HP Pavilion dm4-1160us 14-Inch Laptop PC

HP Pavilion dm4-1160us – The HP Pavilion dm4 notebook gives you the performance of a powerful PC without weighing you down. Less than 1″ slim and starting at 4.4 pounds, this lightweight notebook offers the latest technology with style that’s sure to attract attention. If you need a PC that can keep up with you, grab the HP Pavilion dm4 and go.
Count on a thin, lightweight laptop that has everything you need and want. The HP Pavilion dm4-1160us Notebook PC delivers exceptional performance from the inside out. Manage your passwords and access online accounts easily using the integrated fingerprint reader. Watch DVDs using the built-in optical drive and 14-inch diagonal High-Definition LED display, plus stream content wirelessly from the display to an HDTV using a WiDi adapter (sold separately). Integrated Bluetooth helps you sync your HP laptop to other digital devices, like your smartphone or desktop PC, without using cables. Have fun wherever you go, whether it’s around the house, across town or on the road. The HP Pavilion dm4-1160us Notebook PC is designed for how you live. Browse the Web from any room in your home using built-in Wi-Fi. Video chat in low-light environments using the HP webcam, plus transfer photos from a digital camera to your notebook PC using the digital media reader. Store thousands of photos on the large hard drive for easy access. This stylish HP laptop has a brushed aluminum finish with the stream design in argento.

IDEAL FOR

HP Pavilion dm4-1160us – Ultra portability. Count on the thin HP Pavilion dm4-1160us Notebook PC for high performance without the heavy weight. With a spacious hard drive, built-in optical drive, easy connectivity and exclusive HP software, this stylish laptop PC helps you boost productivity and have fun at the same time.

Great Performance, Ultra Portable

This laptop really lives up to its description: ultra portability without sacrificing performance. I’m posting this review after a week of ownership.
PROS: Awesome aluminum design, bright display, bluetooth, good webcam, 7200rpm HD, fast processor, runs cool, great WiFi range, good battery life, lightweight (4.41 lbs), fingerprint reader, sturdy, WiDi, HP QuickWeb
CONS: Touchpad gestures, keyboard stiffness, mediocre audio, dvd eject button
* MY PERSONAL NEEDS:
My focus while searching for a new laptop was for portable productivity including office and business applications, software development kits (I’m a programmer), and presentations. I was looking for something with decent processing power to handle multiple applications. What I was not looking for was a gaming machine. The graphics card was therefore somewhat irrelevant. This dm4-1160us by HP stood out because it offered a great processor, Bluetooth, a good webcam, and decent battery life in a light and perfectly manageable package.
* FIRST IMPRESSIONS UPON OPENING:
From the start I knew this was the laptop for me. The aluminum finish, including the design that complements it, is truly a work of art in terms of both aesthetics and practicality. Most modern laptops have a glossy finish that attract fingerprints seemingly even when you’re not touching it. This is the complete opposite offering a sleek and professional look without constantly having to wipe it down. During the first few hours of personalization I noticed no hint of heat nor slow down of any kind. It has been quick from the start. Boot up times are average, but perfectly reasonable and even quicker if you take advantage of HP’s QuickWeb feature that lets you use some common applications without booting into Windows. The screen is plenty bright and has a very nice and crisp picture. It is better than my Samsung r480 and older Toshiba Satellite, and on par with my older Core 2 Due HP model. If anything the screen on this one is just a bit less reflective than the one on my older HP, which is a good thing.
* PERFORMANCE:
This is my first experience in personally dealing with Intel’s new i3/5/7 series processors, and I have to say it exceeded my expectations. In the past couple years the only machines I built were made for gaming, and AMD processors are perfect for affordable gaming machines. While I still believe that AMD is better than Intel cost/value speaking for gaming, I always stick with Intel when building a machine for true intensive multitasking. Even with running multiple applications including some processor heavy development kits, Adobe CS, and other software simultaneously, the laptop runs without a glitch and without producing any noticeable heat nor noise. The Core i5 is definitely a step up from the Core 2 Duo series, and a significant one from the previous dual core T-series that can still be commonly found on the market today.
4GB of memory has become the standard in the laptop market, and there isn’t much to say about that other than it works. However what isn’t common is a 7200 RPM hard drive in a laptop (especially one with a good battery life). If you don’t do much in terms of file transfers you probably won’t really benefit nor notice, but it is definitely a plus for me where I’m constantly transferring files for projects back and forth.
The integrated graphics certainly isn’t a selling point, but it gets the job done unless you’re planning to use it for modern full screen gaming. It will play most games, but you’ll have to scale back the settings. If I want to play a graphics intensive game I’m going to do it on a desktop with a larger monitor anyway, so this wasn’t a selling point one way or the other. Something I found odd was that the Windows Rating System gave the graphics a higher rating for gaming than it did for Aero (desktop and productivity), but in my experience so far it has managed everything just fine including Adobe, movies, and a couple simple games that I tried out to test the display. I will say that most of the laptops I’ve owned/used have had integrated graphics, and even so this laptop still feels quite a bit quicker in all aspects. If it were compared to another version of itself with a dedicated card then you would notice a difference, but it is not underpowered by any means.
* TOUCHPAD:
Many people are commenting about how the touchpad is finicky and hard to use, especially when keeping a finger on the mouse button. I don’t personally have the same issues and am able to use the touchpad easily. In fact I purposefully attempted to duplicate the problem myself and was unable to see why there’s so much trouble over it. And I rather like the textured feel of it and prevents fingerprinting and makes it easy to keep track of. However I really don’t like the gestures. Macs do a way better job of handling the two finger slide scrolling and pinch to zoom features. I didn’t even think of this option when buying, but since they are there they are tempting and they don’t work quite right. The mouse buttons themselves are a bit harder than average to press down but I prefer the tap method anyway.
To comment on some of the other reviews, I don’t think it is fair to expect a touchpad to be great while playing games. I’ve never seen someone successfully play a first person shooter with a touch pad nor would I use it for longer periods of time in CAD or other design software. For simple adjustments in Adobe I find it to work fine, not really better or worse than other laptops.
* KEYBOARD:
Here is where I am having some trouble. The keyboard layout for me is perfect and I like the gap in between the keys. But just as the touchpad buttons are a bit harder than average to press down, I found that the keyboard keys are a bit stronger than average and take a slightly more aggressive press. If you’re a heavy typer you probably won’t notice. When I get going pretty good my typing speeds are in the 80-90+ WPM range. I am more of a light typer though and have gotten very used to only pressing down as far/hard as necessary and nothing more. Since I am so accustomed to using laptops with keys that are easy to press, this will take me some more time to get used to. I almost wonder if it is just the one I have and it isn’t supposed to be that way.
* SOUND:
The sound is not bad. There were more than a few reviewers throughout my search that complained about the sound quality in this laptop. I have used many different laptops and I don’t think the sound from this laptop is any worse than the average laptop. Laptops don’t produce good sound. That is just how it is, especially when they only weight 4.41 pounds. It does state that there are Altec Lansing speakers on the laptop, but that doesn’t mean anything. The only laptops I have used that had decent sound are the bigger ones that have more room for bigger speakers. The speakers on this 14″ are still good enough to enjoy a show or have some background music going while you work. For those of you who are still looking around, I would note that HP’s higher models with “Beats Audio” aren’t anything spectacular either.
* BATTERY LIFE:
Depending on where you look, the battery life on this laptop is rated between 6 and 6.5 hours. With wifi and bluetooth off and just using normal productivity software I think that is a fair assessment, which I think is how they rate it anyways. I haven’t had enough time to truly test the battery life in real scenarios, but it seems like I can get a solid 4-6 hours of use while running my presentation software and at least Bluetooth (I use my phone as a remote controller).
* CONCLUSION:
If you are looking for a productivity laptop that is ultra portable and a great value, get this one. There aren’t many features missing unless you’re after a built in Wi-Max card or want a Blu-Ray player, and it is definitely feature rich for the price range. The finish both inside and out is brilliant and it is pleasing both through its looks and performance.
I would not recommend this laptop if you want a gaming laptop. There are plenty of options from HP and other brands that have dedicated graphics cards with moderate to good battery life. It does not have a dedicated graphics card, wimax, blu-ray, nor numpad, in case you’re looking for those features.

