HTC One SV, Need For Speed

The HTC One SV is the Taiwanese company's response to the ever increasing development of the LTE networks, the next generation when it comes to data transfers.

 This time, we are talking about a mid range droid, until the HTC One SV, LTE capability was reserved for high end devices. Now, you can enjoy lighting speeds in a fairly affordable package.

As the name suggests, the HTC One V is a mixture of the One S and One V, when it comes to hardware platform, old and new put together. Mainly, a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chipset with a dual core CPU, clocked at 1.2 GHz and a 4.3 inches wide screen with WVGA resolution,long story short it goes like this:

Main Specs:

• LTE network support
• Quad-band GSM/tri-band HSDPA support
• 4.3" 16M-color Super LCD2 capacitive touchscreen of WVGA resolution (800 x 480 pixels); Corning Gorilla Glass 2
• Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich with HTC Sense 4.1
• 1.2 GHz dual-core Krait CPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 chipset; Adreno 305 GPU
• 1 GB of RAM and 8GB of built-in storage
• microSD card slot
• 5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash; face detection and geotagging
• 1080p and 720p video recording @ 30fps with stereo sound
• 1.6 MP 720p front-facing camera for video-chat
• Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS
• NFC connectivity
• Accelerometer, proximity sensor, built-in compass
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth
• MHL TV-out (requires MHL-to-HDMI adapter)
• Smart dialing, voice dialing
• DivX/XviD video support
• FM radio
• HTC Portable Hotspot
• Beats Audio sound enhancement
• Superb build quality and ergonomics

Full specs here.

http://www.mobilephonedeals.com/htc-one-sv-black-deals/

Even if the display doesn't have an impressing resolution , this comes very handy when playing with the smartphone, it's very quick and responsive, as its video card has to deal with a relatively moderate number of pixels, hence you have benefits from the WVGA resolution in this case.

In the box, you will find a charger, the USB cable and a 4 GB micro SD card, in some cases you will also benefit from a pair of headphones in the retail package, it's up to the operator.

As per design, the HTC One SV looks pretty, mainly in the red color scheme, it has curvy edges and a metal ring all around the body, this makes it look classy. The overall impression is of a product well built and of high quality.

The build quality is flawless, the back panel is made of soft touch plastic and the front is covered entirely on Corning Gorilla Glass 2, the smartphone looks and feels as premium as it gets.

The smartphone has a perfect size, from my point of view, it measures  128 x 66.9 x 9.2 mm and fits easily in any pocket, it weighs 122 grams, which is also perfect.

 The 4.3 inches wide WVGA display is a Super LCD2 unit with great color reproduction, viewing angles and contrast, sporting 217ppi pixel density. Due to the relatively low resolution, you will enjoy great chipset performance and battery life.

Above the display you will find the earpiece grille, the secondary camera and two sensor, the usual ambient light and proximity ones, below the 3 capacitive keys, glowing in the dark.

On the top, you will see the power/lock key, the 3.5 mm audio jack  and a secondary microphone, on the bottom the USB port and the mouthpiece.

The back  houses the 5 megapixels camera lens, a LED flash and a huge HTC logo, along with the Beats Audio one, under the back cover a user replaceable battery of 1800 mAh and the micro SIM/micro SD cards.

In real life, the battery will last for a day and a half, on moderate to heavy use, not bad at all. When it comes to handling, the HTC One SV is a joy, due to its size, design and excellent build quality, along with the materials used which provide good grip.

The smartphone comes with Android 4.0.4 ICS operating system and Sense 4.1 flavor, HTC's in house user interface.The Sense User Interface is very nice and fully customized, with all types of Skins and Scenes interfaces.

The hardware platform consists of a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chipset with two 1.2 GHz Krait cores and Adreno 305 GPU, a cool 1 GB of RAM on board, all together they offer quite a punch. The One SV is a pretty good performer, in any task, it is very fast and works seamlessly.

The phonebook is very elaborate, featuring deep SNS integration, the People app is tabbed, it juggles with everything, from SMS to photos from Facebook.

Telephony is good, as it should be, there are no problems with signal reception/voice quality, the messaging department is handled brilliantly, social networking is covered by apps and widgets, including Google Messanger. All messages are displayed in threads, text input via the custom made HTC virtual QWERTY keyboard  presents no challenge.

For emails, you have the tradional Android Gmail app, capable of managing multiple accounts and the generic HTC mail app.

 The gallery is the Android one, customized by HTC, A tap on the Albums dropdown lets you view local or online albums. On the cloud side, you get Facebook, Flickr, Dropbox, Picasa or SkyDrive..

The video player is quite capable, it can play most formats like AVI, MP4, MKV, and up to a resolution of 720p.

When comes to audio output, you can choose between Beats Audio, HTC enhancer or No effects. The music player also offers SoundHound track recognition, TuneIn Radio or 7digital., the user interface is a Cover Flow like visualisation, you also get an FM radio with RDS built in.

As for the quality of audio output, is pretty good, the HTC One SV offers excellent frequency response  and a good dynamic range.

The shooter is a 5 megapixels one with autofocus, capable of taking stills at 2592 x 1944 pixels resolution and it can record Full HD video at 1080p at 30 frames per second. The user interface is the same for both the still camera and video camera, you have all kinds of cool effects and settings, the quality of photos and videos is decent for such a device.

