Available from Clove. Due today for £233.83.

In part one of my FLIPOUT review I explained my thoughts on the hardware and in particular how well the form comes together to produce a unique experience that is a breath of fresh air in the smartphone world. None of that is important if the phone does not work very well so let’s find out how it performs in daily use.

General Performance

The FLIPOUT is running Android 2.1 and packing a 600Mhz processor. This processor does not sound great compared to the 1 GHz competition, but when you consider the screen size and what you are likely to use the phone for it is more than adequate. Indeed, in my tests I did not suffer any glitches at all and found it to be at least as fast as the Desire. I pushed it as far as I could by running multiple programs, but got bored before it started to slow down.

Battery

At 1170mAh the battery is not the biggest in the business, but then neither is the screen. I would, however, put the battery life as below average and you can expect one day of use as a maximum. Heavy use may mean a charge in the evening, but it ‘just’ about passes the level I would personally deem as acceptable.

Call Quality

Much better than I expected. The speakerphone was especially loud and crisp and once again I marvelled at the size of the phone and what it could produce. To the ear, which feels a little odd by the way, it was also clear, but not as loud as some other phones. Don’t get me wrong, this phone is not as clear as the BlackBerry or a Nokia, but it is pretty good and offers more than enough voice quality for most people.

Media

Music playback through headphones is above average and even better through the loudspeaker. It isn’t going to impress audio junkies, but again is of a level that most will accept. Video playback is quite good and produces yet another “How am I doing this on something so small?” moment rather than making you feel that the quality is wonderful. A screen this size and resolution will always struggle to compete in this area and to be fair it wasn’t built to.

Camera

Oh dear. It really is not good; capturing a good quality photo proved troublesome and video quality was even worse; the audio quality in the video capture was appalling and I could barely hear the words of the people I videoed. I can often say that a phone camera is useful to have, but I struggle to for this one. On the good side there is an image editor, but if you get past deleting the photos you have taken I will be impressed.

Software

Android 2.1 is impressive as always and Motorola has included Motoblur. Opinion is divided on Motoblur and I am in the camp that can take it or leave it. I tend to think positively of it because it is different from most other OS shells and appreciate the large number of extras that Motorola has included on the FLIPOUT.

As if Android does not include enough apps in its default form, there is quite a list of additions to contend with. Social networking is high on the agenda here and Happenings is one of a new breed that has been designed to brings all of your different social networks under one roof. It is a neat idea, but does not present the updates in a way that will suit those of you following lots of people on Twitter. It is more suited to Facebook and the ability to filter the app helps, but heavy users may struggle with it.

This is what you get within Motoblur-

BATTERY MANAGER
Battery Manager helps you manage your phone’s power consumption.
MESSAGING
Facebook™, MySpace and Twitter Direct Messaging
MOTOBLUR ENABLED
CALLER ID
On main display, Picture ID, Ringer ID, social network status
CUSTOMIZABLE HOME SCREEN
Widgets can be moved and resized to further personalize your seven (7) home screen panels. Enjoy access to more apps, games and widgets from Android Market™.
PHONEBOOK
Your work, personal and social networking contacts all in one place.
PHOTO SHARING
MySpace, Photobucket, Picasa™, Facebook™

On top of this there is News for RSS feeds, Google Maps Navigation which really is very impressive for a free app, Quickoffice, Places and a few other changes. Motorola has put some effort into ensuring that the FLIPOUT is as complete as can be out of the box, but again I feel that Android is already crowded enough without too many additions.

Obviously the more software the better for someone like me who has used many smartphones, but is the target market going to get close to all of the software onboard?

Screen

I quite like the screen on the FLIPOUT. It isn’t very big of course, but performed much better outdoors than I expected. The low resolution is noticeable almost all of the time and text in particular felt a little chunky, but it’s a serviceable solution that does the job. I wouldn’t expect much more for the asking price.

Conclusion

All of the above sounds as though I am relatively happy with the FLIPOUT, but that would be understating the matter. I love this little phone to bits! It is completely different to anything I have used before and for that alone it has charmed me. That is a shallow reason to like a phone I know, but if I like it this much because of the shape imagine what teenagers will think of it. And maybe this is the FLIPOUT’S biggest problem?

People who want an Android phone want a big screen or at the very least something that looks semi-serious. People who want a trendy phone that is unusual and catches the eye will want to send messages, mess about on it and do little else. The FLIPOUT is a smartphone that looks like it should be on a teenage girl’s shopping list and thus it may struggle in both markets.

Having said all of that, there is a lot to like about the FLIPOUT and for novelty value alone it is refreshing in almost every way. The fact that it is actually a very good smartphone may be lost on many people though.

