Android Community |
- HTC Rezound now only $49.99 – ICS coming this week
- Samsung’s 2.8-inch Galaxy Pocket clears the FCC
- ClockworkMod Touch available for the ASUS Transformer and Transformer Prime
- Buy a Verizon Galaxy Nexus from Samsung, get a free extended battery
- April Fools gone wrong: CyanogenMod joke release still in use a year later
- Sony: Google TV finally hits Europe in September
- Motorola MotoACTV update will allow pairing with all Android phones
- T-Mobile UK will sell subsidized HTC One X and One S on April 5th
- Android 4.0.4 leaked for CDMA Nexus S 4G
- HTC One S Review
- HTC ONE X Review
- Android Community Weekly: April 1st, 2012
- Motorola DROID RAZR Ice Cream Sandwich update leaked
- Painkiller comes to Android via Duke Nukem developer
- HTC sues French site over early One S unboxing
| HTC Rezound now only $49.99 – ICS coming this week Posted: 02 Apr 2012 11:23 AM PDT If you want one of the better 4G LTE smartphones from Verizon, along with an HD screen and Beats Audio the HTC Rezound is a pretty great choice. Lucky for you guys Verizon has recently lowered the price of the handset to just $49.99, making it one of the better priced LTE phones available. What’s even better is Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will be on the device within the next week or two.
It’s no HTC One X which we reviewed this morning, but it is still an impressive phone and now has an even more impressive price. Whether this is just to clear inventory, or to make room for the new HTC DROID Incredible 4G is unknown. Either way the phone is available now from Verizon and we’d recommend it and you can see our full review of the Rezound from the links below. Android 4.0 ICS and Sense UI 3.6 leaked for the Rezound late last week, and we’ve recently learned that the over the air official update to Google’s latest, Android 4.0.3 will be hitting the HTC Rezound starting Friday — as long as Verizon gives it the green light. So while it doesn’t have it yet, the Rezound will be among the first with Ice Cream Sandwich, and now can be yours for only $49.99 so you better hurry and snatch one up. Get it today by heading to VerizonWireless.com Device Info
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 [via Droid-Life]
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| Samsung’s 2.8-inch Galaxy Pocket clears the FCC Posted: 02 Apr 2012 10:47 AM PDT Someone seriously needs to tell Samsung to tone it down on the lets create a device of every single size imaginable idea they’ve been pursuing the past year or so. If you aren’t a fan of the huge 5.3″ Galaxy Note (like some of those haters I wont name) then maybe you’ll like the new Samsung Galaxy Pocket and its 2.8-inch display.
We first heard about this cute little Gingerbread phone earlier in March but it has now cleared the FCC, small screen and all, and will be heading to jean pockets shortly. This phone might not be what you’d remotely call mid-range but it will most likely have an awesome price, if not be completely free for those on a contract. You get a 2.8″ screen, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a decent 832 MHz processor (faster than many of those budget phones at 600) along with 3GB of internal storage and a little camera around back. The camera is only 2 megapixels but should be plenty for a new smartphone buyer or for the kids and their Facebook photos. Obviously not everyone wants or needs the biggest, fastest, or best and Samsung is looking to capitalize on that. FCC reports leads us to believe this will first land on AT&T here in the States but anything is possible. No details on pricing were available either, but I’d imagine it will be cheap. [via Engadget]
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| ClockworkMod Touch available for the ASUS Transformer and Transformer Prime Posted: 02 Apr 2012 10:18 AM PDT Koush’s ClockworkMod custom recovery is the de facto standard for Android modders out there, and in the last few months a few devices like the Galaxy Nexus have been given beta versions of ClockworkMod Touch. Today that small number of (official) devices extended by two. The ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime and the original Transformer are both officially supported as of now – you can download and install ClockworkMod Touch via the ROM Manager app.
ClockworkMod Touch is just like ClockworkMod… with touch support. (Natch.) The familiar layout and features of CWM are all given a touch-enabled makeover with a slightly larger interface. It’s still pretty basic – the UI is list-based with no icons and almost no graphics to speak of – but it adds a bit of usability to a process that was previously button-only. The lack of real buttons on Android devices as of late was certainly an inspiration for the new version’s development. So far only a few phone and tablet models are officially supported by ClockworkMod Recovery Touch: the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus, the HTC Desire, Desire HD, Desire S, EVO, EVO 3D, EVO Shift, G2, MyTouch 4G, Rezound, Sensation, and Thunderbolt, the LG Optimus 2X, Black and 3D, the Motorola Atrix and Cliq, and all flavors of the Samsung Galaxy S II. You can download all the CWM Touch versions (as well as the standard version) at the ClockworkMod download page. [via TalkAndroid]
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| Buy a Verizon Galaxy Nexus from Samsung, get a free extended battery Posted: 02 Apr 2012 09:34 AM PDT The Galaxy Nexus CDMA/LTE version sucks battery juice like a ten-year-old trying to get to the sugary bottom of a Slurpy. It was one of our major complaints in the review, though it’s happily tempered with a first-party extended battery from Samsung, bumping up the 1850mAh pack on the stock CDMA phone to a more roomy 2100mAh (about a 15% improvement) with only a slightly larger bulge. The battery has a list price of $50, but if you buy the phone directly from Samsung, you’ll get the battery and the replacement cover for free.