In terms of connectivity, you're in for a treat, HTC One SV offers quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and tri-band 3G, as well as LTE connectivity. Local wireless connectivity features Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and NFC, Disk Drive, HTC Sync, USB tethering and Internet pass-through, not to mention HTC Portable Hotspot.

The Ice Cream Sandwich browser is great for surfing the internet, you also get Google Chrome preinstalled. The interface is minimalistic and works like a charm.

 The organizer is top notch, the business users will surely appreciate the Polaris app, which supports Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, including the Office 2007 versions and it can create Office 2003 Word, Excel documents and presentations. There is also a PDF viewer to handle PDF files, it also integrates Dropbox and SkyDrive, making syncing documents between your computer and your phone a non issue.

The Google Play Store will get you any app you can think of, for navigation you have Google Maps with Street View, Cell ID and Wi Fi network location, thanks to the GPS receiver on board.

As final words, what can I say? The HTC One SV is a very interesting package, combining excellent design and build quality with a rich set of features and great functionality. Performance is also good, even for a power user, you can do almost anything on this baby.

And the best part is that you can a HTC One SV for free, just pay a visit here and take a look.

continue reading "HTC One SV, Need For Speed"

Sony Xperia V, Wild and Wet

The time of 4 inches wide flagships has come to past, now the new truth is full-HD five-inchers stealing the show. Even in these terms, the Xperia generation still has something to say, enters Sony Xperia V, a dual-core Krait powered smartphone, featuring next gen  LTE connectivity, kicking ass in the upper mid range.

 It has a few things to brag about, like a 1080p full HD display and an uber cool 13 megapixels still camera,capable of shooting videos in Full High Def, which is also kind of cool.

The cherry on top, besides the pretty impressive specs, is the water and dust resistance, and without sacrificing the good looks of the Xperia range.  Let's take a look at the main specs, shall we?


Main Features:

• Quad-band GSM /GPRS/EDGE support
• 3G with 42.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
• LTE Cat3 DL 100 Mbps UL 50 Mbps
• 4.3" 16M-color capacitive LED-backlit Reality LCD touchscreen of 720p resolution (720 x 1280 pixels) with Sony Mobile BRAVIA engine 2; Scratch-resistant glass
• Android OS v4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean coming up
• IP57 certified for dust and water resistance, up to 1 meter immersion for 30 minutes
• Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait CPU, 1 GB RAM, Adreno 225 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 chipset
• 13 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and geotagging, Superior Auto mode
• 1080p video recording @ 30fps with continuous autofocus and stereo sound
• VGA front-facing camera
• Wi-Fi a/b/g/n with DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct and hotspot
• GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
• 8GB of built-in storage, microSD card slot
• microUSB port with MHL and USB-host support
• Stereo Bluetooth v4.0
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Voice dialing
• Deep Facebook integration
• PlayStation Certified, access to the PS Store
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• NFC connectivity

Full specs here.

http://www.mobilephonedeals.com

 Sounds pretty impressive, isn't it folks? And it is, by all means. Moving along, the phone comes in a pretty standard box, containing the usual A/C adapter, a micro USB cable and a headset.

The Sony Xperia V measures 129 x 65 x 10.7 mm and weighs 120 g, even if it looks ample, it feels very light and comfortable in your hand. You must keep in mind that this baby is  IP57-certified for dust and water-resistance, this weighs hard on my scale.

The phone has a curved shape, it's a minor redesign of the Xperia T, the overall finish quality is excellent, the phone is a pleasure to look at and to handle.

 The back panel has a rubbery finish, for extra grip and the body is all plastic made, with no glossy parts. The  screen is a 4.3 inches wide Reality display, above it you will find the earpiece, a VGA camera, the ambient light/proximity sensors and a notification LED.

 There are no physical buttons under the display, just the capacitive keys Home, Back and Task switcher ones. The power/lock button and volume are placed on the top right side, the bottom houses only the microphone, the micro USB port is on the left side and it's protected by a plastic lid, on the top you will find the 3.5 mm audio jack, also sealed with a piece of plastic against water and dust.

 The back panel is made of plastic with a rubber finish, the 13 MP camera lens is on the top, next to the secondary microphone, used for noise reduction.

 If you remove the back panel, you will see an insulating trim of rubber which protects the phone from getting wet and also the 1750 mAh Li-Ion battery, capable of up to 400 hours of standby time  and 7 hours of talk time, in real life, under medium use including calling, web browsing and video, the phone lasts about 30 hours on a single charge.

 As mentioned before, the display is a 4.3 inches wide Reality variety, the quality is above average, with 342 ppi pixel density and powered by the Bravia engine, the screen is sharp and bright, a pleasure to use, honestly.

In terms of handling, the smartphone is light and feels great in hand, it's not too big, nor too heavy, the finish quality is great and many buyers will appreciate the dust and water resistance of the device.

The Sony Xperia V comes with Android OS version 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich on board, the User Interface is familiar for Sony aficionados, it features the usual five-pane homescreen setup and you can change the color theme of the launcher whenever you feel like it.

