Category Archives: Phones

HTC M9 Review

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We got a chance to take the HTC One M9 out for a spin for several months. Does HTC still have the touch or does the phone come up short.  Take a look below to find out.

 

 

Likes:

  • Gorgeous Screen – HTC has put a lot into making this phone and it’s quite evident with the build quality of the HTC One M9. The first thing you’ll notice is the very capable 5.0 inch, Full HD 1080p display. It is Gorilla Glass so it’s super tough as well. The colors are very vibrant and it was a welcome step up from my Nexus 5. When playing games, the display really shines making games like World of Tanks or any other high def game look awesome.
  • Speakers – HTC hit a home run with their dual front facing speakers earlier on and haven’t fixed what wasn’t broken. This is easily one of my favorite features of the phone. I do consume quite a bit of media on my cellphone in general so this is a big deal for me. . What I love most about it is that my hands don’t get in the way of the speaker as much. Usually, when the speaker is at the bottom when I hold my device in landscape mode one of my hands is muffling sound from the speaker. This doesn’t happen nearly as often with the front facing speakers on the M9. They’ve also got what they’re calling “HTC Boom Sound” which I initially thought was going to be gimmicky. It’s not. It does make a difference. I’ve even caught myself looking around because I thought someone else was in my apartment because of a sound that came from one of the speakers. They are very crisp and loud enough for personal use. If you are using it for outdoors or for an impromptu dance party you’ll still want some external bluetooth speakers. The HTC One M9 does have the ability to stream to multiple bluetooth speakers and control setup of each one individually but I don’t ever use that as I don’t have that many speakers – but some may. While I’m here, I might as well mention that there is also included an expansion microsD card slot which theoretically can support up to 2TB of additional storage. This will come in handy for taking media with you wherever you want.
  • Luxurious Feel – I loved the way the phone felt in my had as soon as I picked it up. Compared to many of the Nexus earlier Nexus devices, this phone has a lot more heft to it. It feels solid and you definitely don’t want to drop it on your toes as it will hurt. Seriously. The polish really does make you feel like you have something very expensive in your hands and I really like that. I have the Gold on Gold option which is a lot more shiny than my usual tastes but it is something that is immediately noticeable in a room once you pull it out. I’ve already gotten more than a few “What phone is that” inquiries. I’ll also take some time to mention here how tough the phone is. As you probably already guessed, I’ve dropped this phone a few times and it doesn’t have any noticeable damage. No scratches on the back and the screen has held up to the punishment of city living. I haven’t gotten a case for it yet, but it’s doing pretty well naked. It’s been in the pocket with keys and change and it’s totally fine. Full marks in my book for durability which is what I’d expect from a phone that is this well made.
  • Camera Features – I liked the rear facing 20MP camera as it took well balanced photos but I wasn’t wowed out of my seat with image quality but it does record video in 4K – not that I have a 4K display to view it on yet. I did like the fact that it has a sapphire crystal lense cover, but it might have been over kill as I’ve never had a scratch on any of my lense covers on previous phones. That said, I’m happy to have it as it makes me feel elite! I was actually more impressed though, with the front facing camera and some of the camera features. The front facing camera took really good selfie shots in low light and without a flash. I was super impressed and this phone is now my official selfie phone. The front facing camera didn’t have a megapixel count that I could glean, but it is what HTC is calling “Ultra Pixel” whatever that means. Long story short, it’s just a way of saying that the pixels in their images are are bigger than normal sized pixels so you get more bang for your buck where pixels are concerned. Not as many pixels, but the pixels you do have are ummm… Ultra!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               I did like some of the features that came standard with the phone like a slow-mo cam and saving camera settings as selectable icons.
    • slow mo – with a nice camera you can have lots of fun in social media using this functionality. Comes in handy on vacation, night out with the guys, or dilly-dallying around at home or work. It works well and I like having this extra option when taking videos.
    • Saving camera settings – I’ve already saved slow-mo as a separate setting so that I don’t have to fiddle with the settings in camera every single time if I want to use it. This saves so much time and headache especially when you have to think fast. I can just maneuver to that setup and oila! This works for other settings such as ISO and Exposure settings. It’s already come in super handy.