Motorola FLIPOUT review

Available from Clove on pre-order. Due in September for £233.83.

Throughout the past two decades there have been very few phones that change our view of what is acceptable in terms of form factor and size.

In 1994 the Sony CM-R111 was a revolution. It had no screen and merely displayed signal coverage and battery power using LEDs, but it was unbelievably tiny and showed that small mobile phones were possible. Unfortunately it took many more years to this type of phone size to become commonplace.

Motorola released the StarTAC in 1996 and it quickly became ‘the’ mobile phone to own. It was like nothing before it and to say the design was a complete revolution would be an understatement.

In 2004 Motorola debuted the RAZR and in effect produced another StarTAC moment. It was truly beautiful to look at and to use and everyone wanted one. In fact so many people wanted the RAZR that it quickly became the biggest selling mobile phone in the world and Motorola made the mistake of producing variations on this design for far too long.

As it happens I owned all of the above phones and they were all super impressive for their time. They held that magical quality of feeling too small for what they could do and years ahead of their respective times.

Here we are in 2010 and Motorola is launching the FLIPOUT. Is this another magic moment in the history of mobile phones? The difference is that it is a smartphone, not a standard mobile, and it is competing with other advanced devices like the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini that are trying to break the mould in terms of how a mobile should be formed. This is a difficult battle and at first glance it looks as though the FLIPOUT is a gimmick waiting to bomb like so many other Motorola products from the past few years. It’s not quite that easy to judge though…

First Impressions

This is a pre-production unit so I can’t judge the packaging or accessories, but presume that an AC charger, USB cable and headphones will be included. The phone itself I can judge quite easily from a hardware perspective and I have to say that I was blown away when I first picked it up.

With a footprint of 67 x 67mm it feels impossibly small and is unlike anything I have used before. The 17mm depth is noticeable and this is not a phone that will sit in your pocket without making a bulge, but the main dimensions take the smartphone to a place it has not ventured before.

I’m not a science fiction fan, but the phone gives a feeling that you are picking something up from an episode of Star Trek. It feels light years ahead of other smartphones purely because of it diminutive dimensions and square form. It doesn’t feel like a phone, but more a tiny PDA when you hold it without the keyboard exposed and is completely unique in achieving this.

I have big hands and expected to struggle with the touch screen on such a small phone, but instead found it perfectly natural to pick up and start navigating with my finger. Even in closed mode the icons are placed perfectly below the screen and after the merest of times I felt at home with this strangest looking of phones.

Swiveling out the keyboard brings more unnaturalness to the experience because it just feels really odd the first few times you do it. I can understand why it has to be this way because there would not have been enough space for the keys if it was a slider and FLIPOUT is quite a good name so I guess that Motorola wanted to stick with that. It serves no discernible purpose at all by swiveling, but for novelty alone it may help sell a few more devices. It also looks great when a call arrives and you swivel the phone to answer it and kind of reminds me of the quick flick many people perfected with the RAZR a few years back. The screen orientation stays the same when you swivel it which is not expected, but it works, and the mechanism attaching the two parts of the phone appears to be very strong.

Motorola seems to be presuming that people will use this phone in open mode most of the time because in closed mode the volume keys are at the top and the on/off button is on the right. The microUSB is at the bottom and the 3.5mm headphone jack is just above the on/off button. In open mode everything moves and becomes more traditional; on/off and headphone jack at the top, volume keys on the left and microUSB on the right.

Personally I would like to see the buttons the other way around because I believe that most will use the touch screen to check Twitter, view bookmarks and clear alarms etc. without needing the keyboard and even more importantly are likely to close the phone before using the side buttons. It’s not a big deal, but is a slight design flaw in my opinion.

There is no touch screen keyboard here which makes sense because the screen is small at 2.8″ and the hardware keyboard is only a twist away (hmmm, the Motorola TWIST? That’s an even better name). You can’t expect much from a keyboard that is only 67mm square, but what a surprise it is. There are 5 full rows of keys including a number row and after 10 minutes I felt right at home with it. I hadn’t realised how useful a dedicated number row is, and how often I type numbers, and every part of the keyboard has been a joy to use. The over large enter key is extremely useful and even the two-key wide space bar works well with a mini navigation pad in the corner for good measure. Trust me on this, it is one of the best keyboards in the industry which is amazing considering the size and shows what can be done in a small space.

Overall the hardware is way better than I expected. From the positioning of the microSD slot, just above the battery, to the screen which works ‘much’ better than I expected in bright conditions the FLIPOUT does not feel like an exercise in miniaturisation, but a full smartphone in a tiny body.

On Tuesday I will cover the software, general performance and sum up my thoughts on the FLIPOUT, but so far it is looking very positive indeed.