The hardware platform consists of a  Qualcomm MSM8960 chipset with two Krait cores, clocked at 1.5 GHz, graphics are handled by an Adreno 225 GPU and there's 1 GB of RAM on board, needless to say that with this setup everything runs smooth, you can watch 1080p videos without issues, the phone does an amazing job overall.

Tested against superior phones, the Xperia V performs better on some tasks.

The phonebook is the standard Android, you can sync multiple accounts, like Facebook with your phone contacts, you also have custom ringtones.

In terms of telephony, the Xperia V performed with flying colors, it holds well to signal, you get active noice cancellation and smart dial. The messaging is well taken care of, messages are displayed in threads,  Gmail handles the email business, the app supports multiple accounts. For instant messaging, you have Google Talk, compatible with a variety of popular clients like Pidgin, Kopete, iChat and Ovi Contacts, also you can use the integrated Timescape app for Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Typing on the virtual keyboard is pleasant and comfortable, especially with the Gesture function, which works like Swype.

The video player has a new interface and a new name, it's called Movies, also is connected to Gracenote, an app which helps you find additional information about the movies you have on board, just like an automated IMDB. You can also edit video, via an editing app called Movie Studio.

 The music player on board is a Walkman variety,  SensMe is included,with this featyre you can filter your songs by mood - upbeat, energetic, mellow, dance, also you may create playlists  and share your music on Facebook for your friends to see.

 Another new option added to the Walkman is ClearAudio+, which enhances sounds, also a Surround mode, ClearPhase for speakers and xLOUD for a more powerful sound. You also get an FM radio built in, with RDS. Audio output quality is pretty good, in Sony tradition.

 When it comes to pictures, you're in for a rare treat, the Xperia V comes with a 13 megapixel camera with a backside-illuminated Exmor R sensor and a single LED flash, the pictures are taken in  4128 x 3096px resolution and you also have quite a few options, like the Superior auto mode, Sweep Panorama etc.

The camera is a very good one, pictures look great, sharp and with nice levels of detail. The phone is capable of recording full HD videos, 1080p at 30fps, in mp4 format, in stereo sound.

For the multi media users, the phone shines in terms of connectivity, you have  quad-band 2G, tri-band 3G connectivity and penta-band LTE. Mobile data speeds are an impressive 42 Mbps of HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA.Local connectivity is covered by Wi-Fi a/b/g/n with DLNA and Wi-Fi Direct, so you can easily share content from your phone on a DLNA TV or music player. There's also Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP.

For web browsing, the Android works flawlessly, as usual, with a minimalistic interface and quite a few options, it handles HTML 5 videos, it works very fast and smooth.

For business users, they will be delighted by the solid organizer and mainly the OfficeSuite 6, which allows you to view any type of document,

 The phone comes with a GPS receiver with GLONASS support, Google Maps handles navigation and you can also use the always cool StreetView option. For any app imaginable, you have the Play Store, with over 700 000 apps.

As a final word, this baby is the water proof version of the latest flagship, the Xperia T, well, not quite identical but almost, Sony cut down the secondary camera performance and the internal storage capacity, but these are hardly things I would complain about.

 For the best mobile phone deals on a Sony smartphone, take a look here.

continue reading "Sony Xperia V, Wild and Wet"

Samsung Galaxy S Advance, Midrange Performer

The Samsung Galaxy S Advance was released in April 2012 and holds some really nice features in its basket full of advanced goodies. Besides being an attractive and wise phone, it’s also available at an affordable price, so why not check it out in the following review ? There are some big chances that you’ll like what it has to offer and consider buying it.

Main specs:

• Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support
• 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support
• 4.0" 16M-color Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen of WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) resolution; Scratch-resistant coating
• Android OS v2.3.6 with TouchWiz 4 launcher
• 1 GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU, Mali-400 MP GPU, 768MB of RAM
• 5 MP autofocus camera with a powerful LED flash, face and smile detection
• 720p HD video recording at 30fps
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n support; DLNA and Wi-Fi hotspot
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity; digital compass
• 8/16GB of inbuilt storage, microSD slot
• Accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• microUSB port
• Stereo Bluetooth v3.0
• FM radio with RDS
• Gorilla Glass
• 1.3MP secondary camera
• Document editor
• File manager comes preinstalled

Full specs here.

http://www.mobilephonedeals.com


In the phone’s box, you’ll find the user manuals, a charger, the microUSB cable, a pair of headphones with in-ear plugs and some additional differently sized buds. No microSD card, but the phone’s internal memory is of 8 or 16 GB, which is quite enough for most users.

The Galaxy S Advance is a good looking guy, measuring 123.2 x 63 x 9.7 mm and having a weight of 120 g. Even if it’s all made of plastic, it seems to be strongly built and looks great. I especially liked the interesting pattern on its back, which keeps the fingerprints away from sticking to it and looks nice. The phone has a curved back and can be easily handled with one hand, as it’s light and slim; your pockets will like it too.
The phone features a 4 inches Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen that has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels and a 233 ppi pixel density. The contrast is very good, the colors are bright and vibrant, the sunlight legibility is great and so are the viewing angles.