Even when buying from Samsung you can get the Verizon subsidized discount, bringing the $650 phone down to a more manageable $299.99. Of course, if you’re intent on getting the G-Nex on contract, there are cheaper places to do so. Even so, we’d definitely recommend the extended battery pack – all the regulars here at Android Community rock one. It adds almost no bulk to the phone itself (basically smoothing out the “Galaxy bump” on the bottom) and has a noticeable improvement on longevity. And oh yeah, it still works with NFC. If 2100mAh isn’t enough for you (and if you plan on extended sessions of mobile video or downloads on LTE, it isn’t) you could always go a little more massive. Seidio has a huge 3800mAh battery pack that just about doubles the thickness of the Galaxy Nexus, but also gives you more than twice the battery life of the stock version. A recent update adds NFC capability for a small fee. The Galaxy Nexus has a pretty poor battery life, it’s true, but your options for extending it have never looked better. Device Info
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[via SlashGear]
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| April Fools gone wrong: CyanogenMod joke release still in use a year later Posted: 02 Apr 2012 09:03 AM PDT We all love a good April Fool’s joke. Well, not all of us. Not I, certainly. Not any of us here at Android Community, since we steadfastly avoided the whole mess this year. But if you’re a frequent user of the CyanogenMod family’s nightly ROM updates, you may remember their 2011 joke: changing the name of the ROM to “TehUberDuckDistro” for a single nightly release, and replacing the familiar skateboarding Android with… well, a creepy-looking duck. All in good fun, right? Well for a few flashers, either they didn’t get the joke or they’re really out of date: 29 users of TDUD are still around and logging info with CyanogenMod’s built-in reporting app.
Yup, 29 people are using a nightly release that’s now just over a year old, and was never meant to be taken seriously – that duck is just way too creepy. Writes CyanogenMod team member Ricardo Cerqueira:
TehUberDuckDistro was only ever available for a single night. Either there’s a small but incredibly dedicated population of duck fans who also love Android custom ROMs, or there are about thirty people who really need to update their version of CyanogenMod. But hey, we’re not here to judge: maybe an orange duck theme really brings out the best in Android Gingerbread. Far be it from us to detract from your enjoyment of fowl-flavored Android releases. Seriously, though. Update your ROMs, guys. [via XDA blog]
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| Sony: Google TV finally hits Europe in September Posted: 02 Apr 2012 08:38 AM PDT We’ve been hearing lament and woe from international Google fans over the lack of Google TV outside the land of the free ever since it was released. Well those of you living in Europe finally, finally have a time frame in which to expect Google TV availability: September. That’s when Sony France says that it’ll begin selling Google TV stand-alone hardware, according to Les Echos. A Google TV box is expected to retail at around €200, with a Blu-ray version landing at around €300. Given the time frame, this will almost certainly be the Sony Google TV box we saw at CES.
This has been a long time coming. While industrious modders have used various proxies and other tricks to get around the region lock in the US Google TV units, the vast majority of potential customers outside of the United States have been left wanting. Heck, you can even get all sorts of international content on Google TV, provided you’re physically situated somewhere between Canada and Mexico. Google isn’t completely at fault here; licensing for Internet video is notoriously difficult (try watching Hulu on your smartphone for free) but even so, it’ll be almost two years since the service’s original launch before it sees an international release. While the news is promising, it shouldn’t be taken as gospel just yet. Google itself is the only one that can say when or if Google TV will debut in any given territory – Sony couldn’t operate the set-top boxes without considerable help and support from the Big G. It’s to be hoped that a widespread European release means that Google TV will come to other markets, as Google has been hinting for some time. Too bad Logitech won’t be along for the ride. [via Geeky Gadgets]
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| Motorola MotoACTV update will allow pairing with all Android phones Posted: 02 Apr 2012 07:57 AM PDT Motorola’s MotoACTV digital watch/pedometer/Dick Tracy cosplay accessory is a pretty neat piece of tech, but it’s somewhat limited by its ability to pair only with Motorola phones. The latest update will fix that oversight, allowing the MotoACTV to pair with and work with all Android devices running 2.1 Eclair or later. Because leveraging your brand should always come second to leveraging your hardware, right, Moto? The update is scheduled to hit the Google Play Store later today.