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Pentax Optio WG-1 GPS Full Review

Announced in February 2011 as the company's 12th generation of adventure series compact digital cameras, the WG-1 GPS is accompanied to market by a WG-1 variant that, not surprisingly, omits the GPS function that tracks and records positional data with captured images. While the former camera is the subject of our review, aside from GPS the features of both cameras are identical, so for the sake of brevity we'll just call our camera the WG-1 unless stated otherwise.


The big attraction of the WG-1 is the hardened design that makes it able to withstand conditions that would play havoc with a standard compact digital: waterproof to 33 feet of depth and dustproof as well; shockproof, able to withstand falls of up to 5 feet; coldproof down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit and featuring a crushproof construction that can withstand a weight force up to 220 pounds.
Once you get past that tough outer layer, what remains is a fairly typical compact: the WG-1 is available in black or purple, the WG-1 GPS in gray or green. Both cameras share the same hardware, a 14 megapixel sensor and 5x zoom lens covering the 28 to 140mm focal range in 35mm equivalents. Here's a look at those extremes.

28mm Wide Angle

140mm Telephoto
Beyond that there's a 2.7-inch LCD monitor, 720p HD video, digital shake reduction, face detection, smile capture and blink detection technology, and a nifty digital microscope feature that includes 5 LED lights arrayed around the lens to assist with lighting extreme close ups. The native ISO range is 80 to 1600, but 3200 and 6400 are available at greatly reduced resolution (4 and 5 MP). The camera uses SD/SDHC/SDXC memory media and there is an internal memory capacity of about 97 megabytes. Pentax includes USB and AV cables, a rechargeable Li-Ion battery and charger, camera strap, carabiner strap, macro stand and CD-ROM software with each camera.
The WG-1 is tough enough to go in harm's way, but what kind of images does it produce in the process? Let's find out.

BUILD AND DESIGNThe WG-1 is a bit more elongated than the typical compact digital, with a contoured body sculpted out of rubberized composite material with a bit of metal thrown in. The gray color scheme was attractive and overall the camera's materials and construction seem in keeping with the price point.

