01.Samsung Epic 4G: A Killer Multimedia Phone
The Samsung Epic 4G ($250 with a two-year contract from Sprint, as of August 20, 2010) stands out from its Galaxy S siblings for a few reasons. Unlike the others, it has a physical keyboard and a front-facing camera, and it's the second phone to run on Sprint's 4G network. How does it stack up against the other 4G device, the HTC EVO 4G? And how does it compare to other mega-smartphones in the Android universe? Read on.
Design
In the last week, I've reviewed three phones with hardware keyboards: the BlackBerry Torch, the Motorola Droid 2, and now the Epic 4G. Keyboard death watch? Not so much. Out of all of these phones, the Epic definitely has the best keyboard. The keys are nicely spaced and have a good clickiness to them.
If you don't feel like using the physical keyboard, you have even more options on the touchscreen. You can use the TouchWiz keyboard, the Swype keyboard, or the native Android keyboard. I found the display quite responsive, and big enough to type on comfortably.
Like the other Galaxy S phones, the Epic 4G sports a 4-inch Super AMOLED display. Samsung's Super AMOLED technology puts touch sensors on the display itself, as opposed to creating a separate layer (which Samsung's old AMOLED displays had), making it the thinnest display technology on the market. Super AMOLED is fantastic--you really have to see it in person. Colors burst out of the display, and animations appear lively and smooth. Some reviewers have noted that colors look oversaturated, but I don't really mind the effect. The display also does quite well in bright outdoor light, too, though the phone's glossy hardware sometimes reflects a killer glare.
TouchWiz 3.0 Interface
The Samsung Epic 4G runs Android 2.1 ("Eclair") with Samsung's own TouchWiz 3.0 user interface. Overall, this version of TouchWiz is a lot better than the older iteration, which we saw on phones such as the Samsung Behold II for T-Mobile (a phone that was slow and difficult to navigate).
Although this version is an improvement, I encountered some familiar issues with TouchWiz 3.0. Despite the 1GHz Hummingbird processor, the phone lagged slightly when I flipped through menus and scrolled down contact lists or Web pages. Here's hoping the Epic will get a speed boost when it receives the upgrade to Android 2.2 ("Froyo").
Like HTC and its Sense offering, Samsung has its own social media aggregator. Social Hub combines streams from your Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter accounts into a single view. It is a useful feature if you need a simple way to keep track of your networks. One random feature is Mini Diary, which lets you create blog entries with photos, weather info, text messages, and more. When I first tried Mini Diary on the European Galaxy S, I couldn't figure out how to get my entries off the device. Samsung followed up with me after my original review, thankfully, and confirmed that you can indeed post entries (though only those with photos) to various social networks or send them to friends via text. After you create an entry, you press the Menu key in the bottom-left corner, and it gives you MMS and Publish options. If you choose Publish, you can send your item to Facebook or MySpace.
My biggest problem with the TouchWiz interface is that it is overdone--so much so that the result doesn't even look or feel like an Android phone. Additionally, the skin sometimes interfered with the speediness of the Epic (see the "Performance" section below). According to Samsung, the entire Galaxy S family will be upgradable to Android 2.2.
Camera
We put the 5-megapixel camera of the Epic 4G through a modified version of our PCWorld Labs test for point-and-shoot digital cameras, along with the iPhone 4, the Motorola Droid X, and the HTC EVO 4G. Unfortunately our test panel was not very impressed with the photo quality of the Epic, as it earned the lowest score out of the four and an overall word score of Fair. It finished ahead of the EVO 4G in exposure quality, but landed in last place in our color-accuracy, sharpness, and distortion tests.
In my own hands-on tests outdoors, I was pretty impressed with the image quality. Colors looked bright and natural, and details were sharp. Only a slight bit of graininess appeared in the shots; I had to look really closely on my monitor to see it.
On the other hand, the Epic took second place in overall video quality. Its performance skewed heavily toward good performance in bright light.
According to our panel, its bright-light footage looked a bit underexposed and slightly grainy in a full-screen view, but great at smaller sizes. The autofocus searches a little before locking on to a crisp image. In low light, the footage was a touch too murky and undefined to earn a better rating. Once the Epic gets an upgrade to Android 2.2, you'll be able to use its flash as a light while capturing video. Perhaps this will fix the issue.The handset's microphone, meanwhile, picks up audio a bit too well: On the Epic our audio clip sounded far too loud and blown out, whereas some of the other smartphones in our comparison barely picked up the audio at all.
Out of all the powerful smartphone cameras I've tested lately, those of the Galaxy S phones have the cleanest, most user-friendly interface. Unlike with the iPhone 4, here you can pick from a wide variety of shooting modes (Vintage, Smile Detection, Panorama, Continuous, and many more) and easily tweak the camera's settings according to your environment and subject.
Notably the Epic also has a front-facing camera for making video calls. Sprint has preinstalled Qik on the Epic for your video-chatting pleasure. I was able to test Qik only over 3G, and its quality was too choppy to really carry on a conversation. I suspect the quality is much better over 4G.
Multimedia
The TouchWiz music player is touch-friendly and easy to navigate. It showcases album art nicely, too, with an iTunes Cover Flow-style user interface. Sound was clean over my own earbuds, and decent via the external speakers.
One of the most intriguing features of the Captivate is the Samsung Media Hub, which will come with all of the Galaxy S phones. Media Hub is Samsung's answer to iTunes, a store for purchasing music and video. Unfortunately, Media Hub is not yet available to users right now; according to my contact at Samsung, Media Hub will launch this fall. Customers will be able to download the service via an over-the-air update.
Unlike the EVO 4G, the Epic does not ship with YouTube HQ--a big disappointment. YouTube HQ is a feature that enhances certain YouTube videos' quality tremendously. Unfortunately, without HQ, YouTube videos are almost completely unwatchable on the Epic. With such an incredible screen, this omission seems like a big oversight.
Performance
Like the other Galaxy S phones, the Epic 4G is powered by a 1GHz Hummingbird processor. For the most part the Epic was incredibly fast, but I did encounter some stalls in the user interface in one particular action. I shared one of my Gallery photos with a friend via Gmail. As the phone was delivering the message, I attempted to browse through more gallery images. The Epic began to stutter and freeze between the images. I then closed the Gallery app and tried to open another--the phone completely froze for about 20 seconds. I was able to replicate this problem a second time when I tried to send another image. My contact did receive both images, but it was disturbing to see the phone freeze up like that as I was trying to send an attachment.
One of the big deals of the Epic 4G is evident in its name: It's the second 4G-support phone on Sprint. And as with the other handset, the HTC EVO 4G, you can use the Epic 4G as a mobile 4G hotspot and connect up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices to it. Unfortunately, we were unable to test the 4G performance on the Epic, as Sprint's WiMax network isn't switched on in the San Francisco Bay Area yet. I'll update this review once we review the Epic in a 4G-supported area.
Browsing the Web over Sprint's 3G network was sufficiently speedy, however. Call quality was also quite good, though I heard a bit of static on the line in a few calls.
Out of the Galaxy phones I've tested, the Epic 4G is definitely the best, and it's certainly one of the top Android phones available. The nicely designed physical keyboard, paired with the 4G goodness and front-facing camera, makes it hard to beat. The real question is whether it's a better choice than the HTC EVO 4G. It's a close call, but the Epic 4G slightly edges out the EVO.
As a multimedia device, the Epic wins. Although the Epic's display is smaller than the EVO's, its quality is better. The Epic also supports more video codecs, such as Xvid, DivX, and H.264 formats (the EVO doesn't). Then again, the Epic does not have an HDMI port, while the EVO does. In the camera department, the EVO's 8-megapixel snapper wins on image quality, but I like the Epic's user interface better. As for Android skins, it's really a matter of taste. And when it comes to input, the Epic definitely wins for having three software keyboards as well as a very good hardware keyboard.
Again, though, it is a close call, and the biggest difference between the two is the price: After a $100 mail-in rebate, the Epic 4G is $50 more than the $200 EVO 4G. But on top of that, as with the EVO 4G, you must buy a data plan for your Epic (Sprint's unlimited plan is $70, which is less expensive than AT&T or Verizon), as well as pay a $10 fee for 4G (even if 4G isn't supported in your area). And if you want to use the mobile hotspot, that's an additional $30 every month.
The follow-up to Motorola's wildly popular Droid on Verizon, the Droid X ($200 with a two-year service contract from Verizon; available July 15) is one of the hottest phones to debut this summer. Its specs outshine those on the other Droid phones available on the network, but it falters a bit when it comes to performance. Nonetheless, the Droid X is one of the top phones to debut this summer, on a par with both the HTC EVO 4G and the iPhone 4.
Like the original Droid, the Droid X has a black, soft rubberized back. Unlike the original, however, the X doesn't feel thick and clunky when held. This is due in part to the fact that the X does not have a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. But the X looks and feels much more refined than the original Droid. Its corners are more rounded and its rubberized edges make using it much more comfortable. Another welcome improvement: The X has physical hardware buttons (the familiar Menu, Home, Back, and Search buttons) as opposed to the original Droid's touch-sensitive buttons. The X's buttons are small and unobtrusive, too, and they light up brightly when activated. Overall, the Droid X looks much more elegant and modern than its predecessor.
The X also feels noticeably slimmer than the HTC EVO 4G, which also has a 4.3-inch display (The Droid X is 0.4 inch thick, while the EVO is 0.5 inch thick). Nevertheless, I prefer the EVO's rounded back. The Droid X has a flat back with a bump where the camera and flash are located. Though this bump isn't especially annoying, it is noticeable. The Droid X weighs in at 5.47 ounces--a bit less than the 6-ounce original Droid.
Aside from the four hardware buttons located below the display, the X has a small volume rocker and a skinny camera shutter key on the right spine of the phone. The power/unlock button sits at the top of the phone alongside the 3.5mm headphone jack. The left spine houses the micro-USB port and the X's HDMI port. The back houses the battery, the 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash, and the external speaker. Unlike the EVO 4G, the Droid X doesn't have a kickstand in the back. I don't find myself using the EVO's kickstand all that often, but some users might consider its absence from the Droid X an important oversight.
The X's 4.3-inch, WVGA 854-by-480-resolution display is a knockout. Colors look vibrant and details are crisp. The capacitive screen was quite responsive to my taps and swipes, too. One small gripe is that the phone is extremely glossy and reflective, so it could be difficult to see in bright indoor lighting at times. It also faded in bright sunlight outdoors, but was visible enough to permit me to navigate around the interface. Tomorrow we will do a much closer examination of how the Droid X's display stacks up against the iPhone 4's and the HTC EVO 4G's tomorrow, so stay tuned.
The X's display uses multitouch technology, which is also supported in both the browser and in the photo gallery. Multitouch extends to the X's software keyboard, too, which makes typing on a virtual keyboard feel much more natural and comfortable. The best example of how improved multitouch on a virtual keyboard works is the fact that you can hold down shift and hit another letter and both will register. I also like the fact that you have the option to use Swype on the Droid X. Swype lets you type faster and more easily with one continuous finger or stylus motion across the screen keyboard. In my own experience, Swype takes some practice, but it is pretty useful once you get the hang of it.
New and Improved MotoBlur
When I first read rumors that the X would be running Motorola's skin for Android, Motoblur, I was a little frightened. Though I like Motoblur for the most part, I find it busy, cluttered, and a bit inelegant. It's fine for lower-end phones like the Cliq, Backflip, and Cliq XT, but for a super phone like the X?
Thankfully, Motoblur has been toned down a lot. Gone are the chaotic bubbles taking over your homescreens to deliver Facebook status updates from high-school friends you no longer speak to or updates from random RSS feeds you subscribe to. MotoBlur might not be as attractive as HTC Sense, but I liked how sharp the icons and text appeared and how easy and intuitive navigation was.
Motoblur has been reduced to two widget bubbles on one homescreen, which you can sync with your social networks. Another new feature in this version of MotoBlur is a navigation bar that lets you quickly switch between your various homescreens without having to flick through all of them to get to what you want.
Unfortunately, the Droid X does not run the latest version of Android, Android 2.2 (aka Froyo). At launch you're stuck with 2.1 until later this summer when Droid X (and hopefully other Droid phones on Verizon) get the 2.2 update. You of course get all of the standard Google Android applications: Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and Talk for instant messaging.
Multimedia Machine
With a 4.3-inch display, the Droid X is just begging to be a portable video player. A few third-party video apps come preinstalled, including a Blockbuster app for downloading and watching feature-length movies, Skype Mobile, NFL Mobile (though I couldn't actually access NFL Network videos at this time) and others. Verizon has also expanded its VCast portal for downloading and watching TV shows, news, sports games (including World Cup games!) and other content. YouTube videos had the standard amount of fuzziness when played on the Droid X. Luckily, like the EVO 4G, you get a feature called HQ that enables you to watch better-quality videos (if they are available). You simply press the HQ button in the corner of the video, and a crisper, larger video--one that actually uses the Droid X's entire screen real estate--will load. The Droid X also has DLNA and HDMI connectivity, which is a boon to media addicts.
8-Megapixel Camera Is Good, Not Great
The Motorola Droid X's camera has a respectable variety of features, a touch-friendly and easy-to-use interface, and pretty good image quality overall. So what's my issue with the camera? Well, it has two problems: the phone-as-a-camera ergonomics, and the shutter speed. The dedicated shutter button is simply too rigid and difficult to press. You have to push hard to get the camera to take a snapshot, and sometimes this results in blurry images. The phone's odd shape--with the bulge where the camera is--also affects picture-taking. I was tempted to rest my fingers on that bump to get a better grip on the phone, but of course that meant I was blocking the lens with my finger. The X's shutter speed seemed a bit sluggish, too, which resulted in a few blurry "action shot" photos. It isn't nearly as slow as the original Droid, however.
We'll update this section with a more in-depth look at the Droid X's camera after we put it through our subjective camera test. We'll also match it up head-to-head against other smartphones, including the iPhone 4, the HTC EVO 4G, and the Samsung Galaxy S, so check back tomorrow for full results.
Solid Performance
Powered by a 1GHz processor, the Droid X seemed fairly speedy. Applications launched quickly, and switching between applications and homescreens took very little time. The phone did lag in certain areas though. For example, scrolling through the main menu wasn't always smooth and responsive. And oddly, whenever I swiped to unlock the phone, it stuttered a bit.
Media-rich Web pages loaded quickly over Verizon's 3G network. I was impressed with how quickly photos and videos loaded on PCWorld.com. Of course, you can't play those videos until you get the Android 2.2 update, which will deliver Adobe Flash Player 10.1 (required to watch PCWorld's videos) to the X.
Call quality was very good over Verizon's network. My contacts were impressed with how clear my voice sounded, with little background noise--even during a blustery day in San Francisco. A few of my contacts sounded a bit tinny over the phone, but I'm not sure whether this was due to their phones or to the Droid X.
The Droid X is definitely one of the top smartphones coming out this summer. In features, design, and usability, it is right up there with the HTC EVO 4G and the iPhone 4. I wish that it were a little faster and that the camera ergonomics were a bit more user-friendly, but overall it is definitely one of the top Android phones available right now.
Another day, another Droid phone lands on Verizon. The hotly anticipated Motorola Droid 2 ($200 with a two-year contract from Verizon; price as of 8/15/10) is definitely an upgrade from the original Droid when it comes to design, but its camera is weak, and the MotoBlur software sometimes detracts from the Android experience. Still, if you're craving an Android phone with a physical keyboard, the Droid 2 will certainly satisfy. (See the Droid 2 in action.)
have been upgraded to sculpted chrome, and the raised buttons along the spines of the phone are flatter and less obtrusive to the phone's profile. The backing is made of a soft-touch material that feels really nice to the hand. As a whole, the Droid 2 feels a class above the original model.The Droid 2's keyboard is a big improvement over the original's, which felt shallow and uncomfortable. Gone is the clunky four-way directional pad to the right of the keyboard that allowed room for wider keys. If you liked the d-pad on the original Droid, don't fret: There are still four arrow keys for extra navigation options. The keys are raised, which is a relief, as the original Droid's keys were too flat for my liking. Another improvement? No more dummy keys! The Droid had two completely useless key taking up precious keyboard real estate.
Unfortunately, the keyboard still isn't perfect: The top keys are very close to the ledge of the display, so your fingers are constantly knocking against it. Additionally, the keys felt mushy and not as tactile as I prefer for physical keyboards.
The display seems to be the same as the original Droid's, measuring 3.7 inches and having a resolution of 854 by 480 pixels. I've been spoiled by the 4.3-inch displays of the HTC EVO 4G and the Droid X, so 3.7 inches felt a bit small at first. But it is a perfectly fine size for Web browsing and watching video; and to be fair, it is larger than the iPhone's 3.5-inch screen.
This version of Motoblur has Android 2.2 running beneath it. Android 2.2 adds an overall speed boost to the OS, improved Exchange support (including Exchange calendar support--yay!) and camera and gallery tweaks.