Also included in the update are a few new features, including scheduled workouts retrievable from the smartphone app and personal fitness tracking without going to the MotoACTV.com website. For those who are tired of hunting and pecking on the device’s tiny screen, you’ll be able to set up a WiFi connection between an access point and the MotoACTV via the Android app. The standard tracking, GPS and syncing features remain untouched, though they’ll probably get a few bugfixes. This is a smart move from Motorola. While I’m sure there are a few customers who bought Motorola phones specifically to use the MotoACTV, there are probably even more who have declined to buy the $250 add-on device because it won’t work with their non-Motorola phone. The company is taking a page out of Sony’s book – the LiveView Bluetooth watch and the Smart Watch both work with any Android phone you please. Let’s hope the trend continues with the next add-on Android gadget to come out, whatever that might be. [via Droid-Life]
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| T-Mobile UK will sell subsidized HTC One X and One S on April 5th Posted: 02 Apr 2012 07:12 AM PDT The HTC One X and One S are the hot topic in the Android world right now, and while UK citizens can stroll down to their local electronics store and pay full price for one as of today, those who want a cheaper contract option will have to wait. But not too long: T-Mobile’s UK arm will begin selling both phones from its online and retails stores on Friday, April 5th. T-Mobile will join Three, Vodafone, and others in offering the new phones on subsidized plans – if only US carriers could get along so nicely!
As is normal with UK subsidized plans, customers can get either phone for free after signing up for a suitably pricey contract. The One X will require a £41 per month plan, withe the One S can be had for £36, both on a two-year contract. Of course you can still buy either full-price (£489 and £419, respectively) and pop in a T-Mobile SIM card to avoid being locked in. The UK and other European countries have what seem like pretty sweet deals when compared to American carriers – AT&T customers will probably need to pay $250-300 plus sign up for a voice and data plan to get the HTC One X. Speaking of which, the One X is expected to hit American shores in AT&T’s LTE variant sometime in May, while leaks indicate the T-Mobile will be getting the One S in April. Neither date has been confirmed. The little brother of the line, the One V, will be coming to a few regional carriers as well. If you just can’t wait until then, and you use AT&T (and you don’t mind the expense of a superphone and a hefty profit margin) both the One X and One S have begun to show up on the aftermarket and via the usual import shops. Device Info
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[via GSM Arena]
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| Android 4.0.4 leaked for CDMA Nexus S 4G Posted: 02 Apr 2012 06:43 AM PDT Owners of the GSM Nexus S were on top of the world last week, owing to the fact that an official Ice Cream Sandwich update had finally returned with Android 4.0.4. But in what seems to be the new norm, CDMA devices including the Nexus S 4G and Verizon’s XOOM and Galaxy Nexus were left out in the cold. At least one of those has been amended, if not exactly fixed: owners of Samsung’s Nexus S 4G can now run a leaked version of Android 4.0.4 on their neglected phones. BriefMobile broke the leak and is hosting the download.
Sorry, custom ROM users: this one comes via Samsung’s Odin desktop flashing program. In order to install it you’ll need to connect your Nexus S 4G to a computer with the correct drivers, start the phone in Download Mode then flash it manually. You will lose ALL data (including anything backed up via a custom recovery) so consider yourself warned. Those who rely on ClockworkMod or similar programs would do well to wait a day or two, until some friendly modders release a more universal ZIP ROM or update. There’s still no word on when Google will send out the Android 4.0.4 update for the Nexus S 4G, or the Verizon XOOM or Galaxy Nexus. Earlier this year Google removed these three devices from its official support documentation in the open-source Android archives, stating that the closed-source code required in the software made them invalidated. While Google promises that they will continue to support these phones and tablets, there hasn’t been an official update since, and many consider the Nexus/developer device program somewhat tainted, at least on CDMA-based networks. Device Info
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[via Phandroid]
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| Posted: 02 Apr 2012 12:03 AM PDT The 2012 hero phone strategy for HTC hits its thinnest point with the HTC One S, a device that brings the full power of the HTC One series made to compete with the best of the best. This device runs Android 4.0.3 right out of the box, has Sense 4.0 (made specifically for the Ice Cream Sandwich environment) and has hardware that backs up the promise of the user interface. This beast is backed up by no less than the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.5GHz dual-core processor, otherwise known as Krait and MSM8260A in this case, and ushers in a new era for smartphone cameras as well with not only assistance from the Snapdragon but another chip by the name of HTC Image Chip. Will this member of the One family live up to the new HTC promise?
HardwareThis device has several elements right on the surface that make it live up to the HTC legacy that is high-quality delivery of Android starting with the manufacturer. Up front you’ll find that the 4.3-inch AMOLED display sits at qHD resolution, 960 x 540 pixels strong, and has fabulous viewing angles all around. This is partially because HTC has opted for optical lamination to bond the AMOLED panel to the fascia glass, this allowing the actual lights to sit closer to the surface of the phone as they’re able.
The glass along the front is Gorilla Glass and is mainly flat with some extremely smoothly integrated plastic sides making it seem like the front panel bends over and down the sides, making for a comforting experience across the full front, left and right of the device. The rest of the device is made up of three panels, the topmost being able to be removed to reveal a micro-SIM card. This device is the international edition of the device meaning that if you’re using it in the USA, you’ll be wanting to pick up micro-SIM from AT&T or T-Mobile to get data outside of Wi-fi.
