the focus of improvements in the A5X”. But so far Apple has performed better than all the tablets available in the market and we will have to wait for some time to really appreciate the Tegra 3 processor in Asus Pad 300.
Operating System: the latest Asus Pad 300 comes loaded with Google’s latest Android 4 or Ice Cream Sandwich. It also comes with very impressive Waveshare UI. This is going to make its performance among the best in the market. iPad 3 on the other hand comes with a little improved Operating System in the form of iOS 5.1. But there are reasons to believe that the upgrade doesn’t improve the OS substantially but just fixes some bugs that needed to be taken care of even earlier. Eric Zeman while writing in Informationweek.Com says, “Apple’s competitors have not only added features to their platforms, but have made visual upgrades as well. Look at Android, for example. The change in the operating system’s appearance between Android 2.x/3.x and Android 4.0 is incredible. Everything about the OS was redesigned and it looks much, much better now. Windows Phone is too young to require a refresh, but even Research In Motion has altered the appearance of BlackBerry 7 when you compare it to Blackberry 5”. Nonetheless Apple’s latest tablet has impressed users with its overall performance.
Storage: When it comes to storage options Asus Pad 300 has two options including 32 and 64GB. iPad on the other hand comes with three storage options including 16GB, 32 GB and 64 GB storage options. But Asus Pad 300 comes with  microSD card slot that gives it an extra advantage.


source nvonrews