Google Android 5 Lollipop review - faster, prettier and better battery life

Google Android 5 Lollipop review - faster, prettier and better battery life

Samuel Gibbs

The Guardian 

Google’s new version of its tablet and smartphone operating system “Lollipop” is the fifth version of Android, introducing new features and tweaks that collectively give the user the feeling that quite a lot has been improved.
Unveiled as “L” at Google’s developer conference I/O in June to replace Android 4.4 “KitKat, Android 5 Lollipop was revealed alongside Google’s new design ethos called “Material”.
Material Design is a new consistent look for Google’s apps, products and services, which stretches beyond Android to Google’s Chrome browser and Chrome OS software for low-cost laptops. The basic premise is a bolder, more colourful and flat look to icons, notifications and other interface elements.
This review is based on a very near final version of Lollipop released by Google for testing. Small things may change before release.

Smooth sliding

For Lollipop that means the use of much brighter, fuller colours than the previous version of Android and a more consistent look. Menu bars are one solid block of colour, icons are highly stylised and flat, while interface “cards” first introduced with Google Now are used throughout, floating and sliding over the top of each other adding depth.
Every bit of the interface looks different, including the background which now changes colour depending on the time of day in some apps, and some slick new sliding animations which add motion to many of Android’s responses.
The lockscreen smoothly slides up and down, with button taps pulsing with white circles. Apps now slide up from the bottom, while the notification shade is pulled down in two stages, one for notifications and a second for quick settings. The second stage has a particularly pleasing animation that reveals battery and settings icons, sliding out from the user profile icon.
Lollipop’s animations. All the animations are fast and fluid, giving Android a sense of urgency and stopping them from getting in the way of getting things done.

More than just one user

More than one user can have an account on devices. Photograph: Screengrab Beyond the obvious colourful difference, Lollipop introduces a couple of important features into the core Android experience.
The first is multiple user accounts on one device. Some Android tablets have had support for more than one user, but smartphones and other devices have been limited to a single user account.
Now multiple user accounts can be set up straight from the quick settings screen, including temporary guest accounts, making sharing a device within a family much easier. The user accounts are very basic at the moment – there are no parental control settings beyond restricted accounts that can limit for instance – but each user will have their own accounts and data inside their profile, which can be password protected.

Restricted profiles can block access to certain apps and functions. Photograph: Screengrab Setting up a new device is now a lot easier for owners of older Android smartphones and tablets. Simply tapping another Android device on the back will transfer settings, apps and accounts as long as both support near field communication (NFC), which almost every Android device will.
It is a one-touch procedure, which works well and takeaway much of the headache of swapping to a new smartphone or tablet.

Notification filters

Each app can be blocked from displaying notifications, or added to the priority list. Photograph: Screengrab Multitasking has also been enhanced with a new card system. Each app can show more than one card allowing users to switch to an open message or back to the inbox, for example – not just to one view in the app.
Notifications from any number of apps can now be filtered by priority on an app-by-app basis. Instead of letting any notification through, users can choose to let only important messages from favourite contacts to show or prevent any notifications from showing.
Users can set up quiet periods through the day or week, or activate the feature on an ad hoc basis – not something that is new to Android devices, but the first time it has been integrated into the core Android experience.

Longer battery life

The power saving mode turns the status bar orange to indicate it’s active, inhibiting some apps while the screen is off. Photograph: Screengrab Lollipop also promises to help prolong smartphone and tablet battery life by being more efficient and tougher on battery-draining apps. It uses a new version of the underlying software called Art that powers apps, which is both faster and lighter on resources.
A pre-release version of Lollipop installed on a Nexus 5 smartphone made the battery last around a quarter longer, with others finding even longer gains of over 35% or two hours in tests. Users should see their smartphones and tablets lasting significantly longer after being updated.
A built-in “battery saver” mode aims to help the device last as long as possible by reducing processor performance and disabling use of data in the background; email and messaging apps will still update when opened, but may not while not active. It can be enabled manually or automatically at 15% battery remaining.
Battery saving modes are not new, as many smartphone manufacturers including Samsung, Sony and LG have built their own systems for reducing battery consumption, but now it is baked directly into the unmodified Android experience.

Better unlocking

Google has added new ways users can login to devices. Face unlock, which uses the front-facing camera of the smartphone or tablet to recognise the users face to unlock the device, has been altered so it runs in the background. As the user looks through notifications on the lockscreen, the device attempts to recognise the face, but if it can’t it will prompt for a pin or password when the user tries to go past the the lock screen.
Bluetooth devices such as headphones, speakers and smartwatches, as well as NFC tags, can be used to unlock the device automatically. When leaving the range of the trusted device the smartphone or tablet will re-lock, requiring a passcode.
Both login methods work well and can alleviate some of the irritations of keeping a device secure.

Where and when will it be available?

Google’s latest Nexus smartphone is a 6in phablet made by Motorola. Photograph: Google The first devices to run Lollipop will be Google’s Nexus 6 smartphone and Nexus 9 tablet, which will be available in the next few weeks. Google’s Nexus 7 tablet and Nexus 5 smartphone will also be updated in the next month.
After Google’s release of Lollipop, other manufacturers will have to make the updated software available for their devices on a case-by-case basis, likely a couple of months later. Motorola has pledged an upgrade for its Moto G, X and E, HTC for its One M8 and older M7, while Samsung is expected to update the Galaxy S5 and Note 4 and LG the G3.

Verdict

Lollipop is a complete visual overhaul of the standard Android look, making it a much smoother, more coherent and connected experience – a big step up compared to previous iterations of Google’s software.
It is also faster, lighter on battery and adds a lot of what third-party manufacturers have had to manually bolt on to their customised versions of Android.
There are still a few areas that could be improved, mainly around app permissions and user privacy control, but overall Lollipop is a solid upgrade and keeps Android on-par with competitors.

Read More

iPhone 6 and 6 Plus review: bigger and better, but with stiffer competition

iPhone 6 and 6 Plus review: bigger and better, but with stiffer competition

Brad Molen

Engadget

To say that Apple's doing things differently would be an understatement. With the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, the company introduced two new high-end phones at the same time, both with a complete redesign and a much larger screen size than any iPhone that came before. Gone are the days of 3.5-inch and 4-inch phones that, at one time, seemed to provide more than ample amounts of screen space. Now, the new iPhones make their predecessors look like the tiny handset Ben Stiller used in Zoolander.

