Review Motorola's RAZR V

What was once considered a fantastic device must be weighed against others recently released, and usually in the same price range. The Motorola RAZR V is in a very interesting position right now for those two reasons.
Motorola hasn’t made too much noise since the release of the revamped Rogers-exclusive RAZR in November. Now, nine months later, the RAZR V hits the market on Bell and Virgin for a significantly more affordable price in a body that makes some concessions to achieve it. In many ways this is the same phone that Motorola released last year — internally and externally — but stands on its own with a great new build of Ice Cream Sandwich and a more compact design. Is it worth your time and money? Read on to find out.
Specs
- Android 4.0.4 with (slightly) custom Motorola skin
- 4.3-inch 960×540 TFT display with ColorBoost
- 1.2Ghz dual-core TI OMAP 4430 SoC
- 1GB RAM, 4GB internal storage, microSD slot
- 8MP back camera with flash, 0.3MP front-facing camera
- WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, FM Radio
- 65.8 x 128.5 x 8.35 mm
- 125g

Design & Display
The RAZR V definitely resembles the original with its angular face, sloping Kevlar backing and chrome accents, but Motorola has certainly toned down the quality of materials. While the RAZR V by no means feels cheap, there is a definite plasticky aspect to it that was absent on the premium-feeling RAZR.
The RAZR V is also some 5mm narrower than the sometimes-unwieldy RAZR, and it feels much more comfortable in the hand as a result. The screen, too, while on paper the same as the RAZR — a 4.3-inch display at 960×540 pixels — is somewhat sharper and less distracting than its predecessor. Instead of going the Super AMOLED route, Motorola opted for a traditional TFT LCD display, making text significantly sharper and whites much more accurate. While it loses the deep blacks and lovely colour saturation that comes with a Super AMOLED screen, we did not miss the RAZR’s moiré aberrations and distinct lack of sharpness.
While the device, at around 8.4mm thick, does not come close to the impossibly thin dimensions of its predecessor, we think Motorola made the right move for the end user. It’s more compact overall, which makes it feel like a smaller handset despite being 1.3mm thicker than the RAZR.
Note that the RAZR V uses a regular-sized SIM over a microSIM, and shares a latch door with the microSD slot on the left hand side. The volume rocker is nicely delineated on the right, and the power button, headset jack and microUSB port sit flush on the top.

Performance & Software
As the RAZR V uses largely the same internal hardware as the Rogers version released last year, we weren’t expecting any performance miracles. Motorola has done a lot with the software, however, and this is not your mother’s MOTOBLUR. The version we see on the RAZR V, which runs Android 4.0.4, resembles in many ways the stock Ice Cream Sandwich experience. While transitions between homescreens are not quite as smooth as those on the Galaxy Nexus, we felt right at home navigating around the menus.
The RAZR V uses Texas Instrument’s aging OMAP 4430 processor clocked at 1.2Ghz, with 1GB RAM and 4GB internal storage. It’s also limited to Bell’s HSPA+ network at 14.4Mbps, but many of these things are built into the price. Still, considering the ATRIX HD LTE is only $20 more on the same Bell network and offers a better array of internal hardware and software, we’d be inclined to recommend that one over the RAZR V. If you’re insistant on the smaller form factor, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the spritely app load times, total lack of lagginess when scrolling through the browser, and a stability that could only have come from Motorola.

The company’s SmartActions have been updated for ICS, and now provide recommendations based on usage patterns. For example, the device can keep track of your favourite locations or times of day and, based on your battery life, enable a Battery Saving mode. Similarly, if you tend to go to bed every night around midnight, you can have SmartActions enable Silent Mode and suppress the screen from turning on during the night if you receive a notification.
Motorola has also added a four-way lockscreen shortcut system that provides easy access to the camera, phone and messaging. But perhaps the most notable admission of Motorola’s integration into Google’s corporate culture is the inclusion of virtual buttons in place of capacitive ones. Both the RAZR V and ATRIX HD LTE sport the Galaxy Nexus-like on-screen navigation icons, and while they have been slightly altered from stock, they work identically. We couldn’t be happier.