Available from Clove for £299.62.

Before I received the BlackBerry Curve 9300 for review I had written the following as a quick thought for 247-

The BlackBerry 9300 is seen by many as a device that sits nowhere. It does not have the same quality camera as the Bold 9700 or the ultra clear HVGA display. It also has a lesser battery, but is £75 cheaper than the Bold.

When compared to the Curve 8520 the comparison gets even tighter- for an extra £95 you get 3G and HSDPA, a classier design and that’s about it. All of the other specifications are very similar and so you are left with some choices as to which is right for you.

On the one hand it could be difficult to justify paying £95 for faster internet and a slightly different design. Then again, surely £75 seems a small price to pay to get a battery quality camera, better battery and a much crisper display with arguably better build quality.

The Curve 9300 will sell in huge numbers because it is a Curve. They always sell in huge numbers. I have to say though that the 8520 and 9700 seems like better value to me and maybe to many others as well.

That was my initial impression of the 9300 and is still a view I find hard to dismiss. With so many BlackBerry devices on the market filling the £150-£350 price point it can be hard for the potential purchaser to decide which one is the best value. What I will do, however, is judge the 9300 on merit and see how well it measures up at its current price point.

In the box

The box and accessories are pure RIM. A charger with UK/EU adaptors, stereo headset, data cable and a user guide. The battery is rated at 1150mAh which would normally be a cause for concern, but this is a BlackBerry and my experience is that they go on forever on one charge. However, we do have 3G functionality here so it will be interesting to see how well the 9300 copes when everything is turned on.

First Impressions

My very first impression was that the phone is almost identical to the Curve 8520. It feels plastic, but has a patterned battery cover which aids grip. The silver surround is obviously included to give it a more expensive look, but is again made of plastic. It looks good, but in the hand the 9300 really does feel like the 8520 in almost every way. The good news is that it is almost the perfect form factor for a comfortable experience and it feels better in the hand than any other phone I have held. There is something special about the dimensions which come together with the materials to offer a phone that is almost perfectly balanced. I am not convinced that the silver surround should be there though because this is likely the only area that will be prone to scratches and knocks.

At a mere 104 grams it will not be noticeable in any pocket and the 14mm depth is acceptable. To round out the hardware the screen is clear and sharp, as you would expect from a non-touch, and the keyboard is again almost identical to the 8520 i.e. perfectly quick in daily use. The 9300 is a very well made phone which panders to all of the hardware practicalities BlackBerry users require and has a form that makes you feel at home straight away. I will keep coming back to the 8520 though because besides the silver surround, there is very little difference between the two.

Functionality

The 9300 is fast! It is as quick as the 8520 and 9700 and there is little doubt that OS 5 coupled with 256MB RAM and a relatively low specified processor is still capable of providing speeds that other platforms and phones are not capable of. There is never a blip in performance and in the past 3 days I have left multiple programs running with no impact on performance. It will be interesting to see what happens when OS 6 is released for this phone, but the good news is that it will take it so you will be buying a smartphone that can handle the future of BlackBerry. And this is an important point because it is arguably the main difference between the 8520 and the 9300 with the former not able to receive an update to OS 6.

Call quality and signal are top class, as usual for RIM, and even the speakerphone sounds crisp and deep enough with no distortion even at high volumes. Cranking it all the way to the top will create some distortion, but through the headphones and to the ear this phone is a top quality voice caller. I managed to receive HSDPA quite often with the 9300 which is absent on other phones and a permanent 3G signal at home. I rejoiced for a few minutes until I remembered that having a fast mobile data connection on an OS 5 BlackBerry is of little consequence. The messaging system is so efficient that simple GPRS is more than enough to cope with email and BlackBerry Messenger and the web browsing experience is dire on the low resolution screen. I have to look to the future again and fully expect the 3G capability to come into its own when the WebKit browser arrives in OS 6. At this time, however, the extra speed is not overly noticeable in the tasks you are likely to undertake.

Music is quality is above average, but no way near the level we see from the high-end devices such as the iPhone 4 and Galaxy S. I guess we shouldn’t expect such quality at a lower price point and it is good enough for most people to be happy with the experience. Video playback is smooth, but hampered by the size and resolution of the screen- it does the job for viewing YouTube clips and home video, but I’m not convinced a full movie would be a suitable fit for this phone. The 9300 does the job for entertainment, but falls short in the vital area which is to not make it feel like an add-on rather than an embedded part of the experience.

Battery life has surprised me so far. The low mAh rating coupled with 3G raised alarm bells for me, but once again RIM has proved me wrong. With moderate usage you can expect 2 days of clear usage, but throw in the heavy stuff like Wi-Fi and video streaming and you will be back to a charge a day. The good news is that charging is super quick and 30 minutes each morning should be enough for most power users with a longer charge at the weekend to keep things topped up.