The market has changed, and it was high time Apple did the same.
Even though this is Apple's first attempt at building large phones, it's not breaking new ground -- in fact, it feels more like the company is catching up than innovating. To be fair, finding a fresh take is a difficult thing to do in this crowded space: Samsung's Galaxy Note series, which started out at 5.3 inches and is now up to 5.7, is selling by the millions, and most competing flagships aren't much smaller. Basically, Apple would be leaving money on the table if it didn't address this segment of the market. So how did the company do on its first try at large phones? Pretty well -- mostly.

Hardware

Aside from the screen size and a few minor hardware differences, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are identical. Unlike Apple's last four flagships (the 4 to the 5s), which sported a squarish, blocky shape, the 6 series features soft, rounded sides. Not counting the glass screen, the entire frame is constructed of aluminum, similar to the material Apple uses on its MacBooks.

As you'll see in my iOS 8 review, Apple's following a design approach centered on "continuity" -- the idea that its products should work seamlessly with each other. This is evident in the iPhone 6's hardware as well. The 5 and 5s had straight sides that met the front and back via chamfered edges. On the 6, Apple opted for a unibody build; the bubbled-out sides and flat back are constructed from one continuous piece of material. Meanwhile, the front glass panel tapers down ever so slightly at the edge, producing an uninterrupted look. I'll always have a soft spot for the chamfered edges on the 5 and 5s, but the 6 and 6 Plus feel fresh, especially after years of only modest design tweaks.

Both iPhones are thinner than their predecessor. Whereas the 5s was 7.6mm thick, the 6 comes in at 6.9mm, with the 6 Plus measuring a hair thicker at 7.1mm. I don't always subscribe to the "thinner is better" mantra, but it's a benefit in this case because larger iPhones wouldn't feel as comfortable if they had the same shape as the 5s. If I had to choose based on in-hand feel alone, I'd pick the 6 over the Plus. I can still wrap my fingers around the 6 just as easily as I could with the 5s (and its curved sides don't cut as sharply as the edges on the 5s), but the large-screened 6 Plus is... well, it's manageable.

There's no avoiding it: The Plus is even bigger than it looks. It's easier to acclimate to the Plus if you're already used to large phones, but even then, this is a massive piece of kit. Let's do a close comparison with the 5.7-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 3, for instance (I have a review unit handy, and the unreleased Note 4 has similar dimensions). The Plus is nearly 7mm taller, 1.4mm narrower and 1.2mm thinner than the Note. Both are huge, and their width can fatigue even the biggest of hands if you hold on long enough. When you have a big handset, your fingers need to secure a firm grip; the Note's straight, ridged sides and textured back make for a relatively easy grip. With the 6 Plus, though, those narrow, rounded edges feel sharper when the tips of your fingers are grasping on for dear life, and the aluminum is slipperier. I got used to the design, but it takes time.

But a phone's screen size doesn't have to dictate how large the device itself is. Take the LG G3, a 5.5-inch phone with the exact opposite in-hand feel. Compared with the LG G3, the Plus is nearly 12mm taller, 3.2mm wider and 1.8mm thinner; LG's large-screened option has a smaller bezel and arched back that fit the natural contours of my hand extremely well. It feels much more comfortable to hold for long periods of time, and I never worry about it slipping out of my hands.

Both the 6 and 6 Plus use an IPS Retina HD display, but the Plus is even more high-def than the 6. It has a screen resolution of 1,920 x 1,080, which means you'll get a pixel density of 401 pixels per inch. On the flipside, the 6 maxes out at 1,334 x 750, which translates into 326 ppi. (That's the same screen density as the 5s.) Both displays are sharp, but I do see some minor differences between the two when I look at them side by side. Specifically, the Plus' text and images are sharper, with no jagged lines whatsoever. That said, I don't think it's enough to steer you from one device to the other; they both look fantastic from a few inches away. Additionally, the color representation on both phones is less saturated than the Super AMOLED panel on the Note 3, and is extremely close to the colors on a Retina display MacBook Pro.

With the Retina HD display, Apple is also introducing what it's calling "dual-domain pixels," which arrange the display's subpixels into a chevron-like pattern designed to compensate for the contrast that normally shows up when you look at the screen from oblique angles. It also helps produce deeper darks and sharper text; both new iPhones have brighter whites than the 5s, but the Plus has the warmest tint of the three. The viewing angles are indeed among the best I've seen, and it's great to see Apple incorporate this technology into its latest products. All that said, it's worth noting that while Apple makes this screen technology sound brand-new, it's actually been used before on phones like the HTC One M7 and the One X.

Over the years, Apple's continued to fine-tune its reputation for building devices that combine solid build quality with a premium design. While these new iPhones generally continue that tradition, there are a couple quirks that are difficult to un-see. The first is the excessive use of antenna lines on the back. The two stripes stretching across the top and bottom sections enhance the look of the phone's rear -- much like the HTC One series -- but there are two unsightly lines that follow the upper and lower perimeter, and they stick out like a sore thumb. Secondly, though the phones got thinner, the camera module did not; the result is a lens that sticks out from the rest of the chassis, which increases the likelihood of the casing and lens getting scratched.

I am, of course, nitpicking. After all, an aluminum phone needs to have openings for antennas to get a signal, and that's precisely what the stripes on the sides and back do. Unfortunately, though, they do detract from the device's beauty, not enhance it. As for the camera, many flagship phones come with tiny humps around the camera module to compensate for the extra depth they require, but I would've rather seen Apple go with a design that's less severe -- and less likely to scratch.

One final concern: The phones are prone to scratches if you're not careful. After just a day of use, I started noticing a few small marks on the backs of both devices. The most extreme thing I did to the phones during this time was slide them around on an office table. Granted, a case will resolve all of these issues, but unfortunately, cases also add a fair amount of bulk, and I've always preferred showing off my phones in all their beauty.