Camera
The 8MP camera on the RAZR V does a decent job at capturing moments in good lighting, but suffers from Motorola’s reliable distortion and softness. That’s not to say the camera is bad — the interface is fantastic, with easy-to-reach granular controls, and the shutter is snappy for a piece of older tech — but it doesn’t reach the heights of other 8MP sensors on the market. With the bar being set so high by the iPhone 4S, Galaxy S III and HTC One X, it’s easy to dismiss the RAZR V as underperforming. But we have to take into account the handset’s price — $399 outright or $29.95 on a 3-year term — and cut it a bit of slack as a result.

The device can also shoot modestly smooth and detailed 1080p video, though again it lacks the sharpness and smoothness of its ATRIX HD LTE sibling. The VGA front-facing camera does a decent job at video chats and vanity shots, but we wouldn’t recommend using it for anything other than a mirror.

Battery Life
SmartActions is supposed to allow your battery to last up to 30% longer than an equivalent device, but we were happy to find that the RAZR V didn’t need it to last a full day. The 1750mAh battery was sufficiently large to see us through most of the day with regular calling, browsing, emailing, photo-ing and more. While the PowerVR SGX540 GPU is no longer the graphical beast it once was, we found it to be pretty light on the battery wallet when playing games or watching video.
We were a bit vexed that Motorola didn’t manage to squeeze in a larger battery — something like the 3300mAh cell of the RAZR MAXX would have been nice — considering all the extra proverbial legroom, but we’d imagine it would have raised the price of the handset considerably. Nevertheless, the juice, coupled with liberal application of battery-oriented SmartActions, should allow for one-day-plus usage from the RAZR V.

Call Quality, Network Speed & Miscellaneous
As with all Motorola phones, the RAZR V is solid as a phone. Call quality is unsurpassed in the industry, with a sharp, clear feed that never sounds muddled or sibilant. Call volume, too, is more than adequate for even the loudest of rooms, and Motorola’s background noise suppression works very well.
Because the RAZR V is a HSPA+ device, it’s network speeds are limited to Bell’s 3G network. We were able to achieve around 4-6Mbps download and 0.5-2Mbps upload depending on the location and time of day. Compared to the newest LTE devices this is nothing to write home about, but we were pretty pleased with the performance overall.
Bell and Motorola have bundled a number of apps on the RAZR V, including some business-oriented services such as Citrix GoToMeeting and Receiver. There’s also a full version of Gameloft’s Asphalt 6 and Bell’s Mobile TV app, among others. Because the platform has been upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich, you can now disable unwanted apps, which is the next best thing to being able to uninstall them.

Conclusions
The Bell Motorola RAZR V is a good little smartphone at a decent price. Because its bigger brother, the ATRIX HD LTE, is priced so closely — just $20 more than the RAZR’s $29.95 on a 3-year term — we can’t fully endorse it unless you’re buying it outright. At $399.95, it’s an excellent deal if you’re looking to go off-contract and want an all-round high-performing handset with a great screen, good battery life and a solid, close-to-stock operating system.

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[Review] Sprint's Samsung Galaxy SIII

Here we come with the popular Samsung's galaxy SIII of sprint review it consist amoled display with big screen and it comes with android 4.0.lets get on to the review.

Hardware

If you are looking for top-notch hardware, look no further than the Samsung Galaxy S III. Its spec sheet puts it on par with recent heavy weights like the HTC One X and easily place it amongst the most powerful devices on the market. The phone’s hardware is built up around two cornerstones: a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor and a gorgeous 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD display. Throw in 2GB of RAM and you are dealing with just about the smoothest Android 4.0 experience on the market.