Conclusion

The BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300 is a quality phone, of that there is no doubt, and it is one that represents good value for money at just shy of £300. For that you get a phone that copes with messaging and data input as well as any other, a screen you can see in all conditions and the kind of battery life you don’t find on any other platform.

It is a bit of a sleeping giant, however, and difficult to appreciate in its current form. When OS 6 is added, it will become a completely different phone and one that is likely to be much more fun to use. I can only compare the 9300 to other BlackBerry phones because Android, iPhone and webOS smartphones are so completely different BlackBerry phones do what they do extremely well and I am a huge fan, but when I consider the competition made by RIM it puts the 9300 in an awkward position.

It takes me back to the start of this review. If you want a BlackBerry smartphone that does messaging and occasional internet access the Curve 8520 represents much better value for money and offers 95% of what the 9300 can do. Chances are that if these are your needs the arrival of OS 6 will be of little consequence and so the 9300’s main advantage becomes mute.

The real problem for the 9300, however, is the Bold 9700; better keyboard, better screen, better battery, better camera, better materials and a better overall experience. And all for an extra £70. I like the Curve 9300 a lot, but I like the Bold 9700 a lot more and would gladly pay a little more for it.

UPDATE: After a further day I started to think about the 9300 some more and came to the conclusion that it could well become the coolest smartphone on the planet. Younger people may well like the price and the styling and it is without doubt a grower in terms of how I have become attached to it. I still prefer the 9700, but I am 40 years old. The single video included on the 9300 sums up the target audience perfectly and also sums up how to market a phone/brand perfectly. Check it out below-

I have used and reviewed many smartphone over the past year and some stand out more than others. In an industry which is racing to the bottom in terms of average price there are still some smartphones produced that aim to be the very best in their field. For this battle I considered many phones such as the Nokia N97, BlackBerry Bold 9700 and Palm Pre, but decided that the iPhone 4, Desire and Galaxy S represented the best of what the touch screen smartphone industry has to offer. They were certainly the ones that stood out to me the most over the year and so I decided to let them battle it out to see which is the very best at this time. These are purely from my experiences so are not a technical look, but hopefully this article will help if you are stuck on deciding which one to buy.

I will take each feature in turn and then look at the overall usability of each phone and eventually decide which one is the best of the bunch.

Camera

Smartphone cameras have become a battleground all of their own in the past year and it is not uncommon to see phones marketed with the camera spec at the very top of the list. Manufacturers have realised this and are putting huge amounts of research and effort into cramming in the best cameras they can. Megapixels, as you probably know, are far from the whole story these days and this is even more apparent on smartphones. You have a phone with you and being able to catch a moment is crucial to the whole reason it is there. If it requires fiddling to capture an image in good quality its use is suddenly diminished. If it struggles to get meaningful snaps in poor lighting its use is halved. And if the video recording is blighted by poor sound capture or ghosting it starts to feel like an add-on rather than a feature worth having.

iPhone 4 Camera: 9/10

There is little doubt that Apple has put lots of effort into the iPhone 4 camera and once again proved that you do not need lots of Megapixals to take good quality pictures and video. Pictures are almost always of excellent quality and the more time you take, the better the result will be. It feels natural to use and crucially like you have some control over the process which is unusual in smartphone cameras. The flash works well and so far I have caught a few good snaps at night which other phones struggle to do.

Video capture is also very, very good and the sound and video quality are as good as I have seen on any other phone. The added bonus for iPhone photography is that there are many apps available which will help you to enhance the pictures you have taken in a variety of ways.

Galaxy S Camera: 7/10

For photos the Galaxy S is very good in decent lighting conditions and will serve as a worthy snapper in day to day use. However, the lack of a flash is the main reason it only gets 7/10 because this limits its use somewhat. A bizarre omission from Samsung.

Video capture is very good and only the sound quality lets it down a little. It is up there with the iPhone 4 for capture quality though.

HTC Desire Camera: 7/10

Image quality is excellent and worthy of inclusion in one of the highest specified Android smartphones. The flash works fairly well, but is not iPhone standard and the way the camera software works is not as easy as it could be.

Video recording is OK, but again suffers from poor sound capture which seems to be a problem in most smartphones no matter how much they cost. It is a worthy addition though, but it would be nice to see better in a smartphone of this specification.

Winner: The iPhone 4 takes the prize for the best smartphone camera out of the three. They are all good, but Apple has created something truly different which makes taking photos on a smartphone a pleasure rather than a chore.

