Android Community |
- Verizon’s Samsung Fascinate gets reviewed
- Samsung Fascinate on sale Sept 8 for $199.99
- IFA 2010 Wrap-Up
- Droid 2 Review
- Droid X 2.2 Update, Where Is It?
| Verizon’s Samsung Fascinate gets reviewed Posted: 07 Sep 2010 05:43 AM PDT Tempted by the Samsung Fascinate – which Verizon has just confirmed will be hitting virtual shelves tomorrow priced at $199.99 – and want to know if it’s worth your while? Over at SlashGear the Fascinate has been put through its paces in a full review, and shapes up rather nicely.
In the Fascinate’s favor is its Super AMOLED display, 1GHz Hummingbird processor and a great 5-megapixel camera with LED flash that can shoot 720p HD video. On the downside there’s Samsung’s TouchWiz 3.0 UI, which is an acquired taste, and occasional stalling when moving between apps.
We won’t spoil the conclusion, so if you’ve $200 burning a hole in your pocket and a desire to find out how the Samsung Fascinate compares to the DROID X, DROID 2 and other Android handsets, head over to SlashGear now. Samsung Fascinate unboxing: |
| Samsung Fascinate on sale Sept 8 for $199.99 Posted: 07 Sep 2010 05:13 AM PDT Verizon’s Samsung Fascinate, one of the Samsung Galaxy S family, has been given an official price tag and release date. In fact, the Super AMOLED smartphone has two dates: it’ll go up for sale online on Wednesday September 8th, and then in Verizon stores on Thursday September 9th.
Either way it will be priced at $199.99 with a new, two-year agreement and a $100 mail-in rebate. The smartphone has EVDO Rev.A, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth, a 5-megapixel camera and 3G hotspot functionality. [via SlashGear] Press Release: Samsung Fascinate™, a Galaxy S™ Smartphone, Available Tomorrow on the Verizon Wireless Network IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ — Verizon Wireless and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) today announced that the Samsung Fascinate™, a Galaxy S™ smartphone exclusively from Verizon, will be available online on Sept. 8 and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on Sept. 9 for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. Pricing and Plan Information |
| Posted: 06 Sep 2010 02:55 PM PDT IFA-2010 was a huge show, and there were many Android devices there that we were able to get a first look at. So sit back and lets review some of what we saw. Tablets, tablets, and more Android tablets, seem to be the hot trend at this years show in Berlin, and we will start this wrap up with the one that everyone expected to see and was most excited about, the Samsung Galaxy Tab.
The Tab is packing a 7 inch display, 1GHz Hummingbird processor, with Android 2.2+TouchWiz, and is wanting to be the iPad killer somewhat. Samsung did a good job on this, it was very polished, user friendly and would even fit in your jacket pocket. Coming into the market we are not sure how this slate will do but, being they are trying to subsidize this device will all the carriers, they are thinking of big things coming. The ability to make voice calls on the device will be a plus, compared to its competitor and we can’t wait to see how it does in the US market. Another couple of heavy hitting tablets were at the ViewSonic booth. The ViewPad 7 is ready to come out into the market and it doesn’t quite pack as much power as the Galaxy Tab, it was a very classy device and ran rather smooth. Android 2.2 (non-skinned) is ran by a 600MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, but was not enough to slow it down dramatically. Voice calls will be able to be made with 3G, and Wi-Fi is on board also. With a camera up front and back, at a price point of around $539, this could be valued competition in the market. The other ViewSonic tablet was a prototype called the ViewPad 100. More like a netbook replacement without a keyboard this was a dual-boot tablet running, Windows 7 and Androird 1.6. As we used it, it was obvious that it was a prototype. ViewSonic says they have some work to do with newer versions of Android and getting the hardware to run with Intel’s Atom chips.
Moving along in the tablet space, we got to see a family of Archos tablets and PMP players all powered by Android. You have the 101, 70, 43, 32, and 28. The tablets start out at 10.1 inches then go to 7 inches and down. The screen sizes are related to the model numbers of the devices, you picking up on that? These are all very top notch tablets and PMP players, Archos has done a fine job with them. The larger devices have high res displays, HDMI ports to export your HD video content, and sport 1GHz processors. Where the smaller ones have nice sized storage and cameras on back, with lower price points of $99, then $149 and ending at $199.
Next in line is the Toshiba Folio 100. After using the Galaxy Tab we were not really impressed with the Folio 100. It is a 10 inch slate, but still felt that it wasn’t completely ready to be released out into the wild. Packing a Tegra 2, 16GB of storage, HDMI access, and the appearance of the tablet is very appealing. Toshiba says, we are looking for a release date in Q4, and we are hoping that they will be able to tweak on it some more before it is released. They say it will not be available in the US, so all us Americans are not to excited about that. For a change, let’s switch over to a PMP player that we were able to get to look at that was quite intriguing. Still, the Phillips GoGear Connect looked like an awesome device, but we were left wondering why this wasn’t made into a phone also. With a 3.2 inch capacitive display, 8, 16, 32GB models, micro SD card slot, and everything you could imagine that would come with a standard day Android handset, we thought this PMP player was well executed, and very polished. You could however make VOiP calls on the device, but hopefully this is a first glance of Phillips having something up there sleeve on a phone.