Above the screen are the earpiece, a secondary camera for making video calls and the ambient light and proximity sensors.
Below the display are two capacitive haptic-enabled keys for Menu and Back, with a physical key for Home between them.
The left side of the phone holds the lonely volume rocker. Also lonely is the Power/Lock key, which can be found on the right side.
The top of the phone is bare, meanwhile the bottom is pretty crowded, hosting the microUSB port, a 3.5 mm audio jack and the mouthpiece.

The phone comes loaded with Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread and is upgradeable to v4.1 Jelly Bean. Also here is the TouchWiz user interface, which grants a wonderful experience. The Galaxy S Advance is powered by a NovaThor U8500 chipset, has a dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9 processor, Mali-400 GPU, 2 GB of ROM and 768 MB of RAM. It’s very snappy and works just fine, without annoying you with lag or anything like that.
At the telephony department, you have a great phonebook that stores tons of info about your contacts and syncs with your social networking accounts. Smart dialing is available and the phone offers a very good call & reception quality.
At the messaging area, your messages are organized in threads and displayed as conversations.
Instant messaging is handled by Google Talk and for emailing, you have Gmail and a generic email app for your other accounts.
For texting, the Android virtual QWERTY keyboard is very easy to use.
The Galaxy S Advance has a rich set of connectivity features. You have support for quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 3G with 21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA, dual-band Wi-Fi b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Hotspot, High Speed Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP and microUSB 2.0.

Browsing is wonderful on the phone, as you’re being offered support for Flash 11, text reflow, multiple tabs, double tap and pinch zooming and others. The pages are loaded fast and fit the screen nicely.
The Galaxy S Advance is equipped with a 5 megapixel autofocus camera that takes pictures at a maximum resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels and has a LED flash companion for assisting in low light situations. You also get settings for geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection and others. The image quality is very good.
The video camera also does a great job and is capable of producing 720p videos at 30 fps.

For audio playback, you have a nice TouchWiz player and some nice features, like the DNSs sound enhancement, several equalizer presets ( a user defined one included), the possibility of searching for a song on YouTube or Google and so on.
The video player is very capable, handles DivX or XviD files without a problem, has support for subtitles and more.

The Galaxy S Advance features the Polaris Office application for viewing and editing Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. It can also view PDF files. Some other useful apps are the Memo, Mini Diary, Task, Voice Recorder, Calendar, Alarms and so on.
The phone comes with a built-in GPS receiver that has A-GPS support and Google Maps for navigation.
A 1500 mAh battery is on board and will keep your phone alive for a little over a day of intensive usage.

In conclusion, if you’re looking for a reliable, smart, good looking phone that’s also available at an affordable price, the Samsung Galaxy S Advance will definitely satisfy you and you won’t regret making the decision of buying it.

continue reading "Samsung Galaxy S Advance, Midrange Performer"

Nokia Lumia 820, Need Backup?

The Nokia Lumia 820 was released in November 2012, at the same time with its stronger sibling, the Lumia 920 and, even if it isn’t the Nokia’s champ, it doesn’t stand in its shadow either. The Lumia 820 brings a lot of impressive skills and is also available at an affordable price (considering what it has to offer). If you’re thinking about trying the Microsoft WP 8 and you’re also searching for a wise and reliable device, this fellow over here might be the best choice you can make. Follow the next review and find out if the Lumia 820 fits you!

Nokia Lumia 820 Essentials :

    Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support

    Quad-band 3G with 42 Mbps HSDPA and 5.7 Mbps HSUPA support

    4.3" 16M-color ClearBlack AMOLED display of WVGA resolution

    8 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, 1080p@30fps video recording

    VGA front-facing camera

    Windows Phone 8 OS

    1.5GHz dual-core Krait CPU, Adreno 225 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8960 chipset, 1GB of RAM

    Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band

    GPS receiver with A-GPS and GLONASS support

    Free lifetime voice-guided navigation

    8GB of inbuilt storage, expandable through the microSD card slot

    Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic

    Built-in accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor

    Standard 3.5 mm audio jack

    microUSB port

    Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP and EDR, file transfers

    SNS integration

    Xbox Live integration and Xbox management

    NFC support

    Digital compass

    Nokia Music 

For a good deal on a Nokia Lumia 820, just visit here.

Let’s start with its accessories. In its box, you’ll find a charger, the microUSB cable, which serves at both charging and making data connections, a nice headset with in-ear buds and the user manuals.

The Lumia 820 looks very nice and is really heavily built, reminding me of those good ol’ Nokias, popular for their amazing shock resistance. I’m sure everybody knows what I’m talking about. But let’s carry on. The phone measures 123.8 x 68.5 x 9.9 mm and has a weight of 160 g, so it really isn’t a light or slim device, but it won’t seem like a brick either. I personally appreciate it – “heavy is good, heavy is reliable” – this quote surely holds a lot of truth in it. The phone feels comfy in your hand and the matte finish on its back will offer a good hand grip and keep your fingerprints from sticking to it.

The phone features a 4.3 inches AMOLED capacitive touch screen that has a resolution of 899 x 480 pixels, a 217 ppi pixel density and offers some nice viewing angles and a great sunlight legibility.

Above the display reside the earpiece, a secondary camera for making video calls and the proximity and ambient light sensors.