NFC

Apple's coming out with a mobile payment service in October called Apple Pay. I haven't been able to test it out yet, so I'll revisit that when it becomes available. Once it's up and running, it'll use a wireless standard known as Near-Field Communications (NFC) that comes built into the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. In short, a transmitter on your device can communicate with a receiver located just a few millimeters away; this is incredibly useful for mobile payment transactions because the short distance makes it more secure than any other wireless connection, so you don't have to worry about a third party getting unauthorized access to your sensitive information.

Since NFC is a standard, the iPhone is theoretically capable of doing a lot more than just mobile payments -- tap-to-pair for Bluetooth devices, unlocking doors and hotel rooms, mobile tickets for public transit, Foursquare check-ins, et cetera. For now, though, the iPhone's NFC radio will be limited just to Apple Pay; developers can't do anything with it right now. Apple hasn't said if this will change in the future, but I suspect the company is approaching it with the same timidity as it did with Touch ID; Apple initially used it just to unlock the iPhone and approve iTunes purchases, and now, a year later, it's finally opening up the sensor for developer support.

Software

Both iPhones come preloaded with iOS 8. You can find my in-depth review of the update here, so I won't go into much detail in this review. But there are a few specific software features on the 6 and 6 Plus worth revisiting. Apple is treating the Plus as a small iPad mini (mini iPad mini?) of sorts: The springboard now can switch into landscape mode, and a few of the native apps (Mail, Calendar and Messages) come with dual-pane windows. This is a great use of the extra screen space, and it gives the Plus a clear productivity advantage over the 6.

While I'm on the subject of landscape mode, the keyboard also looks rather different. The standard keyboard shows up directly in the middle and is flanked by heaps of symbols and other options. Arrows and many of the popular punctuation marks are on the right, while options like copy and paste, undo and voice dictation are on the left.

Both iPhones also feature Display Zoom, which magnifies the screen and makes your icons, text and other materials larger. There's one-handed mode, which Apple refers to as "Reachability." This is technically available on both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, but it makes the most sense on the larger model. Since it's tough to stretch your tiny fingers all the way to the top of the screen, Apple's solution is to bring the screen down to you.

When you double-tap on the Touch ID button, the entire UI slides down so the top half of the app is located on the bottom half of the screen. You can scroll and interact with it just like you normally could in full-screen mode, but in case you need to get to a link at the bottom of a website, or you're trying to get down to the end of an email, you'll have to go back out to see the entire screen. It's better than having no one-handed mode at all, but it still feels cumbersome and I only really used it when I wasn't able to use two hands (e.g., when I'm walking down the street while holding a bag).

It may sound like the Plus isn't ideal, and indeed, it's not for everyone. But for many, the additional screen real estate is worth sacrificing some one-handed comfort. Not only do you get more rows of icons on each screen (the 5s is 6 x 4, while the 6 is 7 x 4 and the 6 Plus is 7 x 4 with slightly larger icons and more space in between), but you're also going to be able to see more emails, tweets, Google search results, Engadget posts, calendar appointments and, well... more of everything. More screen space equates to more room for consuming, creating and manipulating content, and since it's still small enough to fit in most jeans pockets (provided they're not too tight), it's still more portable than any iPad.

Camera

While the megapixel war rages on among manufacturers like Sony, Samsung, LG and Microsoft Devices (Nokia), Apple doesn't seem to feel compelled to join the fray. Instead, it's sticking with a modest 8MP iSight camera similar to the one found n the 5s. Although the aperture and pixel size haven't changed, Apple's added "Focus Pixels," which is the company's fancy term for Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF). The tech is used in many DSLRs and phones like the Galaxy S5, and the idea is to lock autofocus faster. Fortunately, Focus Pixels doesn't disappoint; in several side-by-side shots in which my goal was to snap a photo as quickly as possible, the 6 and 6 Plus did considerably better at producing focused images.

In case you need extra perks for going with the larger device, the Plus comes with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). This feature is designed to reduce the amount of blur that can come from the natural shaking of your hand, and it produces better low-light performance and less shaky video as a result. I took several nighttime shots with the 6 and 6 Plus side by side, and although there was no difference in how much light the cameras took in, the images from the Plus consistently came out sharper -- both when viewing at standard size and especially when zoomed in.

I also pitted the Plus head to head against several other flagships. It bested the HTC One M8 in sharpness and white balance, though it didn't get quite as much light; it had more natural colors and less noise than the LG G3; it got more light, better colors and clearer focus than the Galaxy S5; and although the Lumia 1020 brought in the most light, it also did so at the expense of unnatural colors and noise.

So the iPhone 6 Plus held its own against nearly every major flagship in terms of low-light images, but how did it (and its 4.7-inch twin) fare in the daylight? Shots taken by the Lumia 1020 were far more detailed and had a slightly more accurate white balance and color representation outside; but while it did a fantastic job capturing the shadows, the highlights were typically more blown out than they were on the iPhone. The GS5 is a respectable contender in the daylight as well, offering more detail, but the iPhone generally produced more accurate colors. The G3 appears to be overexposed by default and the dynamic range is not as wide, so shadows are incredibly dark and whites are slightly blown out. Finally, the iPhone bested the HTC One in dynamic range, detail and color.

The iPhone camera may not always be the best in every circumstance, but it's consistently near the top in almost every scenario. The autofocus locks quickly; each shot contains all of the detail you'll need (unless you have to zoom in incredibly far); dynamic range is great; and color representation is sound. And although there weren't a lot of drastic improvements to the new iPhone cameras over the 5s, I know that if I need to snap a quick picture, it's going to turn out well.
(Note: I will have full-res images available shortly.)

Performance and battery life

Last year, Apple rocked the boat by announcing that the iPhone 5s would be the first phone with 64-bit support, thanks to its A7 chip. This year's bump to an A8 chipset isn't quite as dramatic, but the company is claiming that the chip comes with a 25 percent uptick in CPU performance and 50 percent in GPU output. It packs 2 billion transistors, which is a number that few other companies boast in product launches; by comparison, Intel's Haswell desktop processor has around 1.4 billion. Apple seldom dives into more specifics, but benchmarks reveal that we're looking at a 1.4GHz dual-core processor.

I get why Apple would rather discuss the experience than the actual numbers -- it's because a 1.4GHz dual-core chipset doesn't sound as good as a 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon or an octa-core MediaTek. But I've never had any problems getting iPhones to handle heavy loads, and the 6 and 6 Plus are no different. Games load and run smoothly and multitasking works great.