In terms of design, the Galaxy S III keeps things relatively simple. An 8.6mm profile appears all the thinner thanks to some well-place curves while a metallic bezel breaks up any sharp lines (the Pebble Blue color scheme seems apply named as the phone gives off the appearance that it has been gently shaped by nature, much like a rock at the bottom of a riverbed). You won’t find many ports, only a microUSB connection for charging. With available adaptors it can also act as an HD video output. A power on/off/standby button and volume rocker are the only two physical keys aside from the standard Galaxy S III home button.
Yes, the Galaxy S III home button is back, which means Samsung has opted to not go with Android Ice Cream Sandwich’s software navigation keys. The physical home button is flanked by two capacitive buttons, one that will call up the “Menu” functions and the other operating as the “Back” key. These keys are backlit and light up only when touched (the time-out can be adjusted or set to always on). We’ll get to how Samsung has handled Android 4.0′s multi-tasking function in the ‘Software’ section.
An 8MP camera handles picture and video, which can be recorded in full 1080p HD. The rear sensor is equipped with a flash and auto-focus capabilities and supplemented by a front-facing camera for vanity shots and video calls.
As benchmarks will attest to, the average person won’t notice much of a difference between the quad-core and dual-core versions of the GS3. In fact, owners of the dual-core version get a few added bonuses in the form of an additional gig of RAM and the ability to utilize the latest 4G networks. Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T’s versions of the phone are equipped with LTE while T-Mobile operates on HSPA+ 42, meaning data speeds will be top-notch no matter what network the phone is activated on. Quality may be influenced by the particular carrier, but the phone’s hardware provides solid, clear audio during calls.

Software

Samsung has not only gone to great lengths to offer one of the most impressive pieces of Android hardware we have ever seen, but also to add a level or richness to the Android operating system itself. Based around Ice Cream Sandwich, a new generation of Samsung’s TouchWiz interface has been enhanced with human interaction in mind. Not only are we introduced to new gestures such as the ability to place the phone to your ear while viewing a text message to initiate a call or to pan between homescreens by moving the phone left or right, but Samsung has also made using the smartphone a more social experience with some new sharing features.
NFC is utilized to both network devices for sharing photos and video, but also to take advantage of new Samsung’s new TecTiles, which we have covered previously. Group sharing allows one user to stream a presentation, video, or photo to multiple handsets, while AllShare lets users send content to a television set or share files between a PC and their phone. Sharing even extends into the phone’s camera.

If that’s not enough, Samsung has also included the new S Voice application, which allows users to command their phone using only their voice. The service offers plenty of functionality and is right up there with Apple’s popular Siri in terms of usefulness. S Voice can call up a weather report, perform a Google search, get direction, or compose a text message with ease.
Add in a customizable launcher bar, lockscreen shortcuts, and toggle switches in the notifications pane to control WiFi, Bluetooth, Airplane Mode and more, and Samsung has just about covered anything. Well, except for multi-tasking, which, for whatever reason, is now accessed by long-pressing the physical home key. We can understand why Samsung might want to strive for consistency and keep the phone’s trademark home button, but why they decided to forego Android 4.0′s new set of navigation buttons (back, home, and multi-tasking), has us scratching our heads. Multi-tasking still functions as it should, but as one of the central features of Ice Cream Sandwich it is a bit surprise that Samsung has placed it on the back burner, so to say.

Camera

You want great pictures and even better features from your smartphone camera? Again, the Galaxy S III has you covered. The 8MP camera provides excellent photo and video, while an new capabilities make taking and sharing the results even easier than ever. First let’s take a look at what the GS3 can do in terms of photos (click for a bigger image):

And here is a video sample:

While we were impressed with the results, things like Share Shot and Buddy Photo Share seal the deal. With Share Shot a group of Galaxy S III handsets can be linked over a wireless network to automatically share photos between devices as they are taken. Buddy Photo Share uses facial recognition to tag people from your contacts list in your photos automatically, allowing you to easily share pictures with your friends in them.
Video mode has a few cool new features, including the ability to seamlessly snap photos while taking video (something we first same in HTC Sense 4.0) and a focus lock mode that keeps the camera trained to a certain focal point no matter where you move it, bringing professional level control over the final result.

In Conclusion

Consider us impressed. Even with a bit of apprehension about previous incarnations of the TouchWiz interface, Samsung still managed to deliver an intuitive and natural Android experience on top of hardware that really has no comparison (other than perhaps the HTC One X). Samsung will sell a boat load of Galaxy S3 handsets regardless of what we here at Phandroid or any other tech blog have to say about the phone, but if you are in the market for a new Android device and won’t settle for anything less than the best, then this is the one for you.

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Samsung Omnia W-Review

Windows Phone 7 as an OS has become mighty delicious after the Mango update. I would go on to say Microsoft has managed to offer a better user experience than what Android offers, making WP 7.5 second best only to the iOS. The Omnia W performs very well. Add an excellent battery life and a good display, and the dish is ready to be served, hot. The Omnia W is a representation of what a company like Samsung is capable of. The device is considerably cheaper than its competition but has excellent specs and usability. Here is our review on the Samsung Omnia W (Wonder).