The skin has been toned down a lot in comparison to the version on the Backflip and the Cliq. Gone are the chaotic bubbles taking over your homescreens to deliver Facebook status updates from high-school friends you no longer speak to or updates from random RSS feeds you subscribe to. MotoBlur isn't as attractive as HTC Sense, but I liked how sharp the icons and text appeared and how easy and intuitive navigation was.
Motoblur has been reduced to two widget bubbles on one homescreen, which you can sync with your social networks. Another new feature in this version of Motoblur is a navigation bar that lets you quickly switch between your various homescreens without having to flick through all of them to get to what you want.
Motoblur doesn't do a few things right, however. While you can upload pictures to your Google Picasa account, you can't view photos from that account. It seems nitpicky, but what if you're visiting family across the country and want to show them photos of your vacation without whipping out your laptop? Especially when you can see your Picasa album on vanilla Android 2.2?
Additionally, you're stuck with the Motoblur camera interface; you don't get the refined interface that comes with Android 2.2. For example, in order to bring up your shooting options in Motoblur, you have to touch the right side of the screen. And when you tilt the phone/camera, the controls don't rotate. With Android 2.2, these controls are always exposed on your screen. It is a tiny detail, but why adopt a custom skin on certain apps only to make them worse?
Of course, you get all of the standard Google Android applications: Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and Talk for instant messaging. There's an annoying amount of bloatware, like NFL Mobile, NFS Shift, and some Verizon-branded apps, but a few useful apps are thrown in there, such as Skype Mobile.
was bad, and the Droid 2's camera isn't much better. The 5-megapixel snapper took decent shots outdoors with bright, natural looking colors, but details weren't as sharp as photos taken with the Droid X or the iPhone 4.I was even less impressed with my indoor shots. A few had a greenish cast to them, but this may have been due to the lighting. Details were a bit soft too; not as sharp as photos taken with the recently reviewed XPeria X10. I also detected some graininess, and a few objects had a sort of ghostly aura around them. The camera's autofocus isn't very effective, and despite the nice variety of scene effects, I didn't find them to be very useful in improving my shots.
Another strange omission is the lack of support for 720p-quality video capture, which is pretty much the default for high-end cameras these days. The Droid 2 captures at 480p, and there's no dedicated "narration" mode for capturing your own musings via video. Video quality was decent, although a bit pixelated when capturing fast-moving objects. Despite the missing narration mode, the Droid X did capture audio pretty well. Another plus: one of the treats in Android 2.2 is the ability to use your camera's flash as a light for shooting video in dimly-lit environments.
Despite the sometimes slow-to-scroll browser, pages loaded pretty quickly over Verizon's 3G network. Call quality was also very good in San Francisco. I experienced no dropped calls, nor did I hear any static or hissing. Callers' voices sounded clean and natural.
Verizon customers have a difficult choice among the Droids: The HTC Droid Incredible, Motorola Droid X and the Droid 2 are all solid picks. If you're looking to get your money's worth, however, go with the Droid X or Droid Incredible. If your heart is set on a physical keyboard, however, you'll be perfectly happy with the Droid 2.
Resource: www.pcworld.com
Design
In the last week, I've reviewed three phones with hardware keyboards: the BlackBerry Torch, the Motorola Droid 2, and now the Epic 4G. Keyboard death watch? Not so much. Out of all of these phones, the Epic definitely has the best keyboard. The keys are nicely spaced and have a good clickiness to them.
If you don't feel like using the physical keyboard, you have even more options on the touchscreen. You can use the TouchWiz keyboard, the Swype keyboard, or the native Android keyboard. I found the display quite responsive, and big enough to type on comfortably.Like the other Galaxy S phones, the Epic 4G sports a 4-inch Super AMOLED display. Samsung's Super AMOLED technology puts touch sensors on the display itself, as opposed to creating a separate layer (which Samsung's old AMOLED displays had), making it the thinnest display technology on the market. Super AMOLED is fantastic--you really have to see it in person. Colors burst out of the display, and animations appear lively and smooth. Some reviewers have noted that colors look oversaturated, but I don't really mind the effect. The display also does quite well in bright outdoor light, too, though the phone's glossy hardware sometimes reflects a killer glare.
TouchWiz 3.0 Interface
The Samsung Epic 4G runs Android 2.1 ("Eclair") with Samsung's own TouchWiz 3.0 user interface. Overall, this version of TouchWiz is a lot better than the older iteration, which we saw on phones such as the Samsung Behold II for T-Mobile (a phone that was slow and difficult to navigate).
Although this version is an improvement, I encountered some familiar issues with TouchWiz 3.0. Despite the 1GHz Hummingbird processor, the phone lagged slightly when I flipped through menus and scrolled down contact lists or Web pages. Here's hoping the Epic will get a speed boost when it receives the upgrade to Android 2.2 ("Froyo").
Like HTC and its Sense offering, Samsung has its own social media aggregator. Social Hub combines streams from your Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter accounts into a single view. It is a useful feature if you need a simple way to keep track of your networks. One random feature is Mini Diary, which lets you create blog entries with photos, weather info, text messages, and more. When I first tried Mini Diary on the European Galaxy S, I couldn't figure out how to get my entries off the device. Samsung followed up with me after my original review, thankfully, and confirmed that you can indeed post entries (though only those with photos) to various social networks or send them to friends via text. After you create an entry, you press the Menu key in the bottom-left corner, and it gives you MMS and Publish options. If you choose Publish, you can send your item to Facebook or MySpace.
My biggest problem with the TouchWiz interface is that it is overdone--so much so that the result doesn't even look or feel like an Android phone. Additionally, the skin sometimes interfered with the speediness of the Epic (see the "Performance" section below). According to Samsung, the entire Galaxy S family will be upgradable to Android 2.2.
Camera
We put the 5-megapixel camera of the Epic 4G through a modified version of our PCWorld Labs test for point-and-shoot digital cameras, along with the iPhone 4, the Motorola Droid X, and the HTC EVO 4G. Unfortunately our test panel was not very impressed with the photo quality of the Epic, as it earned the lowest score out of the four and an overall word score of Fair. It finished ahead of the EVO 4G in exposure quality, but landed in last place in our color-accuracy, sharpness, and distortion tests.
In my own hands-on tests outdoors, I was pretty impressed with the image quality. Colors looked bright and natural, and details were sharp. Only a slight bit of graininess appeared in the shots; I had to look really closely on my monitor to see it.
On the other hand, the Epic took second place in overall video quality. Its performance skewed heavily toward good performance in bright light. According to our panel, its bright-light footage looked a bit underexposed and slightly grainy in a full-screen view, but great at smaller sizes. The autofocus searches a little before locking on to a crisp image. In low light, the footage was a touch too murky and undefined to earn a better rating. Once the Epic gets an upgrade to Android 2.2, you'll be able to use its flash as a light while capturing video. Perhaps this will fix the issue.The handset's microphone, meanwhile, picks up audio a bit too well: On the Epic our audio clip sounded far too loud and blown out, whereas some of the other smartphones in our comparison barely picked up the audio at all.
Out of all the powerful smartphone cameras I've tested lately, those of the Galaxy S phones have the cleanest, most user-friendly interface. Unlike with the iPhone 4, here you can pick from a wide variety of shooting modes (Vintage, Smile Detection, Panorama, Continuous, and many more) and easily tweak the camera's settings according to your environment and subject.
Notably the Epic also has a front-facing camera for making video calls. Sprint has preinstalled Qik on the Epic for your video-chatting pleasure. I was able to test Qik only over 3G, and its quality was too choppy to really carry on a conversation. I suspect the quality is much better over 4G.
Multimedia
The TouchWiz music player is touch-friendly and easy to navigate. It showcases album art nicely, too, with an iTunes Cover Flow-style user interface. Sound was clean over my own earbuds, and decent via the external speakers.
One of the most intriguing features of the Captivate is the Samsung Media Hub, which will come with all of the Galaxy S phones. Media Hub is Samsung's answer to iTunes, a store for purchasing music and video. Unfortunately, Media Hub is not yet available to users right now; according to my contact at Samsung, Media Hub will launch this fall. Customers will be able to download the service via an over-the-air update.
Unlike the EVO 4G, the Epic does not ship with YouTube HQ--a big disappointment. YouTube HQ is a feature that enhances certain YouTube videos' quality tremendously. Unfortunately, without HQ, YouTube videos are almost completely unwatchable on the Epic. With such an incredible screen, this omission seems like a big oversight.
Performance
Like the other Galaxy S phones, the Epic 4G is powered by a 1GHz Hummingbird processor. For the most part the Epic was incredibly fast, but I did encounter some stalls in the user interface in one particular action. I shared one of my Gallery photos with a friend via Gmail. As the phone was delivering the message, I attempted to browse through more gallery images. The Epic began to stutter and freeze between the images. I then closed the Gallery app and tried to open another--the phone completely froze for about 20 seconds. I was able to replicate this problem a second time when I tried to send another image. My contact did receive both images, but it was disturbing to see the phone freeze up like that as I was trying to send an attachment.
One of the big deals of the Epic 4G is evident in its name: It's the second 4G-support phone on Sprint. And as with the other handset, the HTC EVO 4G, you can use the Epic 4G as a mobile 4G hotspot and connect up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices to it. Unfortunately, we were unable to test the 4G performance on the Epic, as Sprint's WiMax network isn't switched on in the San Francisco Bay Area yet. I'll update this review once we review the Epic in a 4G-supported area.
Browsing the Web over Sprint's 3G network was sufficiently speedy, however. Call quality was also quite good, though I heard a bit of static on the line in a few calls.
Out of the Galaxy phones I've tested, the Epic 4G is definitely the best, and it's certainly one of the top Android phones available. The nicely designed physical keyboard, paired with the 4G goodness and front-facing camera, makes it hard to beat. The real question is whether it's a better choice than the HTC EVO 4G. It's a close call, but the Epic 4G slightly edges out the EVO.
As a multimedia device, the Epic wins. Although the Epic's display is smaller than the EVO's, its quality is better. The Epic also supports more video codecs, such as Xvid, DivX, and H.264 formats (the EVO doesn't). Then again, the Epic does not have an HDMI port, while the EVO does. In the camera department, the EVO's 8-megapixel snapper wins on image quality, but I like the Epic's user interface better. As for Android skins, it's really a matter of taste. And when it comes to input, the Epic definitely wins for having three software keyboards as well as a very good hardware keyboard.
Again, though, it is a close call, and the biggest difference between the two is the price: After a $100 mail-in rebate, the Epic 4G is $50 more than the $200 EVO 4G. But on top of that, as with the EVO 4G, you must buy a data plan for your Epic (Sprint's unlimited plan is $70, which is less expensive than AT&T or Verizon), as well as pay a $10 fee for 4G (even if 4G isn't supported in your area). And if you want to use the mobile hotspot, that's an additional $30 every month.
02.HTC EVO 4G: A Multimedia Powerhouse
HTC has struck gold again with the HTC EVO 4G ($200 with a two-year contract from Sprint), which is easily the best Android smartphone available. The EVO 4G packs powerful specs and a lot of features in a slick, stylish design. The biggest drawback is that not everyone will get to experience 4G connectivity, one of the phone's best features at launch--yet they'll still have to pay for it.
In addition to the phone's $200 price tag, EVO 4G owners will have to shell out $70 per month for unlimited data, as well as a mandatory $10 Premium Data add-on for 4G use. Given that only a handful of cities have WiMax coverage, this strikes me as unfair. Why should a user in, say, San Francisco have to pay that additional fee if they don't have 4G available to them?
Design-wise, the EVO 4G is a bit imposing with its 4.3-inch WVGA (800-by-480-pixel) touchscreen, glossy black bezel, and blood-red detailing. Measuring 4.8 by 2.6 by 0.5 inches, the EVO 4G is also a bit larger than your average smartphone. Even so, it feels pretty comfortable to hold (and my hands are small), and I was able to use it with one hand without any issues. Like the HTC-built Nexus One, the four navigation buttons (Home, Menu, Back, Search) are part of the display rather than physical keys. This gives the EVO 4G a sleek, minimalist look. In my hands-on tests, I found the touch-sensitive buttons quite responsive, as well. The phone also has a much-hyped front-facing camera, which I'll cover later in this review.
Like the Nexus One, the EVO 4G has no dedicated camera key on its spine. The right edge houses the volume rocker. At the top of the phone sits the 3.5mm headphone jack and the power button. At the bottom is the HDMI port, along with the Micro-USB connector for both data transfer and charging.
Flip the EVO 4G over, and you'll find the 8-megapixel camera and dual LED flash, plus the phone's sturdy kickstand for tabletop video watching. When you pull out the kickstand, you see the aforementioned blood-red detailing. Remove the rubberized, matte-black battery cover, and you're greeted with even more color; the phone's interior and battery cover are both that same shade of red. HTC pulled the same design move with the Droid Incredible, as well as with the HD Mini (except that phone's interior is mustard yellow).
Honestly, the native Android keyboard isn't my favorite; the keys are too narrow and tightly packed, and its dictionary isn't always as on-point as the iPhone 3GS's. For an alternative, however, I recommend downloading the keyboard app ThickButtons, which follows a letter-by-letter algorithm to shrink the letters that you aren't likely to use and enlarge the buttons that you are.
Friend Stream, HTC's social network aggregator, allows you to view your friends' status updates, shared links, and pictures all in one seamless view. Supported social networks include Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and others. I find such social network feeds a bit annoying--do I really need to see everybody's tweets and Facebook status updates all mixed up together? But I suppose if you're an avid social networker, seeing all of these updates in one place is useful.
One feature I found especially cool: You can tap and drag to highlight a block of text and either look up a word in a dictionary or translate it via Google Translate.
Along with the standard Android applications, such as Gmail, Google Talk, and YouTube, the phone offers HTC's Twitter app (Peep) and its photo-geotagging app (Footprints). In addition, you get a handful of Sprint apps, like SprintTV, Sprint Navigation, Sprint Zone, and Sprint Football Live.
Video playback via SprintTV was a disappointment, however. The video stuttered quite a bit, and the sound didn't match up. According to other reviews I've seen, it wasn't much better over a 4G connection, either.
In Video: Sprint's HTC EVO 4G is One of The Best Android Smartphones Yet
Photo quality was impressive, both indoors and out. Colors appeared vivid but natural, and details looked sharp. My only complaint was that the flash tended to blow out details and color in indoor shots (see below).
Indoors with flash
Indoors, without flash
You can also capture HD video with the EVO's 4G camera. I was really pleased with how well my videos turned out, though the results don't hold a candle to those of a 1080p camcorder (see test video below). You can output your photos and videos in HD quality (720p) via the HDMI port. Of course, you'll have to purchase an HDMI cable--which is unfortunately sold separately.
To share videos, look no further than Qik, an application that will come preloaded on the EVO 4G. One of my favorite mobile apps, Qik allows you to stream live videos from your phone to your family and friends, as well as to share them via social networking sites like Facebook. And, yes, Qik supports HD-quality videos.
Last but not least, the EVO 4G sports a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera with video recording. This feature, paired with 4G speeds, opens up many exciting opportunities for app developers. I'm anticipating lots of apps with integrated video-chat clients. Imagine being able to play a multiplayer game while video-chatting with your opponents. Or, what if you could watch a video while simultaneously discussing it with a friend? The application possibilities are endless.
Sprint says its 4G network delivers peak download speeds that are up to 10 times faster than 3G average download speeds. Though Sprint has been talking about its WiMax service (provided via the Clearwire network) for a few years now, we haven't seen many WiMax-enabled devices outside of laptop cards and modems.
If you are in a 4G-connected area, you can use voice and data simultaneously. I'm sure you've seen those Luke Wilson AT&T commercials, so you know this is a necessary feature. Yes, you can look up a restaurant while you're on the phone making dinner plans with your friends (even though that's kind of rude). Really, though, the most useful purpose for this function is when you're connected to the mobile 4G hotspot: You won't be disconnected if you get a phone call.
With the built-in mobile hotspot, you can connect up to eight Wi-Fi-enabled devices, including a laptop, camera, music player, video player, and any other Wi-Fi-enabled device, to the 4G network. Connecting to the hotspot is simple: You can access it either by a dedicated icon on the Launcher or in your Settings menu. You then type in your SSID name, the encryption type, and your password, and you're good to go. The hotspot will cost you $30 per month on top of the $80 for the data plan and Premium Data add-on. Fortunately, there's no cap on data usage.
Like the Nexus One, the HD2, and the Droid Incredible, the EVO 4G runs on Qualcomm's 1GHz Snapdragon processor. The EVO 4G was pretty speedy in my hands-on tests, even when I had multiple applications open. Applications launched quickly, too, though a few crashed on me (Sprint Football Live and Qik were the offenders).
Though Sprint hasn't released numbers for talk-time or stand-by time, I found that I was able to go a full day with moderate data usage without needing to recharge. 4G connectivity will definitely affect battery life, however, and we'll update our review once we're able to test it.