 

Dislikes:

  • Runs Hot – This is something that hasn’t traditionally bothered me before in any other device, but I found it concerning on this one. It can get really, REALLY hot when doing something graphically intensive like playing a particularly long video or playing a graphic heavy game for more than 20 minutes. I really can’t imagine down in a place like Florida or the Caribbean on a hot day playing a quick game outside. I mean you could, but at your own risk. It gets so hot that I honestly worry about the phone’s innards at times. It’s hot enough to bring discomfort to the hand. I’ve left a game on for a little while and come back and have been significantly worried that I may have caused long term damage to the screen or chipset because of how hot the phone was.
  • Volume buttons – I really don’t like the placement of the volume buttons right above the power button on the right side. I do like the power button where it is on the right side as I find it very handy when turning off the screen or waking the phone with just one hand, but I often struggle to adjust volume with one hand because the device is so tall. When watching a video in the dark I also accidentally turn off the device when trying to turn the volume down which happens a little more often than I would like and is actually pretty annoying. I end up feeling up the device to make sure I have the right buttons ahead of time which take a little time but is a little more accurate. In the future, I’d really like to see HTC move the volume buttons back to the left side and the single power button on the right.
  • Interface – Back in the day, was the bomb and did a much better job than many of the major stock OSs in terms of cleanness and simplicity. Honestly, I think Android, and Microsoft for that matter, have cleaned up their act significantly and so Sense isn’t as needed as it once was. I find myself drawn back to the stock Android experience. I do like a few of the Sense features like the “Boom Sound” or the Camera features like Bokeh, Slow-Mo and Photobooth but that’s really it. I don’t use anything else and I actually got another launcher just because I didn’t really like stock designs. Granted, you can actually take a picture and have Sense take colors from the picture you took and integrate them into the interface which is impressive, but I’m not really a photo-as-a-background sort of guy. Others may find Sense just fine, but it didn’t work well for me.

Overall – This is pretty solid phone. It will turn heads because it’s quite stylish and well made. It is quite capable as well with it’s 3GB of DDR4 RAM, 20MP Front Facing Camera with Dual LED Flash, and Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 64 bit processor. It’s no slouch when compared to other flagship phones and it’s speakers set it apart as a go-to device for media consumption. I wasn’t as impressed with the Sense Android skin as I once was but I think this has more to do with Android stepping up their game than it does with HTC slipping on their software development. I was really concerned about the heat issue which I hope gets better with further iterations but I’d have no problems recommending this device to anyone who asked.

HTC Desire EYE Review

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HTC Desire EYE

We got a chance to play with HTC’s new Desire EYE. Is it the next phone you should buy? Does it live up to all the hype? Let’s find out shall we?

 

Design:

The first thing I notice about the Desire EYE is that it seems more playful in it’s design than some of HTC’s previous phone designs. It ditches the sleek, but drab black and grey colors from the HTC One and replaces it with a slick colored strip around the side of the phone. It doesn’t have a curved back so the phone sits flat on the desk. If you’re not used to a large phone, this phone does look pretty big and really long coming in at 5.2 inches. You will most likely have to use two hands to operate it, but HTC made some good button location choices to accomodate. The power button is below the volume rocker on the right side so righties will be able to easily toggle the screen on and off. There is also a dedicated camera button below the power button on the bottom right corner. It’s got a sort of matt finish which makes it feel comfortable in the hand, but that still didn’t make me completely take away my fears of dropping the device.

Looking at the phone dead-on, you mainly see the very large front facing camera and the dual LED Flash. I definitely have more to say about this in the “Likes” section. I didn’t realize until later that they’ve kept the speakers on the front of the device as well, but you have to do a bit of searching to find them…which is a very good thing. This phone also comes with the ability to take a micro SD card for extended memory if you need it.