When it comes to benchmarking, it can be difficult to compare Apples to Androids. There are a few cross-platform tests, however, so I decided to take a look and see how the iPhone 6 holds up to a pair of Snapdragon 801-powered flagships, the Galaxy S5 and the HTC One M8. As you can see below, the iPhone does better in some areas and worse in others. On SunSpider, it produced the best scores I've seen on any smartphone.

 It does well on single-threaded activities in Geekbench and keeps up with the Snapdragon in multi-threaded tests. It does significantly better in Basemark X, but not in 3DMark. The long and short of it is that you shouldn't feel like switching from one flagship phone to another simply because it has more cores; Apple holds its own against the strongest competition, and it still has the advantage of having 64-bit support on both hardware and firmware for at least a short period of time -- at least, until Android L comes out and more chipsets integrate 64-bit support.

The iPhone 6 series also comes with an upgraded motion coprocessor called the M8, which adds barometer support in addition to the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass. Since barometers can sense the variance in air pressure, this means you can now measure changes in elevation. Those measurements, in turn, will get added to the new iOS Health app.

Another interesting side effect of the size difference is how they manage thermal heat dissipation. Since it's the smaller of the two, the iPhone 6 got noticeably toastier than the Plus when playing games -- in fact, I rarely had any problem with the Plus getting warm.

If you're having trouble choosing between the 6 and its extra-large twin, battery life may be the ultimate deciding factor. It's no secret that the Plus comes with a larger battery and therefore longer runtime than the 6, but how much of a difference will it make? Turns out, a noticeable one. In our video-playback tests, the 6 lasted 10 hours and 19 minutes; that's actually worse than the 5s results from last year, which managed to go for 10:50. The iPhone 6 Plus, on the other hand, still had 14 percent battery left when the 6 died. All told, it lasted almost 12 hours. Both of these results are lower than Apple's claims, but likely are the outcomes of different testing methods.

But tests are tests: Real-world performance is where it's at. And this is where the Plus truly shines. In my usage tests, I do a little bit of everything on the phone: calls, games, email, social networking, e-book reading, the works. After all that, I got through a full 17-hour workday with just 3 or 4 percent battery life remaining. On the 6, I managed to squeak out around 13 hours. With moderate to light usage, you should expect to see the Plus get roughly a day and a half, if not more.

Both iPhones come in two versions with different sets of wireless frequencies, so you'll want to be aware of the differences. The first option comes with support for 16 LTE bands, while the second takes the same 16 and adds four more bands for a total of 20. This is the most I've ever seen included in one specific model. I usually list out which bands are covered on which devices, but let's face it: If the 20-band option doesn't include your specific needs, very few other phones likely will. The latter will ensure the most coverage globally, and will be sold in more places; in the US, however, you'll only find this version on Sprint and US Cellular.

Every model will come with penta-band HSPA+ and quad-band GSM/EDGE, and there's also a CDMA variant that comes with those frequencies as well.

The new iPhones also support WiFi calling with 802.11ac compatibility (in addition to the usual a/b/g/n), both of which have been a long time coming. WiFi calling, which offers high-quality phone calls over your wireless router, is a carrier-dependent feature. T-Mobile is the only network that currently supports it in the US, though AT&T plans to support it sometime next year. Meanwhile, 802.11ac compatibility ensures that your iPhone isn't a network bottleneck like it once was; its theoretical max speed is now 433 Mbps. Most customers don't get speeds this fast from their ISPs, but at least the speed limit is no longer low enough to have a negative impact on your internet experience.

The competition

At 4.7 inches, the iPhone 6 is still technically smaller than most modern-day flagships. Samsung's Galaxy S5 is 5.1 inches; the HTC One M8 is 5.0; the new Moto X is 5.2; and the LG G3 is 5.5, just to name a few. So if you pine for a top-of-the-line phone that's larger than the iPhone 5s, but smaller than any of the aforementioned heroes, the iPhone 6 will be a great fit.

If you're looking at the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, however, the competition is fiercer -- at least, if you care less about the OS and more about what you can do with the screen size. The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is coming early next month, and since it'll have a 5.7-inch Quad HD display, it'll be a tad shorter, wider and thicker; however, it'll also have straight sides, which provide a firmer grip than the rounded edges on the 6 Plus. You can also get the LG G3, which has a higher-resolution 5.5-inch Quad HD display. Heck, if you're extremely adventurous, you could get a Lumia 1520, which is a 6-inch Windows Phone with even sharper edges than the Plus.

Eventually, both iPhones will be available globally, but it's only coming to a handful of countries at launch. Each one will come in three color choices (space gray, silver and gold) and three storage sizes: 16GB, 64GB and 128GB. The latter storage option is the most I've seen built into a smartphone (internally, at least) though the mid-tier should be plenty for most users -- especially now that it's doubled in size. The iPhone 6 will start at $199 on-contract ($649 retail) for 16GB, and go up to $299 ($749) and $399 ($849) for the 64GB and 128GB models, respectively. The iPhone 6 Plus is $100 more than its smaller sibling, so prices start at $299 ($749) and go up to $499 ($949).

Wrap-up

For the first time, iPhone fans can enjoy something Android users have taken for granted: choice. Until this year, buying a high-end iPhone wasn't a tough decision. You either bought it or you didn't. Now there are two to choose from, and while they look identical, each has its own set of trade-offs that you need to weigh:

 The 4.7-inch iPhone 6 features a respectable display size and a comfortable in-hand fit; it's also my personal favorite after using both for several days. The 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, on the flipside, isn't as easy to hold in one hand, but you'll want it if you're hoping to get an iPad-like phone with great battery life and a lot more screen real estate.

This year's iPhones aren't groundbreaking, nor are they perfect. But they demonstrate something far more important to Apple's success in the long run: freshness. Apple ditched the tried-and-true square design (which I've always been fond of) for a more rounded, modern look; it added features that should've been there ages ago (NFC, anyone?); and it made the phones large enough to start competing in a hotly contested space. No doubt about it, the iPhone needed to grow in size and function, and it did just that. Fortunately, it made the leap before it was too late.