The HTC EVO 4G represents a huge step forward for both the Android platform and Sprint's 4G network. Unfortunately, it might be a little too ahead of its time, as 4G is fairly limited here in the United States. Aside from that issue, the EVO 4G is a winner with its solid hardware, multimedia capabilities, and speediness. Even if you don't have 4G connectivity in your city, you'll be pleased with this smartphone. But don't say I didn't warn you about that additional $10-per-month fee.
In addition to the phone's $200 price tag, EVO 4G owners will have to shell out $70 per month for unlimited data, as well as a mandatory $10 Premium Data add-on for 4G use. Given that only a handful of cities have WiMax coverage, this strikes me as unfair. Why should a user in, say, San Francisco have to pay that additional fee if they don't have 4G available to them?
Minimalist Design
Though I'm all for recyclable, minimal packaging, the EVO 4G's box is a little strange. A colleague pointed out that it resembles a tofu container. Other reviews have remarked that it looks like a microwavable meal. But really, it's what's inside the box that matters. The EVO 4G comes with the bare minimum: a Micro-USB cable, a USB wall charger, a 1500mAh battery, and an 8GB MicroSD card.Design-wise, the EVO 4G is a bit imposing with its 4.3-inch WVGA (800-by-480-pixel) touchscreen, glossy black bezel, and blood-red detailing. Measuring 4.8 by 2.6 by 0.5 inches, the EVO 4G is also a bit larger than your average smartphone. Even so, it feels pretty comfortable to hold (and my hands are small), and I was able to use it with one hand without any issues. Like the HTC-built Nexus One, the four navigation buttons (Home, Menu, Back, Search) are part of the display rather than physical keys. This gives the EVO 4G a sleek, minimalist look. In my hands-on tests, I found the touch-sensitive buttons quite responsive, as well. The phone also has a much-hyped front-facing camera, which I'll cover later in this review.
Like the Nexus One, the EVO 4G has no dedicated camera key on its spine. The right edge houses the volume rocker. At the top of the phone sits the 3.5mm headphone jack and the power button. At the bottom is the HDMI port, along with the Micro-USB connector for both data transfer and charging.
Flip the EVO 4G over, and you'll find the 8-megapixel camera and dual LED flash, plus the phone's sturdy kickstand for tabletop video watching. When you pull out the kickstand, you see the aforementioned blood-red detailing. Remove the rubberized, matte-black battery cover, and you're greeted with even more color; the phone's interior and battery cover are both that same shade of red. HTC pulled the same design move with the Droid Incredible, as well as with the HD Mini (except that phone's interior is mustard yellow).
Honestly, the native Android keyboard isn't my favorite; the keys are too narrow and tightly packed, and its dictionary isn't always as on-point as the iPhone 3GS's. For an alternative, however, I recommend downloading the keyboard app ThickButtons, which follows a letter-by-letter algorithm to shrink the letters that you aren't likely to use and enlarge the buttons that you are.
Android 2.1 With Sense
Out of all of the custom skins for Android, HTC Sense is definitely my favorite. It is the easiest on the eyes, and it doesn't bog down the operating system by trying to do too much. The latest iteration of Sense features Leap, which is essentially an elegant way of handling multitasking; it's actually a bit reminiscent of Palm's WebOS deck-of-cards visualization. Pinch anywhere on the homescreen, and you'll jump to seven thumbnail versions of your open pages. From there, you can go to any of those open applications or close out of one.Friend Stream, HTC's social network aggregator, allows you to view your friends' status updates, shared links, and pictures all in one seamless view. Supported social networks include Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and others. I find such social network feeds a bit annoying--do I really need to see everybody's tweets and Facebook status updates all mixed up together? But I suppose if you're an avid social networker, seeing all of these updates in one place is useful.One feature I found especially cool: You can tap and drag to highlight a block of text and either look up a word in a dictionary or translate it via Google Translate.
Along with the standard Android applications, such as Gmail, Google Talk, and YouTube, the phone offers HTC's Twitter app (Peep) and its photo-geotagging app (Footprints). In addition, you get a handful of Sprint apps, like SprintTV, Sprint Navigation, Sprint Zone, and Sprint Football Live.
Multimedia Machine
I'm not really a fan of HTC's Sense music player. Why? The album art doesn't take advantage of the EVO 4G's large display while the app is in Now Playing mode; it remains thumbnail-size. The Sense player is slightly prettier than the dull-as-dirt Android player, but I prefer iTunes or Palm's WebOS player. Audio sounded good, though, and the player supports a respectable range of audio and video formats. On YouTube, you get a feature called HQ, which enables you to watch better-quality videos (if available). You simply press the HQ button in the corner of the video, and a crisper, larger video--one that actually uses the EVO 4G's entire screen real estate--will load. Better yet, no 4G connectivity is needed.Video playback via SprintTV was a disappointment, however. The video stuttered quite a bit, and the sound didn't match up. According to other reviews I've seen, it wasn't much better over a 4G connection, either.
In Video: Sprint's HTC EVO 4G is One of The Best Android Smartphones Yet
Superb 8-Megapixel Camera
While 5 megapixels seems to be the standard for high-end smartphone cameras, the EVO 4G goes a step further with an 8-megapixel camera with a dual-LED flash. As with the iPhone 3GS, you can touch to focus on a subject. The camera's user interface is pretty straightforward, too, and it offers a handful of advanced controls such as exposure, color, white balance, and various photo effects.Photo quality was impressive, both indoors and out. Colors appeared vivid but natural, and details looked sharp. My only complaint was that the flash tended to blow out details and color in indoor shots (see below).
Indoors with flashIndoors, without flashYou can also capture HD video with the EVO's 4G camera. I was really pleased with how well my videos turned out, though the results don't hold a candle to those of a 1080p camcorder (see test video below). You can output your photos and videos in HD quality (720p) via the HDMI port. Of course, you'll have to purchase an HDMI cable--which is unfortunately sold separately.To share videos, look no further than Qik, an application that will come preloaded on the EVO 4G. One of my favorite mobile apps, Qik allows you to stream live videos from your phone to your family and friends, as well as to share them via social networking sites like Facebook. And, yes, Qik supports HD-quality videos.
Last but not least, the EVO 4G sports a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera with video recording. This feature, paired with 4G speeds, opens up many exciting opportunities for app developers. I'm anticipating lots of apps with integrated video-chat clients. Imagine being able to play a multiplayer game while video-chatting with your opponents. Or, what if you could watch a video while simultaneously discussing it with a friend? The application possibilities are endless.
4G and Mobile Hotspot
Unfortunately, at this time we were unable to test the phone's 4G speeds and features, as 4G coverage has not yet rolled out in San Francisco. For more information on the advantages of 4G, see "4G Wireless: 20 Questions Asked & Answered." We'll follow up with more testing as soon as possible.Sprint says its 4G network delivers peak download speeds that are up to 10 times faster than 3G average download speeds. Though Sprint has been talking about its WiMax service (provided via the Clearwire network) for a few years now, we haven't seen many WiMax-enabled devices outside of laptop cards and modems.
If you are in a 4G-connected area, you can use voice and data simultaneously. I'm sure you've seen those Luke Wilson AT&T commercials, so you know this is a necessary feature. Yes, you can look up a restaurant while you're on the phone making dinner plans with your friends (even though that's kind of rude). Really, though, the most useful purpose for this function is when you're connected to the mobile 4G hotspot: You won't be disconnected if you get a phone call.
With the built-in mobile hotspot, you can connect up to eight Wi-Fi-enabled devices, including a laptop, camera, music player, video player, and any other Wi-Fi-enabled device, to the 4G network. Connecting to the hotspot is simple: You can access it either by a dedicated icon on the Launcher or in your Settings menu. You then type in your SSID name, the encryption type, and your password, and you're good to go. The hotspot will cost you $30 per month on top of the $80 for the data plan and Premium Data add-on. Fortunately, there's no cap on data usage.
Solid Performance
We were able to test 3G performance, and overall I was impressed with how quickly multimedia-rich pages loaded over Sprint's network. Additionally, I was pleased with how clear my phone calls were in San Francisco. A few of my colleagues on the other end of the line noted that my voice sounded a bit tinny, but my voice was still sufficiently loud and clear--even while I stood on a busy street corner.Like the Nexus One, the HD2, and the Droid Incredible, the EVO 4G runs on Qualcomm's 1GHz Snapdragon processor. The EVO 4G was pretty speedy in my hands-on tests, even when I had multiple applications open. Applications launched quickly, too, though a few crashed on me (Sprint Football Live and Qik were the offenders).
Though Sprint hasn't released numbers for talk-time or stand-by time, I found that I was able to go a full day with moderate data usage without needing to recharge. 4G connectivity will definitely affect battery life, however, and we'll update our review once we're able to test it.
The HTC EVO 4G represents a huge step forward for both the Android platform and Sprint's 4G network. Unfortunately, it might be a little too ahead of its time, as 4G is fairly limited here in the United States. Aside from that issue, the EVO 4G is a winner with its solid hardware, multimedia capabilities, and speediness. Even if you don't have 4G connectivity in your city, you'll be pleased with this smartphone. But don't say I didn't warn you about that additional $10-per-month fee.
03.Apple's iPhone 4 Lives Up to All Expectations
The Apple iPhone 4 ($199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB version, with a two-year contract from AT&T) is everything that a new piece of technology should be: It's innovative, attractive, and ahead of its competition. In comparison, previous iPhone upgrades seem inconsequential--that's how much iPhone 4 brings to the table. But two serious design flaws keep it from being perfect. Before there were fixes, we were hesistant to recommend the phone and therefore removed its rating. Now that both of these issues have been addressed and fixed, we have reinstated a rating for the iPhone 4 and put it back on our Top 10 Phones chart.
By now, you've probably heard all about the iPhone 4's poorly placed antenna and dropped data speeds when the phone is held in a certain way. Apple addressed this issue in a press conference on July 16 and offered free cases to iPhone owners as a solution. This fix is a clumsy solution to the problem, but it does fix the dropped calls issue.
Perhaps a bigger issue was the phone's faulty proximity sensor, which caused the phone to activate while you made a phone call. Before the fix, we accidentally sent e-mails with our cheeks, turned on FaceTime and muted the phone while on a call. Fortunately, the iOS 4.1 update, available on September 8, completely fixes the proximity sensor problem.
For more detailed accounts of some of the issues we've had with the phone, read iPhone 4 Fix: Many Questions Left Unanswered and iPhone 4 Hell: A Personal Tale of iPhone 4 Woes.
It's noticeably slimmer than the iPhone 3GS, measuring 0.37 inch deep versus the iPhone 3GS's thickness of 0.48 inch (that translates to 24 percent less). The iPhone 4 is also slightly narrower, 2.31 inches to 2.44 inches. The weight stays the same at 4.8 ounces, but the tweaks to the dimensions make the iPhone 3GS seem almost blocky in comparison. (See all iPhone 4 specs.)
However, it's the aesthetic design touches that make the iPhone 4 an upgrade from the 3GS. The overall design screams elegance--from the rounded, individual volume up and down buttons that replace the plastic volume rocker on the iPhone 3GS to the ring/silent switch and the power/sleep button up top. The face and back are made of glass that is specially treated to withstand scratches and oily fingers, according to Apple. Despite the company's claims, though, I found that both the front and back of my review unit were ridden with fingerprints after only a couple of hours of use.
The side edging is stainless steel, and doubles as the device's three cellular and wireless antennas. At the iPhone 4 launch, Steve Jobs proclaimed that this new design would improve wireless reception. Hooray, we thought--until we heard about its serious design flaw. When you hold a phone, you're sometimes inclined to grip it by its edges. But if you hold the iPhone 4 by its edges, your fingers might block its antennas, thus seriously degrading the wireless connectivity. Senior Editor Mark Sullivan conducted a series of data tests around San Francisco to see how much the connectivity was affected by this, ahem, design fail. In the majority of his tests, he saw dramatic decreases in connectivity. Apple's response to this problem? The company essentially suggests that users not hold the phone in that way.
Like its predecessor, the iPhone 4 has a 3.5-inch display. But the new phone's screen doubles the resolution to a 960-by-640-pixel IPS display. At 326 pixels per inch, this is the highest resolution available on a phone to date.
That display truly makes a difference. Whereas the iPhone 3GS's text--in the menus, in apps, or on Web pages--appears thick, fuzzy, and undefined, the iPhone 4's text is razor sharp, even when enlarged (as we tried doing when viewing a PDF).
The new "Retina display"--so named because it surpasses the number of pixels that the human retina can process--also greatly improves the sharpness, clarity, and visible detail of images.
In both cases, we'd liken the magnitude of difference to that between a standard-definition 480p DVD and a high-definition 1080p Blu-ray Disc: When you view both on an HDTV, the differences are striking. And once you see them, you can't go back.
The real value of the new display will become evident for people who spend time reading on the iPhone 4. We expect that the display will make reading a more pleasurable experience (although, clearly, limits will remain given the inherently modest screen size--modest, at least, as compared with handsets such as the HTC EVO 4G, which has a 4.3-inch screen, and with the much larger 9.7-inch iPad screen).
As part of iOS 4, the iPhone 4 gains a bevy of capabilities. One of them--multitasking--is long overdue, but as with the long-awaited cut-and-paste feature, Apple delivers on the promise of making multitasking work smoothly.
You quickly double-tap on the home button to pull up a pane that shows which apps are open. From there, you can swipe horizontally through the apps that the iPhone 4 has retained in either a running or suspended state.
When you find the app you want, you just click on the icon. The app will then resume its activity, and, if written to take advantage of this new feature, it will pick up precisely where you left off. At the very least, reaccessing the app will be faster.
Equally as elegant as multitasking is Apple's implementation of Folders, an increasingly necessary addition. To add icons into a folder, you simply drag one icon on top of another to create the folder, which automatically gets the name of the category those apps share--or, if you prefer, you can rename the folder on the spot. You can pack a maximum of 12 apps within a single folder (giving you three rows of four apps across the home screen). And, thanks to the addition of Folders, you can now add up to a maximum of 2160 apps.
PCWorld's testing methodology for the iPhone 4's camera (as well three Android smartphones) was a truncated version of our regular testing methodology for point-and-shoot cameras. We affixed each phone to a tripod and shot two images with the flash turned off:
1. One still-life scene with a color chart and delightful random objects to rate exposure quality and color accuracy.
2. A target chart and printed text to evaluate sharpness and distortion levels.
Here's evidence that megapixel counts rarely matter: Apple's 5-megapixel iPhone 4 beat out the other smartphones we tested for overall image quality, serving up well-exposed, brightly colored images. However, the iPhone 4's image quality did lag behind the competition in two categories, sharpness and visible distortion.
We tested the camcorder capabilities of the iPhone 4 (along with those same three Android smartphones) in the same way we test pocket digital camcorders. Lab Manager Tony Leung recorded a 1-minute video of a toy train and Ferris wheel to gauge several aspects of the video quality: smoothness of motion, color accuracy, and artifacting. We shot the same scene twice, with each device in the same tripod location at its highest video-quality setting--once in bright indoor lighting, and again with the overhead lights turned off and a floor lamp turned on behind the phone. Once we shot all of the footage, our panel of judges rated each clip for its overall quality.
For more, read our full report, "Smartphone Camera Battle: iPhone 4 vs. the Android Army."
Unfortunately, we didn't get to fully test the front-facing camera, another addition to the iPhone 4. This camera is integral to Apple's FaceTime videophone app, which works only for communicating between two iPhone 4 handsets.
In our informal performance testing in San Francisco, the AT&T-connected iPhone 4 registered an average download speed of 1958 kbps (almost 2 mbps) across our five testing locations in the city. In our head-to-head tests with the Motorola Droid X on Verizon, the iPhone 4 was the clear winner in speed. The two new devices posted similar average upload speeds; the iPhone 4 registered 434 kbps and the Droid X averaged 564 kbps. Those upload speeds are fast enough to support basic file sharing but not enough to make fat-pipe apps such as multiplayer gaming or videoconferencing run well.
Unlike the previous jump, from the iPhone 3G to the 3GS--which focused on slight performance improvements--the iPhone 4 bolsters the hardware's digital imaging capabilities and its display, making it a comprehensive and measurable upgrade over its predecessor.
But the iPhone 4 isn't the only hot phone this summer--some enticing Android-powered smartphones are out there, as well. If you're fed up with AT&T's service issues or want to try something beyond the Apple universe, check out the HTC EVO 4G on Sprint, the Motorola Droid X on Verizon, and the Samsung Galaxy S phones coming to all four major carriers.
By now, you've probably heard all about the iPhone 4's poorly placed antenna and dropped data speeds when the phone is held in a certain way. Apple addressed this issue in a press conference on July 16 and offered free cases to iPhone owners as a solution. This fix is a clumsy solution to the problem, but it does fix the dropped calls issue.