Ergonomics and ControlsThe first thing that jumps out at you with the WG-1 is there's no place for the thumb of the right hand on the camera back - where the LCD monitor leaves off, controls start up and the thumb has no place to go but over the controls. Even so, I didn't have any problems with inadvertent activations. The tripod socket is offset to the extreme right edge of the camera bottom and is made of composite material. The shutter button is likewise located fairly close to the right edge of the body, and I had to hold my index finger a bit away from the body in order to get the tip on the shutter.

Controls are simple and for the most part confined to the camera back - only the shutter and power switch can be found on the top of the body.
Menus and ModesThat simple control layout hints at things to come - menus are brief and quite intuitive, consisting of four pages of choices in a record menu and four pages in a setup menu. A two page "editing images" menu can be accessed when in playback mode to modify existing shots in the camera. Actual menu options will vary based shooting mode, with the single manual mode, Program Auto, offering the most user inputs to an otherwise largely automatic camera. Largely automatic, yes, but with the unusual feature of allowing user input for ISO sensitivity in many shooting modes.
Now that the cat's out of the bag on shooting modes, here they are:

• Auto: A fully auto mode that automatically selects the best capture mode from 15 camera shooting modes.
• Green mode: A pre-set automatic mode that is enabled by pressing the camera's green button - the camera defaults to these settings no matter what shooting mode or settings the user has established in record mode menus. 
• Scene modes: The WG-1 presents all shooting options, both still and video, in a single large menu accessed on the monitor via the mode portion of the four way controller - there is no scene "master menu" as such. Scene modes include night scene, underwater, digital microscope, landscape, flower, portrait, digital wide (stitches two pictures together), digital SR (expands ISO range to include 3200 and 6400 at greatly reduced resolution), surf & snow, kids, pet, sport, fireworks, candlelight, night scene portrait, text, food, digital panorama (stitches three captures together), frame composite (captures images with a frame) and report (captures images at fixed 180 x 960 pixels for reports).
• Program Auto: Automatic mode with camera setting shutter speed and aperture, but user has widest variety of input, including sharpening, contrast and saturation, white balance, ISO sensitivity and focus and exposure choices.
• Movie/Underwater Movie: Capture motion JPEG in 1280 x 720, 640 x 480 or 320 x 240 pixel resolution, all at either 15 or 30 frames per second. Clip length is limited to memory card or internal memory capacity, or 2GB. If memory card capacity permits, clips may recorded continuously in 2GB increments.

Display/Viewfinder
The WG-1's 2.7-inch LCD monitor has a 230,000 dot composition and is adjustable for 7 levels of brightness. The monitor measured a peak brightness of 397 nits with a contrast ratio of 536:1. That peak brightness is fairly low, the contrast ratio falls on the low end of the desirable range and the WG-1 monitor proved difficult to use in bright outdoor conditions.

Viewing for composition or capture was difficult if the monitor was anything less than pristinely clean - fingerprints or smudges really took a toll on performance in the bright outdoor Florida sun. Coverage is not specified but appears close to 100%.

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Motorola Atrix 4G Review

Review: The Atrix 4G from Motorola is a versatile, powerful and attractive smartphone that delivers the goods – for the most part.

Convergence is everywhere these days – be it game consoles that stream Netflix movies, GPS devices that double as speakerphones and televisions with Web browsers – but the Atrix 4G smartphone takes this concept to the next level.
Specifically, with the aid of a couple of optional accessories, this AT&T exclusive from Motorola ($199.99 on 2-year term) can transform into a laptop or media hub for your big-screen TV.
This Android 2.2 Atrix isn’t a flawless product, mind you, but based on our hands-on review time with it over the past few days it’s a clever digital Swiss Army Knife.
Before we go over its versatility – where the real story is here — a few words on the Atrix 4G itself.

The hardware

Winner of numerous awards from the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the Motorola Atrix 4G is billed as one of – if not — the most powerful smartphones available. This is because it includes a dual-core processor, with each core running at 1GHz — thus delivering up to 2GHz of processing power. The phone also boasts 1GB of RAM, which is about twice the system memory compared to other smartphones.
You can sense this speed when opening and running apps, surfing the Web, and for when you’re docking the smartphone into one of the accessories to use on bigger screens. We launched the same website at the same time on both the Motorola Atrix 4G and the new Nexus S, and the Atrix was much faster at loading the site (and yes, we know one is on AT&T and the other on T-Mobile). Interestingly, both Android smartphones launched a game (Samurai II) at the exact same time and were equally as smooth in the performance department.

The Atrix 4G features a 4-inch touchscreen – and “the world’s first qHD display,” says Motorola – delivering a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels with 24-bit color and a 16:9 aspect ratio. Certainly the color and contrast is impressive, but the shiny screen has a lot of glare when used outside (worse than the Nexus S). The 11mm-thin Atrix 4G is comfortable to hold in your hand, with its rounded edges and curved back, and is no heavier than other smartphones.
Other features include dual cameras (including the ability to record 720p HD), 16GB of internal memory (with support for up to 32GB microSD cards) and integrated Wi-Fi N (2.4GHz and 5.0GHz).