The back panels, each of the, are made up of one of two kinds of finished metals: grey "Graded Anodization" or black "Ceramic Metal". We’ve got the latter of the two here, it being featured as part of a video series on how fantastic the HTC One series is. This is because the Ceramic Metal is made what it is with Micro Arc Oxidation, a process in which the metal is bathed in plasma and electrocuted. This terrifying process makes the metal temporarily “hotter than the sun”, resulting in an oxidized surface that makes sure you need no 3rd party protective casing to protect it. It also feels fantastically high quality to hold and use on a daily basis.
The top of the device has a small space for you to be able to pop it off to access your micro-SIM, this sitting beside a mic hole, headphone jack, and power button. On the right of the phone is an extremely low-profile volume control (up/down) which is nearly too small to detect – but once you’ve used it a couple times, you’ll realize how little you miss that extra space between the surface and the tops of the buttons. The bottom has another mic hole (this in combination with the first resulting in noise cancellation for better audio recording), and the left has a simple microUSB port.
The back of the device also features the HTC logo pushed down into the metal in the center as well as a tiny Beats Audio logo near the bottom panel, the bottom panel having the micro-perforated holes which allow the Beats-enhanced audio to exit the device into the palm of your hand and reverberate out unto the world. HTC also mentions that Beats is integrated into this system through the headphone jack as well – and indeed we are hearing the base-heavy overall decent audio quality we’ve come to expect from these brands working together.
The top back of the device also features a red-ringed camera lens aside a single LED flash – this is the 8-megapixel camera which HTC notes has its own dedicated silicon inside to back it up, and indeed we are seeing some quality images and video the likes of which we’re comparing only to the quality we’ve seen in the Galaxy S II series from Samsung and the iPhone 4S. More on that later in the review. HTC Sense 4.0The next level user interface being released by HTC here with the One series is the fourth full version “Sense 4.0.” This version includes integration with the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich set of capabilities like facial recognition for your lock screen, live dictation (just so long as you’re connected to the web or mobile web), and the full gamut of Google-made Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich tuned apps. Have a peek here at the applications that come with the device right out of the box – and remember that this is the international version of the device so you won’t see any carrier-added apps, only apps added by HTC on top of the standard Google set of apps. Noticeably missing is Google Music, which of course you can easily download from the Google Play App Store, but the selection of HTC-added music apps cannot be overlooked.
Sense 4.0 provides the same great set of modification abilities you’ve gotten with HTC devices for the past few generations, that being in a system app by the name of Personalize. Here you’ll have the ability to create several different homescreen setups if you wish, one for home, one for work, one for play, each of them with different apps and widgets on your standard set of 7 homescreens. HTC provides here the best out-of-box customizability of any of the manufacturers on the market today. HTC’s widgets are second to none, and HTC has chosen here to separate them out from the apps to their own area. Where the vanilla version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has a home screen shortcut to wallpapers, this same shortcut – holding your finger down on an empty spot on a home screen – will bring you to HTC’s widgets. This screen also gives you shortcuts to certain apps and app icons to place on any homescreen as well. Access to this area also exists in Personalization.
Car Mode is updated to its simplest and most aesthetically pleasing form ever, Sense 4.0 providing you with a set of controls you’ll be able use easily with a car dock. Connected apps work in car mode as well, each with modified capabilities like instant directions from where you are physically located in Navigation. This Car Mode video as well as the two other hands-on videos above should give you a fairly decent idea of how quick the device handles everyday tasks. See the Benchmarks below to get another perspective on things, then see the Gaming video even later in the review to see the real fury – it’s hot! Software / BenchmarksThe software you get on this version of the HTC One S (international version) includes several music apps which each work together to bring the quality of the Beats Audio integrated throughout the device to the ear. Included here are HTC’s basic music player for music files you have on your device, SoundHound, TuneIn Radio, and 7digital. SoundHound appears several times in the other music apps, it there to allow you connections to related music which you can then purchase.
TuneIn allows you to extremely easily listen to streaming radio stations from around the world, and 7digital is a music store which HTC trusts to bring you sweet music galore. Expect these apps to perhaps exist in the USA version for T-Mobile as well, with some changes inevitable via T-Mobile’s requests – we’ll see! For now, this is a healthy set of music apps that work with one another to bring you the beats one way or another constantly.
HTC also includes a set of multimedia viewers, they connecting with HTC Watch, an app we’ve seen before which has HTC selling and renting out full-length video at high quality resolution. Play your movies and flip through photos with Media Share, a wireless ability offered up by HTC to bring wireless connecting and live sharing from your device to your HDTV. This function works perfectly well, and for those of you without the necessary equipment but with an MHL converter cord, you can plug that into your microUSB (MHL) v2.0 and convert to HDMI, this providing you with high definition output to your HDTV again.
Watching videos also has a new set of controls including a built-in screenshot function (in addition to the two you’ve also got built-in with Sense and Android 4.0, imagine that!) Check this screenshot out from Escape from the Planet of the Apes – high definition!
After that it’s all smooth sailing with, again, Sense modified Android 4.0 bringing HTC’s greatest user experience yet. This is the first device released to the market with the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.5GHz dual-core processor, aka Krait, this particular iteration numbered MSM8260A. Its performance utterly fabulous as you’ve seen in the hands-on videos above as well as the benchmarks here below.