Perhaps a bigger issue was the phone's faulty proximity sensor, which caused the phone to activate while you made a phone call. Before the fix, we accidentally sent e-mails with our cheeks, turned on FaceTime and muted the phone while on a call. Fortunately, the iOS 4.1 update, available on September 8, completely fixes the proximity sensor problem.
For more detailed accounts of some of the issues we've had with the phone, read iPhone 4 Fix: Many Questions Left Unanswered and iPhone 4 Hell: A Personal Tale of iPhone 4 Woes.
Premium Design
The iPhone 4's look can be described in one word: stylish. Whereas the iPhone 3GS looks and feels plasticky, the iPhone 4 is svelte and has a premium feel. Surprisingly, it achieves that impression while retaining the same general design, although the edges appear a bit more squared than before.It's noticeably slimmer than the iPhone 3GS, measuring 0.37 inch deep versus the iPhone 3GS's thickness of 0.48 inch (that translates to 24 percent less). The iPhone 4 is also slightly narrower, 2.31 inches to 2.44 inches. The weight stays the same at 4.8 ounces, but the tweaks to the dimensions make the iPhone 3GS seem almost blocky in comparison. (See all iPhone 4 specs.)
However, it's the aesthetic design touches that make the iPhone 4 an upgrade from the 3GS. The overall design screams elegance--from the rounded, individual volume up and down buttons that replace the plastic volume rocker on the iPhone 3GS to the ring/silent switch and the power/sleep button up top. The face and back are made of glass that is specially treated to withstand scratches and oily fingers, according to Apple. Despite the company's claims, though, I found that both the front and back of my review unit were ridden with fingerprints after only a couple of hours of use.
The side edging is stainless steel, and doubles as the device's three cellular and wireless antennas. At the iPhone 4 launch, Steve Jobs proclaimed that this new design would improve wireless reception. Hooray, we thought--until we heard about its serious design flaw. When you hold a phone, you're sometimes inclined to grip it by its edges. But if you hold the iPhone 4 by its edges, your fingers might block its antennas, thus seriously degrading the wireless connectivity. Senior Editor Mark Sullivan conducted a series of data tests around San Francisco to see how much the connectivity was affected by this, ahem, design fail. In the majority of his tests, he saw dramatic decreases in connectivity. Apple's response to this problem? The company essentially suggests that users not hold the phone in that way.
Gorgeous Display
Of course, the iPhone 4 isn't just about cosmetic enhancements, pleasing as they are. What makes this phone such a technological improvement is what's inside the handset.Like its predecessor, the iPhone 4 has a 3.5-inch display. But the new phone's screen doubles the resolution to a 960-by-640-pixel IPS display. At 326 pixels per inch, this is the highest resolution available on a phone to date.
That display truly makes a difference. Whereas the iPhone 3GS's text--in the menus, in apps, or on Web pages--appears thick, fuzzy, and undefined, the iPhone 4's text is razor sharp, even when enlarged (as we tried doing when viewing a PDF).
The new "Retina display"--so named because it surpasses the number of pixels that the human retina can process--also greatly improves the sharpness, clarity, and visible detail of images.
In both cases, we'd liken the magnitude of difference to that between a standard-definition 480p DVD and a high-definition 1080p Blu-ray Disc: When you view both on an HDTV, the differences are striking. And once you see them, you can't go back.
The real value of the new display will become evident for people who spend time reading on the iPhone 4. We expect that the display will make reading a more pleasurable experience (although, clearly, limits will remain given the inherently modest screen size--modest, at least, as compared with handsets such as the HTC EVO 4G, which has a 4.3-inch screen, and with the much larger 9.7-inch iPad screen).
iOS 4: Best Features
The iPhone 4 uses Apple's A4 CPU, the same processor powering the Apple iPad. It runs the newly renamed iOS 4 operating system (which the iPad will also use, starting in the fall).As part of iOS 4, the iPhone 4 gains a bevy of capabilities. One of them--multitasking--is long overdue, but as with the long-awaited cut-and-paste feature, Apple delivers on the promise of making multitasking work smoothly.
You quickly double-tap on the home button to pull up a pane that shows which apps are open. From there, you can swipe horizontally through the apps that the iPhone 4 has retained in either a running or suspended state.
When you find the app you want, you just click on the icon. The app will then resume its activity, and, if written to take advantage of this new feature, it will pick up precisely where you left off. At the very least, reaccessing the app will be faster.
Equally as elegant as multitasking is Apple's implementation of Folders, an increasingly necessary addition. To add icons into a folder, you simply drag one icon on top of another to create the folder, which automatically gets the name of the category those apps share--or, if you prefer, you can rename the folder on the spot. You can pack a maximum of 12 apps within a single folder (giving you three rows of four apps across the home screen). And, thanks to the addition of Folders, you can now add up to a maximum of 2160 apps.
Dramatic Camera Boost
The iPhone 4 brings much-desired camera and video recording advances, as well. The primary camera on the back bumps up from 3 megapixels to 5 megapixels, while retaining the same pixel size (which can further improve image quality). The camera also gains an LED flash, a backlit sensor, and an integrated 5X zoom. The camera now lets you shoot in high-def, at 720p, 30 frames per second; in addition, video gains the tap-to-focus feature already available on the still camera.PCWorld's testing methodology for the iPhone 4's camera (as well three Android smartphones) was a truncated version of our regular testing methodology for point-and-shoot cameras. We affixed each phone to a tripod and shot two images with the flash turned off:
1. One still-life scene with a color chart and delightful random objects to rate exposure quality and color accuracy.
2. A target chart and printed text to evaluate sharpness and distortion levels.
Here's evidence that megapixel counts rarely matter: Apple's 5-megapixel iPhone 4 beat out the other smartphones we tested for overall image quality, serving up well-exposed, brightly colored images. However, the iPhone 4's image quality did lag behind the competition in two categories, sharpness and visible distortion.
We tested the camcorder capabilities of the iPhone 4 (along with those same three Android smartphones) in the same way we test pocket digital camcorders. Lab Manager Tony Leung recorded a 1-minute video of a toy train and Ferris wheel to gauge several aspects of the video quality: smoothness of motion, color accuracy, and artifacting. We shot the same scene twice, with each device in the same tripod location at its highest video-quality setting--once in bright indoor lighting, and again with the overhead lights turned off and a floor lamp turned on behind the phone. Once we shot all of the footage, our panel of judges rated each clip for its overall quality.
Apple iPhone 4: Bright-Light Video Test
Apple iPhone 4: Low-Light Video Test
For more, read our full report, "Smartphone Camera Battle: iPhone 4 vs. the Android Army."
Unfortunately, we didn't get to fully test the front-facing camera, another addition to the iPhone 4. This camera is integral to Apple's FaceTime videophone app, which works only for communicating between two iPhone 4 handsets.
Improved Voice and Data Over AT&T
Bad-sounding and dropped voice calls are one of the biggest gripes of iPhone users here in San Francisco. Fortunately, the iPhone 4's new antenna seemed to improve the experience considerably. In almost all the test calls we placed around the city, calls on the iPhone 4 sounded better than calls on the new Motorola Droid X. Calls sounded more natural, and were more pleasing to listen to on the other end of the line. We recorded no dropped calls on AT&T.In our informal performance testing in San Francisco, the AT&T-connected iPhone 4 registered an average download speed of 1958 kbps (almost 2 mbps) across our five testing locations in the city. In our head-to-head tests with the Motorola Droid X on Verizon, the iPhone 4 was the clear winner in speed. The two new devices posted similar average upload speeds; the iPhone 4 registered 434 kbps and the Droid X averaged 564 kbps. Those upload speeds are fast enough to support basic file sharing but not enough to make fat-pipe apps such as multiplayer gaming or videoconferencing run well.
iPhone 4: Worth the Upgrade?
The iPhone 4 is a must-have for anyone with an original iPhone or iPhone 3G (the former won't get the iOS 4 upgrade at all, while the 3G won't support some features). And people who have an iPhone 3GS will find this a worthy upgrade, too.Unlike the previous jump, from the iPhone 3G to the 3GS--which focused on slight performance improvements--the iPhone 4 bolsters the hardware's digital imaging capabilities and its display, making it a comprehensive and measurable upgrade over its predecessor.
But the iPhone 4 isn't the only hot phone this summer--some enticing Android-powered smartphones are out there, as well. If you're fed up with AT&T's service issues or want to try something beyond the Apple universe, check out the HTC EVO 4G on Sprint, the Motorola Droid X on Verizon, and the Samsung Galaxy S phones coming to all four major carriers.
04.Motorola Droid X: The Best of the Droids
Like the original Droid, the Droid X has a black, soft rubberized back. Unlike the original, however, the X doesn't feel thick and clunky when held. This is due in part to the fact that the X does not have a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. But the X looks and feels much more refined than the original Droid. Its corners are more rounded and its rubberized edges make using it much more comfortable. Another welcome improvement: The X has physical hardware buttons (the familiar Menu, Home, Back, and Search buttons) as opposed to the original Droid's touch-sensitive buttons. The X's buttons are small and unobtrusive, too, and they light up brightly when activated. Overall, the Droid X looks much more elegant and modern than its predecessor.
The X also feels noticeably slimmer than the HTC EVO 4G, which also has a 4.3-inch display (The Droid X is 0.4 inch thick, while the EVO is 0.5 inch thick). Nevertheless, I prefer the EVO's rounded back. The Droid X has a flat back with a bump where the camera and flash are located. Though this bump isn't especially annoying, it is noticeable. The Droid X weighs in at 5.47 ounces--a bit less than the 6-ounce original Droid.
Aside from the four hardware buttons located below the display, the X has a small volume rocker and a skinny camera shutter key on the right spine of the phone. The power/unlock button sits at the top of the phone alongside the 3.5mm headphone jack. The left spine houses the micro-USB port and the X's HDMI port. The back houses the battery, the 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash, and the external speaker. Unlike the EVO 4G, the Droid X doesn't have a kickstand in the back. I don't find myself using the EVO's kickstand all that often, but some users might consider its absence from the Droid X an important oversight.
The X's 4.3-inch, WVGA 854-by-480-resolution display is a knockout. Colors look vibrant and details are crisp. The capacitive screen was quite responsive to my taps and swipes, too. One small gripe is that the phone is extremely glossy and reflective, so it could be difficult to see in bright indoor lighting at times. It also faded in bright sunlight outdoors, but was visible enough to permit me to navigate around the interface. Tomorrow we will do a much closer examination of how the Droid X's display stacks up against the iPhone 4's and the HTC EVO 4G's tomorrow, so stay tuned.
The X's display uses multitouch technology, which is also supported in both the browser and in the photo gallery. Multitouch extends to the X's software keyboard, too, which makes typing on a virtual keyboard feel much more natural and comfortable. The best example of how improved multitouch on a virtual keyboard works is the fact that you can hold down shift and hit another letter and both will register. I also like the fact that you have the option to use Swype on the Droid X. Swype lets you type faster and more easily with one continuous finger or stylus motion across the screen keyboard. In my own experience, Swype takes some practice, but it is pretty useful once you get the hang of it.
New and Improved MotoBlur
When I first read rumors that the X would be running Motorola's skin for Android, Motoblur, I was a little frightened. Though I like Motoblur for the most part, I find it busy, cluttered, and a bit inelegant. It's fine for lower-end phones like the Cliq, Backflip, and Cliq XT, but for a super phone like the X?
Thankfully, Motoblur has been toned down a lot. Gone are the chaotic bubbles taking over your homescreens to deliver Facebook status updates from high-school friends you no longer speak to or updates from random RSS feeds you subscribe to. MotoBlur might not be as attractive as HTC Sense, but I liked how sharp the icons and text appeared and how easy and intuitive navigation was.
Motoblur has been reduced to two widget bubbles on one homescreen, which you can sync with your social networks. Another new feature in this version of MotoBlur is a navigation bar that lets you quickly switch between your various homescreens without having to flick through all of them to get to what you want.
Unfortunately, the Droid X does not run the latest version of Android, Android 2.2 (aka Froyo). At launch you're stuck with 2.1 until later this summer when Droid X (and hopefully other Droid phones on Verizon) get the 2.2 update. You of course get all of the standard Google Android applications: Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and Talk for instant messaging.
Multimedia Machine
With a 4.3-inch display, the Droid X is just begging to be a portable video player. A few third-party video apps come preinstalled, including a Blockbuster app for downloading and watching feature-length movies, Skype Mobile, NFL Mobile (though I couldn't actually access NFL Network videos at this time) and others. Verizon has also expanded its VCast portal for downloading and watching TV shows, news, sports games (including World Cup games!) and other content. YouTube videos had the standard amount of fuzziness when played on the Droid X. Luckily, like the EVO 4G, you get a feature called HQ that enables you to watch better-quality videos (if they are available). You simply press the HQ button in the corner of the video, and a crisper, larger video--one that actually uses the Droid X's entire screen real estate--will load. The Droid X also has DLNA and HDMI connectivity, which is a boon to media addicts.
8-Megapixel Camera Is Good, Not Great
The Motorola Droid X's camera has a respectable variety of features, a touch-friendly and easy-to-use interface, and pretty good image quality overall. So what's my issue with the camera? Well, it has two problems: the phone-as-a-camera ergonomics, and the shutter speed. The dedicated shutter button is simply too rigid and difficult to press. You have to push hard to get the camera to take a snapshot, and sometimes this results in blurry images. The phone's odd shape--with the bulge where the camera is--also affects picture-taking. I was tempted to rest my fingers on that bump to get a better grip on the phone, but of course that meant I was blocking the lens with my finger. The X's shutter speed seemed a bit sluggish, too, which resulted in a few blurry "action shot" photos. It isn't nearly as slow as the original Droid, however.
We'll update this section with a more in-depth look at the Droid X's camera after we put it through our subjective camera test. We'll also match it up head-to-head against other smartphones, including the iPhone 4, the HTC EVO 4G, and the Samsung Galaxy S, so check back tomorrow for full results.
Solid Performance
Powered by a 1GHz processor, the Droid X seemed fairly speedy. Applications launched quickly, and switching between applications and homescreens took very little time. The phone did lag in certain areas though. For example, scrolling through the main menu wasn't always smooth and responsive. And oddly, whenever I swiped to unlock the phone, it stuttered a bit.
Media-rich Web pages loaded quickly over Verizon's 3G network. I was impressed with how quickly photos and videos loaded on PCWorld.com. Of course, you can't play those videos until you get the Android 2.2 update, which will deliver Adobe Flash Player 10.1 (required to watch PCWorld's videos) to the X.
Call quality was very good over Verizon's network. My contacts were impressed with how clear my voice sounded, with little background noise--even during a blustery day in San Francisco. A few of my contacts sounded a bit tinny over the phone, but I'm not sure whether this was due to their phones or to the Droid X.
The Droid X is definitely one of the top smartphones coming out this summer. In features, design, and usability, it is right up there with the HTC EVO 4G and the iPhone 4. I wish that it were a little faster and that the camera ergonomics were a bit more user-friendly, but overall it is definitely one of the top Android phones available right now.
05.HTC Droid Incredible Lives Up to Its Name
The best of the Droids on Verizon, the Droid Incredible ($200 with a two-year contract from Verizon) impresses with its speedy user interface, gorgeous AMOLED display and fun Sense user interface. Other than some minor design qualms, this smartphone truly lives up to its name.
Design-wise, the Droid Incredible appears fairly similar to the Nexus One, but it is essentially a CDMA version of the HTC Desire, which launched last February in Barcelona, Spain. The Droid Incredible has an 8-megapixel camera (as opposed to the Nexus One and Desire's 5-megapixel shooters). The Droid Incredible also has a strange rubberized "topographic" battery cover, which I could have done without. While the Incredible is lighter, it doesn't feel as solid as the Nexus One.
While the Nexus One has four touch keys, the Droid Incredible has four physical hardware keys running along the bottom (Home, Menu, Back, Search). I actually prefer the Nexus One's touch keys, though, as it gives the phone a more streamlined look.
Another difference from the Nexus One is that the Droid Incredible has an optical mouse as opposed to a trackball. Like RIM BlackBerrys, HTC seems to be making a shift from trackball to optical (both the HTC Desire and Legend sport an optical mouse).
The Droid Incredible runs Android 2.1 with the revamped Sense interface, which offers some useful new functions for easy navigation. For more information about Android 2.1's features, check out our review of the Google Nexus One.
My favorite new Sense UI feature is Leap, which essentially is an elegant way of handling multitasking (a bit reminiscent of Palm's webOS deck of cards visualization). Pinch anywhere on the homescreen, and you'll jump to seven thumbnail versions of your open pages. From there, you can go to any of those open applications or close out of one. Thanks to the Droid Incredible's speedy 1GHz Snapdragon processor, this feature works extremely well, too.
Friend Stream, HTC's social network aggregator, allows you to view your friends' status updates, shared links, and pictures all in one seamless view. Supported social networks include Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and others. I find these social network feeds a bit annoying (do I really need to see everybody's Tweets and Facebook status updates all mixed up together?), but I suppose if you're an avid social networker seeing all of these updates in one place is useful.