Design(look & feel):

 

The Omnia W looks like a compact smartphone, with the 3.7-inch display ensuring it isn't very big to hold, a problem that some 4-inch smartphones face. The front has the display,  A singular ‘Home’ button resides at the bottom of the 3.7-inch Super AMOLED display and bears the Microsoft logo.  There are two touch sensitive keys – return and Bing search. The power key is on the right side panel, and not on the top where it is usually on most phones. The volume rocker is on the left side.

A micro USB port is positioned at the bottom and a standard 3.5mm handsfree socket is located at the top of the handset. 

Camera, Display and Multimedia:
The camera on the Omnia is a 5 mega pixel autofocus camera, with impressive light capture, the camera is one of the best cameras in its class of phone. The autofocus is fast, although you have the ability to tap to focus aswell, images can be clicked almost instantly. Video on the other hand is capped at a 720p HD quality, we often wonder why companies do not design the cameras to deliver 1080p, either way, video capture will require a lot of ambient light and indoor video is poor. The front camera is only good enough for low bit video calling , and should solve the purpose unless your friend on the other side is viewing your video on a big screen TV, if so is the case you will look like a character from Minecraft.
The display is a beautiful Super AMOLED display is a Samsung PenTile display which means that two red subpixels, two green subpixels, and one central blue subpixel is placed in each unit cell of the display. In layman words, its an old technology developed by Samsung back in 1990, and is still used in some of their devices. The display matrix arrangement has often received critique, and is not appreciated well. We however, found that the display was able to reproduce color well and had good deep black levels. The display is excellent for viewing video and and playing games. If you have a thing for the “world wide web”, or a bookworm within, then the display is capable of crisp fonts / texts on the screen for easy viewing. Outdoor visibility is low-poor, due to the inherent problems in AMOLED screens.

With limitations to the kind of files that can be played back on the device, it does not compete with an Android device. Bluetooth is locked and file transfer denied, for most of the things. However, whatever Windows can play natively will work on the phone, and you can always sync up using Zune, or Windows Phone Connector. The speaker is loud enough for music and watching movies. The included earphones are above average, but will not satisfy the bassphile.

Camera Samples

       

                                "Click on images to expand"

Internet, Battery and Operating System:

The internet is a domain which is not properly tapped on the Omnia, with limitations of the browser in terms of javascript and flash. That being said it is one of the fastest internet browsers out there. The screen is great for website browsing and even better to read daily news stories from iGyaan. With a host of apps from the marketplace you can actually find your fix for the web.

Battery life is impressive on the Omnia W with upto 2 days of standby and 5 hours of talk time. The battery fares well while gaming and heavy graphic games can be played for a good 2-3 hours. Music playback should last 10 hours while video lasts about 4-5 hours.

 

The OS is a different playing field in the world of iOS and Android, as we mentioned in our previous Reviews. The interface is one of the cleanest and snappiest out of the lot, and there is no crashing or lagging from the interface even when multiple tasks are running ( Surprising since Windows is the name attached). The marketplace is also ever-growing with a host of applications and games, the future of Windows Phone looks bright. With no access to file sharing over bluetooth and native file compatibility, the closed system may be a let down for some. Samsung has added Video Calling to the OS to make it a little worthwhile. Samsung also offers multiple apps to make the experience a bit better. The included AllShare will allow for you to stream media to other Samsung Devices.

Our Take:

The Omnia W is the cheapest Windows Phone 7 right now and is available for a price of Rs.14,390. That may seem like a great price for a handset with specs like these, however taking overall functionality into account, we were not impressed and you wouldn’t be missing too much by opting for another Windows Phone 7 device, right now even if it cost you a little more.

We Rate It : 4/5

Price Rs. 14390/-

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Hp launched its Ultrabook HP Envy Spectre XT with 5 different models

Hp launched its  Ultrabook  HP Envy Spectre XT with 5 different models .It comes with Intel’s latest Ivy Bridge processors and features a 13 inch display with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels.
The follow up to the company's original Ultrabook contender – the HP Envy 14 Spectre – the HP Envy Spectre XT shaves off over 5mm in thickness from the older version, coming in at an Acer Aspire S5-esque 14.5mm.