Screen

From a practical point of view the screen is one of the most important parts of any smartphone and it needs to succeed in two areas. Firstly, it should be high resolution to display photos, video and lots of information in as good a clarity as possible and secondly it needs to be viewable in all conditions. Sadly not all manufacturers have figured this out yet.

iPhone 4 screen: 9/10

The Retina Display has created lots of discussion, but in the real world the fact that you cannot see the pixels does not make a huge difference. It is useful for games and photos, but I still believe that it is a feature that has been over marketed. However, the crispness of the screen cannot be ignored and so it does very well here.

It is also viewable in all conditions and only bright sunlight causes some glare and wash out, but not to the level you see on most other phones.

Galaxy S screen: 9/10

At 4” it offers more space than the others here and the Super AMOLED rivals the Retina Display in my opinion. Colours are perfectly reproduced and video and photos also benefit from the technology.

In bright conditions it is perfectly viewable and on a par, if not a little better, than the iPhone 4.

Finally, the technology is very easy on the battery and this can offer more flexibility with larger displays than other technologies.

HTC Desire screen: 6/10

The resolution is good and so is the size at 3.7” which come together to offer a pleasing experience, in preferable lighting conditions.

The fact is that the Desires screen performs better in bright sunlight than a lot of phones, but is streets behind the other two here and can almost wash out completely when the Sun is beating down. It is the one dark spot on an otherwise very well built phone.

Winner: I have to give it to the Galaxy S for a couple of reasons; it is bigger and it makes viewing photos and videos better than on the iPhone 4 which some of you may struggle to understand. When you use a Galaxy S in anger you soon start to realise that the screen is simply awesome.

Media

Video, games and music are fast becoming the staple diet of the latest and greatest smartphones and phones that are unable to compete in any one area soon fall foul of the media and ultimately the consumer.

iPhone 4 media: 10/10

Any iPhone has an immediate advantage because of the media that is immediately available to it with a couple of clicks. iTunes is tied to the iPhone like an umbilical cord and offers music, films, TV episodes, eBooks, Podcasts, apps, games and audiobooks which are all incredibly easy to buy and move over to the phone. The fact that you can rent films adds another dimension and all iPhones are capable of TV-out with the right cable so it can become your all in one entertainment centre.

Video playback on the iPhone 4 in HD is excellent and the music quality is simply awesome! There is little point in highlighting games and apps because they are plentiful and there are more than enough that offer a quality not previously seen on a mobile phone.

With a variety of eBook apps and publishers available over the air and through iTunes this media format is covered as well. There is nothing missing from the iPhone setup.

Galaxy S media: 8/10

Video is better on the Galaxy S than the iPhone 4 for obvious reasons, but you have to jump through some hoops to get the films and TV episodes over to the phone. Music quality is very good through the supplied headphones, but you have to be careful which ones you use with it. For example, my iPhone headphones sound terrible on the Galaxy.

There is a good selection of games, apps and eBooks available for Android and no Galaxy user will be left wanting, but it is not at the level of the iPhone system yet. It is also a bit hit and miss when you are trying to find good quality software because there is a lot of dreadful apps in the Android Market. I am not saying that there isn’t lots of dross in iTunes, but my perception is that there are more very good quality titles currently available and that the major services (shops, cinemas, banks etc.) think about the iPhone before considering other mobile platforms.

HTC Desire media: 7/10

I have covered the availability of apps etc. in the Galaxy sections and of course the Desire is running the same platform. Video playback is excellent again and so is music quality. The only negative sides are the screen in daylight and the hassle involved in moving media to the phone.

Winner: The iPhone 4 had to take the prize in this section because of the eco-system that is built around it. The astonishing sound quality is also on a whole new level compared to the competition and for effort alone it is hard to beat.

Ultimately, all three phones offer a media experience we could not have dreamed off two years ago and so they are all worthy purchases if this is most important to you.

Battery

Battery life is measured in hours these days and a smartphone that can last a day on one charge is often acclaimed as having a good battery. I disagree and probably always will because I still use voice a lot and prefer to use a phone for voice that I know for certain will get me through the heaviest of days. If I have three hours of conference calls, emails and whatever else I want to see at least 30% available by the time I get home in case the next day is even crazier.

iPhone 4 battery: 7/10

The iPhone 4 is better on battery than the 3GS, but the battery has been tweaked to offer superb efficiency for video and music playback. I still find that long calls will drop the meter too quickly and so my trusty BlackBerry is still my mainstay for voice calling.

Don’t get me wrong the iPhone 4 battery is adequate, but I still have a charger next to my bed, in my car, on my desks at work and home and in my briefcase.

Galaxy S battery: 8/10

The Galaxy S battery performs surprisingly well for almost all activities and I have found that more than a heavy day is possible, just. A very heavy day will kill it, but I don’t feel so concerned about the Galaxy battery as I do the iPhone.