One feature I found especially cool: You can tap and drag to highlight a block of text and either look up a word in a dictionary or translate it via Google Translate.
Along with the standard Android applications, like as Gmail, Google Talk, and YouTube, you also get HTC's Twitter app, Peep, and its photo geotagging app, Footprints. And, of course, you have easy access to Verizon's apps, like V Cast Media Manager, through the Android Market's dedicated Verizon channel.
Impressive 8-Megapixel Camera
While 5-megapixel cameras seems to be the standard for high-end smartphones for right now, expect to see a lot more 8-megapixel camera phones in the near future. Overall, I was impressed with the Droid Incredible's camera, but I didn't think it was as good as the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10. You press the haptic mouse to snap pictures, which works okay, but I found myself wishing there was a dedicated camera key on the phone's spine. The phone just didn't feel as steady in my hands and sometimes my pictures looked a bit blurry. Otherwise, I was very impressed with my outdoor shots. Colors appeared bright and natural, details looked sharp. There was also very little shutter lag. My indoor shots looked good as well, though a few had a bit of yellowish tint. The flash also seemed a bit unpredictable as to when it decided to go off, as well. Many of my indoor shots were pretty well lit so when the flash went off, details and colors were blown out. Nighttime snapshots looked good, however-better than most smartphone cameras with flashes.
The Droid Incredible can shoot high resolution video up to 800-by-480, but you can't shoot 720p quality video. The camcorder is fine for quick clips, but I was disappointed by the slight pixelation in my videos.
Multimedia: Just Okay
I do wish that HTC would have updated the Sense media player. It is slightly prettier than the dull-as-dirt Android player, but I prefer iTunes or Palm's webOS player. Audio playback sounded good, though and the player supports a respectable range of audio and video formats.
Video playback over YouTube was as good as YouTube can be. I downloaded a few movie trailers, however, and was impressed the smooth playback, sharp details and clean colors. The Droid Incredible also supports Flash Lite, but I had trouble playing Flash content. I also encountered this problem with the HTC Hero on Sprint.
The HTC Droid Incredible might be the best Android phone available--it certainly is the best on Verizon. But how will it compare with the incoming iPhone 4G with its alleged front-facing camera and higher resolution display? Smartphone shoppers will have some enticing choices this summer, that's for sure.
Note: This review has been updated to reflect the February 2, 2010 update of multitouch support.
The coveted "Google phone" is finally here, but the HTC Nexus One ($180 with a two-year contract with T-Mobile, or $530 unlocked; prices as of January 12, 2010) isn't quite the superphone that Google intimated it would be. It lacks some valuable features--like multitouch and Outlook calendar syncing--that we've seen on competing models, and the Android keyboard can be difficult to use. That said, the Nexus One's speedy Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor definitely sets it apart from the Android pack in performance.
One asterisk attached to the phone's performance involves its interaction with the T-Mobile network. The phone has run into some network issues, a distressing shortcoming on a phone with so many connected features. Nevertheless, it is a very good handset and marks real progress for the Android platform.
Still, the phone is attractive and well constructed. Its rounded corners, solid-glass display, and rubberized back make it a pleasure to hold. At 4.5 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.47 inch thick, the Nexus One has a slimmer profile than the Droid. It also weighs less: 4.8 ounces versus 6 ounces for the Droid. I didn't care for the drab two-tone gray color scheme, however.Four touch-sensitive hardware buttons occupy the bottom of Nexus One's display: Back, Menu, Home, and Search. A trackball, like the one on the HTC Hero, lies below the buttons. Though I'm not a huge fan of the trackball on these phones--preferring instead to rely on the touchscreen--this trackball was fast and easy to use. The touch buttons are quite responsive, too, though you have to press firmly to activate them. An oblong power button sits atop the Nexus One beside the 3.5mm standard headphone jack. On the right spine is the volume rocker; and on the bottom of the phone, the micro-USB port. The camera lens and flash are located on the back of the phone, and the microSD and SIM card slots hide under the battery.
The Nexus One's 3.7-inch AMOLED display has drawn a lot of attention, and for good reason: The display is superb. Indeed, photos and videos of the phone don't do it justice. You need to view the display in person to see how text pops out and how photos dazzle, as well as how nicely the display showcases such new features of Android 2.1 as the scrolling menu and the 3D wallpaper. When you take the phone outdoors, though, you lose much of the display's visibility, especially in bright sunlight. This limitation will especially disappoint casual photographers who would like to snap lots of pictures with the phone's 5-megapixel camera--as outdoors it is quite difficult to see the images you shoot.
Android OS 2.1 adds some lively visual and aesthetic tweaks to the otherwise bland operating system--such as interesting animated wallpapers of falling leaves or waving grass. These look good on the Nexus One's display, but they're a bit distracting and they seem likely to cut into the phone's battery life at least a little bit. (You can opt for traditional static wallpaper if you prefer.)
You get five homescreens (up from the standard three) for widget and shortcut personalization. Of course, that's nothing new for Motorola Cliq and HTC Hero users: The MotoBlur and SenseUI user interfaces from Motorola and HTC, respectively, also gives users five homepages.
One noteworthy omission from Android 2.1 is the tab for pulling up your main menu. This is a good thing, because you now have one-touch access to your menu via a central icon on your screen instead. The revised menu incorporates a rolling 3D-like effect, and the icons seemed to pop more onscreen than they did in older versions of the OS.
The photo gallery got a welcome makeover, too. When you open the app, your photo groups appear in "stacks." Tap on one of the group stacks, and you can view the photo thumbnails in a grid. Alternatively, you can flick through full-size photos in a slideshow mode.
The most buzzed-about new element in Android OS 2.1 is the voice-to-text input feature. Now you can speak your current Facebook status to your Nexus One--if you dare. In my casual tests, this input method worked fairly well, though I had to speak rather loudly and somewhat slowly in order for the Nexus One to pick up on what I was saying, even in quiet environments. The phone struggled to understand me when I muttered, spoke softly, or used colloquial terms. I can't say how often I would use a feature like this, day in and day out, but it's fun to play around with.
Though I appreciate the aesthetic tweaks in Android OS 2.1, other areas seem to have been neglected since the launch of the original Android phone, the T-Mobile G1. The music player is the same straightforward player that has appeared on previous Android devices; it supports album art, playlist building, and repeat and shuffle modes. You can add music via either the included USB cable or a microSD memory card, or you can purchase DRM-free tracks from Amazon.
Unfortunately, you can't sync your Outlook calendar on the Nexus One. Google says that this feature is coming soon; but in the meantime, business users might want to delay jumping on the Nexus One. My colleague David Coursey further explains why in his article "Should Business Wait for the 'Enterprise' Nexus One?"
Overall, I was very pleased with the performance of the Nexus One's camera. The Android camera app seemed a bit faster than the one I Outdoor test shot with Nexus One Indoor test shot with Nexus Onewas used to, and I experienced less shutter lag than with other Android phones. Outdoor shots looked fantastic, though (as noted earlier) the display is difficult to see in bright light. A few of my indoor shots had a slight greenish tint to them (see the casual test shots at left and below); despite this, details in my snapshots looked sharp, with no detectable graininess or pixelation.
The 5-megapixel camera gives you four resolutions plus a flash, autofocus, infinity focus, a 2X digital zoom, white-balance and color-effect controls, and three quality settings. You can record video clips at lengths of up to 30 minutes at a resolution of 720 by 480 pixels (20 frames per second), but clips for multimedia messages are capped at 30 seconds.
Call quality over T-Mobile's 3G network was quite good. Voices sounded clear and natural with ample volume. Callers on the other end of the line were generally pleased with the call quality as well, though some reported that my voice sounded a bit distance. Most of my contacts could hear me clearly, even when I was standing on a busy San Francisco street corner.
Some Nexus One users have complained that their phones frequently drop from 3G to EDGE--or lack a 3G connection altogether. I never experienced this, but I did run into some difficulties with the T-Mobile network. Most disturbingly, my Google account sometimes wouldn't load. I also endured several failed attempts to upload image files to Picasa, due to a "network error."
The Nexus One isn't quite the game-changer people hoped it would be, though it certainly trumps other phones in performance, display quality, and speed. The native Android soft keyboard is in desperate need of a redesign. And throwing in multitouch--to enhance the navigation and typing experience--wouldn't hurt. Is the Nexus One the best Android phone on the market? It's close, but I think the Motorola Droid has a slight edge because of its hardware keyboard--imperfect though it may be. No wonder Android watchers have pricked up their ears at the rumor that the next version of the Nexus One will have a keyboard and will target enterprise users.
If the network issues with T-Mobile continue to crop up, you may be well advised to resist picking up a Nexus One until the CDMA version comes out this spring or consider the version recently released for AT&T's 3G network.
Design-wise, the Droid Incredible appears fairly similar to the Nexus One, but it is essentially a CDMA version of the HTC Desire, which launched last February in Barcelona, Spain. The Droid Incredible has an 8-megapixel camera (as opposed to the Nexus One and Desire's 5-megapixel shooters). The Droid Incredible also has a strange rubberized "topographic" battery cover, which I could have done without. While the Incredible is lighter, it doesn't feel as solid as the Nexus One.
While the Nexus One has four touch keys, the Droid Incredible has four physical hardware keys running along the bottom (Home, Menu, Back, Search). I actually prefer the Nexus One's touch keys, though, as it gives the phone a more streamlined look.
Another difference from the Nexus One is that the Droid Incredible has an optical mouse as opposed to a trackball. Like RIM BlackBerrys, HTC seems to be making a shift from trackball to optical (both the HTC Desire and Legend sport an optical mouse).
The Droid Incredible runs Android 2.1 with the revamped Sense interface, which offers some useful new functions for easy navigation. For more information about Android 2.1's features, check out our review of the Google Nexus One.
My favorite new Sense UI feature is Leap, which essentially is an elegant way of handling multitasking (a bit reminiscent of Palm's webOS deck of cards visualization). Pinch anywhere on the homescreen, and you'll jump to seven thumbnail versions of your open pages. From there, you can go to any of those open applications or close out of one. Thanks to the Droid Incredible's speedy 1GHz Snapdragon processor, this feature works extremely well, too.
Friend Stream, HTC's social network aggregator, allows you to view your friends' status updates, shared links, and pictures all in one seamless view. Supported social networks include Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and others. I find these social network feeds a bit annoying (do I really need to see everybody's Tweets and Facebook status updates all mixed up together?), but I suppose if you're an avid social networker seeing all of these updates in one place is useful.
One feature I found especially cool: You can tap and drag to highlight a block of text and either look up a word in a dictionary or translate it via Google Translate.
Along with the standard Android applications, like as Gmail, Google Talk, and YouTube, you also get HTC's Twitter app, Peep, and its photo geotagging app, Footprints. And, of course, you have easy access to Verizon's apps, like V Cast Media Manager, through the Android Market's dedicated Verizon channel.Impressive 8-Megapixel Camera
While 5-megapixel cameras seems to be the standard for high-end smartphones for right now, expect to see a lot more 8-megapixel camera phones in the near future. Overall, I was impressed with the Droid Incredible's camera, but I didn't think it was as good as the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10. You press the haptic mouse to snap pictures, which works okay, but I found myself wishing there was a dedicated camera key on the phone's spine. The phone just didn't feel as steady in my hands and sometimes my pictures looked a bit blurry. Otherwise, I was very impressed with my outdoor shots. Colors appeared bright and natural, details looked sharp. There was also very little shutter lag. My indoor shots looked good as well, though a few had a bit of yellowish tint. The flash also seemed a bit unpredictable as to when it decided to go off, as well. Many of my indoor shots were pretty well lit so when the flash went off, details and colors were blown out. Nighttime snapshots looked good, however-better than most smartphone cameras with flashes.
The Droid Incredible can shoot high resolution video up to 800-by-480, but you can't shoot 720p quality video. The camcorder is fine for quick clips, but I was disappointed by the slight pixelation in my videos.
Multimedia: Just Okay
I do wish that HTC would have updated the Sense media player. It is slightly prettier than the dull-as-dirt Android player, but I prefer iTunes or Palm's webOS player. Audio playback sounded good, though and the player supports a respectable range of audio and video formats.
Video playback over YouTube was as good as YouTube can be. I downloaded a few movie trailers, however, and was impressed the smooth playback, sharp details and clean colors. The Droid Incredible also supports Flash Lite, but I had trouble playing Flash content. I also encountered this problem with the HTC Hero on Sprint.
The HTC Droid Incredible might be the best Android phone available--it certainly is the best on Verizon. But how will it compare with the incoming iPhone 4G with its alleged front-facing camera and higher resolution display? Smartphone shoppers will have some enticing choices this summer, that's for sure.
06.Google Nexus One: Outstanding in Some Ways, but Missing Key Features
Note: This review has been updated to reflect the February 2, 2010 update of multitouch support.
The coveted "Google phone" is finally here, but the HTC Nexus One ($180 with a two-year contract with T-Mobile, or $530 unlocked; prices as of January 12, 2010) isn't quite the superphone that Google intimated it would be. It lacks some valuable features--like multitouch and Outlook calendar syncing--that we've seen on competing models, and the Android keyboard can be difficult to use. That said, the Nexus One's speedy Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor definitely sets it apart from the Android pack in performance.
One asterisk attached to the phone's performance involves its interaction with the T-Mobile network. The phone has run into some network issues, a distressing shortcoming on a phone with so many connected features. Nevertheless, it is a very good handset and marks real progress for the Android platform.
Design: Solid, but Not Groundbreaking
The Nexus One's hardware isn't especially innovative, and its design is unmistakably the work of HTC. In fact, it most strongly resembles a stretched-out HTC Hero.Still, the phone is attractive and well constructed. Its rounded corners, solid-glass display, and rubberized back make it a pleasure to hold. At 4.5 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.47 inch thick, the Nexus One has a slimmer profile than the Droid. It also weighs less: 4.8 ounces versus 6 ounces for the Droid. I didn't care for the drab two-tone gray color scheme, however.Four touch-sensitive hardware buttons occupy the bottom of Nexus One's display: Back, Menu, Home, and Search. A trackball, like the one on the HTC Hero, lies below the buttons. Though I'm not a huge fan of the trackball on these phones--preferring instead to rely on the touchscreen--this trackball was fast and easy to use. The touch buttons are quite responsive, too, though you have to press firmly to activate them. An oblong power button sits atop the Nexus One beside the 3.5mm standard headphone jack. On the right spine is the volume rocker; and on the bottom of the phone, the micro-USB port. The camera lens and flash are located on the back of the phone, and the microSD and SIM card slots hide under the battery.
The Nexus One's 3.7-inch AMOLED display has drawn a lot of attention, and for good reason: The display is superb. Indeed, photos and videos of the phone don't do it justice. You need to view the display in person to see how text pops out and how photos dazzle, as well as how nicely the display showcases such new features of Android 2.1 as the scrolling menu and the 3D wallpaper. When you take the phone outdoors, though, you lose much of the display's visibility, especially in bright sunlight. This limitation will especially disappoint casual photographers who would like to snap lots of pictures with the phone's 5-megapixel camera--as outdoors it is quite difficult to see the images you shoot.
Android OS 2.1: A Few Cosmetic Tweaks
The Nexus One launch was not just about the hardware: This is the first phone to run Android OS 2.1. It hasn't been announced when--or if--other phones, like the Motorola Droid (which runs Android OS 2.0) or the current crop of Samsung Android phones (all of which run 1.5) will get this update.Android OS 2.1 adds some lively visual and aesthetic tweaks to the otherwise bland operating system--such as interesting animated wallpapers of falling leaves or waving grass. These look good on the Nexus One's display, but they're a bit distracting and they seem likely to cut into the phone's battery life at least a little bit. (You can opt for traditional static wallpaper if you prefer.)
You get five homescreens (up from the standard three) for widget and shortcut personalization. Of course, that's nothing new for Motorola Cliq and HTC Hero users: The MotoBlur and SenseUI user interfaces from Motorola and HTC, respectively, also gives users five homepages.
One noteworthy omission from Android 2.1 is the tab for pulling up your main menu. This is a good thing, because you now have one-touch access to your menu via a central icon on your screen instead. The revised menu incorporates a rolling 3D-like effect, and the icons seemed to pop more onscreen than they did in older versions of the OS.
The photo gallery got a welcome makeover, too. When you open the app, your photo groups appear in "stacks." Tap on one of the group stacks, and you can view the photo thumbnails in a grid. Alternatively, you can flick through full-size photos in a slideshow mode.
The most buzzed-about new element in Android OS 2.1 is the voice-to-text input feature. Now you can speak your current Facebook status to your Nexus One--if you dare. In my casual tests, this input method worked fairly well, though I had to speak rather loudly and somewhat slowly in order for the Nexus One to pick up on what I was saying, even in quiet environments. The phone struggled to understand me when I muttered, spoke softly, or used colloquial terms. I can't say how often I would use a feature like this, day in and day out, but it's fun to play around with.
