Motorola Xoom 2 review
HTC Jetstream review
ZTE Tania budget Windows Phone officially unveiled
Budget handset manufacturer ZTE has unveiled it first own branded device of 2012 with the oddly named ZTE Tania landing as the companys first foray into Windows Phone territory.Sticking with its business plan of making budget phones with specs beyond their means the ZTE Tania will land with an array of innards similar to a host of pre existing Windows Phone 7 handsets but with a considerably lower price tag.ZTE Tania SpecsAdopting the latest rendition of the Windows Phone operating system the WP 7.5 Mango powered Tania is to boast an impressive 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen with a price point leading 5-megapixel rear-mounted camera with LED flash.Expanding the handsets extensive list of features the Tania hosts the ability to act as a Wi-Fi hotspot, a feature that its leading Windows Phone competitor and smartphone great the Nokia Lumia 800 is unable to do.ZTE Tania Release DateWhilst the Chinese manufacturer has yet to announce an official ZTE Tania UK release date the company has revealed the device will be available for a little as £10 on contract with Virgin Mobile, Go Mobile and a leading specialist retailer to stock the device.Will a budget Windows Phone handset help kick the Microsoft made mobile OS to the next level? Let us know what you think via the comments box below
via ZTE Tania budget Windows Phone officially unveiled | T3.
Polaroid SC1630 Android HD smart camera hands-on, is it a cameraphone or a phonecamera?
The camera modules in smartphones continually improve, and these days there are phones like the iPhone 4S and the Nokia N9 who can take snapshots as good — and sometimes better — than point-and-shoots. Polaroid’s known for making cameras, but its newest device, a rebrand of the Aigo A8 we saw at CES last year, flips the script by taking a 16 megapixel point-and-shoot and shoving an Android phone inside.
The Polaroid version’s called the SC1630 Android HD Smart Camera, and its packed with 850/1900/2100MHz WCDMA and 850/900/1800/1900 GSM radios, along with WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and an FM antenna thrown in for good measure. The SC1630 sports an 800 x 400 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen, while underneath there’s 512MB of built-in storage and 512MB of RAM, along with proximity and G-sensors, micro SIM slot, Micro USB and a 2.5mm headphone jack. As we said above, the camera is a 16 megapixel unit, with aperture of F3.1 – F5.6, 3X optical zoom and 5X digital zoom, a max shutter speed of 1/1400 and ISO tops out at 3200. It’s got geotagging and anti-shake support as well, and can shoot videos in 720p. Scheduled to arrive in April for $299, the device still has a few kinks to be worked out and there may be some changes to that hardware before it makes it to market. Here at CES 2012, we got a chance to lay hands on the phone and speak with Emanuel Verona, Polaroid’s Executive VP and COO about the company’s first Android offering, so read on past the break for our impressions and his thoughts. Read more 
Lenovo K800 Intel Medfield smartphone hands-on
Well it looks like we have a surprise guest at Showstoppers tonight. Lenovo just dropped by with its just-announced K800 — the first Intel-powered smartphone to see the light of day. The beastly 4.5-inch 720p device sample that the company had on-hand is running a highly modified version of Android, and while the interface may not look familiar, the overall app experience shouldn’t be much different from what you’re used to. The official spec list includes a 1.6GHz Intel Medfield processor, Android 2.3, a TFT display and an 8 megapixel camera with a maximum sensitivity of ISO 3200. For now, the K800 is compatible with WCDMA HSPA+ and was running on AT&T’s 3G network — there’s no word of LTE on this version, which seems logical considering that the 4G network is a bit hard to come by in Lenovo’s native China, where the device is expected to launch first. Naturally, there’s also 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and GPS connectivity. We’ll be bringing you more on what’s undoubtedly the hottest gadget of the evening in the days to come, but jump past the break for an early look at the world’s first Medfield smartphone.
via Lenovo K800 Intel Medfield smartphone hands-on (video) — Engadget.
Ubuntu TV eyes-on
Its still just a proof of concept, which is a bit of a disappointment, but Ubuntu TV was here at CES making its public debut. For the moment its running on an external PC and being controlled by a Boxee remote, but Canonical hopes one day to have its media-focused Linux distro embedded in TVs. Even in its relatively young incarnation, the 10-foot tweak of Unity seams relatively smooth. A rep showed off the media browser and guide, including the interface for tying in movie rentals and purchases we guess we know where the Ubuntu One store will be going next. Its all pretty slick and, to be honest, if we could hack this in to the dumb set currently gracing our TV bench we certainly would. Check out the gallery below and the video walkthrough after the break.
Panasonic to launch new Android smartphones in Europe
Panasonic have officially announced that they will start selling Android smartphones from March 2012 with their first global model coming with some impressive specs to boot.
While it’s not known what the final product will look like Panasonic have unveiled some screenshots of what they’re calling their Global Model concept, a rough design that will form the basis of the models we can expect to see.
What is known however is that the phone will sport a 4.3 OLED qHD screen, it’ll also feature a super-slim D-shaped design which is definitely in keeping with the current trends as demonstrated by the slinky Samsung Galaxy S2.
That super-slim design will also be dustproof and waterproof making it certainly more ‘life-proof’, finally it’s confirmed that it’ll be running Android and while Panasonic haven’t confirmed which OS it’s an almost dead-cert that it’ll be Ice Cream Sandwich.