And all this without heat – there’s been an absolutely unbelievable lack of heat emanating from this device the entire time I’ve used it. Qualcomm and HTC have created an experience here that’s bypassed the heat we’ve otherwise gotten used to in high-functioning smart devices.
This device makes every other smartphone I’ve used in the past seem sluggish. Ice Cream Sandwich allows you to switch between apps or knock apps out completely with your Recent Apps button – but you wont need to shut any apps down to work with app on top of app on top of app – there is slowdown (you can see it if you open many apps and run the benchmarks above) – but you won’t notice it in everyday app activities. GamingHave a peek at this hands-on video to see a few games being played with great success. The Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 is more than ready to bring dual-core goodness to the Android gaming world and take on any game that developers are able to throw at it so far. This video also shows once again the power of the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor in action in that for the entirety of the video we’ve got no less than 6 applications open at the same time. As the video progresses, more games are opened and performance remains superb. CameraThe camera is one of the biggest selling points of the HTC One series, and here with the One S you’ll find a camera experience that’s more diverse than any you’ve used before. There are more built-in effects and adjustments here in the stock HTC photo app than in any other stock app that’s come out thus far, and certainly trumps what the Samsung Galaxy Nexus has with vanilla Android 4.0, and the results are, it goes without saying, one whole heck of a lot better in the gallery. First have a look at the camera experience in this video: Then have a peek at a compilation of videos filmed with the 1080p-capable video camera, some of them filmed during the video you’ve just watched! Here you’ll see some general awesomeness in fair lighting conditions, some dark, and even some super slow-motion work – a new special effect right out of the box here on the One S! Then here come the photos. With the brand new HTC Image Chip integrated here in the One S, there’s been a dramatic photo quality improvement that cannot be denied. HTC devices over the past year have done a generous job with photos, no doubt about it, but these images take the cake – then run a mile with it.
We’ll be doing additional posts on the photo quality of the HTC One series, but for now all you need to know that you’ve not seen in the video above is this: this camera takes less than a second to start up, can take photos extremely fast (while taking them extremely well), and the camera interface is intuitive enough that anyone could operate it. That’s important for your great aunt Bessie when she’s asked to take the family photo with your smartphone – she’ll be able to do it!
Also included here and in the gallery below are several examples of odd shots taken with the HTC One S including low-light situations and photos taken during video. Each image is identified with a tag telling how it was captured.
BatteryHere with the HTC One S running with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 processor, we’ve got better power savings than we’ve seen in most phones on the market thus far. Expect epic battles to go on from this point forward between the S4 and NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 quad-core 4-PLUS-1 processor for battery time, especially given that chipset’s fifth core kicking in when the rest aren’t needed. Have a peek here at an average day’s work. Mobile data on all day, messages coming in, games played, wars won, and everything else that comes with relatively heavy use:
The closest we’ve seen to this battery time on a smartphone has been the AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II – that being the one closest to the original Galaxy S II which was, like this version of the HTC One S, an international version. As far as we can tell thus far, this device, thanks to the Snapdragon S4, will be running at least as long as any other device on the market on minimal charges. The screenshot you see above shows how I took this device off the charger in the morning and each time I put it in my pocked (aka when the screen is off), the battery drain essentially drops to zero. Wrap-UpHere in the HTC One S we find that HTC is certainly living up to the promise that they’ll be coming in strong in 2012 with a hero series of phones. The HTC One S also reminds us that HTC was once the king of high-quality hardware for Android, and indeed here again they do regain that crown – bringing a device (and a series of devices) whose features fit together so well that they’re more than ready to take on the rest of the top-tier devices in the industry. I’m honestly having a tough time attempting to find any faults in this device as it’s quit honestly impressed me enough to say that HTC has completely redeemed themselves from last year.
Though last year didn’t have HTC jamming out win after win, they did have some proving themselves to do here in 2012 – and they’ve done it. It’s as simple as that. Have a peek at the gallery of images below for additional software and hardware shots, feel free to ask additional questions in the comments section below, then prepare for the USA version of the HTC One S coming soon! Also be sure to check out our review of the HTC One X today as well – just as hot!                                                                                                                                   Device Info
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| Posted: 02 Apr 2012 12:01 AM PDT 2011 was not HTC’s year. Despite what appeared to be a strong start at Mobile World Congress in February 2011, by the tail-end of the year HTC had seen its device sales slump and rivals like Samsung steal its innovation crown, no small shock for the company which had long been known as the Android backbone. 2012, then, sees HTC become the challenger again, and the HTC One X is the powerhouse of that attack. Packing a quadcore Tegra 3 chipset in European form, it’s a big, fast answer to those who said HTC had let specifications slip. Question is, does the One X do enough to leave HTC in a solid position ahead of the Samsung Galaxy S III and the iPhone 5?