Beneath the display stand three touch-sensitive keys for Back, Windows and Search.

The left side doesn’t hold anything, meanwhile the right one is hosting a party. You’ll find here a Power/Lock button, the volume rocker and a dedicated camera button that can launch it when the phone is locked.

The top is home for a 3.5 mm audio jack and at the bottom, you’ll see the microUSB port and a speaker.

The Lumia 820 features Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 OS that has a friendly user interface, offers multitasking, enables you to control it through voice and more. It’s powered by a Qualcomm MSM8960 chipset, having a dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait processor, Adreno 225 GPU, 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of internal memory, which can be expanded with a microSD card of a maximum capacity of 64 GB. The phone goes smooth through the interface and won’t raise any lag issues, freezes or annoying stuff like that.

At the telephony department, you have the People Hub serving as a phonebook and doing a wonderful job while at it. It stores lots of info about your contacts, syncs with your social networking accounts and more. The voice quality during a call is very good and the reception is free of issues.

At the messaging area, all of your messages are gathered together and displayed as conversations.

For emailing, the OS offers you a unified inbox.

Typing is very easy and comfortable on the phone’s virtual QWERTY keyboard that offers sound feedback.

At the connectivity department, you have support for NFC, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, quad-band 3G with 42 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA, dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n with DLNA,Wi-Fi Direct and Wi-Fi Hotspot, Bluetooth 3.1 with EDR and A2DP, microUSB 2.0.

For surfing the web, Internet Explorer is a very good companion, featuring support for multiple tabs, among others, and more. You’ll definitely like browsing on this phone, as the pages are loaded fast and fit the screen beautifully.

The Lumia 820 features an 8 MP snapper that takes really great pictures, being helped by a 26mm wide-angle Carl Zeiss lens and a dual-LED flash in low light conditions. You’re also being offered options for scenes, effects, ISO, geo-tagging and more.

The video camera is also wonderful, being capable of producing some nice 720p and 1080p videos at 30 fps.

For audio and video playback, you have some very capable players. When listening to music, you’re being offered, among others, some equalizer presets and the Dolby Headphone enhancement. Watching movies is also enjoyable, as the player supports all the popular formats, like Mp4, DivX, XviD and others.

The Lumia 820 features the Microsoft Office app for viewing and editing Word and Excel documents and it’s also capable of viewing PowerPoint files. 

Another useful functionality is the Kids Corner, which enables you to lock your important data when giving the phone to your kids.

The phone holds a GPS receiver and features A-GPS and GLONASS support. For navigation, you get Nokia Drive and Nokia Maps. The first is very handy, as it works offline, offers voice guided navigation and much more.

The Lumia 820 holds inside a 1650 mAh battery, which will keep it alive for approximately two days if you don’t frequently abuse it with games, videos and stuff like that.

Overall, the Nokia Lumia 820 is an impressive device, having a lot of talents and ambitions, managing to be a wise, good looking and obedient companion on one hand and, on the other hand, a really tough guy. 

continue reading "Nokia Lumia 820, Need Backup?"

LG Optimus 3D, First of Its Kind

The LG Optimus 3D was launched in July 2011 and was the first smartphone with a 3D display. Besides having a cool screen and 3D effects, this fellow over here is also a wise guy, literally. Want to find out some more about what this sweetheart is capable of ? Follow the next review!


Most important features:

Quad-band GSM and 3G support
21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
4.3" 16M-color capacitive LCD stereoscopic touchscreen of WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels)
Android OS v2.2 Froyo with LG 3D UI
Dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 proccessor, PowerVR SGX540 GPU, TI OMAP4430 chipset
512 MB RAM
8GB internal storage
Dual 5 MP autofocus cameras, LED flash; stereoscopic 3 MP pictures, face detection and geotagging
1080p@30fps video recording, stereoscopic 720p@30fps videos
Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
GPS with A-GPS
microSD slot up to 32GB
Accelerometer, proximity sensor and an auto-brightness sensor
Front facing camera with video calls
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v3.0
microHDMI port
Smart dialing, voice dialing
DivX/XviD video support
Office document editor
Innovative gesture controls
Adobe Flash 10.3 support
Dolby Mobile and SRS sound enhancement

In the phone’s box, we have a charger, the microUSB cable which is used for charging and making data connections, a pair of headphones with in-ear buds and some user manuals.

The phone measures 128.8 x 68 x 11.9 mm and has a weight of 168 g. Its design isn’t something you’ve never seen before, but the phone still remains an attractive piece of work. It’s all made of plastic, but offers the impression of a strongly built device. The rubberized plastic from the back helps a lot by offering a better hand grip and keeping them fingerprints away from sticking to it.

The star of the show here is the 4.3 inches 3D LCD capacitive touchscreen that has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, a 217 ppi pixel density and Corning Gorilla Glass protection. The viewing angles are okay and the sunlight legibility is great. The 3D effects are wonderful, but only available in the landscape mode, for the applications compatible to them.
Above the phone’s nice screen, we have the earpiece, a proximity sensor and a secondary camera for making video calls.
Below the display stand four capacitive keys for Menu, Home, Back and Search. They offer haptic feedback and are backlit.