Though I appreciate the aesthetic tweaks in Android OS 2.1, other areas seem to have been neglected since the launch of the original Android phone, the T-Mobile G1. The music player is the same straightforward player that has appeared on previous Android devices; it supports album art, playlist building, and repeat and shuffle modes. You can add music via either the included USB cable or a microSD memory card, or you can purchase DRM-free tracks from Amazon.
No Outlook Calendar Syncing
To use an Android phone, you must have a Gmail account, but you can also set up POP3 and IMAP Web-based e-mail accounts easily, and you can sync your Outlook account via Exchange.Unfortunately, you can't sync your Outlook calendar on the Nexus One. Google says that this feature is coming soon; but in the meantime, business users might want to delay jumping on the Nexus One. My colleague David Coursey further explains why in his article "Should Business Wait for the 'Enterprise' Nexus One?"
Superb Camera
Overall, I was very pleased with the performance of the Nexus One's camera. The Android camera app seemed a bit faster than the one I Outdoor test shot with Nexus One Indoor test shot with Nexus Onewas used to, and I experienced less shutter lag than with other Android phones. Outdoor shots looked fantastic, though (as noted earlier) the display is difficult to see in bright light. A few of my indoor shots had a slight greenish tint to them (see the casual test shots at left and below); despite this, details in my snapshots looked sharp, with no detectable graininess or pixelation.The 5-megapixel camera gives you four resolutions plus a flash, autofocus, infinity focus, a 2X digital zoom, white-balance and color-effect controls, and three quality settings. You can record video clips at lengths of up to 30 minutes at a resolution of 720 by 480 pixels (20 frames per second), but clips for multimedia messages are capped at 30 seconds.
Performance: Hit-or-Miss
What makes the Nexus One stand out from its competitors isn't its OS or its design, though. It's what lies under the hood. The powerful 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor makes the phone fly. Apps loaded almost instantaneously, and Web pages opened quickly. I especially appreciated the Snapdragon's power as I flipped through the Android 2.1's updated photo gallery app.Call quality over T-Mobile's 3G network was quite good. Voices sounded clear and natural with ample volume. Callers on the other end of the line were generally pleased with the call quality as well, though some reported that my voice sounded a bit distance. Most of my contacts could hear me clearly, even when I was standing on a busy San Francisco street corner.
Some Nexus One users have complained that their phones frequently drop from 3G to EDGE--or lack a 3G connection altogether. I never experienced this, but I did run into some difficulties with the T-Mobile network. Most disturbingly, my Google account sometimes wouldn't load. I also endured several failed attempts to upload image files to Picasa, due to a "network error."
The Nexus One isn't quite the game-changer people hoped it would be, though it certainly trumps other phones in performance, display quality, and speed. The native Android soft keyboard is in desperate need of a redesign. And throwing in multitouch--to enhance the navigation and typing experience--wouldn't hurt. Is the Nexus One the best Android phone on the market? It's close, but I think the Motorola Droid has a slight edge because of its hardware keyboard--imperfect though it may be. No wonder Android watchers have pricked up their ears at the rumor that the next version of the Nexus One will have a keyboard and will target enterprise users.
If the network issues with T-Mobile continue to crop up, you may be well advised to resist picking up a Nexus One until the CDMA version comes out this spring or consider the version recently released for AT&T's 3G network.
07.Samsung Fascinate: Another Excellent Android on Verizon
At last, a Samsung Galaxy S Android phone, the Fascinate, has come to Verizon ($200 with a two-year contract from Verizon; price as of September 8, 2010). Like the other phones in the Galaxy S series (the Epic 4G, Captivate, and Vibrant), the Fascinate sports a Super AMOLED display, a solid 5-megapixel camera, and the intuitive TouchWiz user interface. Although Verizon has already established a strong Android portfolio, the Fascinate is a solid addition to the carrier's pack of Droids.
Editor's note: A lot of this review is taken from our reviews of the Epic 4G, Captivate, and Vibrant. This review, however, contains updated information about the design differences, Verizon's network and preloaded apps, and the Bing search features.
Design
I don't usually discuss packaging in my reviews, but Verizon's flavor of the Galaxy S phone definitely has the best presentation among the siblings. The elegant, all-black, textured box reminds me of the packaging the Samsung Omnia II shipped in. This design definitely has more aesthetic appeal than a flimsy cardboard box with logos printed all over it.
Appearance-wise, the Fascinate looks a lot like the T-Mobile Vibrant, but it is a bit longer and the chrome detailing is slightly less noticeable. The Fascinate measures 4.9 by 2.5 by 0.4 inches and weighs a light 4.1 ounces. The Fascinate is the most sleek and elegant of the Galaxy S phones, with its soft curves, glossy piano-black face, and subtly patterned backing. Unlike the Vibrant and Captivate, the Fascinate feels solid in the hand; the others felt somewhat cheap and plasticky.
TouchWiz 3.0 Interface
Like the rest of the Android pack, the Fascinate runs Android 2.1 (Éclair) with Samsung's TouchWiz 3.0 user interface running over it. Those users anxious to get on Android 2.2 (Froyo) should be relieved to know that the Galaxy S phones will receive the upgrade later this year. Overall, this version of TouchWiz is a lot better than the older iteration, which we saw on phones such as the Samsung Behold II for T-Mobile (a phone that was slow and difficult to navigate).
Despite the enhancements, I encountered some familiar issues with TouchWiz 3.0. Even though the phone has a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, the handset lagged slightly when I flipped through menus and scrolled down contact lists or Web pages. Here's hoping the Epic will get a speed boost when it receives the 2.2 upgrade.
Like HTC and its Sense offering, Samsung has its own social media aggregator. Social Hub combines streams from your Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter accounts into a single view. It is a useful feature if you need a simple way to keep track of your networks. One random feature is Mini Diary, which lets you create blog entries with photos, weather info, text messages, and more. When I first tried Mini Diary on the European Galaxy S, I couldn't figure out how to get my entries off the device. Samsung followed up with me after my original review, thankfully, and confirmed that you can indeed post entries (though only those with photos) to various social networks or send them to friends via text. After you create an entry, you press the Menu key in the bottom-left corner, and it gives you MMS and Publish options. If you choose Publish, you can send your item to Facebook or MySpace.
My biggest problem with the TouchWiz interface is that it is overdone--so much so that the result doesn't even look or feel like an Android phone. Additionally, the skin sometimes interfered with the Fascinate's speediness (see the "Performance" section below).
Another issue I have with the Fascinate is more on Verizon's shoulders than Samsung's. Despite the obvious fact that this is a Google Android phone, the Fascinate's search function defaults to the Bing search engine. There's nothing bad about the Bing search engine, but when you buy an Android phone, you expect Google-everything. And what does Google do best? Search. Even worse, you can't change the default settings. To use Google search, you have to go to Google.com in the Web browser, and then search from there.
Camera
We put the Samsung Galaxy S, which has the same 5-megapixel camera as the Fascinate, through a modified version of our PCWorld Labs test for point-and-shoot digital cameras, along with the iPhone 4, the Motorola Droid X, and the HTC EVO 4G. Unfortunately our test panel was not very impressed with the photo quality of the Galaxy S, as it earned the lowest score out of the four and an overall word score of Fair. It finished ahead of the EVO 4G in exposure quality, but landed in last place in our color-accuracy, sharpness, and distortion tests.
In my own hands-on tests outdoors, I was pretty impressed with the Fascinate's image quality. Colors looked bright and natural, and details were sharp. Only a slight bit of graininess appeared in the shots; I had to look really closely on my monitor to see it.
On the other hand, the Galaxy S took second place in overall video quality. Its performance skewed heavily toward good performance in bright light. According to our panel, its bright-light footage looked a bit underexposed and slightly grainy in a full-screen view, but great at smaller sizes. The autofocus searched a little before locking on to a crisp image. In low light, the footage was a touch too murky and undefined to earn a better rating. Fortunately, you can use the Fascinate's flash as a light while capturing video.
Out of all the powerful smartphone cameras I've tested lately, those of the Galaxy S phones have the cleanest, most user-friendly interface. Unlike with the iPhone 4, here you can pick from a wide variety of shooting modes (Vintage, Smile Detection, Panorama, Continuous, and many more) and easily tweak the camera's settings according to your environment and subject.
The shutter speed is a bit slow, however, so if you plan on taking pictures of fast-moving children or pets, you might be disappointed with the Fascinate's snapper.
Multimedia
The TouchWiz music player is touch-friendly and easy to navigate. It showcases album art nicely, too, with an iTunes Cover Flow-style user interface. Sound was clean over my own earbuds, and decent via the external speakers.
One of the most intriguing features of the Fascinate is the Samsung Media Hub, which will come with all of the Galaxy S phones. Media Hub is Samsung's answer to iTunes, a store for purchasing music and video. Unfortunately, Media Hub is not yet available to users right now; according to my contact at Samsung, Media Hub will launch this fall. Customers will be able to download the service via an over-the-air update.
Performance
Like the other Galaxy S phones, the Fascinate is powered by a 1GHz Hummingbird processor. TouchWiz sometimes bogs down the user interface, such as when you're scrolling through a lot of pictures in the gallery or flipping through a long list of contacts. When I tested Sprint's Epic 4G, that phone crashed multiple times when I tried sending an image through the Gallery app. Thankfully, the same thing didn't happen with the Fascinate.
Search-default frustrations aside, browsing the Web on the Fascinate is a joy thanks to Verizon's speedy 3G network. Media-heavy Web pages such as CNN.com and PCWorld.com loaded in seconds.
Many users have complained that the Captivate and Vibrant are slow at locking down user location on Bing Maps. The Fascinate was faster, but it still took quite a bit of time to track down my location fully. Furthermore, my location wasn't always accurate. For example, the Fascinate showed my location on Third Street rather than on Second Street.
Call quality was quite good. I could hear my contacts loud and clear, without any static or distortion. My contacts reported similarly good quality, though a few said the background noise was a bit loud.
Conclusion
Verizon already has a strong portfolio of Android devices, so where does the Fascinate stand? If you're looking for something a little more lightweight and slimmer, the Fascinate's design is more appealing than that of the Motorola Droid, Droid 2, and Droid X. Additionally, if this is your first smartphone, the Fascinate's TouchWiz user interface is pretty easy to navigate. Business users or Android enthusiasts might be more inclined to go with Motorola's offerings or with the HTC Droid Incredible, since they offer a more straightforward Android experience.
Editor's note: A lot of this review is taken from our reviews of the Epic 4G, Captivate, and Vibrant. This review, however, contains updated information about the design differences, Verizon's network and preloaded apps, and the Bing search features.
Design
I don't usually discuss packaging in my reviews, but Verizon's flavor of the Galaxy S phone definitely has the best presentation among the siblings. The elegant, all-black, textured box reminds me of the packaging the Samsung Omnia II shipped in. This design definitely has more aesthetic appeal than a flimsy cardboard box with logos printed all over it.
Appearance-wise, the Fascinate looks a lot like the T-Mobile Vibrant, but it is a bit longer and the chrome detailing is slightly less noticeable. The Fascinate measures 4.9 by 2.5 by 0.4 inches and weighs a light 4.1 ounces. The Fascinate is the most sleek and elegant of the Galaxy S phones, with its soft curves, glossy piano-black face, and subtly patterned backing. Unlike the Vibrant and Captivate, the Fascinate feels solid in the hand; the others felt somewhat cheap and plasticky.
TouchWiz 3.0 Interface
Like the rest of the Android pack, the Fascinate runs Android 2.1 (Éclair) with Samsung's TouchWiz 3.0 user interface running over it. Those users anxious to get on Android 2.2 (Froyo) should be relieved to know that the Galaxy S phones will receive the upgrade later this year. Overall, this version of TouchWiz is a lot better than the older iteration, which we saw on phones such as the Samsung Behold II for T-Mobile (a phone that was slow and difficult to navigate).
Despite the enhancements, I encountered some familiar issues with TouchWiz 3.0. Even though the phone has a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, the handset lagged slightly when I flipped through menus and scrolled down contact lists or Web pages. Here's hoping the Epic will get a speed boost when it receives the 2.2 upgrade.
Like HTC and its Sense offering, Samsung has its own social media aggregator. Social Hub combines streams from your Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter accounts into a single view. It is a useful feature if you need a simple way to keep track of your networks. One random feature is Mini Diary, which lets you create blog entries with photos, weather info, text messages, and more. When I first tried Mini Diary on the European Galaxy S, I couldn't figure out how to get my entries off the device. Samsung followed up with me after my original review, thankfully, and confirmed that you can indeed post entries (though only those with photos) to various social networks or send them to friends via text. After you create an entry, you press the Menu key in the bottom-left corner, and it gives you MMS and Publish options. If you choose Publish, you can send your item to Facebook or MySpace.
My biggest problem with the TouchWiz interface is that it is overdone--so much so that the result doesn't even look or feel like an Android phone. Additionally, the skin sometimes interfered with the Fascinate's speediness (see the "Performance" section below).
Another issue I have with the Fascinate is more on Verizon's shoulders than Samsung's. Despite the obvious fact that this is a Google Android phone, the Fascinate's search function defaults to the Bing search engine. There's nothing bad about the Bing search engine, but when you buy an Android phone, you expect Google-everything. And what does Google do best? Search. Even worse, you can't change the default settings. To use Google search, you have to go to Google.com in the Web browser, and then search from there.
Camera
We put the Samsung Galaxy S, which has the same 5-megapixel camera as the Fascinate, through a modified version of our PCWorld Labs test for point-and-shoot digital cameras, along with the iPhone 4, the Motorola Droid X, and the HTC EVO 4G. Unfortunately our test panel was not very impressed with the photo quality of the Galaxy S, as it earned the lowest score out of the four and an overall word score of Fair. It finished ahead of the EVO 4G in exposure quality, but landed in last place in our color-accuracy, sharpness, and distortion tests.In my own hands-on tests outdoors, I was pretty impressed with the Fascinate's image quality. Colors looked bright and natural, and details were sharp. Only a slight bit of graininess appeared in the shots; I had to look really closely on my monitor to see it.
On the other hand, the Galaxy S took second place in overall video quality. Its performance skewed heavily toward good performance in bright light. According to our panel, its bright-light footage looked a bit underexposed and slightly grainy in a full-screen view, but great at smaller sizes. The autofocus searched a little before locking on to a crisp image. In low light, the footage was a touch too murky and undefined to earn a better rating. Fortunately, you can use the Fascinate's flash as a light while capturing video.Out of all the powerful smartphone cameras I've tested lately, those of the Galaxy S phones have the cleanest, most user-friendly interface. Unlike with the iPhone 4, here you can pick from a wide variety of shooting modes (Vintage, Smile Detection, Panorama, Continuous, and many more) and easily tweak the camera's settings according to your environment and subject.
The shutter speed is a bit slow, however, so if you plan on taking pictures of fast-moving children or pets, you might be disappointed with the Fascinate's snapper.
Multimedia
The TouchWiz music player is touch-friendly and easy to navigate. It showcases album art nicely, too, with an iTunes Cover Flow-style user interface. Sound was clean over my own earbuds, and decent via the external speakers.
One of the most intriguing features of the Fascinate is the Samsung Media Hub, which will come with all of the Galaxy S phones. Media Hub is Samsung's answer to iTunes, a store for purchasing music and video. Unfortunately, Media Hub is not yet available to users right now; according to my contact at Samsung, Media Hub will launch this fall. Customers will be able to download the service via an over-the-air update.
Performance
Like the other Galaxy S phones, the Fascinate is powered by a 1GHz Hummingbird processor. TouchWiz sometimes bogs down the user interface, such as when you're scrolling through a lot of pictures in the gallery or flipping through a long list of contacts. When I tested Sprint's Epic 4G, that phone crashed multiple times when I tried sending an image through the Gallery app. Thankfully, the same thing didn't happen with the Fascinate.
Search-default frustrations aside, browsing the Web on the Fascinate is a joy thanks to Verizon's speedy 3G network. Media-heavy Web pages such as CNN.com and PCWorld.com loaded in seconds.
Many users have complained that the Captivate and Vibrant are slow at locking down user location on Bing Maps. The Fascinate was faster, but it still took quite a bit of time to track down my location fully. Furthermore, my location wasn't always accurate. For example, the Fascinate showed my location on Third Street rather than on Second Street.
Call quality was quite good. I could hear my contacts loud and clear, without any static or distortion. My contacts reported similarly good quality, though a few said the background noise was a bit loud.
Conclusion
Verizon already has a strong portfolio of Android devices, so where does the Fascinate stand? If you're looking for something a little more lightweight and slimmer, the Fascinate's design is more appealing than that of the Motorola Droid, Droid 2, and Droid X. Additionally, if this is your first smartphone, the Fascinate's TouchWiz user interface is pretty easy to navigate. Business users or Android enthusiasts might be more inclined to go with Motorola's offerings or with the HTC Droid Incredible, since they offer a more straightforward Android experience.