HardwareHTC has pulled out the stops with the One X, and it’s a cohesive and appealing design. A combination of lightweight polycarbonate and Gorilla Glass combine – with some neat curves and join-line detailing – to make a phone that belies the scale of its display. HTC still manages to fit in an 8-megapixel main camera, a 1.3-megapixel front camera, and docking connectors for an optional cradle, along with the 4.7-inch 1280 x 720 Super LCD screen. The HTC One X addressed major complaints with pretty much the majority of HTC’s industrial design of their handsets over the past couple of years.
That screen is bright and clear, and ideal for multimedia playback. Colors are clean though don’t show that over-saturated artificial hue we’ve seen from some AMOLED panels, and the touch layer itself is responsive. Opting for plastic rather than metal has an impact on hand-feel but it’s worth it: one of our big criticisms of 2011 HTC flagships was that they felt heavy and cumbersome, something we can’t say of the One X.
Inside, in European form at least, is NVIDIA’s 4+1 core Tegra 3 chipset along with 1GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. There’s no access to the battery and no way to add extra memory; instead you get a pop-out microSIM tray and a free two-year 25GB DropBox account that’s integrated with the various apps on the One X. Connectivity rises to quadband WCDMA/HSPA+ (850/900/1900//2100) but no LTE; for that we’ll have to wait for AT&T’s version, due later this year, which adds in 4G but uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core chipset rather than the NVIDIA quadcore of its Euro counterpart.
Otherwise it’s a roll-call of the latest and greatest: WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 complete with support for the aptX high-quality streaming stereo audio profile, DLNA and MHL-HDMI for wireless or wired HD video output (with the correct adapter, not included), a 3.5 headphones jack with Beats Audio, and NFC. The latter is currently used primarily for Android Beam, useful for firing across webpages and the like between the One X and the Galaxy Nexus, though at some point Google Wallet may make an appearance. Finally there’s the expected digital compass, g-sensor, GPS, proximity and light sensors, and gyroscope. HTC throws a compact AC adapter, a set of headphones and a USB to microUSB cable in the box with the One X. Software and PerformanceUntil now, HTC devices have run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread; in fact it’s only been within recent weeks that Ice Cream Sandwich has been pushed to existing users. The One Series – of which the One X is the flagship – changes all that, launching with Android 4.0 as standard, complete with HTC Sense 4.0.
The usual suite of Android apps – Gmail, the freshly renamed Play Market, Google Talk, etc. – are onboard, and HTC adds in its own Music Hub with shortcuts to TuneIn radio, local tracks and more. We were never much fans of Sense because it felt like it bogged down the system, hindering performance and chewing away precious battery life, but 4.0 changes things for the better.
HTC’s custom interface started out as a desperate reskin of Windows Mobile, evolved to rub the rough edges off of early Android iterations, and gradually became a bloated, over-designed UI and app suite in more recent phones. Much of that has seen turnaround in v4.0, faster and more responsive than before and with a new batch of widgets that, though unmistakably HTC, are also useable enough to make them worth including. Most of the alterations now seem consciously intended to speed the user-experience, rather than simply change it. Little details, like the ability to shoot photos and video simultaneously, or to quickly snap a freeze-frame during video playback for instance, along with the ease of opening an incognito tab for private browsing, right alongside the regular new-tab button. New calculator widgets pull more useful functionality direct to the homescreen, and the Evernote synchronization with the native Notes app is useful and cleanly integrated. HTC Sense 4.0 demo Best of all, this is a fast phone. Tegra 3 has already proved its worth in Android tablets, and the One X is little different. Apps load quickly and multitask with no lag; images open and pinch-zoom smoothly. Full HD video plays – either on the One X’s display or via MHL-HDMI output – without jerking.
Camera
HTC’s camera on the One X is a group effort: a new 8-megapixel backside-illuminated sensor, paired with F2.0 28mm wide-angle optics and a dedicated imaging processor. There’s also a smart LED flash which is meant to adjust its brightness depending on the proximity of the subject, though we struggled to see too much of a difference.
The camera app is streamlined, with simultaneous on-screen controls for taking snapshots and shooting video. It’s possible to do both at the same time, too. Up to 1080p HD video can be filmed – 720p from the front camera – with digital image stabilization and optional slow-motion. Sample 1080p video: HTC ONE X Sample slow motion videos: BatteryThe 1,800 mAh Li-Ion battery is non-replaceable, HTC following a trend led by its rivals and trading flexibility for benefits in design. HTC managed to slim the One X down to only 8.9mm as a result of its unibody design, but we still managed to get on an average of 7-9 hours of “regular” usage, and peaking at 12-hours and 41 minutes on less busy days.
Standby time is amazing. On a full charge we managed to squeeze out 8-hours of extremely-light usage overnight, waking up with 85-percent left over, and after which we still managed to get another 6-hours of usage. Of course, great battery life has a lot to do with NVIDIA’s new Tegra 3 processor, with its 4+1 cores: four primary cores, plus a fifth core that handles low level activities such as push email in the background.
Wrap-UpThere were four key areas the One X needed to excel at, if it was to stand a chance. First there’s the in-hand appeal, and the thin, lightweight phone certainly ticks that box. It’s closest to “sexy” that an HTC has managed in some years, and yet it still manages to tick box two, great battery life. Pushing over ten hours on a single charge with a lot of usage is no small feat, besting phones with lesser chipsets than the One X offers.