And the slimmer waistline makes all the difference, the XT is a gorgeous looking machine that quite rightly stole much of the attention at the HP event we attended in Shanghai.

Described by its makers as an "ultramobile premium Ultrabook", the Spectre XT weighs 1.4kg. It certainly isn't the lightest Ultrabook that we've handled, but it's far from being heavy.

This being HP, Beats Audio is on board – complete with quad speakers. Unfortunately, due to the booming noises inside the Shaghai Expo Centre, we couldn't fully gauge the quality but it sounded loud enough.

The 13.3-inch HD screen held up pretty well under the hall lights, and surprisingly wasn't covered by smears and fingerprints, despite the array of global tech hacks giving it a quick fondle.

Boot up time from sleep was more or less instantaneous, due to the latest generation Intel Core processor on board combined with Intel's Rapid Start Technology.

Other notable hardware inclusions are its 256GB mSATA SSD, an HP TrueVision HD Webcam, and Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi, USB 3.0 and HDMI. You can expect a battery life of around 8 hours.

Here you can see the HDMI, USB and Ethernet ports...

...while the other side features the headphone jack, a further USB and an SD card slot.

The trackpad is a good size and seemed perfectly usable to us, while the isolation keyboard is remarkably similar to that on a MacBook Air.

As you can see, there's a Beats Audio speaker at the top of the keyboard where the power button is also located.

The HP Envy Spectre XT will come pre-loaded with full versions of Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 and Adobe Premiere Elements 10 - it looks as if HP is taking a leaf out of Apple's book too by offering an "experience" rather than just a product. If you fork out for an XT you'll also get access to a concierge phone line for technical support dedicated exclusively to HP Spectre users.

But it's the design that really makes the HP Spectre XT stand out from the ever expanding Ultrabook clan. Its brushed-aluminium chassis looks superb and the svelte bezel helps to create an illusion of a notebook much smaller than its 13.3 inches.

Out in June, the HP Envy Spectre XT will be joined by a Pro version – one that offers Windows 7 

• Professional and TPM security. Prices are expected to from £899.
• Full HP Envy Spectre XT specifications
• Configuration for starting price of £899/$999.99; available on June 8
• Windows 7 Premium 64-bit
• 13.3-inch diagonal display with 1366 x 768 resolution
• Available with 3rd generation Intel Core processors
• Memory: 4GB 1600MHz DDR3
• Storage: 128GB (up to 256GB) Solid State Drive Flash Module
• Backlit Keyboard + HP Imagepad
• 802.11a/g/n 2x2 WLAN + BT + WiDi
• Ports include: Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0 and HDMI
• Dimensions: 327 x 221 x 14.5-mm
• Weight: 3.07 lbs.
• Up to 8 hours of battery life
• 2-Year Norton Internet Security
• Beats Audio. with quad speakers
• HP CoolSense technology
• HP TrueVision HD Webcam
• Full versions of Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements 10
• 1-Year Absolute Data Protect
• Concierge phone line dedicated exclusively to HP Envy Spectre users

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Review:Toshiba Portege Z830

Here we takes the Review of Toshiba Portege Z830 for you and compare this with the others as well.

Look & Feel
True ultrabook form factor – lying on the desk, it wont be a surprise if the notepad sitting next to it may be thicker. And it isn’t a surprise that this magnesium alloy chassis draped machine is by far the lightest ultrabook we have tested so far. Call it finding a niche amidst a niche. Port placement leans towards being inconvenient, since all except one USB port, are on the rear panel. The idea seems to have been to keep the sides as clean and slim as possible, and utilize the usually thicker area where the display hinge sits to place the ports. Acceptable logic, and probably it is just about getting used to this placement. In fact, my very first laptop back in the early 2000s had all ports on the rear panel as well! What the left side spine does have is the dual jack combo for headphone and mic, and an SD card reader. The right spine has the lone USB 3.0 port.