08.Samsung Vibrant: A Standout Multimedia Phone
The T-Mobile version of Samsung's killer Galaxy S line of super Android phones, the Samsung Vibrant ($200 with a two-year contract, as of July 12, 2010) stands apart from its siblings due to the high-quality multimedia apps the carrier has preloaded on the phone. Stellar media features aside, however, Samsung's TouchWiz interface isn't for everybody, and in my tests the phone was a bit sluggish at times.
Lightweight Design, Gorgeous Display
The Vibrant looks pretty similar to its AT&T counterpart, the Captivate, but it has a few subtle design tweaks. Like the European Galaxy S, the Vibrant resembles an iPhone 3GS. In contrast to the squared corners on the Captivate, the Vibrant has softer, rounder corners. The backing is smooth plastic, with an attractive (and very Samsung-esque) design. The phone feels durable and solid in the hand.
Measuring 0.39 inch thick, the Vibrant is thinner than the HTC EVO 4G and the Motorola Droid X, but slightly beefier than the ultraslim, 0.37-inch iPhone 4. It is the lightest of the bunch, weighing a scant 4.16 ounces.
The Vibrant's featherlight weight is due in part to its Super AMOLED technology, which Samsung introduced at Mobile World Congress on the Samsung Wave. Super AMOLED technology puts touch sensors on the display itself, as opposed to creating a separate layer (which Samsung's old AMOLED displays had), making it the thinnest display technology on the market. Super AMOLED is fantastic--you really have to see it in person. Colors burst out of the display, and animations appear lively and smooth. Samsung and T-Mobile were wise to preload the movie Avatar on this phone; the Vibrant's display nicely showcases the beautiful animation.
The Vibrant's 4-inch display is larger than that of the iPhone 4 (which is 3.5 inches), but smaller than the screens of the Droid X and EVO 4G (which are each 4.3 inches). Despite that smaller size, the Vibrant outshone both the Droid X and the EVO 4G in my casual side-by-side comparisons. The side-by-side with the iPhone 4 was a closer call: The iPhone 4's display appeared slightly sharper, but I thought the Vibrant's colors looked more natural. It's really hard to declare a winner in this matchup--both displays are stunning.
Finally, the sun came out in San Francisco, so I was able to test how well the Vibrant's display performed outdoors. I turned off Automatic Brightness on both handsets and set the displays to the maximum brightness. I put the two phones side-by-side in direct sunlight and viewed various Websites. Again, it was a hard call to determine which model handled the sunshine better. The Vibrant's display was a lot more reflective than the iPhone's, so it could make reading and viewing photos more difficult depending on my angle. The Vibrant's colors looked brighter, however, and its text was a bit sharper.
Sluggish TouchWiz 3.0 Interface
The Samsung Vibrant runs Android 2.1 ("Eclair") with Samsung's own TouchWiz 3.0 user interface. Overall, this version of TouchWiz is a lot better than the older iteration on the Samsung Behold II for T-Mobile, which was slow and difficult to navigate.
Though this version is an improvement, I encountered some familiar issues with TouchWiz 3.0. Despite the 1GHz Hummingbird processor, the phone lagged slightly when I flipped through menus and scrolled down contact lists or Web pages. Here's hoping the Vibrant will get a speed boost when it receives the upgrade to Android 2.2 ("Froyo").
Like HTC and its Sense offering, Samsung has its own social media aggregator. Social Hub combines streams from your Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter accounts into a single view. It is a useful feature if you need a simple way to keep track of your networks. One random feature is Mini Diary, which lets you create blog entries with photos, weather info, text messages, and more. When I first tried Mini Diary on the European Galaxy S, I couldn't figure out how to get my entries off the device. Samsung followed up with me after my original review, thankfully, and confirmed that you can indeed post entries (though only those with photos) to various social networks or send them to friends via text. After you create an entry, you press the Menu key in the bottom-left corner, and it gives you MMS and Publish options. If you choose Publish, you can send your item to Facebook or MySpace.
My biggest problem with the TouchWiz interface is that it is somewhat overdone--so much so that the result doesn't even look or feel like an Android phone.
Multimedia
The TouchWiz music player is touch-friendly and easy to navigate. It showcases album art nicely, too, with an iTunes Cover Flow-style user interface. Sound was clean over my own earbuds, and decent via the external speakers.
Video over the preinstalled MobiTV application looked and sounded great on the Vibrant. The playback was smooth with no pixelation, artifacting, or stutter. YouTube videos didn't fare so well, and unfortunately you get no option to watch videos in HQ as you do on the HTC EVO 4G.
One of the most intriguing features of the Galaxy S phones is the Samsung Media Hub, which will accompany all of the Galaxy S models. Media Hub is Samsung's answer to iTunes, a store for purchasing music and video. Unfortunately, Media Hub is not yet available to users right now; according to my contact at Samsung, Media Hub will launch this fall. Customers will be able to download the service via an over-the-air update.
A handful of multimedia apps are preloaded on the Vibrant, including The Sims 3, Slacker, the Layar augmented-reality browser, Amazon Kindle, and Amazon MP3. You can also share media files between your phone and your TV using AllShare, a DLNA-connected app.
Good 5-Megapixel Camera
We put the 5-megapixel camera of the European Galaxy S (the same camera is on the Vibrant) through a modified version of our PCWorld Labs test for point-and-shoot digital cameras, along with the iPhone 4, the Motorola Droid X, and the HTC EVO 4G. Unfortunately our test panel was not very impressed with the photo quality of the Galaxy S, as it earned the lowest score out of the four and an overall word score of Fair. It finished ahead of the EVO 4G in exposure quality, but landed in last place in our color-accuracy, sharpness, and distortion tests. It is worth nothing that the Vibrant has no flash, so photos taken indoors or in dimly lit environments don't come out very well.
On the other hand, the Galaxy S took second place in overall video quality. Its performance skewed heavily toward good performance in bright light. According to our panel, its bright-light footage looked a bit underexposed and slightly grainy in a full-screen view, but great at smaller sizes. The autofocus searches a little before locking on to a crisp image. In low light, the footage was a bit too murky and undefined to earn a better rating. The handset's microphone, meanwhile, picks up audio a bit too well: On the Galaxy S our audio clip sounded far too loud and blown out, whereas some of the other smartphones in our comparison barely picked up the audio at all. Read the full test results in "Smartphone Camera Battle: iPhone 4 vs. the Android Army."
Out of all the powerful smartphone cameras I've tested lately, those of the Galaxy S phones have the cleanest, most user-friendly interface. Unlike with the iPhone 4, here you can pick from a wide variety of shooting modes (Vintage, Smile Detection, Panorama, Continuous, and many more) and easily tweak the camera's settings according to your environment and subject.
One unfortunate change between the European Galaxy S and the U.S.-branded Vibrant is the omission of a front-facing camera/camcorder. Sprint's Galaxy S model, the Epic 4G, has a front-facing camera for video chatting.
Performance
Overall, I was pleased with the Vibrant's call quality over T-Mobile. My contacts' voices sounded clear, with ample volume and no background hissing or static. I had pretty good reception and coverage all over San Francisco.
Data speeds were also quite fast, but occasionally the phone dropped to EDGE depending on the neighborhood I was in. I tested the browser only from my office and my apartment, but Web pages and assorted apps that use data connectivity launched and loaded pretty quickly.
The Samsung Vibrant is an exciting addition to T-Mobile's growing family of Android devices. The carrier also does a great job of making the phone stand out from the rest of the Galaxy S pack by preloading it with fun apps, throwing in a 2GB MicroSD card, and treating customers to the full-length version of Avatar.
Lightweight Design, Gorgeous Display
The Vibrant looks pretty similar to its AT&T counterpart, the Captivate, but it has a few subtle design tweaks. Like the European Galaxy S, the Vibrant resembles an iPhone 3GS. In contrast to the squared corners on the Captivate, the Vibrant has softer, rounder corners. The backing is smooth plastic, with an attractive (and very Samsung-esque) design. The phone feels durable and solid in the hand.
Measuring 0.39 inch thick, the Vibrant is thinner than the HTC EVO 4G and the Motorola Droid X, but slightly beefier than the ultraslim, 0.37-inch iPhone 4. It is the lightest of the bunch, weighing a scant 4.16 ounces.
The Vibrant's featherlight weight is due in part to its Super AMOLED technology, which Samsung introduced at Mobile World Congress on the Samsung Wave. Super AMOLED technology puts touch sensors on the display itself, as opposed to creating a separate layer (which Samsung's old AMOLED displays had), making it the thinnest display technology on the market. Super AMOLED is fantastic--you really have to see it in person. Colors burst out of the display, and animations appear lively and smooth. Samsung and T-Mobile were wise to preload the movie Avatar on this phone; the Vibrant's display nicely showcases the beautiful animation.
The Vibrant's 4-inch display is larger than that of the iPhone 4 (which is 3.5 inches), but smaller than the screens of the Droid X and EVO 4G (which are each 4.3 inches). Despite that smaller size, the Vibrant outshone both the Droid X and the EVO 4G in my casual side-by-side comparisons. The side-by-side with the iPhone 4 was a closer call: The iPhone 4's display appeared slightly sharper, but I thought the Vibrant's colors looked more natural. It's really hard to declare a winner in this matchup--both displays are stunning.
Finally, the sun came out in San Francisco, so I was able to test how well the Vibrant's display performed outdoors. I turned off Automatic Brightness on both handsets and set the displays to the maximum brightness. I put the two phones side-by-side in direct sunlight and viewed various Websites. Again, it was a hard call to determine which model handled the sunshine better. The Vibrant's display was a lot more reflective than the iPhone's, so it could make reading and viewing photos more difficult depending on my angle. The Vibrant's colors looked brighter, however, and its text was a bit sharper.
Sluggish TouchWiz 3.0 Interface
The Samsung Vibrant runs Android 2.1 ("Eclair") with Samsung's own TouchWiz 3.0 user interface. Overall, this version of TouchWiz is a lot better than the older iteration on the Samsung Behold II for T-Mobile, which was slow and difficult to navigate.
Though this version is an improvement, I encountered some familiar issues with TouchWiz 3.0. Despite the 1GHz Hummingbird processor, the phone lagged slightly when I flipped through menus and scrolled down contact lists or Web pages. Here's hoping the Vibrant will get a speed boost when it receives the upgrade to Android 2.2 ("Froyo").
Like HTC and its Sense offering, Samsung has its own social media aggregator. Social Hub combines streams from your Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter accounts into a single view. It is a useful feature if you need a simple way to keep track of your networks. One random feature is Mini Diary, which lets you create blog entries with photos, weather info, text messages, and more. When I first tried Mini Diary on the European Galaxy S, I couldn't figure out how to get my entries off the device. Samsung followed up with me after my original review, thankfully, and confirmed that you can indeed post entries (though only those with photos) to various social networks or send them to friends via text. After you create an entry, you press the Menu key in the bottom-left corner, and it gives you MMS and Publish options. If you choose Publish, you can send your item to Facebook or MySpace.
My biggest problem with the TouchWiz interface is that it is somewhat overdone--so much so that the result doesn't even look or feel like an Android phone.
Multimedia
The TouchWiz music player is touch-friendly and easy to navigate. It showcases album art nicely, too, with an iTunes Cover Flow-style user interface. Sound was clean over my own earbuds, and decent via the external speakers.
Video over the preinstalled MobiTV application looked and sounded great on the Vibrant. The playback was smooth with no pixelation, artifacting, or stutter. YouTube videos didn't fare so well, and unfortunately you get no option to watch videos in HQ as you do on the HTC EVO 4G.
One of the most intriguing features of the Galaxy S phones is the Samsung Media Hub, which will accompany all of the Galaxy S models. Media Hub is Samsung's answer to iTunes, a store for purchasing music and video. Unfortunately, Media Hub is not yet available to users right now; according to my contact at Samsung, Media Hub will launch this fall. Customers will be able to download the service via an over-the-air update.
A handful of multimedia apps are preloaded on the Vibrant, including The Sims 3, Slacker, the Layar augmented-reality browser, Amazon Kindle, and Amazon MP3. You can also share media files between your phone and your TV using AllShare, a DLNA-connected app.
Good 5-Megapixel Camera
We put the 5-megapixel camera of the European Galaxy S (the same camera is on the Vibrant) through a modified version of our PCWorld Labs test for point-and-shoot digital cameras, along with the iPhone 4, the Motorola Droid X, and the HTC EVO 4G. Unfortunately our test panel was not very impressed with the photo quality of the Galaxy S, as it earned the lowest score out of the four and an overall word score of Fair. It finished ahead of the EVO 4G in exposure quality, but landed in last place in our color-accuracy, sharpness, and distortion tests. It is worth nothing that the Vibrant has no flash, so photos taken indoors or in dimly lit environments don't come out very well.
On the other hand, the Galaxy S took second place in overall video quality. Its performance skewed heavily toward good performance in bright light. According to our panel, its bright-light footage looked a bit underexposed and slightly grainy in a full-screen view, but great at smaller sizes. The autofocus searches a little before locking on to a crisp image. In low light, the footage was a bit too murky and undefined to earn a better rating. The handset's microphone, meanwhile, picks up audio a bit too well: On the Galaxy S our audio clip sounded far too loud and blown out, whereas some of the other smartphones in our comparison barely picked up the audio at all. Read the full test results in "Smartphone Camera Battle: iPhone 4 vs. the Android Army."
Out of all the powerful smartphone cameras I've tested lately, those of the Galaxy S phones have the cleanest, most user-friendly interface. Unlike with the iPhone 4, here you can pick from a wide variety of shooting modes (Vintage, Smile Detection, Panorama, Continuous, and many more) and easily tweak the camera's settings according to your environment and subject.
One unfortunate change between the European Galaxy S and the U.S.-branded Vibrant is the omission of a front-facing camera/camcorder. Sprint's Galaxy S model, the Epic 4G, has a front-facing camera for video chatting.
Performance
Overall, I was pleased with the Vibrant's call quality over T-Mobile. My contacts' voices sounded clear, with ample volume and no background hissing or static. I had pretty good reception and coverage all over San Francisco.
Data speeds were also quite fast, but occasionally the phone dropped to EDGE depending on the neighborhood I was in. I tested the browser only from my office and my apartment, but Web pages and assorted apps that use data connectivity launched and loaded pretty quickly.
The Samsung Vibrant is an exciting addition to T-Mobile's growing family of Android devices. The carrier also does a great job of making the phone stand out from the rest of the Galaxy S pack by preloading it with fun apps, throwing in a 2GB MicroSD card, and treating customers to the full-length version of Avatar.
09.Samsung Captivate: AT&T's Best Android Phone
This spring, Samsung introduced the first of its Galaxy S phones, Android powerhouses to rival the HTC EVO 4G, the various Droids (both Motorola's and HTC's), and of course, the iPhone 4. AT&T's version of the Galaxy S, the Samsung Captivate ($200 with a two-year contract, as of July 12, 2010), is by far AT&T's best Android offering. But Samsung's TouchWiz interface isn't for everybody, and in my tests the phone was a bit sluggish at times. On top of that, AT&T is at it again with its blocking of third-party Android apps.
Lightweight Design, Gorgeous Display
The Captivate is amazingly thin and lightweight. The European Galaxy S looks quite similar to the iPhone 3GS, also on AT&T; to prevent confusion, I suppose, the Captivate has a patterned, rubberized battery cover. Measuring 0.39 inches thick, the Captivate is thinner than the EVO 4G and the Droid X, but slightly beefier than the ultraslim, 0.37-inch iPhone 4. It is the lightest of the bunch, weighing a scant 4.2 ounces.
The Captivate's featherlight weight is due in part to its Super AMOLED technology, which Samsung introduced at Mobile World Congress on the Samsung Wave. Super AMOLED technology puts touch sensors on the display itself, as opposed to creating a separate layer (which Samsung's old AMOLED displays had), making it the thinnest display technology on the market. Super AMOLED is fantastic--you really have to see it in person. Colors burst out of the display, and animations appear lively and smooth.
The Captivate's 4-inch display is larger than that of the iPhone 4 (which is 3.5 inches), but smaller than the screens of the Motorola Droid X and HTC EVO 4G (which are each 4.3 inches). Despite that smaller size, the Captivate outshone both the Droid X and the EVO 4G in my casual side-by-side comparisons. The side-by-side with the iPhone 4 was a closer call: The iPhone 4's display appeared slightly sharper, but I thought the Captivate's colors looked more natural. It's really hard to declare a winner in this matchup--both displays are stunning.
I also tried to do some side-by-side bright-light tests with the iPhone 4 and the Captivate, but July in San Francisco doesn't exactly mean sunshine and clear skies. In the foggy outdoors, the Captivate was brighter and more visible, but I'd still like to pit the "Retina display" against Super AMOLED on a sunnier day.
Sluggish TouchWiz 3.0 Interface
The Samsung Captivate runs Android 2.1 ("Eclair") with Samsung's own TouchWiz 3.0 user interface. Overall, this version of TouchWiz is a lot better than the older iteration on the Samsung Behold II for T-Mobile, which was slow and difficult to navigate.