 

Functionality:

I really liked the Operating system, but to be honest I still like stock Android better. That said, HTC does a really good job of not overloading the look and feel of the OS and it comes off feeling very light and simple. Definitely not as gaudy as some of the other Android skins I’ve come across, but that is a matter of taste. I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty here because if you’ve used an Android phone – there really isn’t too much more to note. Rather, I’d like to talk about the software that governs the impressive cameras. They’ve got a slew of things that you can do with the 13MP front and rear facing cameras that I’ll point out here. Some are really useful, while others are nothing to write home about, but this is where the Desire EYE stands out from other phones.

They’ve got Face Tracking which zooms in on your face while on a video chat session. Though a relatively small improvement, this can be hugely useful when video chatting with someone while doing something else or while walking around. I’ve been in those situations before and I find this a welcome addition. They’ve also added screen sharing support with skype which could prove useful in a business setting. However, I can’t really see myself using that feature too often, but it would be cool to show it off the one time it proves useful. Split Capture is something I’m still undecided on. It’s where you can take a selfie and a shot with the main camera at the same time. The software then merges the two pictures with your selfie on the left and the main image on the right. I think it’s really cool and is something I can imagine using on vacation or in group pictures where the person shooting can finally be involved. Voice Selfie is super useful for taking selfies with the main camera, but the front facing camera is so good I wonder if it’s necessary. I could totally use voice selfie with my current phone (Nexus 5) because the front facing camera is terrible and even worse in low light. But sometimes it’s hard to hit the shutter button from the back of the phone so just yelling out “Cheese” would be a welcome change. Either way, I think it’s a step in the right direction so I welcome that functionality.

 

Likes:

I really like the sound of the front facing speakers. It really is impressive for a mobile phone and the fact that they are pretty much hidden allows for more focus on the huge screen. When I’m playing games I can hear everything which is cool. currently, my palm muffles the sound since the speaker is at the bottom of my Nexus 5.

I also love the front facing camera with dual LED lights. It’s 13 MP! I mean c’mon. I love the move though because now video calls and selfies using the front camera are now totally worth it. Add to that the HTC EYE suite of camera functions and you’ve got a sweet deal.

 

Dislikes:

Honestly, I didn’t like how big the phone was. I’ve got smaller hands, and it’s really hard for me to do what I need to do with one hand. I’m a New Yorker and I multi-task constantly so I really would like my left hand free. I also didn’t like the message center that much, and I noticed it hung a few times. If you swipe all the way to the left you get to this center where it flags relevant news and updates. It’s not terrible and I may learn to like it if I bought this phone, but initially I was put off by it. I’d rather find an app of my choosing to do that sort of thing for me.

 

Summary:

All-in-all, the phone is a solid buy. I could recommend it without hesitation. Sure, there are some things that didn’t float my boat, but the HTC Desire EYE really shines when it comes to it’s cameras. Android phones haven’t had too leaders in the camera category, but I’d say that the Desire EYE is one such phone. If you’re into selfies and a really big screen, you should give this phone a try.

Samsung Teams Up With Bruno Mars for Rockin’ Launch Event

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Looks like Samsung is really not playing around with their next flagship phone, the Galaxy S4. The latest event was Bruno Mars singing sweet nothings in concert at Cunard Hall in Manhattan on Thursday. The Hall was beautiful and was a perfect choice with it’s banging acoustics. Check out images of Mr. Mars himself below.

Hands On With The Galaxy S4

The more I spend time with the phone, the more I like it. I still don’t like any skin on my Android devices though. I’m a vanilla type of guy because I feel like most skins just end up slowing the phone down. That said, Samsung does add a few key touches that I think will at least make some of your friends jealous. There’s the 13MP camera for starters. Add to that the ability to edit out moving items in the background and you have a pretty functional camera. You can use two apps on the same screen at the same time which is pretty interesting, though I’m not sure I’d use that functionality on my cell phone, but perhaps there is someone out there who will. Check out the Hands on Review for more details. It’s available on all the major carriers.