Sample photo taken with the Atrix

One interesting and distinguishing characteristic is the integrated fingerprint reader on the back of the smartphone. Along with (or instead of) creating a PIN to unlock your phone, you can swipe your left or right forefinger on the black power button. Set up takes about two minutes and it worked flawlessly after that. This optional biometrics security feature should be a welcome addition for mobile executives carrying around sensitive corporate data.
Battery life was decent but not extraordinary, with the battery life indicator showing just under one-third of power left at the end of each day — with moderate use.

Wireless performance, software

While not tested in rural areas, we tested the Motorola Atrix 4G in Austin, Texas (at the SXSW festival), in Washington D.C. and in Toronto, Canada, via the Bell Mobility network. We’ve had more reception troubles with an AT&T iPhone 4 – but in New York and San Francisco — so it might not be a fair and accurate comparison.
The audio quality is very good, with no bad reception areas or dropped calls, both when holding the phone up to the ear and via a Bluetooth headset. The people we chatted with could hear me just fine, and they came through loud and clear, too.
While we’re certain we weren’t experiencing 4G speeds while traveling last week, downloads from the Android Market were fast and reliable.
Along with the familiar Android interface, Google apps and Moto Blur software (that pushes messages, social network updates and such to your smartphone), the Atrix 4G includes an app for AT&T U-verse to schedule recordings and download TV shows for U-verse customers.

Accessories

OK, here’s where things gets interesting.
The Atrix 4G can be snapped into a number of optional accessories that expand the functionality of the device.
For example, the Laptop Dock ($299.99) or LapDock, looks like a super thin laptop. Except there’s no brains under the hood of this svelte 2.4-pound clamshell device. Instead, snap the Atrix 4G into the back of the faux laptop, by matching up the two connectors on the left side of the smartphone and now you can access all the content on the smartphone (or online) on a 11.6-inch screen, full-size keyboard and trackpad (or you can add an external mouse to one of the two USB ports).
Yes, so now you can type more comfortably in a word processing document, play Angry Birds with a mouse or surf the web with a “webtop” application like Mozilla’s Firefox 3.6 browser (with Adobe Flash support). Interesting, though, a Google phone has Firefox instead of Chrome. A number of apps lie across the bottom of the screen, including Emails, Contacts, Facebook and an Entertainment Center that lets you access multimedia stored on the device, such as videos, music and photos. You can also smoothly multitask in this layout, thanks in part to system memory and beefy processor.
A built-in rechargeable three-cell battery also juices up the Atrix 4G when docked in the LapDock. The speakerphone kicks in when you receive a call; if you need to chat privately, which requires you to un-dock it from the LapDock, whatever you were doing on the LapDock screen will resume when you re-dock it again.
Despite a freeze-up while attempting to play a preloaded car racing game, the dock worked like a charm. Business travelers, for example, can now bring this sturdy yet lightweight shell of a laptop and access all of the content on the smartphone. Compare this to lugging a six-pound laptop and swapping data between your smartphone and the computer.

Except paying $300 for a fake laptop (plus a $20-a-month tethering plan) seems like a lot for what it is. After all, you can get a decent netbook for $300 that doesn’t require a phone connected to it.
Another product tested for the purposes of this review is the $99 Motorola HD Multimedia Dock, a small black dock with a micro HMDI port — to connect the Atrix 4G to a big-screen television, monitor or projector – as well as three USB ports for devices such as a (wired) keyboard, mouse, speakers and so forth.

A matching wireless remote is also included to navigate through your content with a scroll wheel, and six main buttons (such as volume up, down, a home button, and so on). The dock also ships with an AC plug to charge up your smartphone while it’s in use. It would’ve been nice if Motorola included a full-size HDMI adaptor (or the cable itself) so it could be used out of the box. Alas, a quick trip to our local big box store was required, so we could watch MP4 videos via an app called RockPlayer, as well as YouTube videos on our big-screen Sony HDTV.

Conclusion

While it’s powerful and secure, the Motorola Atrix 4G won’t blow you away as a smartphone. It’s certainly as good as any other Android devices on the market, if not a tad better in most departments – but it’s what you can do with it that makes it stand out from the crowd. That is, the accessories make the phone a lot more compelling.
It’s pricey, but the LapDock worked like a charm, and should be an appealing alternative to travelers who want a lightweight laptop while on the road. The HD Multimedia Dock also worked well for consuming media, but a few other smartphones today have an HDMI output option for a television.
At the very least, AT&T customers itching to pick up a new Android phone should try out the Motorola Atrix 4G and accessories.

Highs:

• Fast dual-core processor
• Bright, high-resolution display
• Unique laptop dock and other accessories
• Solid reception and voice quality
• Built-in fingerprint reader

Lows:

• Overpriced accessories
• Overly glossy screen
• Not all apps leverage dual-core speed
• So-so battery life

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Google Nexus S Review

Review: Google’s Nexus S for T-Mobile creeps forward with a handful of innovative features like near-field communications, but pares out some vital organs like a microSD slot to make room.