Read More

Vodafone Smart 4 review

Vodafone Smart 4 review:

PRICE £75

Vodafone's latest budget smartphone improves on its predecessor and adds a few extras to the recently released Smart 4 mini to create a decent workhorse of a smartphone for a sub-£100 price.

It's on sale now for £75 from the Vodafone online shop.

Chassis and screen

It's not quite as cheap as the £45 Smart 4 mini, but for your extra 30 quid you get a bigger screen and a better camera, plus the latest version of Android. The casing is all plastic of course, but it feels sturdy and robust. The rear doesn't flex easily but you can pop it off to reveal slots for micro-SIM and microSD cards along with the decent 1,880mAh battery.

The 4.5-inch screen is half an inch bigger than the one that can be found on the Smart 3, but the sub-HD resolution has barely improved, stretching from 800x400 to 854x480 pixels. It doesn't have the 'pop' (or anything like it) of an HD handset but it's reasonably bright and clear -- fine for comfortable web browsing and video viewing. Its size also makes it comfortable for typing, something that couldn't quite be said of its 4-inch predecessor.

Software and processor

It's a pleasant surprise to see that it's running the very latest 4.4.2 KitKat version of Android -- most budget handsets tend to come with an older version. Vodafone has given Google's interface a light, red-themed skin, but mostly it's left it alone, which is no bad thing.

The dual-core processor is clocked at 1.2GHz and backed by 512MB RAM. That's a small step up from the Smart 3's single-core innards, though it's similar to the Smart 4 mini. It performs its duties reasonably well, although you can expect a slight delay in opening apps. Displaying web pages also turned out to be an occasionally jerky experience. Our AnTuTu benchmark test gave it 10,434, which is pretty low and puts it behind the budget Moto E and ZTE Blade V -- not a great result.

Photography

The 5-megapixel camera comes with an LED flash, but not a lot else in the way of extras besides a few settings for night and action shots. It's fixed focus, so you'll need to be careful when you're setting up your shots, and you can expect a fair amount of blur and not a lot of detail. There's also a bog-standard VGA resolution camera on the front for video calls and selfies -- basic, but at least you get a front-facing camera. The same cannot be said for the Smart 4 mini.

Read More

Galaxy Note Edge Review: A Screen That Gives 110%

Galaxy Note Edge Review: A Screen That Gives 110%

Geoffrey A. Fowler

The Wall Street Journal.

First, Samsung made phones bigger. Now it’s making them busier.

Starting today in the U.S., Samsung is selling a variant of the Galaxy Note 4 phablet called the Galaxy Note Edge, distinguished by a 5.6-inch screen that cascades over its right side. It’s one big curved display, but the effect is equivalent to adding a second tall and skinny touch screen where you’d normally grip the phone. Your thumb gets a screen of its own.

Giving 110% can sometimes be too much.

The Note Edge may appeal to Android lovers who enjoy customizing their phones. With the side screen, you get 160 precious new rows of pixels to add a launchpad for apps or a Times Square-like news ticker. Some people may find creative uses for the space, for instance by personalizing it with a pencil-thin animated picture. The unusual design certainly attracts attention.

But to me, the Note Edge ends up being yet another distraction in the arms race for our attention. I’m glad Samsung is experimenting with new designs, but the Edge just tacks on new territory to an already cluttered phone landscape.

I don’t object to the physical form. Thumbs are the most important digits for operating smartphones, and the curved edge was built for thumbing. Holding the Note Edge phablet is more comfortable than you might think, at least if you’re right handed. The right-edge screen has a bezel at the bottom where your thumb can rest. And if you do inadvertently brush the screen, Samsung’s multitouch system can usually differentiate it from an intentional tap.

(If you are left-handed, you can flip the Note Edge upside-down, though your volume and power buttons are then in the wrong locations.)

While Samsung conquered the engineering feats required to make the screen curve, it needs better ideas about what to do with the extra real estate. The Note Edge feels like an experiment, and Samsung says it’s hoping outside developers will be inspired by the design to come up with uses for it.

Flicking the edge to the left or right swipes through a series of panels that operate independently from the rest of what’s happening on the screen. You can use these slim panels to launch apps, get alerts, show a ruler or even play games. Samsung says the extra screen allows you to have “interruption free” notifications and access to important information, because you don’t have to leave your main app to use them.

I found the shortcut access to my favorite apps handy, though Android hardly lacks for other customizable spots to stash apps. Still, too often the edge panels just meant more icons, text and pictures flashing or tempting me to fiddle with them.

Who really wants trending Twitter topics crawling sideways along their phone while they’re trying to surf the Web, take a call or compose an email? You can make these screen panels go dark by tapping in the middle of the screen, but then your phone is instantly the same as the already worthwhile—and $100 cheaper—Galaxy Note 4.

The best use for the edge screen is what Samsung calls night clock mode. It offers a faint read-out of the time along the curved edge that you can see when your phone is laying flat on your nightstand. This saves you from having to pick up your phone or activate a bright screen that might disturb your eyes or others.

Night clock works because it uses the new form factor as an opportunity to take a new look at how we use the lock screen. Too much else about the Edge’s new software just clutters the existing phone experience, instead of seizing the opportunity to simplify or reinvent it.

Read More

Huawei Ascend P7 review

When the Huawei Ascend P6 launched last spring, it turned heads. First, because the design seemed at first glance entirely derived from the iPhone, though as you looked down at the bottom end there was a different styling at play.

Now, the Huawei Ascend P7 has arrived, with an identical design language. It looks better, though, because the aluminium back of the P6 has been replaced by Gorilla Glass which looks fetching where the metal P6 just looked, well, plasticky. This time it’s a classy and subtly patterned back which is smooth, tactile and pleasing to look at.

And though this is a phone which will undercut the top-flight phones out there in terms of price, Huawei (pronounced 'wah-way') wants you to see the Ascend P7 as a strong and powerful alternative to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the HTC One M8 – so how does it stack up in terms of style, features and all-round goodness?

Huawei Ascend P7: Size and build

This phone isn’t quite as razor-thin as the P6, but at 6.5mm there’s precious little in it. It’s still thinner than the iPhone 5s and it has a bigger screen that’s much higher-resolution.