On the left side of the phone, we have the HDMI and microUSB ports, protected by some plastic lids.
The right side is home for a volume rocker and a dedicated 3D button for launching the 3D interface.
At the top, you’ll come across the Power/Lock key, a 3.5 mm audio jack and a secondary microphone.
The bottom features the primary microphone.

The LG Optimus 3D comes loaded with Android 2.2 Froyo and is upgradeable to v4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich. The user experience is pretty enjoyable and you have some nice 3D apps and a guide that teaches you about creating, viewing and sharing 3D stuff. The phone is powered by a TI OMAP 4430 chipset, having a dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9 processor, PowerVR SGX540 GPU, 8 GB of internal storage, which can be extended by a microSD card with a maximum capacity of 32 GB and 512 MB of RAM. The phone does a wonderful job and you won’t be having any issues with lag, freezes or anything like that. I didn’t.

In terms of telephony, you get a smart phonebook that stores a lot of information about your contacts and syncs with your online accounts. You have Smart and Voice dialing, the possibility of making video calls and a very good in-call quality. The secondary microphone for active noise cancellation does help a lot. I did not have any reception issues either.
At the messaging section, your SMS/MMS messages are displayed as conversations between you and your contacts.

For emailing, Gmail offers batch operations and you have a generic email application for your other accounts.
For typing, you have the phone’s on screen QWERTY keyboard and the dialpad. The virtual QWERTY keyboard is very easy to use in portrait mode, but if you have really chubby fingers, the landscape mode will come in handy.
In the connectivity package, the phone has support for quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and tri-band 3G with 21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA, Wi-fi b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and EDR and microUSB 2.0.
For surfing the web, you have a simple and friendly browser that supports Flash, multiple tabs, double tap and pinch zooming, text reflow, bookmarks and more. The overall browsing experience is great, you’ll be very pleased.

The Optimus 3D comes equipped with a dual 5 megapixel snapper that takes pictures at a maximum resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels and has a LED flash companion for helping in low light situations.
The camera interface offers settings for geo-tagging, face detection, touch focus, scenes, effects and more. The 2D and 3D photos are quite good, but that’s all.
The video camera is very capable and offers some nice videos in 2D, at 1080p and 30 fps and in 3D, at 720p.
For audio playback, you have a hot looking music player that offers several equalizer presets when you have your headset plugged in, the possibility of looking up a song or album on YouTube or on the Internet and others. The audio quality is pretty good with or without your headphones.
The video player is great, as it supports all kinds of formats, 3D videos, of course, subtitles and more. I bet you’ll be thrilled by the video player!

In terms of apps, the LG Optimus 3D comes with the Polaris Office for viewing and editing Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. It can also view PDF documents.You also have the Calendar, Alarm app, that includes a Timer, World Clock and Stopwatch, a voice recorder, some 3D goodies, like four 3D games and more.
A built-in GPS receiver is on board and features A-GPS support. For navigation, you have Google Maps, which has offline rerouting, searches for points of interest, plans routes and more.
The phone comes with a 1500 mAh battery and will require a daily recharging. But that’s not something bad, as I’m sure that most of us smartphone users are used to that.

In conclusion, if wanting a good 3D smartphone, the LG Optimus 3D is a good choice, as it has to offer a lot besides the 3D capability.


For a FREE Lg Optimus 3D just visit http://www.mobilephonedeals.com .

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Sony Ericsson XPERIA Neo, Shot in HD!

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo was launched almost two years ago, in February 2011, but still remains a cool smartphone to have, as it looks great and holds a lot of features inside. Follow the next review and see what it has to offer – and I promise you: it’s quite a lot, given the fact that this fellow is almost two years old.

Key features

•    Quad-band GSM /GPRS/EDGE support
•    3G with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
•    3.7" 16M-color capacitive LED-backlit LCD touchscreen of FWVGA resolution (480 x 854 pixels) on Sony Mobile BRAVIA engine
•    Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread
•    1 GHz Scorpion CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 chipset
•    512 MB RAM
•    8 MP autofocus camera, LED flash, geotagging
•    720p video @ 30fps, continuous autofocus
•    Front facing VGA camera, video calls
•    Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
•    GPS with A-GPS
•    microSD slot (32GB supported, 8GB card included)
•    Accelerometer and proximity sensor
•    Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
•    Stereo FM radio with RDS
•    microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
•    Voice dialing
•    Adobe Flash 10.2 support
•    microHDMI port

In its box, you’ll see the charger, a microUSB cable used for both charging and making data transfers, an 8 GB microSD card, the headphones and some user manuals.

The Xperia Neo measures 116 x 57 x 13 mm and has a weight of 126 g, so it’s pretty slim and light, feeling comfortable in your hand and pockets. Even if it’s entirely made from plastic, the phone seems to be pretty well put together. Its design looks quite nice, having a sleek and a little bit glossy appearance, but standing far from giving a cheap impression. The only thing you’ll notice to be not so pleasing about it is that your fingerprints stick to it and you’ll have to clean it every once in a while or buy a cover for the back.
The frontal part of the phone’s body is dominated by a 3.7 inches LED-backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen that has a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels and a ~265 ppi pixel density. It’s powered by the Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine and has, for protection, a scratch resistant glass. The colors offered by its display are pretty nice and vibrant, the contrast is good too. You’ll have no problems when looking at it under direct sunlight, as the phone offers a decent performance.