Also, a little snippet of my man singing his heart out for you fans out there…

Hands On With The Galaxy S4

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We were able to spend some quality time with the all new, just announced Samsung Galaxy S4. Check out the video below.

There are a few new features that Samsung has baked in that more than a few people will like. Some of my favorites are as follows:

13 MP Camera. There is some fuss about what makes a mobile camera good. Is it the pixels, or how the image is stitched together. Listen, I won’t refuse if Samsung wants to put 13 MP in it’s main shooter. They’ve also put a 2 MP camera in the front for a nice combo.

IR LED, Bluetooth 4.0, 4G LTE supporting up to 100/50Mbps 

In addition they have added Temperature, Humidity, as well as, IR Gesture sensors.

Drama Shot allows you to take a ton of shots and select the the best one. In addition, the Eraser feature allows you to erase something from the image if it was moving which will make for a lot nicer pictures on the fly.

Group Play might be my favorite since I had this idea a long while ago. You can play your music with as many as 8 different S4s. You can also control volume on each device as well as control them like a surround sound system with Left, Right, and Center phones as speakers.

The phone will also have an accessible battery as well as expandable storage via microSD.

 

Galaxy Nexus 4 Now Available in Playstore (For Limited Time We Presume)

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Hey folks – quick heads up that the Galaxy Nexus 4 which has been totally sold out for the last month is now available in the Google Playstore. If you were thinking of picking one up, I’d head over there and put your order in real quick before it becomes too late! I put in for one myself and the site is saying it ships in 1-2 weeks for both versions (8G and 16 G). This is Google’s latest in the Nexus Series, and it comes with the vanilla (raw) version of Google’s latest mobile OS Jellybean. Are you getting one?

HTC 8X Windows Phone Review

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We got a chance to review the new HTC 8X with Windows Phone 8. I got the navy blue phone which was really nice. No doubt you’re asking the question: How is it different than any other phones, and any other Windows Phone 8 devices. Well keep reading to find out. As usual, I’ve divided the review into two main portions. The stuff I liked and the stuff I didn’t.

 

What I liked:

Size:

The screen is 4.3 inches which isn’t the largest display out there, but it definitely gives you plenty of room to see what’s going on. The dimensions end up making it long (132.35 x 66.2 x 10.12 mm) but it really fits the Windows Phone motif where you have to scroll forever to get to what you want. It’s also really slender so it’s comfortable to hold on to.

Screen:

It has an HD 720p screen and it certainly looks like it. The screen is beautiful to look at and all the colors are really vibrant. The black background wasn’t as nice as Nokia’s “true black” which apparently kills all light around anything being displayed for a richer black background, but the 8X screen really isn’t too bad.

Speed:

Everything was snappy and I really think this was due to both the processor and the nature of the OS. Windows Phone 8 doesn’t have a lot going on so it’s gestures are really simple and the results are a really simple and smooth experience. I never get any stutter of any kind when scrolling around. CPU is a Qualcomm® S4 1.5 GHz, Dual-core processor which doesn’t slouch around. Add that to Verizon’s LTE speed online and I didn’t have to wait for anything. Downloading was zippy, watching video was fast. This was really a pleasant experience. Whenever I wanted to do something – I didn’t really have to wait any real length of time to get going.

Camera:

The camera took really nice pictures as you can see below. Many of which weren’t in the best of lighting conditions. I’m not photographer, but I was impressed and think it will get the job done for those of us who just need to snap a quickie on the go with a significant other, or with family and friends. Skype worked really well with the front facing camera except that movement seemed a little blurred when I moved around too much. The front facing camera is 2.1 MP which is really competitive in the phone market these days.

OS:

Microsoft wasn’t lying. This OS really was tailored to the user. It’s all about displaying my personal and relevant information without really having to delve too deeply to find it. All of my emails (and we’ll talk about this later) are a tap away and I can see how many I’ve missed while my phone was in my pocket. I can see messages, and items ready for download. It’s like I’ve got an assistant with all of the information for my day ready for me which is really cool. I do however miss widgets though, but the live tiles try to fill that gap. If your coming from Android, you will probably miss them. Yet there is definitely something to be gained from the simplistic approach.