And it’s 4G-capable, unlike the P6. For many people the absence of super-fast data connections was not a problem but the networks, it seems, like 4G for everything but the most budget of smartphones now. Though the P7 has again positioned itself as great value, it’s not budget.

Huawei Ascend P7: Screen

The display is bigger than before – matching the five inches that premium phones like the HTC One M8 offer. This is a Full HD screen so you can feast your peepers on a 441 pixels per inch display (considerably more than the iPhone’s 326ppi). Put a picture on the screen and you can’t miss the richness of the image: colours pop without being overdone while text is as sharp as on paper. It looks tremendous.

What’s more, because this screen is so big, it’s almost a surprise how thin it is, as though the proportions are off. But the truth is the slimness of the Ascend P7 feels great in the hand, making it feel less of a palm-stretcher than the Sony Xperia Z1 let alone the new Sony Xperia Z2.

For all its slimness, the phone feels solid and strong, with no flexing evident. Oh, and because the display stretches to within 3mm of the edge of the phone, it’s an even more impressive screen.

Turn it on and you instantly know you’re holding a Huawei phone thanks to the distinctive Emotion UI, including a special panel called the Me Widget that is easily customised to include important contacts, music player, weather and more. It could be a crucial part of your experience of the phone. Or you may never use it.

Read More

iPhone 6 Dominates Android Phones In Speed Test

iPhone 6 Dominates Android Phones In Speed Test

Kerry Flynn

The Huffington Post

When it comes to unscientific speed tests, it appears the iPhone 6 beats out the Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8 quite easily.

In a video uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday, the review site PhoneBuff measured how long it takes each phone to complete a series of tasks, including opening apps and games. The phones were each rebooted and connected to the same WiFi network for the test.

The iPhone completed the technological obstacle course in 1:55, much quicker than the other two phones and more than a minute faster than the Galaxy. The M8 came in second at 2:09, and the Samsung finished at 2:58, having to reload several applications during the second phase of testing the device's multi-tasking abilities.


There were some individual applications that the other two phones opened quicker.
PhoneArena, a separate tech review site, followed a similar method recently in comparing the iPhone 6 and the Galaxy S5 and found that the iPhone was slightly slower when it opened some third-party apps -- such as Facebook and Spotify -- but faster when it came to its native software.

Of course, there's more to a phone than speed and performance, just as PhoneBuff reviewer David Rahimi admits in the video. The Galaxy S5, for one, does have a larger screen and a higher resolution than the iPhone 6.

This article originally appeared in The Huffington Post

Read More

Amazon Kindle Unlimited Review: Limited Selection

Amazon Kindle Unlimited Review: Limited Selection

Associated Press

Amazon's new "unlimited" e-book service lets you read 600,000 books. That sounds like more than you'll ever read, but I found myself struggling to find the books I wanted.

It turns out that the library of 600,000 is bit like a small bookstore with a few current titles such as "The Hunger Games," attached to a block-sized bargain bin of obscure stuff mixed with "Robinson Crusoe" and other classics that are in the public domain and available for free online anyway.

Startups Scribd and Oyster both offer better value for avid readers of popular books.

Though Oyster has only 500,000 books and Scribd has 400,000, both offer extensive libraries from two of the largest publishers, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster. Kindle Unlimited doesn't.

Kindle Unlimited and Oyster both cost $10 a month, while Scribd goes for $9. All three offer the first month free.

Weeks ago, as I was reviewing Scribd and Oyster, I asked colleagues to suggest books that ought to be on such services. I also added titles from my own wish list. Of the 75 I checked, Oyster had 17 and Scribd had 16. That's not a lot. I got even fewer with Kindle Unlimited - six matches, plus one that's free for everyone.

But through Amazon's $99-per-year Prime program, I could already read four of those six books for free on Kindle devices. Only "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson and "Flash Boys" by Michael Lewis require the Kindle Unlimited subscription.

Under Prime, however, I can read only one book a month. Kindle Unlimited lets you download 10 books at a time on up to six devices. Those devices don't have to be Amazon devices, as Prime requires.

Kindle Unlimited also beats its rivals in several ways:

- It has 2,000 audiobooks from Amazon's Audible business. They're synchronized to the corresponding books, so if you need to break off reading to drive, you can have the audiobook play instead, starting where you left off reading.

- For the first three months of your subscription, you can choose one additional audiobook per month from Audible's larger catalog. You get to keep these books even if you cancel your subscription.

- Only Kindle Unlimited permits reading on Kindle e-readers such as the Paperwhite. I personally prefer reading without distractions from email and Facebook.

- Kindle apps for phones and tablets are more sophisticated than the competition. For instance, you get an estimate of how much time you need to finish the chapter or the book, based on your personal reading speed. Oyster does that only for the chapter, while Scribd offers neither.

- Kindle apps are available for a greater range of devices. Oyster works on iPhones, iPads and Android devices. Scribd supports those, plus Macs and Windows devices. Kindle does all that, plus webOS and BlackBerry devices.

Back in 2011, Amazon began making a selection of movies and TV episodes available for free to Prime members. At the time, the free service had 5,000 videos - but few that I actually wanted to watch. That's been expanded to more than 40,000 and includes decent movies and shows. Amazon has even commissioned original shows for Prime, including the John Goodman comedy "Alpha House."

Kindle Unlimited will have to follow the same path and expand its library to be useful for most people.

With any of these services, you need to be reading three or more books a month to make it worth the subscription. Otherwise, buying the e-book through Amazon or a discount service such as Entitle is more economical. The limited selection makes it tougher to find those three books a month, especially for those who already get a book a month for free through Prime.

Read More

Adobe Ink and Slide review: A software giant tries its hand at hardware:

Engadget

As big as Adobe is in the software space, the company only announced last spring that it planned to dive into hardware, starting with a cloud-connected stylus and a drafting ruler. The Ink and Slide, as they're called, are accessories that allow the company's creative-pro customers access to Adobe's Creative Cloud service on mobile devices. Now, the final versions are available in the US, and as you might expect, Adobe has a smattering of companion apps in tow for making the most out of what could otherwise be a dear $199 purchase. With hoards of more affordable styli to choose from, are Adobe's efforts really worth the premium? As is often the case, the answer's a bit more nuanced than a simple "yes" or "no."