For its next-generation Nexus phone, the unlocked Nexus S made by Samsung (but usually sold with a T-Mobile subsidy for $199.99), Google has produced what can be best described as an advanced basic smartphone. It features some bleeding-edge technologies such as a 4-inch AMOLED screen, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, NFC tag reading, a front-facing camera, and both tethering and mobile hotspot capabilities. These advanced features are undercut, however, by its lack of soon-to-be-standard features for smartphones of its ilk, such as high-definition video recording, HSPA+ 4G to fuel its mobile hotspot, and no pre-installed video chatting app. It makes a fine introduction to Android, but is unlikely to appeal to more advanced users moving to their second or third smartphones.

Features and design

If the Nexus S looks vaguely familiar – that’s because it’s a slightly redesigned version of Samsung’s Galaxy S phone for T-Mobile, the Vibrant. The Nexus S is molded with slightly rounder corners, lacks Vibrant’s silver perimeter band, and moves the microUSB and the headphone jack from the top to the bottom of the phone. They both have a distinctive rear bump on the bottom, and a 4-inch Super AMOLED (active matrix organic light emitting diode) screen. This one is brighter and more colorful, although it does tend toward the greener part of the spectrum. Otherwise, physically, they’re the same phone.
Inside, while both sport a 1GHz processor, the Nexus S runs Google’s latest and fastest Android OS, v2.3 Gingerbread, while Vibrant runs 2.2 Froyo. Both phones include a 5-megapixel camera, but the Nexus S includes an LED flash. The Vibrant includes 720p high-definition recording, while the Nexus S mysteriously records only 720 x 480.
The phone’s singular breakthrough is the inclusion of NFC, near field communication. Wave the Nexus S over an NFC tag, such as an RFID (radio frequency identification) code, from an inch or two away to initiate or perform all manner of functions. NFC can be used as electronic money, sort of like a Blink credit card. An NFC-endowed phone can be used as a ticket, a hotel room key, or for information exchange between devices. It can be used to quickly pair a Bluetooth headset. It can link you to a Web site or activate a function or download.
In other words, there are lots of potential NFC usages, and one day all cellphones will be so endowed. But right now, there are few NFC tags to be read anywhere in the U.S. (Google has initiated a pilot program in Portland, OR). By the time NFC tags become ubiquitous, the Nexus S will be an ancient smartphone.
Similarly undercut is the Nexus S’ front-facing VGA camera, by the lack of QIK or other video-chatting software preinstalled. While there is 16GB of memory built in, like the iPhone, the Nexus S lacks a microSD slot for additional memory.

Multimedia capabilities

With its bright, crystalline Super AMOLED screen, the Nexus S makes a wonderful video viewer. YouTube videos load automatically in full screen at high quality. Out only quibble is the screen’s slight green-or-yellowish discoloration, sort of like the tint you see on old displays. Fortunately, it isn’t nearly as bad as the gray sheen that seems to overlay all images on Vibrant.
Google supplements output from the earpiece with a small but loud speaker on the rear. It’s got a tiny guard over the grille, which means music still sounds loud with only a hint of muffling when the phone is placed on its back.

Sound quality

The Nexus S provides plenty of volume, but voices sounded muted and muffled at both ends of cell-to-cell calls, a little less on calls to and from land lines. The excellent rear speaker provides just as much volume for voice as it does for music, lying face up or face-down.

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HTC Inspire 4G Review

The HTC Inspire 4G offers a refined Android experience, spacious 4.3-inch screen and 4G speeds at a surprisingly low price.

HTC was the first smartphone manufacturer to work with Google, and its experience shows. In the past three years, the company has grown from being a bit player in the small smartphone space to a leading phone manufacturer with close to 10 percent of the market. A dedication to the user experience may be the reason why. The HTC Inspire 4G is the company’s first 4G device on AT&T, but it may be the best Android device on the carrier to date.

 

Features and design

The first thing you’ll notice about the Inspire 4G is its screen size. Measuring 4.3-inches across, the 480 x 800 pixel screen is extremely responsive and seems to be coated to allow easy finger sliding and resist smudging (to a degree). While it’s not the brightest screen we’ve seen, it gets bright enough to view in most outdoor conditions. Above the screen is a very nice and easy-to-press power button that also unlocks the phone.
The rear of the unit is a deep maroon color, and almost has a tapered, rounded look to it, though some of the design choices are a bit odd. The round 8-megapixel camera noticeably bulges from the back, and is surrounded by a small rear speaker and a bright dual-LED flash. Gray patches appear on the right of the phone, bottom, and surrounding the rear LED flash. The bottom pulls off to reveal a SD card (it comes with an 8GB card) and SIM slot. If you manage to pry off the side, it holds the battery.
We’re a bit puzzled why HTC has chosen to omit a front-facing camera as well, though we’re guessing it was in an effort to keep the already large unit as small as possible. The speaker placement is probably a product of this minimalist philosophy as well. The tiny rear speaker does the majority of the work, but it is easily muffled by your hand or anything the phone happens to be sitting on. Luckily, the bottom of the unit has a nice audio jack for headphones or external speakers. With a good pair of headphones, the audio from the device is on par with many MP3 players. If only Google would develop some decent audio software.
Overall, the unit feels solid and has a decent weight to it. Most of the “negative” features are more strange than truly bothersome.