Huawei brought some interesting devices to the table this year also. First they brought their latest offerings to the phone industry the Ideos U8150. This phone is an entry-level Android device running 2.2, with a 2.8 inch QVGA display and a 3.2 megapixel camera on rear. As for the S7 tablet, it still felt like a pre-production model, with the screen being a little unresponsive, but overall is a great looking tablet that could be nice once it is released to consumers.
Down to the last unfinished tablet we have the E-Noa 10 inch Interpad, that looks really really close to an iPad. It is also a Tegra 2 powered tablet that has 3G data access but no ability to make cellular calls. There will be a Wi-Fi only version available and they have said it will come in at a price point of €399 ($515). Being it was unfinished and not connected to the internet is was hard to not give our honest feelings, but we feel like this is a very good start to something big.
Well there you go, that was a little taste of the Android devices that we saw at IFA-2010 this year. We left on a very positive note, seeing what all the companies have been working on and where the Android tablets are heading. If you want more in depth coverage feel free to go check out all the hands-on pics and videos here and we hope you enjoy all that we got to be apart of this year. ) |
| Posted: 06 Sep 2010 01:21 PM PDT We recently had a Droid 2 to review and wanted to highlight some of the key points about the Droid 2. Being that the original Droid was launched almost 9 months ago, Motorola felt that it was time to update the design with some better internals and updated externals.
The Droid 2 is a more slimline polished device than it predecessor. The device has a more sophisticated look and compared to the older keyboard, the newer design is much improved. The keys are slightly domed now instead of flat, the D-Pad was taked away from the side, and arrow keys were added to allow for more room on the keyboard.
The display is still a 3.7 inch 854 x 480 capacitive LCD touchscreen and is a very nice looking screen, but is not up to par with the higher day standards like the iPhone 4 and Super AMOLED displays in the Galaxy S devices. Overall the shape of the device is the same, and all the older accessories will still work with the new design.
Internally the Droid 2 is powered by a 1GHz OMAP 36×0 series processor, and 512 MB of ram, which is twice as fast, also with 2.2 running the device it is real snappy and quick. Speed improvements are drastic, even when compared to the Droid X running 2.1. Noting the original Droid is getting the 2.2 update also, and we are aware that skinned OS updates lag, we do not feel that BLUR adds enough to the plate to push out the update schedule. The same camera UI is available here as on the Droid X, and we were not real impressed with the pictures taken. In low light situations the pictures were grainy, and even with the flash they had a tendency to look blurry. The outside shots had decent color balance, but lack the fine detail when blown up to a larger size. Video camera is lacking the 720p video that most devices are coming with today and even though they are blurry at times, the color balance is reasonable.
Other additions to the software are, Swype keyboard, Mobile Hotspot app, and despite an upgrade to ActiveSync the device still has some issues with Exchange. Available in the browser was also Flash 10.1 and it played video decent, but the higher bit rates did slow the device somewhat. Noticed in the call quality were constant signal and call issues. Internet seemed to change speeds at times, and some calls were ended prematurely with the smallest change in position. Other than that, the call quality was strong and clear and we expect to see Motorola put out a firmware update to address the situation. Lastly we wish Motorola would have made this a world-phone so that when we traveled out of the country, it could be used on other networks that support GSM standards. In conclusion, we asked if Motorola had made enough updates to justify pushing forward with the design. With the upgraded processor, RAM, and keyboard it is much improved, but running BLUR on top of Android 2.2 along with the not so great camera, has us undecided still. If you need a device with a keyboard on Verizon, this could be a good choice, but to upgrade from an original Droid we do not feel that it would be worth the money and effort. [via SlashGear]                                  ) |
| Droid X 2.2 Update, Where Is It? Posted: 06 Sep 2010 11:20 AM PDT We are well aware that a bunch of you are waiting for your Droid X Froyo update, and you are thinking any day now that it will be available. Well at the soonest, it looks like it will be another 2 to 3 weeks, is the latest rumor that has come across.
One of the issues we are hearing is when updating from 2.1 to 2.2 there is an Exchange issue that is wiping the security policies. Seems like a smaller issue to fix and we are counting on them to be able to fix this asap, so the X can be updated along with all the rest of the heavy hitting Android devices. We know it is hard to stay calm, but it is coming and at least we know they are working on it. [via Droid Life] ) |
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