Read More

Apple Watch Raises New Privacy Concerns

Apple Watch Raises New Privacy Concerns

Alexis Kleinman

The Huffington Post 

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen has raised concerns about the privacy protections with Apple's new Apple Watch.Jepsen wrote to CEO Tim Cook on Monday asking about the recently introduced product's ability to store, collect and use consumers' health information.He told The Associated Press Tuesday morning he's not seeking a confrontation with Apple, but wants to meet with executives to make clear his position on privacy issues.Jepsen is asking Apple what information the Apple Watch will collect, how Apple will obtain consent to collect and share information and how Apple will review application privacy policies to make sure health information is safeguarded.A representative of Apple did not immediately return a call Tuesday morning seeking comment.Jepsen said following similar requests last year, Google required review and approval of third-party applications for Google Glass.

Read More

BlackBerry Z3 Review: Sticking to What It Does Best

BlackBerry Z3 Review: Sticking to What It Does Best
NDTV
Jamshed Avari,

Rs. 15999

There's no denying the fact that BlackBerry (the company formerly known as Research In Motion) has serious problems. Five years ago, everyone from students to housewives to businessmen was willing to pay a lot of money to own a BlackBerry. Three years ago, Android and the iPhone began to make QWERTY phones feel seriously clunky and old-fashioned. Two years ago, we were hoping that the new BlackBerry 10 platform and devices based on it would reinvigorate the company, but ridiculous pricing and questionable decisions at every level destroyed any chance of that happening.

Ever since the launch of the Z10 a year and a half ago, we've been waiting for lower-priced models that might offer better value for money and wouldn't be completely overshadowed by Android. As it stands, there are very few BlackBerry loyalists left, and the majority of those who have moved on to Android or iOS are not going to give the company another chance without a lot of very good reasons. Let's find out if the new BlackBerry Z3 delivers.

Look and feel
BlackBerry really does know how to build beautiful phones. The Z3 is ridiculously good looking and its construction quality is impeccable. As of now, it's only available in black but we wouldn't be surprised to see a white edition in the future. The front is all smooth glass, and there really isn't much bezel space around the screen itself. The rear is made of a texturised soft-touch plastic with the classic BB logo in the centre. For better or worse, the battery is non-removable.

The camera and flash are in the top-left corner of the rear, much like they are on the older Z10. A plastic flap on the phone's right edge covers the SIM and microSD card slots, while the power button is placed towards the top of the left edge with the volume controls and voice command shortcut button below it. The Micro-USB port is on the bottom and 3.5mm headset port is on the top. The Z3 doesn't have a mini-HDMI port, which sets it apart from its higher-end siblings.

The Z3 feels good in the hand even if it is just a bit too heavy. It's slim, slick, and very well put-together. In fact it could put several high-end phones to shame in this regard.

Features, specifications and software

There's good news and bad news - while the Z3 is brand new and undoubtedly good-looking, it's built with mostly utilitarian components. The processor is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 with integrated Adreno 305 graphics, but there's a generous 1.5GB of RAM to keep things humming along. The screen is a bit of a letdown at 540x960 pixels despite its large size. There's Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 along with A-GPS, FM radio, an accelerometer and a proximity sensor. There's only 8GB of internal storage space, but microSD cards of up to 32GB are supported (and 64GB cards might work unofficially).

The main attraction is of course the BlackBerry 10 OS. The Z3 comes with version 10.2.1 which is considerably improved over the version that originally shipped with the Z10. The phone might be physically similar to pretty much every other touchscreen smartphone out there, but the BlackBerry OS takes quite a bit of time and effort to get used to, even for users of older non-touch BlackBerrys. 

For starters, there are no buttons of any sort to help you move through the OS; you have to remember to use gestures instead. This is problematic because things aren't always laid out as you might expect them to be, making navigation unpredictable at times. For example, there's no universal "back" or "home" gesture, and getting in or out of the Hub (described later on) isn't the same as launching and quitting apps. Moreover, you have to move your thumb quite a lot over the large screen which takes longer and requires more effort than a simple button press would have.

The Z3's lock screen is pretty plain. There is of course a large clock, plus assorted status indicators. You'll see a list of notification icons down the left, and tapping on any of them will bring up details of your missed calls, messages, emails or social network alerts - you can choose not to display these details in the security settings. There's also a pull-down shade which takes you into bedside mode. This dims the screen and displays a large illuminated clock on which you can easily drag dots indicating the times each of your alarms will ring.

On unlocking the screen, you'll see four large thumbnails representing your most recently used apps. A swipe to the right will bring up the BlackBerry Hub, and swipes to the left will take you through as many pages of app icons as you have. The thumbnail page isn't like conventional app switchers - it shows only four apps - and so its utility is rather limited. You can never be sure that an app you want is going to be there - in fact it gets in the way when you need to get to the app shortcuts. 

This is also when we really miss having a home screen or at least a tray that frequently used apps can be pinned to. Of course you can rearrange app icons in the grid any way you like, but the grid itself is always at least one level away from whatever you're doing. You have to go through the recent apps screen to reach it. Android lets you pin shortcuts and widgets to home screens and even iOS has at least a dock that stays constant on all menu pages.

Exiting any app (with a swipe upwards from below the edge of the screen to above its middle point) brings you back to the page of recent apps. While performing the gesture, you'll notice a column of notification icons just like the ones on the lock screen. It's a great way to constantly be aware of things you might have missed. Incidentally, swiping down from the top of the screen brings up a set of quick shortcuts, but there are no notifications here. This is something every other platform has standardised on, so not finding them here is a little disorienting at first. The settings aren't consistent - sometimes you'll see the system-wide panel, sometimes you'll see app-specific controls, and sometimes you'll get nothing at all - which means you can't always quickly get to things like the screen brightness or Bluetooth.

You can get to the BlackBerry Hub by swiping to the right from the screen of thumbnails or by swiping up and then right from within any app (except if you're in landscape mode, in which the swipe-up motion is awkward and the swipe-up-and-right gesture doesn't work at all). The Hub is truly unique amongst all smartphone platforms, but like everything else, it takes a while to get used to.