Specs

Don’t worry fellow geeks, we won’t forget about you. The Inspire 4G runs on Android 2.2 (Froyo), has a 480 x 800 pixel screen, a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 processor in it, and 768MB of RAM, which will come in handy when you’re multitasking. It has 4GB of internal storage and comes with an 8GB SD card for music and media. Its battery is rated at 1230 mAh.

 

Android and HTC Sense

Though the Inspire runs Android 2.2, thanks to HTC Sense, it certainly doesn’t feel like it. Every Android manufacturer likes to tweak the user experience by changing fonts around, messing with icons, and manipulating menus, but HTC is one of the few that seems to have a method behind its madness. The vast majority of changes HTC makes in Sense…well…make sense. From the flip clock, to the customization options, to the fun and functional widgets preloaded on your phone, the features and apps HTC has added to Android make it prettier and friendlier to new users. When someone new to smartphones buys an HTC device, they already have four home screens filled with some basic items they may want to use along with instructions on how to add more and customize the phone. That’s helpful.
There is a downside. While we like most of HTCs changes, the company is venturing a bit too far in some areas. For example, on the Inspire 4G, users can sign up to back up their contacts on HTCs service and can browse an HTC store for apps. This would be great, except Google already backs up contacts with its service and already has an Android Market. Having more stores is confusing and odd, especially since HTC’s offerings still feel unfinished. Luckily, they are easily ignored.

 

Phone functionality

Call quality on the HTC Inspire 4G is great; let’s get that out of the way. We had no issues taking or making calls in New York City. Like all HTC Android devices, there is a large phone button at the bottom center that brings up the dial pad and recent calls. The dial pad is large, and its buttons are easy to press. The default Android contacts menu is a bit preferable to HTC’s version, which auto-calls any name you click on instead of bringing up a profile page. Still, what is here works just fine once you get used to it, and certainly looks a lot nicer than the stock version of Android 2.2.

Apps and Web browsing

Like all Android phones, the Inspire 4G comes with the Android Market and a number of apps. The flashlight app, upgraded calendar, and HTC music apps are especially nice and outshine Google’s own products.
With that said, we wish that HTC wouldn’t agree to put apps on the phone that are not removable. A Blockbuster Video app comes preloaded on the Inspire and there is no way to remove it, just as there is no way to get rid of some of the preloaded AT&T apps, Asphalt 5, or QuickOffice. It’s forgivable to preload apps that we don’t want, but don’t make it impossible to remove them. Last year, the Droid Incredible came with permanent apps like Skype that actually never stop running in the background and tend to drain the battery. We haven’t found any battery-hogging apps running in the background of the Inspire 4G yet.
We tested the Inspire 4G on AT&T’s 4G HSPA+ network in New York City, but didn’t have much initial luck attaining high speeds. At last count, we averaged just under 1Mbps download speeds and about 100Kbps upload speeds — nothing to write home about. However, since having 4G doesn’t cost anything extra or appear to drain your battery extremely quickly like Verizon’s 4G LTE service, it worked pretty well. We experienced decent speeds most of the time and had no problem downloading a few music albums to the phone and streaming some podcasts and HD videos.

 

Camera

The 8-megapixel camera on the Inspire 4G is solid. HTC’s cameras tend to pull in more light than most and the camera will auto-focus before you press or hold the shoot button, which is on-screen. We also liked HTCs library of added effects. Most of them are goofy, but we all like to have fun once in a while.
Mostly, HTC seems to understand touch interfaces better than Google does. Touching any object on the screen will make the camera auto-focus on that item and the zoom controls on the left are touch friendly as well. You just tap at your desired level of zoom. Google’s default camera controls, by comparison, are archaic.
The Inspire can also capture 720p video.

Battery life

It’s about average for a smartphone. HTC rates the device for 360 minutes of talk time and 15.5 days of standby. After a couple months, you will have to charge your phone every day, like we all do, but it seemed to hold up pretty well even when we had a lot of GPS and data heavy services running in the background.

Conclusion

The HTC Inspire 4G is a fantastic Android phone and at $99 with a two-year contract (half the price of the Motorola Atrix) it’s one of the best values on AT&T. HTC reps have told us that it will get an Android 2.3 upgrade fairly soon as well, which will be great. Recently, HTC stock was valued higher than Nokia or RIM. With devices like this and HTC Sense, we can see why.