 

What I didn’t like:

Power Button Position:

On some Samsung devices – the power button is on the side so you can wake/sleep your phone the the tap of your thumb. That would be nice with this phone because it’s so tall. I found myself having to adjust my grip just to get my pointer finger in a position to hit the power button which was a little annoying. Also, the button is not really raised so I couldn’t tell if I had hit the button or not. On several occasions I had not hit the button, but had been pressing on the space between the button and the right edge of the phone.

Google Sync Not Active:

So apparently Google and Microsoft  are not playing nice and the user is beginning to feel it. Google has disabled it’s exchange active sync. What that means is you won’t automatically get your Google Calendar appointments or contacts transferred over to your shiny new Windows Phone. I did notice this when I was testing the HTC 8X. None of my Google Calendar events were in my Windows Calendar. None of my contacts either. To add fuel to the fire, I wasn’t able to use Google maps either, however, I hear that’s being fixed. That issue wasn’t too bad since I actually like Windows Maps. It has cool features like available wifi hotspots which can be handy, and places to eat and check out based on your location.

Build:

The Phone build wasn’t bad. I really liked the soft material on the back, but I didn’t like that there was no option to remove or replace the battery. I also didn’t feel like the phone was a really expensive device. I’m getting spoiled by Nokia and Apple and their superb build quality. Now, even when a phone has no real defects – if it doesn’t feel like a work of art, I’m not too impressed.

 

Summary:

All in all – I do recommend this phone, especially to those who would like to upgrade from their present Windows device. It’s a solid phone that really performs well. I have no complaints in terms of negative experiences besides the Active Sync issue with Google which is not to be overlooked. If you feel like you are immersed in the Google ecosystem and can’t do without your Google contacts and calendar then you may have a problem. This will definitely effect a large amount of people who will switch back to Android or for fear of losing data will stick with Android and not get the chance to check Windows Phone 8 out. It’s a shame really because I love testing new devices and seeing what else other companies are coming up with. Google’s move reeks of “sheep herding” and I don’t know about you, but I’m no sheep.

Windows Phone 8 Highlights

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Windows Phone 8 was officially unveiled today. Many people, myself included, are really looking forward to see what Microsoft has up it’s sleeve in this battle for the best mobile UI. Does Windows Phone 8 have enough to gain momentum against the entrenched Android and iOS platforms? This is by no means an exhaustive review, but just preliminary highlights.

I saw the entire keynote and a few things jumped out at me”

Data Sense
Though a little late to the party, this is a welcome addition to the mobile UI. It does exactly what you might think it does. It keeps track of your data usage for you so you know whether or not you can afford to give that thumbs up or no. However, it goes a step further by intelligently  compressing websites, as well as autmatically flagging and using existing wifi data connections. This is estimated to save about 45% of the data that could have been used according to Joe Belfiore.

Kids Corner
This allows the Windows Phone 8 owner to compartmentalize his or her phone so that only the apps they choose are accessible to the kids. They brought Jessica Alba out to demonstrate the usefulness. That said, I thought Dieter Bohn and Chris Ziegler made a good point over at The Verge when they said this might still be useful for people who don’t necessarily have kids when lending the phone to a friend.
Rooms

This is really the natural next step of the people hub on Windows Phone. Rooms is basically a more private group where you can share location, calendar events, etc… with your closest buddies. What I found interesting was that you can include people who are not necessarily Windows Phone users in this group and they can still receive updates. I’m not clear on what features won’t work across android or iOS devices though.

Skydrive

Skydrive was really interesting to watch in action because of two main points. First, they give you 7 Gigs to play with which is about 2 Gigs more than normal with these cloud services now-a-days. Second, it works in a similar fashion to when playing a game on a windows device. If on Xbox, you can pick up on your windows phone and vice-versa. The same with your work documents. You can continue working on presentations, and Word documents across the Windows Phone, PC, or Microsoft Tablet.