The Tegra 3 ticks the One X’s third box: awesome performance and a great user experience. The NVIDIA chipset is fast and capable, and Sense 4.0 returns HTC to its previous software form. Some users will no doubt prefer Ice Cream Sandwich untampered with, but Sense delivers a good balance of user-friendly customization without hampering speed. You may not know the difference between using a dual-core handset versus the One X until you’ve lived with it for about a week, and then switch back to something like the Galaxy Note, but it’s noticeable.
Finally, there’s the camera and multimedia, with the 8-megapixel BSI sensor, dedicated imaging chip, Beats Audio and bright, eminently watchable display earning the One X its final tick. That’s four serious criteria for success that last year’s HTC range failed at. It’s too soon to say whether the Galaxy S III and iPhone 5 will prove the One X’s undoing, but one thing is for sure: HTC has thrown down the gauntlet with its new flagship, and the One X sets the bar high.                                                                Device Info
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| Android Community Weekly: April 1st, 2012 Posted: 01 Apr 2012 08:00 PM PDT Welcome to April, Android fans. And before you ask, no, we’re not doing any April Fool’s stories here on Android Community – for news outlets, there’s just too many nice but somewhat unguarded people who might believe us. But if you want the rundown on some of the funniest April Fool’s pranks pulled by tech industry folks, head on over to our sister site SlashGear. Now, let’s take a look at the big happenings in the world of Android this week.
The Ice Cream Sandwich updates continue this week, with releases and/or leaks from several major manufacturers. Google gets the spotlight with the brand new 4.0.4 release of Android, finally hitting the GSM Galaxy Nexus, GSM Nexus S, and XOOM WiFi. The source code was updated as well, so all the custom ROMs that aren’t already updated should get it within the next week or two. On AT&T Samsung’s Galaxy S II phones got some ICS action, with the GSII seeing a leak of the official software and the Galaxy S II Skyrocket (the LTE upgrade) getting the same treatment. If only the Galaxy S could get some love – all Samsung’s committed to is a “Value Pack” of backported features, which is now available in Korea.
Verizon customers were surely glad to hear that the Motorola DROID RAZR, DROID RAZR MAXX and the HTC Rezound would all be updated to Ice Cream Sandwich next week, at least according to a Best Buy leak. That news was confirmed when Moto called for a soak test and later the RAZR software was leaked. Sony made some waves of its own with a beta release for the Xperia Play, followed by a few delays and the news that all Sony ICS updates would come via its desktop client. T-Mobile confirmed, then delayed updates for the HTC Amaze 4G and Sensation 4G, and ASUS updated the Transformer Prime with a minor software tweak that didn’t include face unlock.
As far as new hardware goes, LG finally confirmed the mid-range Lucid for Verizon, and is rumored to release the Optimus 4X HD and others in May. Which, incidentally, is when HTC’s One X may be coming for AT&T, with the HTC One S possibly hitting T-Mobile later this month and the DROID Incredible 4G coming to Verizon… sometime. HTC may also be preparing an iPod competitor with stereo speakers and (YES) a kickstand. Samsung’s Galaxy Beam got a pre-order in the UK, and the mid-range GT-i9300 (which is not, repeat not the Galaxy S III) got a few more details. We saw the first evidence of the DROID Bionic 2 for some reason, Huawei’s MyTouch for T-Mobile got a preview, and Epson’s see-through 3D Android-powered Moverio headset is shipping for way too much money.
On the business side of things, the Wall Street Journal is getting into the Nexus Tablet rumor game and an NVIDIA CEO made some interesting predictions about $200 Tegra 3 tablets. Google Drive got rumored, then leaked. Samsung celebrated 5 million Galaxy Note sales with the help of a pachyderm named Peter. And ASUS is (mostly) off the hook with that Transformer Prime lawsuit from Hasbro, because no one will confuse and Android tablet with a giant robot.
The modding community got a few boosts this week, with a $110 kit full of OEM parts to turn your DROID RAZR into a DROID RAZR MAXX. the popular MIUI ROM is finally available for the Galaxy Nexus in an official capacity, and CyanogenMod is now supporting the AT&T Galaxy S II with Ice Cream Sandwich nightly releases. Desktop junkies can try the new and improved BlueStacks Android player on Windows PCs. Google’s I/O event registration opened, then immediately sold out, but don’t panic: you can watch it all live.
That’s a fair bit of news, but we all know that only one thing important happened all week: Temple Run. It came out on Tuesday and we got an official hands-on video. A lot of devices weren’t supported right off the bat, but got some community-sponsored ports (don’t worry, it’s a free game). The first three days saw an incredible one million downloads, and the very first update fixed running issues on the DROID RAZR and DROID BIONIC.
Here at Android Community we gave you an extensive review of Tenqa’s affordable over-the-ear REMXD Bluetooth headphones, which come highly recommended at just 40 bones. There’s also a hands-on look at Archos’ new 101 G9 Turbo tablet sporting Ice Cram Sandwich and faster specs, as well as one of the very first looks at the new LG Lucid on Verizon. Reviews for both devices will be coming up next week. Sleep tight, kiddos – stay in school, don’t do drugs, and always make a Nandroid backup.