Highs:

• HTC Sense is great for new and experienced Android fans
• Low $99 price
• 4.3-inch screen is spacious

Lows:

• No front-facing camera
• Speakers are a bit weak
• Battery cover is difficult to remove
• Still runs Android 2.2

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BlackBerry PlayBook Review

The best tablet 2011 listings just a bit more competitive. Although some retailers are selling the Blackberry PlayBook already, others have it up for pre-order. This 7 inch tablet has been reviewed over the past couple of days. Overall reviewers are reasonably impressed. The hardware is getting top marks, but the software experience seems a bit buggy. With the software, that’s not a problem as patches and updates correct any early issues. The battery life is close to the Motorola Xoom, which is still behind the Apple iPad 1 and Apple iPad 2. Another issue with the Blackberry PlayBook is with the premium price. That pricing may have to change in the coming months as the tablet market it about to get really hot and that means the pricing wars are almost inevitable. Is the 7 inch size good for what you need? If you need something to slip into an inside pocket or a purse then certainly it’s the most portable size tablet on the market. It’s good, but overall I don’t see any great reviews that say the PlayBook is the best on the market. So this will make it in the best tablet 2011 listings but likely below the likes of the Motorola Xoom. Let’s see though because this tablet hasn’t even been widely released yet. It’s quite possible that the consumers themselves will put this tablet at or near the top of best tablets so let’s see what happens!
Check current price at Amazon.com
Specs of the BlackBerry PlayBook:

• 7″ LCD display, 1024 x 600 screen resolution
• Multi-touch capacitive screen
• 1 GHz dual-core processor
• 1 GB RAM
• 3 MP high-definition forward-facing camera
• 5 MP high-definition rear-facing camera
• Codec support for superior media playback, creation and
  video calling
• 1080p HD video; H.264, MPEG4, WMV HDMI video output
• Micro USB and Micro HDMI ports
• Full Adobe Flash® 10.1 enabled
• Out-of-the-box compatibility with BlackBerry Enterprise Server
  Seamless pairing for a secure window into your
  BlackBerry smartphone
• Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
• Built-in support for HTML 5
• Height 5.1″ / 130mm
• Width 7.6″ / 194mm
• Depth 0.4″ / 10mm
• Weight 0.9 lbs / 425g

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Acer Iconia Tab A500 Review

Acer are one of the top selling laptops for a reason. Cheap prices! Acer have the new Acer Iconia tablet line and with their same laptop strategy, they are priced to win. Here is our Acer Iconia A500 review which should give you an idea if this is the tablet for you. It’s the newest 2011 tablet release, but perhaps it’s worth waiting until the Asus Transformer tablet comes out tomorrow April 26 because that Asus tablet is going to be $399 and this Acer tablet is $449.

There are a couple things that set the Acer Iconia A500 apart from the other 2011 tablets out so far. First the build quality is fantastic. Its has a brushed aluminum back which you can get a better look at in the photo below. It also comes with a full size USB port which adds  a lot of versatility to this 2011 tablet. Think about it. You can get large thumb drives for additional storage. The last part is the great price of the Acer Ionia Tab A500. At $449 it’s a great deal. You get 16GB SSD storage, Android 3.0, 1GB RAM, weight 1.7 pounds, Nvidia Tegra 2 dual core processor, 10.1 inch size, 1280 x 800 resolution.

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Toshiba Thrive Review

Well this is very interesting. Need more proof that you can’t keep a secret from the internet? It appears the Toshiba tablet is coming out as the Toshiba Thrive. Yes, the Toshiba Thrive appears to be the Toshiba tablet. The proof of this is in a trademark registration by Toshiba for Toshiba Thrive and that every Toshiba Thrive tablet domain name variation has been registered. Where there is smoke there is fire. Certainly Toshiba Thrive seems like a nice and easy name to remember and does suit a Toshiba tablet nicely. Further to this Toshiba Thrive speculation is some meta tags in a Toshiba website which clearly include Toshiba Thrive and Thrive Toshiba. Sure there were other fake names in the meta tags, but it appears obvious that the only real names in the meta tags are related to Toshiba Thrive. Good on Peter Cartwright for the sleuthing!

Our brief Toshiba Thrive review at this point is just the specs which includes:

Tegra 2 1.00 GHz
10.1″ screen size
1280 x 800
16:10 aspect ratio
Android 3.0 Honeycomb
2 mega pixel front facing camera
5 mega pixel rear facing camera
ports: USB, mini-USB, HDMI, SD Slot, Headphone jack
8GB, 16GB, 32GB storage options
replaceable battery

What is a Toshiba Thrive review without some pricing speculation? Here is what NewEgg posted on their premature Toshiba Thrive tablet page:

Toshiba Thrive Tablet – Model ANT-100 - 8GB – $449.99
Toshiba Thrive Tablet – Model ANT-102 – 16GB – $499.99
Toshiba Thrive Tablet – Model ANT-104 – 32GB – $579.99

Aside from the Toshiba Thrive having an easy to replace battery, it will also have different color rubberized skins that you can choose from. This is a nice selling point because as we know, people love their pink!

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The NEW iPhone 5 Is Released THIS YEAR

Are you as excited about the release of the new iPhone 5 as I am? Probably not, because I'm the one writing this hub and you're the one reading it (hopefully). I hate to admit it but somehow I've managed to become one of those Apple fangirls that you see walk into the Apple store and spend 30 minutes asking the employees all sorts of uber geek questions.

For one reason or another I've taken it upon myself to find out as much as possible about the new iPhone 5 so that I could spread this knowledge. What do I get out of it? The benefit of knowing I'm helping rid the world of lesser non-Apple phones (*cough HTC Evo cough*).