Above the screen, you’ll come across the earpiece, a front facing VGA camera for making video calls and the ambient light and proximity sensors.
Below the display are the hardware controls for Back, Home and Menu.
The left side holds nothing, meanwhile the right side is home for the volume rocker, Power/Lock key with a status LED next to it and the shutter button.
At the top reside the microHDMI and microUSB ports, which are protected by plastic flaps, and the 3.5 mm audio jack.

The Xperia Neo comes loaded with Android 2.3 Gingerbread (which is upgradeable to v4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich) and the Timescape user interface, which gathers your call logs, SMS, MMS, email, Facebook and Twitter updates. You can filter the displayed content by type, this way getting only what’s important for viewing. The phone is powered by a Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon chipset, holding a 1 GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU, 320 MB of internal storage and 512 MB of RAM. Having these specs, the phone’s overall performance is great, offering a very pleasing user experience, without any lag issues, freezes and annoying stuff like that.

At the telephony department, we have a nice phonebook that’s capable of keeping tons of informations about your contacts, syncs with your online accounts (Exchange, Facebook, Twitter) and also has the quick contacts functionality. You have voice calling too and the possibility of making video calls.
The call quality was very good for both parties and I didn’t experience any reception problems either.
At the messaging section, your SMS and MMS are organized into threads and each thread is displayed as a conversation between you and your contact. You can copy, paste, lock your messages against deletion and even search for a certain message in your conversations.
For instant messaging, Google Talk has you all covered up, being compatible with clients like Pidgin, iChat, Kopete and others.

For emailing, you have Gmail, which supports batch operations, and a generic email application, that supports your other email accounts.
Typing is nice and comfy on the phone’s on screen virtual QWERTY keyboard offered by Gingerbread.
The Xperia Neo’s connectivity set features support for quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 3G with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5/76 Mbps HSUPA, Wi-Fi b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, microUSB 2.0.

For surfing the web, you have a great browser that has support for Flash 10.1, double tap and pinch zooming, text reflow, multiple tabs and switching between them, bookmarks, find on page and others. The overall browsing experience is very nice, as the pages are loaded fast and look nice on the phone’s screen.
The Xperia Neo comes packed with an 8 megapixel autofocus camera that’s capable of taking pictures at a maximum resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels and has a single LED flash for helping in low light situations. The camera’s app offers settings for touch focus, face and smile detection, geo-tagging, white balance and others. The image quality is very good, with accurate colors and good amount of detail.

The phone’s video camera is also very capable and it produces 720p videos at 30 fps.
For audio playback, the phone offers you a nice looking music player, which features several equalizer presets, the Infinite key for searching your tracks on YouTube and others. The audio quality is more than decent.
An FM Radio also resides here and comes with RDS support and supports the TrackID app for music recognition.
For watching videos, the phone’s video player only support MP4 and 3GP videos, so you might want to get another one, I suppose. Nevertheless, the image quality is excellent, thanks to the phone’s very capable display.

The Xperia Neo comes with the Office Suite for viewing Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF document files. Some other useful apps are the classic Calendar, Calculator, Alarms and others.
A GPS receiver is also here and has A-GPS support. For navigation, the Google Maps application is at your service.
The Xperia Neo has a 1500 mAh battery inside and will stay alive for almost a day and a half of moderate usage (at least, that’s how long it lasted in my hands).

In conclusion, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo is a pretty capable smartphone and will serve you well when it comes to taking pictures, browsing, watching movies and so on, being available at an affordable price.

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Sony Ericsson Xperia Active, Not for the Couch Potatoes

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Active is that kind of a phone made for kicking the butts of its competitors. Literally. This soldier over here can survive under water for half an hour, is dust proof and shock resistant and, besides being a tough guy, the Xperia active is also smart and you’ll find out what I’m talking about if reading the following review. Let’s take a look at the main specs:

Key features

•    Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
•    3G with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
•    3.0" 16M-color LED-backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen of HVGA resolution (320 x 480 pixels) at around 192 ppi
•    Bravia Mobile engine
•    Dust and water resistant, wet-finger tracking
•    Dual back cover design for increased protection
•    Arm case and wrist strap in the bundle
•    Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread
•    1 GHz MSM8255 Snapdragon processor
•    512 MB RAM
•    5 MP autofocus camera, single LED flashlight, Geo-tagging, image stabilization, smile detection, touch focus
•    720p video @ 30fps
•    Wi-Fi b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot functionality and DLNA
•    GPS with A-GPS, Wisepilot navigation
•    microSD slot (32GB supported, 2GB card included)
•    Accelerometer and proximity sensor, notification LED
•    Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
•    Stereo FM radio with RDS
•    TrackID music recognition
•    Relevant package of apps
•    MicroUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
•    Adobe Flash 10.3 support
•    1200mAh Li-ion battery

 Full specs here.

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In its box, you’ll find the charger, a microUSB cable used for both charging and making data connections, a pair of headphones with in-ear buds, an exchangeable rear cover, a 2 GB microSD card, a wrist strap, an arm case, some ear hooks for your earphones and the user manuals.