HTC Desire battery: 6/10

It’s OK when compared to certain other smartphone, but HTC still hasn’t put battery life at the forefront of what it wants to do with smartphones. There will come a time, again, when things like the battery are seen as important features, but HTC is an example of a company that concentrates on this area less than some others.

Winner: Galaxy S.

Performance

I am please to say that for general performance we have reached a stage where the high-end smartphones move along at a consistently blistering pace and all of these are powered to the point that slow downs are a rarity. However, the iPhone 4 can stumble occasionally for me when too many big apps have been run in the recent past and seems to handle multi-tasking less well than the other two. The Desire also stumbles on occasion whereas the Galaxy seems to carry on no matter what I throw at it.

Winner: If I had to offer scores I would go for 9/10 to the Galaxy and 8/10 to the other two.

Call and Signal Quality

Let’s pretend that people still want to use smartphones to make voice calls and then we can look seriously at how well each of these phones perform in the real world.

They all offer a rich call quality experience, but the Galaxy S is special in this area. Here’s a quote from my review of the Galaxy- “The Samsung Wave surprised me with the sound quality during calls and the Galaxy S is arguably even better. Voice quality when next to your ear is rich and clear, but it gets even better when the speakerphone is used. It does not distort and even beats the BlackBerry Bold 9700 which makes it the first smartphone to do so. The loudness is just enough for the most testing of conditions so if you are one of the ever reducing number of smartphone users who actually makes calls this is an ideal choice.”

The iPhone signal is not half as bad as some would have you believe, but the speakerphone could sound more refined to me. As for the Desire, it marks a step up from HTC in this area with a rich sound marred slightly by the tinny speakerphone.

Signal is a contentious area at the moment, but I would again put the Galaxy (9/10) at the top with the Desire (8/10) next and the iPhone 4 (7/10) last. If I use my iPhone next to a Galaxy or Desire on the same network, it is still the only one that can suffer no signal at all. It is rare, but should never happen in 2010.

Software

We have two choices here- iOS and Android and I would still rate iOS as the better of the two, for me. Android has huge potential going forward and I fully expect to see more from it than iOS over the next 2 years, but at this time it feels more complete and polished. I want reliability and ease of use and iOS offers that in spades. 9/10 for the iPhone and 8/10 for the other two.

Conclusion

If I tot up the scores I end up with-

iPhone 4: 59
Galaxy S: 58
HTC Desire: 50

This kind of scoring is ultimately pointless because I could view one area as five times more important than another and so would concentrate on that more. What the scores do show is that there is very little to choose between the Galaxy S and the iPhone 4 and that each person will need to decide which is best for them. These two phones are way up my personal list and I find it hard to choose between them due to highs and lows in different areas, but the iPhone 4 just pinches it for me.

The HTC Desire has very quickly been overtaken by the other two and HTC needs to keep up the pace of development to keep up. More importantly, it needs to come up with something to get ahead of the pack because it is starting to fall into the Nokia trap of clinging on rather than leading.

The real positive here is that all three of these phones are light years ahead of what was available a mere twelve months earlier. I wonder what we can expect in August 2011?

Motorola Milestone XT720 review

Available from Clove for £351.33

Highlights-

Android 2.1 (Eclair) OS
3.7″ Touch screen display
8MP Camera with Xenon flash
HD recording and playback with HDMI to HDTV (HDMI connection cable included)
Google Maps

The success of the Droid in the US cannot be overlooked by anyone in the smartphone industry because it has 1) provided a backdrop for Motorola to come back from the brink 2) proved that a smartphone does not need to have an Apple or HTC logo on the back to be a huge success and 3) offered users the opportunity to do almost anything they like with their phone. It can be tweaked to oblivion, but it seems that not only hardened smartphones users have bought it and now it is time for the XT720 to take it to another level.

Design

It is covered in buttons and ports and could be described as the Pearly King of smartphones. On the front there are the standard home, menu, back and search buttons which are virtual and merely icons below the screen. On the left there is a microUSB jack which is close to impossible to open unless you have long thin fingernails. On top there is an HDMI port (impressive), a 3.5mm headphone jack and the on/off button. On the right we have the volume keys, a media gallery button and the camera button. There is a hump over to the right which I cannot figure out, but presume it to be there for a good reason- it surely can’t be for styling.

The XT720’s design looks and feels quite industrial when you first pick it up. The open metal edging and the metal rear almost make the phone look unfinished and compares starkly with the clean lines of the iPhone and BlackBerry’s. I don’t know if I like this kind of styling which has a hint of i-mate about it and suspect it is much more acceptable in the US than Europe. I like the back which has a rubberised feel which will help grip, but after some consideration I have decided that it is, well, I don’t know what it is. It’s not ugly, it’s not a looker- it is what it is and maybe that’s a good thing after all.