This is where all your email, messages, app notifications and even missed call alerts can be found. You can add your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Evernote and calendar accounts as well. There is no separate email app; the hub is baked into the foundations of the phone's OS itself. For some reason, though, there's still a shortcut icon for Text Messaging in the launcher which leads you to the Hub. You just have to remember that you can't exit the Hub like it's a regular app; you can only swipe to the left.

BBM is still a major part of the BlackBerry ecosystem and there are more features for BlackBerry 10 users than there are for iPhone and Android users. It's also integrated into the Hub as a first-class citizen, whereas some other app alerts are just lumped under Notifications. BBM has several strong features compared to today's dominant messaging apps, especially in allowing you to control who can message you. Even so, none of this is enough to drive anyone to choose a BlackBerry phone over the competition. BBM just isn't the powerful draw it once was.

BlackBerry is also very proud of the keyboard it has developed for all-touch BlackBerry 10 devices. We found that in regular usage it was just a bit too large for comfortable typing. Either the company hasn't scaled it appropriately for this screen and resolution, or it's just too spaced out. Each row is separated by a thick bar reminiscent of the ones on the old BlackBerry Bold phones, which is just unnecessary. One very nice touch is that special characters are arranged exactly as they would be on a desktop keyboard.

The two major keyboard features are the Hinglish dictionary and the swipe-to-autocomplete gesture. Hinglish is pretty neat, since it mixes in transliterated Hindi words and suggests them in context as you type. You can scatter Hindi words into English sentences or just type as usual. If you've ever felt that your natural style was hampered by English autocorrect, you'll love this. Swiping to complete becomes natural fairly quickly

The Z3 comes with a number of useful apps: FourSquare, Evernote, DocsToGo, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Adobe Reader, YouTube and DropBox. Most of the built-in apps are quite polished - the Calculator, for instance, has a built-in unit convertor and even a tip calculator.

The BlackBerry World app is a bit of a pain to nagivate, and searching for anything will throw up app, music and game titles as results. Many common apps can be found natively for BB 10, but the appeal is that a huge number of Android apps will work as well. You can use third-party app stores such as Amazon or SildeMe, or find installable APK files anywhere on the Internet (if you're sure the source is safe). Installing is as simple as tapping the file name in the browser's Downloads list or in the File Manager app

The voice search and command feature isn't as capable of deciphering plainly spoken instructions as Siri or Google are, and will often search for exactly what you say. It's possible to tell the Z3 to compose a message, set alarms, get directions, and read your email out to you. The Z3 didn't do very well at filtering out noise to decipher commands (and of course had trouble with Indian names), but it's pretty versatile overall. 

Annoyingly, you can't plug the Z3 into a PC and access its internal storage space. A microSD card will show up as a removable drive if you're using one, but the only way to get media onto or off the phone itself is to use BlackBerry's included desktop software (or use the File Manager app to manually copy files to the microSD card or share them via email, BBM, etc).

Camera

The Z3 is a budget phone and it shouldn't be surprising that its camera isn't anything to get excited about. Still, shots are decent enough when the lighting is good, and you can post them to social networks without any problem. At full size, it's obvious that the camera struggles with details and that there's a lot of compression going on. We noticed that the camera had trouble focusing in low light, but the flash is surprisingly powerful. Video is again not spectacular, and the front camera is entirely forgettable.

The camera app is a bit too simplistic. You can't really compose shots or do anything but wait and hope that the camera focuses on what you want it to, since tapping anywhere on the screen takes a photo - presumably, the decision not to have a tappable button on screen was made more for aesthetics than usability. You can choose between a normal shooting mode, image stabilisation mode, burst, and HDR. There are also hardly any options - you can turn the flash on and off, choose between three image aspect ratios (but not sizes), and use one of only four scene modes (action, whiteboard, night and beach/snow). There is no manual control whatsoever, not even exposure, ISO or white balance.

Performance

Day-to-day usage was marked by occasional jitters, and there were sometimes momentary pauses on black screens while transitioning from one task to another. Despite looking and feeling like a high-end phone, the Z3 definitely does not deliver a premium experience. The gestures also frankly add a delay to getting things done, especially since they don't always work. Gestures might give BB 10 devices a clean look, but there's nothing as quick and simple as hitting a Home button.

Not all our Android benchmarks are available for the BlackBerry 10 platform. The browser-based tests, SunSpider and Mozilla Kraken, indicated performance on par with that of entry-level smartphones such as the Nokia Lumia 630. Quadrant scores were equally disappointing, although it should be noted that we ran the Android APK in the absence of a native BB 10 version.

The built-in speaker is pretty loud and works well for voice, but music is just too thin and tinny. Predictably, 1080p videos were jittery but 720p versions of the same clips seemed to play much better. We did notice that the phone got a bit warm when playing HD content. This is also when the low screen resolution really becomes apparent.

The battery test result was massively disappointing - the Z3 lasted only 4 hours and 55 minutes in our video loop test. For a phone that claims over 15 hours of talktime, this is not a good sign. With ordinary usage, consisting of sporadic calls, messages, Web browsing and a bit of gaming, we noticed that the Z3 lasted comfortably through a full day and night.

Verdict
The BlackBerry Z3 is priced just slightly lower than the now-ancient Z10 (Review), but thanks to rapid improvements in both hardware and design it's quite a bit better than its predecessor in some ways. Awkwardly for the company, it's also very competitive with the more recent Z30 (Review) which costs around twice as much. In terms of value for money, this is the best all-touch BlackBerry available right now.

But it's unclear who exactly would be interested in buying this phone - surely not the legions of former BB fans who have defected to Android and iOS over the past year or two, and surely not those still sticking with older BlackBerrys because of their keyboards.

It's too expensive to be most people's first smartphone, so that rules out another potential audience - BlackBerry has missed out on a potentially crucial market there, at least till the inevitable price cuts hit. 

Could it be anyone's second phone? One dedicated to work, alongside an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy for personal use and entertainment? Perhaps. The Z3 is fantastic for hardcore email and messaging - as long as you don't demand a physical keyboard. Notifications are top-notch and there are loads of useful shortcuts everywhere. The ability to prioritise, stay aware of and respond to communications is quite unmatched on other platforms. Those who have switched and miss having that kind of power might be tempted to give the Z3 a try.

Read More