No word on hardware yet but this could certainly be something that’ll be making an appearance at Mobile World Congress 2012. What do you think, can Panasonic compete with the likes of Samsung and Apple?
via Panasonic to launch new Android smartphones in Europe | T3.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 11.6 release tipped for MWC 2012
Samsung looks set to expand its already varied array of tablet devices with an oversized Samsung Galaxy Tab 11.6 to land in February with a near 12-inch display, new reports have revealed.
Tipped for MWC 2012 arrival at the end of February, the 11.6-inch Samsung tablet is claimed to sport a form factor little bigger than that of its injunction hit 10.1-inch sibling with a much smaller bezel offing increased real-estate for the expansive display.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 11.6 Features
Quoting a “reliable source” the new reports, which come courtesy of BGR, have suggested that the mooted Galaxy Tab 11.6 will boast Google’s recently released Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich mobile operating system with Apple’s seemingly iPad 3 bound Retina Display to be trumped by the inclusion of a hefty 2560 x 1600p Full HD offering.
Driving the leaked tablet to true powerhouse status, a 2GHz dual-core Exynos processor is said to be on the Tab 11.6’s impressive specs list with Android Beam inclusion seeing the users able to sync the upcoming tablet with their Galaxy Nexus handsets.
Is 11.6-inches too big for a tablet device, should manufacturers simply stick a functional keyboard on the bottom and call it a laptop? Let us know what you think via the comments box below.
via Samsung Galaxy Tab 11.6 release tipped for MWC 2012 | T3.
World’s first Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet released
The world’s first Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet has gone on sale with Chinese manufacturer Ainovo taking the honours with a budget 7-inch offering, the Ainovo NOVO7.
With the Motorola Xoom 2 expected to be the first ICS tab prior to its somewhat disappointing unveiling, speculation and anticipation has been rife for a number of weeks around which high profile manufacturer would get the nod to release the first tablet sporting the latest Google mobile OS offering.
Ainovo NOVO7 Specs
- Asides from joining the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in the now two strong contingent of Ice Cream Sandwich outing devices the entry level Ainovo NOVO7 features specs which punch far beyond its minimalist £60 price tag.
- Boasting 4GB of internal storage and a MIPS-based 1GHz processor the NOVO7 touts front and rear mounted 2-megapixel cameras alongside a touted seven hour battery life whilst browsing the web.
- Despite coming firmly out of left field to land as the first Android Ice Cream Sandwich tablet, Ainovo is claiming to have the full support of Google and the company’s head of Android, Andy Rubin.
- ”I’m thrilled to see the entrance of MIPS-Based Android 4.0 tablets into the market,” the Ainovo press release quotes the Google leader as saying.
- “Low cost, high performance tablets are a big win for mobile consumers and a strong illustration of how Android’s openness drives innovation and competition for the benefit of consumers around the world.”
via World’s first Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet released | T3.
LG Nitro HD hands-on
AT&T stole some of LGs thunder earlier this week when it unveiled the companys LTE flagship — the Nitro HD — before the handsets official coming out soirée. Well, tonight LGs gone and thrown that fete anyway, introducing us once again to its 4.5-incher. But you have to wonder why the companys even bothering to roll out yet another Gingerbread-baked device when Samsungs Galaxy Nexus is already out of the gate and leading the Android charge with ICS — not to mention the current availability of rival heavyweights like the Rezound and Droid RAZR. Still, the phones packing some very respectable specs, with a “true” HD 1280 x 720 IPS display, dual 1.3 / 8 megapixel shooters, a hefty 20GB of storage and a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm APQ8060 processor running the show. Is it too late in the game for LG to make its beast matter? Follow past the break as we gather our first impressions of this tardy to the party entry.LG Nitro HD hands-onRight out of the box, youll notice the Nitro registers as a featherweight. Read more
Lenovo unveils the LePad S2007 and LePad S2010, both with Honeycomb and 1.5GHz dual-core chip
Oh no, it isn’t just about the 5-inch tabletphone today. Announced at the same event in Beijing just now are a couple of larger tablets from Lenovo: the LePad S2007 and the LePad S2010. Interestingly, the latter 10.1-inch device isn’t quite the same as what we saw in our exclusive scoop from two weeks ago: it’s 1.5GHz Qualcomm dual-core rather than 1.6GHz NVIDIA quad-core, 1GB RAM instead of 2GB, no funky fingerprint scanner on the back, and it’s launching with Android 3.2 instead of Ice Cream Sandwich. But fret not, as we’ve been informed that its international counterpart — aka the IdeaTab K2 in our scoop — will launch with the latest Android OS; so we’re just waiting for a release date.
Both of these Honeycomb tablets share many similarities: Qualcomm’s dual-core 1.5GHz chip, 1GB RAM, 1,280 x 800 IPS display (pretty nice on a 7-inch form factor, with 216ppi density), eight megapixel main camera, 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, dual-mode 3G (China Telecom’s EV-DO plus China Unicom’s WCDMA) for data plus voice calls, and plans to upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich in the future. Aside from the obvious physical differences, these tablets also come with different battery capacities: the 360g-heavy, 9.7mm-thick S2007 comes with 3,780mAh that can last up to eight hours on WiFi; whereas the 670g-heavy (almost the same as the original WiFi iPad, uh-oh), 9.9mm-thick S2010 has a generous 7,560mAh that can push it to 11 hours. Like the S2005 tabletphone, both tablets will be available in China next month; so for now, stay tuned for some hands-on photos from our folks over at Engadget Chinese.