The brushed metal finish of the lid looks classy, but could have done with a slightly smaller Toshiba logo! The same theme continues for the palm rest and the area around the keyboard. The bezel, however, doesn’t have the brushed look – instead has a plain finish. The dash of chrome near the two edges of the display hinge adds a bit of shine to an otherwise understated design.



Is it just us, or does the touchpad or the area around it look a bit cluttered? Appreciate the generous real estate space, but the fingerprint sensor separates right click and left click keys. Interestingly, just below the touchpad are a bunch of LEDs indicating power and battery status, wireless connectivity etc.

If you have placed the Portege Z830 on your lap and are typing out a document, you will notice a very annoying display vibration at times – the hinge isn’t very taut. If you push the display a little further back, the problem does reduce considerably. But at the optimum display angle, you will ideally have to type less furiously!

Despite using all the right materials and ideas, the Portege Z830 doesn’t feel as premium as it should. Weirdly, there is nothing really wrong with the build quality or the materials used. However, it doesn’t take that extra step to move above from the classy look to a very premium look. Have a look at the image gallery below:

Features & Performance
The Intel Core i5 processor clocking at 1.7GHz powers the Portege Z830. Most ultrabooks still seem to be dilly-dallying on whether 4GB of RAM is the way to go, or is it 6GB. Toshiba didn’t bother much with that, and the Z830 comes with 6GB out of the box. The series of benchmark tests clearly put this in a strong third place, with just 0.1 points separating this from the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s which in second place and the HP Folio being the clear leader. Clearly, the Portege Z830 is meant for everyday computing with a heavy dose of grunt. But gaming isn’t really its thing, but then again, it isn’t for most of the ultrabooks out there.



3D Mark Scores



PC Mark Scores



Battery Life Tests

Performance wise, the Portege Z830 is an impressive package. The PC Mark scores peg the Portege Z830 just above the HP Folio. It is another matter that the MacBook Air with Boot-camped Windows gets a better score. For the graphics bit tested by the 3D Mark benchmark, it is no surprise that the Samsung Series 5 gets the highest score – it has a dedicated ATi graphics solution. The Toshiba Portege Z830 is a solid second.

When not stressed, the Portege is as silent as a church mouse. Stress it a bit with some intensive tasks (we did a lot of that during the benchmark tests) and the fan roars into life. We have cribbed about most full-fledged laptops not having enough vents to keep them cool, and the situation has become a bit worse with the even slimmer machines compromising on the ability to keep cool. You might want to use this with a cooling pad as far as possible. Particularly of you are going to use this on your lap.

The 13.3-inch display has a 1366 x 768 pixel resolution, but the real goodness is the non-reflective nature of the display. It is the second straight notebook we have tested that has a non-reflective display, and we are happy that this is becoming the new trend. Viewing angles are far improved than what a reflective display will offer. The brightness of the display is quite good, but does lose out a bit in terms of the black level depth. Having said that, the text is quite crisp and comfortably readable. For HD video playback, the Portege Z830 handles even 1080p video playback with ease, with the only niggle being a slight motion blur in fast moving visuals. Adding the sound bit to it, the integrated speakers are quite loud, and do retain a decent amount of clarity till about 70% volume.

The review unit sent to us came with a 128GB SSD. In this day and age, we recommend SSDs primarily for two reasons – very quick windows boot/wake up times and less moving parts that could lead to a possible failure of the drive.

While the keys aren’t bigger, they are definitely wider. This gives the island styled keypad a full-ish feel. But like most of the ultrabooks out there, the keypad is a bit noisy when you are typing furiously on it. Very comfortable though, but the wider keys take some getting used to. However, not all keys are on the same level, with the direction keys are placed slightly lower than the rest of the keypad. The touchpad is nice and big – the real estate is comfortable for the most part. However, we did not like the right click and left click keys, which take a bit more effort than a simple tap to respond. With the biometric sensor in the midst, it just looks a bit cluttered.

Battery life was pegged at 2.5 hours in our battery tests, but will be about 3.5 hours if you use it judiciously with the brightness turned down. It is actually a surprise that none of the ultrabooks we have tested come even close to offering the kind of battery like a MacBook offers when running Snow Leopard or Lion. Just to see what the issue really was, we installed Windows 7 on the MacBook Air, via Boot Camp. When running OSX Lion, this offers anywhere 5 hours to 7 hours of battery backup, depending on the usage pattern. Once Windows was installed and the battery completely, we began the battery test! Not surprised to see that even this otherwise excellent battery run dry in 3 hours and 2 minutes. Blame laptops or ultrabooks for bad battery life? We believe the blame lies elsewhere!

