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Day 4 of living with the HTC One
So far the One has been a good phone to live with.
The design and build quality is top notch, better looking than the iPhone 5 and build quality at least matching if not surpassing it. The One is quite a tall phone so it can be a stretch to reach the power button which is placed at the top of the phone, but the power button is placed there because it also functions as an IR blaster (in other words it functions as a remote control for your tele and cable box)
HTC One: Does it live up to expectation?
Its no secret that the HTC One is the phone of the moment, or at least the Android phone of the moment but with all the hype surrounding it comes a certain level of expectation.
I recently got the HTC One and over the next few days and weeks i’ll be posting updates on what the One is like to live with and if it lives up to the hype.
Stay tuned for more on the HTC One.
Day 4 of living with the Nexus 4
A few days ago I became the proud (and lucky), owner of a Nexus 4. My order had luckily gone through and the phone arrived at my door last Friday.
Like with any new piece of technology I opened it immediately, bypassing all the included literature that was included.
Setup was quick and I immediately noticed the difference between the 4.7-inch IPS + display on the Nexus 4 and the 4.65-inch Super AMOLED display on my soon to be retired Galaxy Nexus. Clarity and colour reproduction was far better on the N4 than the Gnex.
After comparing both screens side by side I then paid attention to how the N4 felt in the hand. Straight away I could feel that this phone felt thicker than the Gnex but it didn’t feel uncomfortable to use. Like with most phones with this or similar display size, it can be a stretch to reach the top of the screen and requires you to adjust your grip slightly but it’s something you quickly get used to.
Data speeds have far exceeded what I was seeing on the Gnex. When using SpeedTest the highest download speed I achieved using Three UK network was 8Mbps, but using the same network on the N4 from the same locations I’ve already reached download speeds of 18Mbps.
Battery life, it hasn’t been great. I took the N4 off the charger fully charged at 7am and with a couple of phone calls, checking Twitter, messaging, listening to music and streaming High-Quality YouTube videos I managed to get to 6pm before my phone warned me that I was at 15 battery life. Don’t get me wrong, that’s pretty good, I’ve made it through the day but I feel like I’ve had to ration my usage just to avoid plugging it into a charger during the day and from what I’m seeing so far with the battery life it seems no better than my Gnex and that only had a 1850mAh battery, the N4 has a 2100mAh battery so I was expecting better.
My most recent app: Kindle app
Since I left school I haven’t put my head down and enjoyed a good book. We read all day, we read on the Internet, check emails, text messages and so on so why not read a good book.
So I decide to start reading again but I didn’t want to purchase a physical book, I wanted to go down the e-book route and the first app that came to mind was the Kindle app.
My most recent app: Play Music
Being from the UK we usually get the short end of the straw and the latest example of this is Play Music from Google.
Quick look @ Blackberry PlayBook OS 2.0 (software)
Anyone that brought a BlackBerry PlayBook and stayed faithful to it by not letting it pick up dust on a shelve, February couldn’t come quick enough. Now the 21st has been and gone many of us owning a PlayBook have upgraded to OS 2.0 and for anyone that hasn’t or doesn’t own a PlayBook here’s a quick look.
The main feature that missing at the Playbook launch and that was unacceptable was native email. If you wanted to view your emails you’d have to go through BlackBerry Bridge, then you’d be able to see the emails on your phone. BlackBerry Bridge is a BlackBerry only app and of course not everyone owns one, so for these people RIM’s solution was to add shortcuts that took you to your web based email.
Now thankfully the situation has been fixed with a universal inbox and you can set up your email directly from the tablet and now the PlayBook supports message from Facebook Twitter and LinkedIn.
Also missing was a calendar. RIM has implemented a solid calendar in OS 2.0 with the standard weekly view and monthly view but they have gone a step further and you can see which people you have meetings with on a certain day.
App World has undergone a redesign and its a welcome change. Even thought it was functional now it just looks more aesthetically pleasing. The featured apps are now grouped in rows of two then underneath you have the choice to browse top paid games and the top paid apps. The total number of apps in App World has been boosted slightly with the addition of Android apps.
BlackBerry Bold 9900 review
2011 was a bad year for RIM and the announcement that BlackBerry 10 phones won’t be arriving until at least mid 2012 has only worsened RIM’s reputation. Until then it looks like the Bold 9900 is going to be the flagship BlackBerry for a while but does it match up to the onslaught from Apple and Google?