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| Motorola DROID RAZR Ice Cream Sandwich update leaked Posted: 01 Apr 2012 05:49 PM PDT Best Buy says it’s coming next week and Motorola wants some lucky testers to try it out, but if you just can’t wait, you can get the official Ice Cream Sandwich update on your Motorola DROID RAZR right now. Friendly XDA modder yalkowni has posted a guide on fooling Motorola’s servers into including you in the soak test, with the help of a non-Market app called “cheesecake”. According to the XDA thread it’s pulling the update directly from Motorola’s servers, though some replies indicate that you need to have an active Motorola forum account.
To be blunt, this method does not inspire confidence. Though other leaks of the Android 4.0 build for the DROID RAZR and DROID RAZR MAXX have been released, there appear to be critical flaws with all of them. You could go through the 16-step process, assuming that you’re both on the latest stock software and rooted – but personally, I’d wait until Wednesday to see if the previous rumors are true. It won’t kill you to run Gingerbread a few days longer, especially if you’re waiting for custom ROMs, since the updated kernel should allow for close to stock custom ROMs despite the locked bootloader. With both the soak test and the leak, we can be fairly confident of Motorola’s intention to update the DROID RAZR and DROID RAZR MAXX very soon. Unless some serious flaws arise from the currently sanctioned testers, Verizon customers should be biting into Ice Cream in just a few days. That being the case, it probably won’t be too long before the international GSM Motorola RAZR gets its update. Moto did promise it sometime this quarter, but if it’s ready for Verizon’s RAZR, it’s probably finished for the international version already. Device Info
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| Painkiller comes to Android via Duke Nukem developer Posted: 01 Apr 2012 04:43 PM PDT There’s been a lot of classic games getting remade for Android lately, and the latest in the long line is sleeper first-person shooter hit Painkiller. The original game came out in 2004 for the PC, but noted Android developer Machineworks is bringing it back for a go-round on your phone or tablet under the name Painkiller: Purgatory HD. You can pick it up in the Google Play Store for the odd price of $1.11, and any device running Eclair or later can join in the fun. That said, you’ll probably want something with at least a 1ghz processor to get the best experience.
The original Painkiller followed Daniel Garner, an admirable everyman who’s killed along with his wife in a traffic accident. While his wife floats on up to Heaven, Danny Boy is sent somewhere altogether hotter. He’s given a shot at release if he can kill four of Satan’s generals and avert a literal holy war, and with the help of some ridiculously over-the-top weapons he plows through armies of demons to claw his way out of Hell. With modern (for the time) graphics and classic “shoot everything that moves and everything else if you’ve got the ammo” gameplay inspired by The Duke himself, it won quite a lot of fans on the PC. Machineworks Northwest should give you pause, however. While Duke Nukem 3D was highly anticipated in its Android release, its reception was somewhat chilly, after the developer embedded ads in a paid game and required in-app purchases for the complete original. Machineworks quickly removed the ads and Duke Nukem 3D is now a free download, but poor controls and general bugginess have earned it a less than stellar rating on the Google Play Store. It looks like Painkiller: Purgatory HD is a complete game after the initial purchase, so you shouldn’t have to worry about dipping into your wallet even further. Even so, you might want to wait for a couple of update cycles for the devs to iron out the bugs and add features like Xperia Play support.
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| HTC sues French site over early One S unboxing Posted: 01 Apr 2012 04:07 PM PDT There’s an unfortunate tendency among hardware manufacturers of all kinds to jealously guard their new products from prying eyes. Such is the case with the HTC One S, which was included in HTC-Hub’s unboxing of the HTC One X. Both devices are due to go on sale in Europe in just a few hours, but that didn’t stop the Taiwanese company from taking some major offense at the French site’s actions. They’ve initiated a civil suit against HTC-Hub, even though both the X and the S were leaked weeks before their Mobile World Congress unveiling. HTC France has appointed a bailiff to recover the One S phone that the site had planned to review.
There’s some confusion over HTC and its PR agency’s reasoning for the suit. HTC-Hub says that it wasn’t scheduled to get review units for another week at least, so the delicate dance of the non-disclosure agreement doesn’t apply. We’re not strangers to NDAs here: the basic gist is that if you obtain news from a source outside the company itself, it’s fair game. HTC-Hub isn’t saying where it got the One X and One S phones, but they didn’t get them from HTC. That being the case, HTC shouldn’t be able to seize the phone unless it can prove that it was obtained illegally.
This sort of behavior is unfortunately common in the tech space. It’s even more disheartening to see swift and unconsidered legal action taken against HTC’s most loyal fans – these are the guys that get the most excited about the HTC brand, and act as unpaid evangelists for HTC’s new hardware. The fact that HTC France is making a stink about this just days before the phones were set to be available to the public puts a bad taste in our mouths. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the case. Device Info
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[via HTC-Hub]
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