No shortage in terms of the amount of ports on offer – 3 USB including one USB 3.0 one, full size HDMI and Ethernet ports and an SD card slot.

Like most new laptops these days, this one also comes with a bunch of preloaded software. We aren’t very appreciative of this fact, particularly when a limited time version of an antivirus keeps bugging us about registration etc. For any backup and restore utilities, we believe it would be ideal to point the user to the support website, where anyone interested can download. For most of us, we would prefer a completely clean Windows installation on our new laptops.

Our Take
This is one ultrabook that costs a lot more than most of the rivals, but justifies that to a certain extent with the performance on offer. Benchmark for benchmark, the surprisingly powerful Portege Z830 fights with the HP Folio, Lenovo Ideapad and the Asus Zenbook. But you do pay a bit of a premium for buying a slimmer than the slim ultrabook.

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HTC Titan II Review

The HTC Titan II came out the same day as theNokia Lumia 900, but hasn't seen as much press coverage -- or sales, for that matter. Still, it has some great features that are worth taking a look at, especially that 16 megapixel camera HTC has included. This is the first time HTC has included a 16 megapixel camera on any of their phones, Android included. Is it worth the extra price compared to the Nokia Lumia 900? Read on for our full review.

HARDWARE 

The HTC Titan II looks a lot like just about every other HTC-designed phone that they've made in the past few years. It's got the rounded corners, large protruding camera, and thin speaker grill. It's kind of HTC's new style I guess. Above you can see how the screen looks outdoors. With full brightness it's certainly readable, but still a bit washed out.

The phone's dimensions are 69 x 132 x 13 millimeters, and it weighs 147 grams. The QualcommSnapdragon MSM8255T 1.5GHz CPU and 512MB RAM keep the device running very smoothly. The Titan II also has 16GB of storage and a large 4.7-inch, 480 x 800 pixel Super LCD screen. In terms of network bands on this model we've got GSM 850/900/1800/1900, UMTS 850/900/1900/2100, CSD, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA+, and a secondary phone radio with LTE700 and LTE1700/2100. Of course it also has Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, FM radio, accelerometer, etc. There's a 16-megapixel camera on the back with a dual LED flash. The front facing camera is 1.3 megapixels and the battery has a comfortable 1730mAh capacity.



The left side has only the microUSB port. I've always found charging ports on the side of devices to be very awkward. They don't work well in vertical car holders and they don't work well if you keep the phone in a cup-holder in your car either.


The right side is where you'll find the nicely-done dedicated camera button along with the volume rocker button. The camera button includes a slightly different texture so that you can feel for it without looking at the phone. It also has a good feel for the half-press and full-press shutter releases.


On the top is the 3.5 millimeter headset jack and power button. The power button is actually quite flush with the device so you might find it difficult to feel for.


On the bottom you'll see the microphone hole is a bit larger so that people can hear you better on phone calls now.


On the back you'll see the large 16 megapixel camera with dual LED flash, and a speaker. The material is a soft-touch matte plastic and the coloring fades to a lighter shade at the bottom around the "Windows Phone" logo. Then you've got a textured panel at the bottom which you can remove to reveal the SIM card slot.


Here's a look at what's under the removable panel. Unfortunately there's no way to replace the battery while on the road, and of course there's no expandable storage here either.
SOFTWARE
If you're not already familiar with the Windows Phone operating system that powers the HTC Titan II, be sure to take a good look at our Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 7.5 Reviews. There are many, many features in the OS that you're sure to enjoy, but for the sake of this review, we're mostly only going to look at what kind of added value HTC has brought to the table.

AT&T has bundled all of their usual Windows Phone applications with the HTC Titan II. You get AT&T Code Scanner, Navigator, Radio, and U-Verse Mobile as well as the MyAT&T account manager. Some of these apps require additional paid subscriptions, but if you don't want to use them, a tap and hold in the program listing will give you an easy way to remove them.