Screen

At 3.7” the screen feels about the right size and the 480 x 854 pixel resolution offers a crisp presentation of the icons and general interface. Indoors the colour reproduction is excellent, but outdoors in bright conditions it does look more than a little washed out and it is very reflective. It is also a fingerprint magnet so a screen protector will be a necessity at some stage.  Don’t get me wrong, it does work and will offer usability, but in a way that reminds me of some of the touch screen Nokia efforts. It could be a lot better.

Entertainment

Music is always going to be a difficult area for smartphone manufacturers since Apple decided to make the iPhone 4 unbeatable in this area. And then Motorola beats it with the XT720. IT IS BETTER THAN THE IPHONE 4 AT MUSIC! I was shocked, stunned and whatever other overblown word you want to insert yourself at the sound quality from this phone. It is truly breathtaking and far from what I expected.

At least Apple can be happy that the Retina Display means that the iPhone 4 is better for video playback. Um, not quite. Of course the iPhone display is special, but when you watch a highly encoded video on this phone that results are more than impressive. In short- if entertainment is a big part of your smartphone wish list, this phone will not disappoint.

Don’t forget that there is HDMI output as well to watch your own movies and the cable is supplied in the box.

Data Entry

Surprisingly good. The haptic feedback has been tweaked just perfectly and within a minute I was tapping away at iPhone speeds in landscape mode. If anything, it is quicker than the iPhone in landscape, but a bit more cramped in portrait mode. One of the better Android screen keyboards I have used.

Call Quality / Signal

Call quality is crisp and good when using the phone in standard mode. The speakerphone is even better and offers a deep sound even at high volumes. Signal quality is even better than the Pearl 3G which I reviewed last week and I held onto 3G all day long at home (almost unheard of). All in all, a very good ‘phone’ experience.

Battery

It’s going to need charging every day if you use multiple features, but if you do not overuse your phone you may squeak 2 days out of it. It should perform well with a rating of 1420 mAh and I do wonder if it should be performing better than it actually does? Maybe a software fix later on will up the runtime.

Camera

The stills camera is good, very good in fact and I managed to capture some good shots even when close up to objects. With a Xenon flash, 10x digital zoom, auto-focus and a mechanical shutter this is certainly the best Android shooter on the market at this time and if stills are your thing it is a worthy option.

I wasn’t so impressed with video recording; the video capture was good, but the microphone failed to pick up voices and sounds from only a few feet away. I need to play with this a little more, but must admit that I am struggling with it and cannot seem to get it to work. It picks up my voice when I am holding the phone though which is even stranger. One thing I will say is that the video recording could be a little better considering the 720 in the phone’s name stands for 720p video recording.

General Performance

I expected problems here because of the lower than average 550MHz processor, but it clips along at a fair old rate. I have seen no slow-downs and performance has more than matched the rest of the Android bunch so far except in web browsing which can be jerky at times. Once the battery beds in, it may benefit from the slower processor and it could form a potent combination if Motorola decides to remove the silly underclock which currently slows performance down by more than 25%. There is also much more RAM in here than is currently available- again a software fix would be useful.

Software

Android is Android is Android. I feel like I have written about Android so many times because it is running on so many different phones that it is difficult to know what to say. Motorola has, however, included some goodies which will prove useful. Moto Phone Portal which allows you to manage phone content from a PC via USB or Wi-Fi and Motonav for turn-by-turn navigation. Motonav is included as a trial, sadly, and will need to be purchased later. It is good, but the competition will eat it for breakfast and in my view Motorola should consider throwing it in for free.

There are no overlays in Android on this phone and so you get the clean v2.1 interface which works perfectly well. It is a personal preference, but I like the simpler interface that Android offers when it is used without Motoblur and it’s worked well for me so far.

Conclusion

For a smartphone to stand out in a crowded as dense as the Android one currently is, it needs to have some standout features. At £351 the XT720 is well priced and the overall feature set will entice many to it. The camera is wonderful on paper and only marginally less so in reality. I do wonder if it has enough though to sell in big numbers? Then again I said that about the first Milestone and it sold really well.

It is a good Android phone I could live quite happily with it each day if Motorola fixes some of the small niggles. The shallow side of me doesn’t like the industrial design much or the remarkably dull name, but as an overall package the XT720 is not a bad phone at all. I just get the feeling that Motorola could make it a lot better without needing to refresh the hardware.