Wallet
This app allows you to pay via NFC, and store your credit information. It also spots local deals which can really come in handy for someone like me who is always on the go and can’t necessarily plan around a good deal on groupon. I really can’t wait to try this out for an extended period of time.

[ via theverge]

What Your Android Phone Needs is…Quantum Encryption!

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I had the chance to spend time with Chief Extraction Architect Steve Chao about the new technology that Detron is developing. He’s working on high-level encryption for the masses. This stuff is not connect the dots to open a file. We’re talking serious encryption that apparently is extremely difficult to break. It’s called QDK or Quantum Direct Key. It’s so secure that the claim is it hasn’t been broken yet…AT ALL. If you’d like to give it a try you can find the Code Challenge here.

I loved speaking with Steve, and what I got was that he is extremely passionate about the technology and extremely confident in it to boot. He explained that the encryption works with two keys. One public and one private. The private key is generated by some machine (Key Management Center) that is in some deserted place Mars somewhere in the boonies, and is never online. No one knows where it is while the other key is generated by the phone itself. Mr. Chao divulged in the interview below that a random number is used as a key and is generated by “thermal noise on the chip“ which is then used to open up an encrypted file. However, that number was encrypted as well so you would need to decrypt one key to decrypt the real key to decrypt the file! This sounds pretty tough to get around to me and should stop lower skilled baddies from even trying.

This technology will be fitted to the Defense phone that Detron is developing. It has a 4.3″ Sharp qHD screen, an aluminum frame, and a dual-core ARMv7 Cortex A9 1GHz CPU with 1Ghz of RAM. There will be a 16G and 32G option. With that said, I want one, and I want one NOW! The possibilities for secure transactions of all sorts via the cell phone or whatever medium file transfers exist is seemingly endless. I would definitely feel more secure using this technology while making online purchases, or reviewing sensitive documents online. This has huge implications for in-app purchases or apps like Square which allow credit card transactions via the cell phone or tablet. Once we get more time to review the phone we’ll have that up for you. In the mean-time check out the interview with Steve Chao below:

Samsung Tech to Look Forward to for the Holiday

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I got a chance to look at some cool stuff Samsung has out right now that is pretty lust-worthy. The Galaxy S3 is sort of a beast, the note is pretty much a tablet if you ask me, and you’ll be hard pressed to find a sexier TV. Below are my impressions of those devices.

Samsung S3 and Note

These two devices are pretty similar in that they both make and receive phone calls. Other than that, they have pretty stark differences. The Galaxy S3 is quicker, with a faster CPU speed, more up to date OS (Ice Cream Sandwich), and to me, just plain sexier. However, the Note is no slouch with it’s stylus and huge display at 5.3 inches. Depending on your aesthetic tastes, I’d say either is a pretty good bargain if you don’t mind Samsung’s Touchflo skin on top of stock Android.

One service that I really liked was the Group Sharing found in Samsung’s “Group Cast”. What was cool was that you could share a PowerPoint presentation, images, or .PDF files in real time with other folks (with a Samsung Galaxy S3 or WiFi enabled TV). Any person in the group could move the slides along or mark them up. This functionality is a welcome addition to the Android experience.

Samsung Smart TVs

Victoria Secret Model Causes Quite the Stir with Samsung Smart TV

Samsung’s new line of Smart TVs are really sexy and have great functionality. They are a little pricey though, so if you are on a budget I might do a little research before plunking down your cold hard cash. What’s really cool is the “Smart Interaction” which allows you to control the TV or Play a Game with motion or voice. Now, this is very Kinect-like, however, if you don’t have an Xbox360 with Kinect, then this is of course an alternative. The TV also comes with Active 3D Glasses – which are pricier than passive 3D glasses but supposedly give higher resolution. I’ve got a passive 3D TV at home and it’s great, and I got it for a little less, so like I said, make sure to do your homework. I’ll continue to keep you updated on the latest in lustworthy gadgets for the Holidays!