As if the iPhone 4 wasn't groundbreaking enough, the iPhone 5 is going to revolutionize the world of cell phones. Here's why:

One of the biggest benefits of owning a new iPhone 5 is that it'll come with dual core processors that will make it load at super fast speeds. Not only that, but it will be incorporating even more powerful graphics chip cards, which will provide you with better video and still images. As if the 20 gigawatt gazillion megapixel already in the iPhone 4 wasn't enough...

Right now it looks like the new iPhone 5 will be running on a 4G network (instead of the usual 3G). That means that some of the most likely network carriers to get a plan under are Sprint, T-Mobile, and maybe AT&T and Verizon. But we've all heard a lot of complaints about AT&T's network in the past, so I'm not sure how many people would opt to go with them for the new iPhone.

In fact, one of the reasons behind the increase in Jailbreaks of the iPhone 4 was that AT&T's network had way too many problems with it. Rather than deal with AT&T a lot of people ended up jailbreaking their phones instead, a fair deal considering you can get free ringtones, themes, and apps when you jailbreak your phone.

Also, anyone who says Android based cell phones are going to be able to compete with the new iPhone 5 are completely delirious. They won't even come close to the capabilities offered by the new iPhone when it comes out.

If you're thinking about buying the iPhone 4, you'll be better off waiting for the iPhone 5 instead, as it should be coming out really soon this year. Here are some of the expected features:

The new iPhone 5 is expected to have Face Recognition Security so that you don't have to worry about other people stealing your phone and trying to use it... That is, unless they steal your face too. (Anyone seen Face Off?)
Video Chat on a 4G network instead of a slow 3G one
Much nicer overall body design of the phone. It's going to be even thinner and have a shiny black piece.
Shatter Resistant and Scratch Resistant Screen
The lowest model will come with 32G of space and 64G of memory. I'll be able to store my whole computer on the lowest model of the iPhone 5. Yippeee for me.
Longer Battery Life - Up to 14 Hours of Talk Time On The 3G and 7 Hours on the 4G. With 14 hours of talking to my girlfriends, I'm only going to have 10 hours to sleep =(
HD Audio - The quality of sound is going to be extra crisp.
Built In GPS - You'll never get lost or have to download one of those stupid GPS apps.

How much will the new iPhone 5 cost? I can't speculate on that, but I'm going to assume it'll run you over $500. It's definitely going to be worth it though, and I can't wait for it to come out.

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Top 10 Android Phones 2010

No 1. HTC Droid Incredible

HTC Droid Incredible

With many calling the Droid Incredible from HTC the best android device available, it certainly deserves all the praise it is getting as it is light in weight, features a 3.7-inch multitouch AMOLD screen and an 8.0 megapixel camera. The Droid Incredible is an extremely fast and quite capable phone that should satisfy your appetite for mobile power. Truly incredible!

No 2. Google Nexus One

Google Nexus One

Google’s flagship phone, the Nexus One was finally released in January after months of hype. Though it didn’t revolutionize the mobile or smartphone industry, it really turned the old formula into something amazing. Nexus One features a 3.7-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display, memory upgrade upto 32 GB via microSD and a 5-megapixel camera. It takes up the number 2 spot in our list.

No 3. Samsung Epic 4G

Samsung Epic 4G

This is the best Galaxy S variant from Samsung. It has a 4-inch super AMOLED display, a slide-out keyboard, a five megapixel camera, 720p video recording and above all, 4G capability.

No 4. Motorola Droid X

Motorola Droid X

The number 4 mobile on our list is the Droid X from Motorola. It features 8 hours of talk-time and boasts an 8-megapixel camera with 720p video recording at 24 fps. Its total memory is upgradeable to 40 GB.

No 5. HTC EVO 4G

HTC EVO 4G

Featuring a 4.3-inch multitouch capacitive display, the EVO is a phone to be loved. Its OS is upgradable to 2.2. The only downside to this 8-megapixel camera phone is the low battery life; only 6 hours with basic calling and texting. But, apart from that, the EVO is a great phone that you are surely not going to regret buying.

No 6. Samsung Captivate

Samsung Captivate

Featuring the 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen, Samsung Captivate is one of the best smartphones in the market. It features a 5-megapixel camera and 720p video recording. It also features a TV-out port that can stream all your HD videos to the big screen.

No 7. Samsung Vibrant

Samsung Vibrant

This is one of the best offerings from Samsung in the smartphones arena. It has a 5-megapixel camera, a HVGA video recorder and features a bright, colorful, sleek 4-inch AMOLED screen. Watching movies on this phone is a pure joy.

No 8. Motorola Droid 2

Motorola Droid 2

The Motorola droid, with a greatly improved keyboard and 1 GHz of processing power is as fast as any android phone available in the market today. Although it’s not touch, it makes up for it with its all other offerings such as the capability to run Flash player 10.1 and 8 GB of included memory which is upgradable to 32 GB via microSD cards.

No 9. Motorola Droid

Motorola Droid

When the original Droid came out it was one of the best phones featuring android and still is quite a decent performer. It now features android 2.2 froyo with the September 2010 update.

No 10. T-Mobile MyTouch 3G Slide

T-Mobile MyTouch 3G Slide

This is probably the best Android device by T-Mobile yet. It has a multi-touch capacitive touchscreen display and features a 5.0 megapixel camera. It weighs 164.4 grams.
With

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