 Wow, that’s really something, isn’t it ? In this package, you’ve got everything you need for taking your phone everywhere you go and not worry about it.

When reading all the above, I bet you expect this phone to be a heavy and bulky device, but it’s not. It measures 92 x 55 x 16.5 mm and has a weight of 110.8 g, so it’s not heavy at all. It feels comfortable in the hand and your pockets will like it too. Its design is nice and sporty, you’ll find it to be an interesting device to look at and handle. Its back is curved and rubberized, feeling nice in the hand and it also keeps your fingerprints away from sticking to it. The most important thing about it is that you won’t be afraid of dropping it on the floor or in your soup ( I wanted to say toilet, but that would be kind of gross).

The Xperia active comes with a 3 inches LED-backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen that has a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels, a ~192 ppi pixel density, scratch resistant glass and is also powered by Sony’s Bravia Mobile engine. Its colors are bright and vibrant, the contrast is great and the sunlight legibility is wonderful – as it should be, as a matter of fact, because the phone is made for being used mostly outdoors.
The screen can be handled with wet fingers and is still very responsive. How cool is that ? You’ll be able to make phone calls and stuff like that in the shower, or if it rains – this fellow is not afraid of water.
Above its screen are the earpiece, a status LED and the proximity and ambient light sensors.
Beneath the display are the microphone, three capacitive keys for Back, Home and Menu and a strap eyelet.
The left side of the phone is home for the lonely Power/Lock key.
On the right side of the phone reside the volume rocker and camera key.
There’s nothing at the top, meanwhile at the bottom, you’ll see the 3.5 mm audio jack and the microUSB port.

If you take out the phone’s battery cover, you’ll find.. another battery cover. Under these two are the SIM and microSD card slots and the battery.
Now that we’ve seen how strong it is, let’s check out the Xperia active’s brain. It comes loaded with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and is upgradeable to v4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It also has the Timescape user interface, which gathers your call logs, email, SMS, MMS, Facebook and Twitter updates and enables you to filter the contents and see the important information only.
Our little champion is powered by a Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon processor, having a 1 GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU, 1 GB of internal memory (but only 320 MB are user available) and 1 GB of RAM. The overall performance of the phone is great, as it’s very snappy and won’t bug you with lag issues, freezes and stuff like that.

In terms of telephony, the Xperia active comes with a smart phonebook that remembers tons of information about your contacts, syncs with your online accounts, has the quick contacts feature and voice dialing. The phone has a secondary microphone for active noise cancellation, so, the in-call quality is great, with the voices being loud and clear for both ends of the line and the reception was also free of problems.
At the messaging section, your SMS and MMS are organized in threads and displayed as conversations between you and your contacts. You can copy, paste, lock your messages against deletion and search within them for a certain one.
For instant messaging, Google Talk is here for you and supports clients like Pidgin, iChat, Kopete and others.
Your emails are managed by Gmail, which supports batch operations, and by a generic email application, that handles your other email accounts.

For typing, you get the Gingerbread on screen virtual QWERTY keyboard for portrait and landscape modes and a numeric pad that’s available only in portrait mode. Typing is pretty easy if you don’t have sausage-fingers, but even if you do, the landscape mode will be of a real help.
At the connectivity department, the phone has support for quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 3G with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA, Wi-Fi b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and EDR and microUSB 2.0.

For surfing the web, you have the Gingerbread standard browser that comes with support for Adobe Flash 10.3 and has a simple user interface. It also features text reflow, double tap and pinch zooming, multiple tabs and switching between them, bookmarks, find on page and others. The pages are loaded fast and the overall browsing experience is very pleasing.
The Xperia active comes equipped with a 5 megapixel autofocus camera that takes pictures at a maximum resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels and has a single LED flash for helping in low light situations. The camera interface features geo-tagging, touch focus, image stabilization, face detection and others. The image quality is very good, with accurate colors and decent amount of resolved detail.
The video camera is also very capable and produces 720p videos at 30 fps.
For audio playback, you get a fancy music player which is very similar to the Walkman players and features several equalizer presets, the Infinite key for searching a song on YouTube, the xLOUD enhancement for boosting the loudspeaker volume and others. The audio quality is great.
For watching videos, you don’t have a dedicated player, as the videos reside in the gallery, but you can easily download one.

In its basket of goodies, the Xperia active carries some nice applications, like the WalkMate for counting your footsteps during a day, the iMapMyFITNESS+ for information about your training, which are sent to your mapmyfitness.com account, which is free. For viewing Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files, you have the Office Suite. You also have Notes, Reminders, Calendar, Calculator, Alarm  - which has the desk clock and night modes. A Facebook app is also on board.
A built-in GPS receiver is also here and has support for A-GPS. For navigation, you have Google Maps.
The Xperia active holds inside its tough body a 1200 mAh battery and it endured almost a day and a half on moderate usage.

In conclusion, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active is a great choice if you’re living an active life. If you’re going hiking, for example, this phone is going to be your best buddy and you won’t have to worry about it if it rains cats and dogs over you or if you drop it into a puddle of mud. This fellow is both a survivor and a smart guy, so you’ll definitely grow feelings for it and keep it close in your adventures.

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