Though this version is an improvement, I encountered some familiar issues with TouchWiz 3.0. Despite the 1GHz Hummingbird processor, the phone lagged slightly when I flipped through menus and scrolled down contact lists or Web pages. Here's hoping the Captivate will get a speed boost when it receives the upgrade to 2.2 ("Froyo").
Like HTC and its Sense offering, Samsung has its own social media aggregator. Social Hub combines streams from your Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter accounts into a single view. It is a useful feature if you need a simple way to keep track of your networks. One random feature is Mini Diary, which lets you create blog entries with photos, weather info, text messages, and more. When I first tried Mini Diary on the European Galaxy S, I couldn't figure out how to get my entries off the device. Samsung followed up with me after my original review, thankfully, and confirmed that you can indeed post entries (though only those with photos) to various social networks or send them to friends via text. After you create an entry, you press the Menu key in the bottom-left corner, and it gives you MMS and Publish options. If you choose Publish, you can send your item to Facebook or MySpace.
My biggest problem with the TouchWiz interface is that it is somewhat overdone--so much so that the result doesn't even look or feel like an Android phone. And if you're not a fan of the TouchWiz interface, tough luck: You can't turn it off.
Multimedia
The TouchWiz music player is touch-friendly and easy to navigate. It showcases album art nicely, too, with an iTunes Cover Flow-style user interface. Sound was clean over my own earbuds, and decent via the external speakers.
Video over the preinstalled MobiTV application looked and sounded great on the Captivate. The playback was smooth with no pixelation, artifacting, or stutter. Video over AT&T's Cingular Video service was far worse, however: Playback of the World Cup's best goals resembled an animated oil painting, as it was far too blurry. Audio also sounded hollow and tinny through the service.
One of the most intriguing features of the Captivate is the Samsung Media Hub, which will come with all of the Galaxy S phones. Media Hub is Samsung's answer to iTunes, a store for purchasing music and video. Unfortunately, Media Hub is not yet available to users right now; according to my contact at Samsung, Media Hub will launch this fall. Customers will be able to download the service via an over-the-air update.
Good 5-Megapixel Camera
We put the 5-megapixel camera of the Galaxy S through a modified version of our PCWorld Labs test for point-and-shoot digital cameras, along with the iPhone 4, the Motorola Droid X, and the HTC EVO 4G. Unfortunately our test panel was not very impressed with the photo quality of the Galaxy S, as it earned the lowest score out of the four and an overall word score of Fair. It finished ahead of the EVO 4G in exposure quality, but landed in last place in our color-accuracy, sharpness, and distortion tests.
On the other hand, the Galaxy S took second place in overall video quality. Its performance skewed heavily toward good performance in bright light. According to our panel, its bright-light footage looked a bit underexposed and slightly grainy in a full-screen view, but great at smaller sizes. The autofocus searches a little before locking on to a crisp image. In low light, the footage was a bit too murky and undefined to earn a better rating. The handset's microphone, meanwhile, picks up audio a bit too well: On the Galaxy S our audio clip sounded far too loud and blown out, whereas some of the other smartphones in our comparison barely picked up the audio at all. Read the full test results in "Smartphone Camera Battle: iPhone 4 vs. the Android Army."
Out of all the powerful smartphone cameras I've tested lately, those of the Galaxy S phones have the cleanest, most user-friendly interface. Unlike with the iPhone 4, here you can pick from a wide variety of shooting modes (Vintage, Smile Detection, Panorama, Continuous, and many more) and easily tweak the camera's settings according to your environment and subject.
One unfortunate change between the European Galaxy S and the Samsung Captivate is the omission of a front-facing camera/camcorder. Sprint's Galaxy S model, the Epic 4G, has a front-facing camera for video chatting.
Performance
Overall, I was pleased with the Captivate's call quality. My contacts' voices sounded clear, with ample volume and no background hissing or static. I had pretty good reception and coverage all over San Francisco.
Data speeds were also quite fast. I tested the browser only from my office and my apartment, but Web pages and assorted apps that use data connectivity launched and loaded pretty quickly.
AT&T customers discouraged by the iPhone 4's antenna issues (among other problems) will find the Samsung Captivate a worthy alternative. Its display is on a par with the iPhone 4's, and its camera's advanced settings allow users to have a lot more freedom in their photo shoots. The interface can be a bit slow, but that isn't my biggest issue with the phone: AT&T is again blocking users from downloading apps not approved by the Android Market. A lot of neat betas are out there, and if every other Android user can download them, why can't AT&T customers?
Lightweight Design, Gorgeous Display
The Captivate is amazingly thin and lightweight. The European Galaxy S looks quite similar to the iPhone 3GS, also on AT&T; to prevent confusion, I suppose, the Captivate has a patterned, rubberized battery cover. Measuring 0.39 inches thick, the Captivate is thinner than the EVO 4G and the Droid X, but slightly beefier than the ultraslim, 0.37-inch iPhone 4. It is the lightest of the bunch, weighing a scant 4.2 ounces.
The Captivate's featherlight weight is due in part to its Super AMOLED technology, which Samsung introduced at Mobile World Congress on the Samsung Wave. Super AMOLED technology puts touch sensors on the display itself, as opposed to creating a separate layer (which Samsung's old AMOLED displays had), making it the thinnest display technology on the market. Super AMOLED is fantastic--you really have to see it in person. Colors burst out of the display, and animations appear lively and smooth.
The Captivate's 4-inch display is larger than that of the iPhone 4 (which is 3.5 inches), but smaller than the screens of the Motorola Droid X and HTC EVO 4G (which are each 4.3 inches). Despite that smaller size, the Captivate outshone both the Droid X and the EVO 4G in my casual side-by-side comparisons. The side-by-side with the iPhone 4 was a closer call: The iPhone 4's display appeared slightly sharper, but I thought the Captivate's colors looked more natural. It's really hard to declare a winner in this matchup--both displays are stunning.
I also tried to do some side-by-side bright-light tests with the iPhone 4 and the Captivate, but July in San Francisco doesn't exactly mean sunshine and clear skies. In the foggy outdoors, the Captivate was brighter and more visible, but I'd still like to pit the "Retina display" against Super AMOLED on a sunnier day.
Sluggish TouchWiz 3.0 Interface
The Samsung Captivate runs Android 2.1 ("Eclair") with Samsung's own TouchWiz 3.0 user interface. Overall, this version of TouchWiz is a lot better than the older iteration on the Samsung Behold II for T-Mobile, which was slow and difficult to navigate.
Though this version is an improvement, I encountered some familiar issues with TouchWiz 3.0. Despite the 1GHz Hummingbird processor, the phone lagged slightly when I flipped through menus and scrolled down contact lists or Web pages. Here's hoping the Captivate will get a speed boost when it receives the upgrade to 2.2 ("Froyo").
Like HTC and its Sense offering, Samsung has its own social media aggregator. Social Hub combines streams from your Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter accounts into a single view. It is a useful feature if you need a simple way to keep track of your networks. One random feature is Mini Diary, which lets you create blog entries with photos, weather info, text messages, and more. When I first tried Mini Diary on the European Galaxy S, I couldn't figure out how to get my entries off the device. Samsung followed up with me after my original review, thankfully, and confirmed that you can indeed post entries (though only those with photos) to various social networks or send them to friends via text. After you create an entry, you press the Menu key in the bottom-left corner, and it gives you MMS and Publish options. If you choose Publish, you can send your item to Facebook or MySpace.
My biggest problem with the TouchWiz interface is that it is somewhat overdone--so much so that the result doesn't even look or feel like an Android phone. And if you're not a fan of the TouchWiz interface, tough luck: You can't turn it off.
Multimedia
The TouchWiz music player is touch-friendly and easy to navigate. It showcases album art nicely, too, with an iTunes Cover Flow-style user interface. Sound was clean over my own earbuds, and decent via the external speakers.
Video over the preinstalled MobiTV application looked and sounded great on the Captivate. The playback was smooth with no pixelation, artifacting, or stutter. Video over AT&T's Cingular Video service was far worse, however: Playback of the World Cup's best goals resembled an animated oil painting, as it was far too blurry. Audio also sounded hollow and tinny through the service.
One of the most intriguing features of the Captivate is the Samsung Media Hub, which will come with all of the Galaxy S phones. Media Hub is Samsung's answer to iTunes, a store for purchasing music and video. Unfortunately, Media Hub is not yet available to users right now; according to my contact at Samsung, Media Hub will launch this fall. Customers will be able to download the service via an over-the-air update.
Good 5-Megapixel Camera
We put the 5-megapixel camera of the Galaxy S through a modified version of our PCWorld Labs test for point-and-shoot digital cameras, along with the iPhone 4, the Motorola Droid X, and the HTC EVO 4G. Unfortunately our test panel was not very impressed with the photo quality of the Galaxy S, as it earned the lowest score out of the four and an overall word score of Fair. It finished ahead of the EVO 4G in exposure quality, but landed in last place in our color-accuracy, sharpness, and distortion tests.
On the other hand, the Galaxy S took second place in overall video quality. Its performance skewed heavily toward good performance in bright light. According to our panel, its bright-light footage looked a bit underexposed and slightly grainy in a full-screen view, but great at smaller sizes. The autofocus searches a little before locking on to a crisp image. In low light, the footage was a bit too murky and undefined to earn a better rating. The handset's microphone, meanwhile, picks up audio a bit too well: On the Galaxy S our audio clip sounded far too loud and blown out, whereas some of the other smartphones in our comparison barely picked up the audio at all. Read the full test results in "Smartphone Camera Battle: iPhone 4 vs. the Android Army."
Out of all the powerful smartphone cameras I've tested lately, those of the Galaxy S phones have the cleanest, most user-friendly interface. Unlike with the iPhone 4, here you can pick from a wide variety of shooting modes (Vintage, Smile Detection, Panorama, Continuous, and many more) and easily tweak the camera's settings according to your environment and subject.
One unfortunate change between the European Galaxy S and the Samsung Captivate is the omission of a front-facing camera/camcorder. Sprint's Galaxy S model, the Epic 4G, has a front-facing camera for video chatting.
Performance
Overall, I was pleased with the Captivate's call quality. My contacts' voices sounded clear, with ample volume and no background hissing or static. I had pretty good reception and coverage all over San Francisco.
Data speeds were also quite fast. I tested the browser only from my office and my apartment, but Web pages and assorted apps that use data connectivity launched and loaded pretty quickly.
AT&T customers discouraged by the iPhone 4's antenna issues (among other problems) will find the Samsung Captivate a worthy alternative. Its display is on a par with the iPhone 4's, and its camera's advanced settings allow users to have a lot more freedom in their photo shoots. The interface can be a bit slow, but that isn't my biggest issue with the phone: AT&T is again blocking users from downloading apps not approved by the Android Market. A lot of neat betas are out there, and if every other Android user can download them, why can't AT&T customers?
10.Motorola Droid 2: Enhanced Design, but Camera Still Stinks
Refined, Updated Design
Design-wise, the Droid 2 is essentially a more polished, modern version of its predecessor. Its angles are smoother, the dimensions are slimmer, and it has a more attractive look, overall. The Droid's black edgeshave been upgraded to sculpted chrome, and the raised buttons along the spines of the phone are flatter and less obtrusive to the phone's profile. The backing is made of a soft-touch material that feels really nice to the hand. As a whole, the Droid 2 feels a class above the original model.The Droid 2's keyboard is a big improvement over the original's, which felt shallow and uncomfortable. Gone is the clunky four-way directional pad to the right of the keyboard that allowed room for wider keys. If you liked the d-pad on the original Droid, don't fret: There are still four arrow keys for extra navigation options. The keys are raised, which is a relief, as the original Droid's keys were too flat for my liking. Another improvement? No more dummy keys! The Droid had two completely useless key taking up precious keyboard real estate.
Unfortunately, the keyboard still isn't perfect: The top keys are very close to the ledge of the display, so your fingers are constantly knocking against it. Additionally, the keys felt mushy and not as tactile as I prefer for physical keyboards.
The display seems to be the same as the original Droid's, measuring 3.7 inches and having a resolution of 854 by 480 pixels. I've been spoiled by the 4.3-inch displays of the HTC EVO 4G and the Droid X, so 3.7 inches felt a bit small at first. But it is a perfectly fine size for Web browsing and watching video; and to be fair, it is larger than the iPhone's 3.5-inch screen.
MotoBlur: Hit-or-Miss
I confess: I'm a bit of an Android purist and love the Nexus One simply because it runs the vanilla Android OS. I do like certain aspects of the skins, like Samsung's TouchWiz MediaPlayer and HTC Sense's FriendStream. I also like how they make the somewhat bland Android platform more aesthetically pleasing and accessible. What I don't like is when these skins mar certain applications in the native Android as well as slow down a powerful phone's performance--which is what Motoblur unfortunately does.This version of Motoblur has Android 2.2 running beneath it. Android 2.2 adds an overall speed boost to the OS, improved Exchange support (including Exchange calendar support--yay!) and camera and gallery tweaks.
The skin has been toned down a lot in comparison to the version on the Backflip and the Cliq. Gone are the chaotic bubbles taking over your homescreens to deliver Facebook status updates from high-school friends you no longer speak to or updates from random RSS feeds you subscribe to. MotoBlur isn't as attractive as HTC Sense, but I liked how sharp the icons and text appeared and how easy and intuitive navigation was.
Motoblur has been reduced to two widget bubbles on one homescreen, which you can sync with your social networks. Another new feature in this version of Motoblur is a navigation bar that lets you quickly switch between your various homescreens without having to flick through all of them to get to what you want.
Motoblur doesn't do a few things right, however. While you can upload pictures to your Google Picasa account, you can't view photos from that account. It seems nitpicky, but what if you're visiting family across the country and want to show them photos of your vacation without whipping out your laptop? Especially when you can see your Picasa album on vanilla Android 2.2?
Additionally, you're stuck with the Motoblur camera interface; you don't get the refined interface that comes with Android 2.2. For example, in order to bring up your shooting options in Motoblur, you have to touch the right side of the screen. And when you tilt the phone/camera, the controls don't rotate. With Android 2.2, these controls are always exposed on your screen. It is a tiny detail, but why adopt a custom skin on certain apps only to make them worse?
Of course, you get all of the standard Google Android applications: Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and Talk for instant messaging. There's an annoying amount of bloatware, like NFL Mobile, NFS Shift, and some Verizon-branded apps, but a few useful apps are thrown in there, such as Skype Mobile.
Mediocre Camera
The Droid 2 is a total upgrade from the original Droid, with one exception: the camera. The Droid's camerawas bad, and the Droid 2's camera isn't much better. The 5-megapixel snapper took decent shots outdoors with bright, natural looking colors, but details weren't as sharp as photos taken with the Droid X or the iPhone 4.I was even less impressed with my indoor shots. A few had a greenish cast to them, but this may have been due to the lighting. Details were a bit soft too; not as sharp as photos taken with the recently reviewed XPeria X10. I also detected some graininess, and a few objects had a sort of ghostly aura around them. The camera's autofocus isn't very effective, and despite the nice variety of scene effects, I didn't find them to be very useful in improving my shots.
Another strange omission is the lack of support for 720p-quality video capture, which is pretty much the default for high-end cameras these days. The Droid 2 captures at 480p, and there's no dedicated "narration" mode for capturing your own musings via video. Video quality was decent, although a bit pixelated when capturing fast-moving objects. Despite the missing narration mode, the Droid X did capture audio pretty well. Another plus: one of the treats in Android 2.2 is the ability to use your camera's flash as a light for shooting video in dimly-lit environments.Performance
Android 2.2 provides an overall performance boost, from the browser (its use of the V8 engine enables faster loading of JavaScript-heavy pages) to memory management to the CPU. In my hands-on review of Android 2.2 on the Google Nexus One, I immediately noticed how much faster browsing was. Oddly, the browser on the Droid 2 didn't feel as fast. Scrolling through media-heavy pages like CNN.com or Thrasher.com felt a bit sticky. Flicking between homescreens or scrolling through long menus wasn't as speedy as I anticipated, either. A little bit of lag occurs when launching certain native apps, such as the text messaging app, for example. I noticed that the more I used the phone, the faster it got. It sounds strange, but other reviewers have experienced this with other Motorola Android phones, so I know I'm not alone.Despite the sometimes slow-to-scroll browser, pages loaded pretty quickly over Verizon's 3G network. Call quality was also very good in San Francisco. I experienced no dropped calls, nor did I hear any static or hissing. Callers' voices sounded clean and natural.
Verizon customers have a difficult choice among the Droids: The HTC Droid Incredible, Motorola Droid X and the Droid 2 are all solid picks. If you're looking to get your money's worth, however, go with the Droid X or Droid Incredible. If your heart is set on a physical keyboard, however, you'll be perfectly happy with the Droid 2.
Resource: www.pcworld.com
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