HTC has actually added some great functionality to their Windows Phone 7 devices and you'll find their options at the bottom of the settings listing.

The Attentive phone options are my favorites. You can set the phone to mute by turning it face down while ringing, or while you're on a call, you can switch to speaker phone mode just by setting the phone face down. It also has options for a louder ring when the phone is in your pocket, and a quieter ring when you pick the phone up to look at the caller ID.

There's also a hearing aid mode that increases in-call volume as well as some sound enhancement options.

By default you get the HTC Hub on the home screen and once you open it, you'll activate the live weather tile which can be useful. The Hub also allows you to pin Live Tiles for multiple weather cities, stock quotes, and news feeds to your start screen.

In the Windows Phone Marketplace, you'll find a special section for HTC apps that are exclusive to HTC-branded Windows Phones. A couple of my favorites are the flashlight and compass apps as well as HTC Locations, which gives you GPS navigation features. Offline map data is available for free for 30 days, but after that you can subscribe or purchase map data outright. HTC Watch is another good one that lets you rent or buy movies to watch on your device. Image enhancer is fun if you like silly effects filters.

CAMERA 




HTC has included some significant customizations to the camera app. You'll see quite a few more options in the settings area than you'll find on other Windows Phones. My favorite feature is the panorama mode which reloads the viewfinder with a panoramic UI. Burst shot mode is also useful, but it sometimes takes too long to get to in order to capture a quick series of photos. You've also got a lot of effects options and scene modes.


If you're using tap to capture, be sure to check your metering mode settings first. By default it exposes around the focus point, so if you're focusing on something in a shadow area, you'll likely clip the highlights.


The 16 megapixel photos look great when you take nice bright outdoor shots; however there is some definite noise if you zoom in on these photos. The noise is much more prevalent on lower light photos, and it's important to note some focusing issues in low light scenarios, considering the camera does not use the LED lights for autofocus assist. Be sure to check out our full review on Pocketnow.com for more sample photos.










Above is a series of 100% crop selections from a variety of smartphone cameras. The 100% crops will give you a pixel for pixel comparison. You can download full resolution versions of each here: Nokia N8, Nokia Lumia 710, Nokia Lumia 900, HTC Titan II.
In the above close-ups, clearly the Lumia 710 with its 5 megapixel camera is on the low end. The Lumia 900 seems to be a bit brighter and includes some artificial sharpening by default. The Titan II is brighter still and gets colors more accurate, but risks clipping the highlights. The Nokia N8 exposure still seems technically closest to what it should be. Realistically, the Titan II's image quality is pretty close to many point-and-shoot dedicated digital cameras I've used though, minus the optical zoom.








Above is a 720p video recording sample from the HTC Titan II. It doesn't support higher resolution 1080p HD video recording, but for most people 720p HD video will be totally acceptable. Video quality and audio seem to be acceptable and the changing exposure levels are very smooth. Macro close up focusing seems to work quite well, too! Unfortunately, even without much wind at all outdoors, there is certainly a lot of wind noise picked up.

BATTERY LIFE


The HTC Titan II has a hefty 1730mAh battery built in. It's not removable, but it tends to last for a good day and a half, which is perfectly acceptable especially for LTE enabled devices. Of course, Windows Phone has a nice Battery Saver mode that you can turn on for the times when you really need more battery life.

PURCHASING AND AVAILABILITY
The HTC Titan II is available from AT&T for $199 with a new contract.

PROS

+ 16 megapixel camera with a host of options
+ Fastest Windows Phone in terms of benchmarks
+ 4.7-inch Super LCD screen
+ AT&T LTE high speed internet
+ Great battery life (about 1.5 days)

CONS

- Non-replaceable battery
- Low pixel density
- Price is a bit high compared to the Nokia Lumia 900

CONCLUSION
If you're a huge fan of HTC, large 4.7 inch screens with lower pixel densities, LTE, the Windows Phone operating system, and want bragging rights with a 16 megapixel camera, then the Titan II might be worth the extra money. If it was the same price as the Lumia 900, then the Titan II would be much more competitive. Still the Titan II is a great Windows Phone, but it's disappointing that HTC will probably not put as much marketing muscle behind it compared to what Nokia is doing with their Lumia 900.



I give the HTC Titan II a 4/5.

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