Available from Clove for £299.63

It’s time to look at the feature set of the BlackBerry Pearl 3G and see how well RIM has managed to fit in all the functionality we now expect from a smartphone in such a small space. And the space is small indeed at 108 x 50 x 13.3 mm and with a weight of only 93.6 grams. You need to pick up this phone to appreciate how small it really is, but the previous Pearls suddenly feel cumbersome in comparison which of course they are not in reality.

It’s also worth remembering that this is a BlackBerry OS 6 smartphone. It isn’t at this particular time, but is on RIMs list to be upgraded in the future so you are not buying a phone at the end of the line here. You are buying a phone that is firmly in RIMs future plans.

Entertainment

The Pearl 3G, like all other Pearls, is not built for entertainment. It is built to be a phone and a messenger above all else, but something strange has happened. The 2.25” screen is small, but with a resolution of 360 x 400 pixels, and it feels crisp and sharp. In my tests video playback has been exceptional and I really could watch a movie on this phone… if it was a short one.

Sound quality is also much more impressive than on previous Pearls and of similar quality to the Bold 9700 which was no slouch in this area either. The Pearl 3G is a capable entertainer which is only hampered by the smaller than average screen size. This, however, is a small price to pay for the difference it makes to the overall experience.

Call Quality / Signal

Call quality is not too bad. It is clear and loud, but lacks the depth that I am used to on the larger BlackBerry’s. The speaker phone also suffers a little, but again is clear and loud which is most important when you are driving or in a noisy place. Strangely, the external speaker sounds much deeper when playing a video than the speakerphone does which is a small quirk. To be fair I need to do more testing on this side, but it is certainly capable, just not quite to the standard I expect from a BlackBerry.

Signal strength is slightly above average, at least compared to the phones I have with me. It is showing a full 3G signal at my desk whereas my iPhone 4 is just about clinging onto 3G with 1 bar showing (same network by the way). There is no death grip, just the loss of one bar when holding it which could be classed as a ‘slightly hurt grip’ I suppose. In theory this phone should suffer the death grip scenario more because it is so small and holding it inevitably means cupping almost the entire body in your hand. However, it is looking pretty solid in this area.

Data Entry

This will always be an area of discussion when SureType is involved. The thing to remember about SureType is that it is not an input system you get used to in 5 minutes. It does take some getting used to, but ask anyone who has owned a Pearl for a long time and they will tell you that it works very well. RIM has raised the keys this time and made them a lot more tactile than previous models which helps a lot. There are some non-standard keys such as the delete key on the left and the small space bar, but as I said time pays dividends here. It isn’t as good as a QWERTY keyboard, but really isn’t too far off.

Screen

The screen is typical BlackBerry and perfectly viewable in all conditions. The high resolution verses physical size ensures a crisp view in every core app and it really doesn’t feel like a 2.2” screen in use. The BlackBerry OS is scalable and simple enough to work well on small screens and thus I have little to complain about here. Of course a small screen is never ideal, but if it ensures that the phone itself is small as well then it is a worthy trade off.

Battery

So far the battery is proving to be excellent. I was impressed with the Bold 9700 battery, but from what I can gather so far this one is even better. The small screen obviously helps, but there has been no scrimping on battery size and I could see 3-4 days of solid use coming out of the Pearl 3G. If 3G is turned off maybe even a week is possible. This is how smartphone batteries should work.

Communication

Wi-Fi works perfectly and connected very quickly every time I used it. The 3G is not too bad, but with a device like this its use is limited. Web browsing is never going to be more than simply looking up information and emails and other communication will fly on 2G so this does offer the genuine option of turning 3G off. But, when OS 6 is released it may make the Perl 3G a better proposition for web browsing so having the option is far from a bad thing.
GPS is included which is required for apps that utilise your current location such as Google Maps and of course the built-in BlackBerry Maps, but you are unlikely to be using it for full turn by turn navigation because there are no proper software solutions available that allow this. Still, everything is here and that is impressive in such a small device because it all works as expected.

Camera

At 3.2 Megapixels it won’t set the world alight, but RIM knows how to make a camera that works like a smartphone camera should. You point and click and the resulting snap looks like it did on the screen at the time you took it. The LED flash is adequate and even though it is not going to work as well as a full flash it adds a sense of atmosphere to the results. People moan about LED flash systems, but if I could draw a positive I would say that at least you know the photo was taken at night.

Video recording is adequate and about the same quality as the 9700. As such the results look great on the BlackBerry itself, but the limitations are apparent when viewed on a desktop computer. To sum up this is a capable camera and one that will serve its purpose well.

General Performance

It is a speedy little fellow and the 624 MHz processor and 256MB of internal memory are more than enough to cope with a seriously heavy day. It is as quick as the 8520 which is even quicker than the 9700 so I am expecting ‘no’ issues at all with this phone long term.

Conclusion

The Pearl 3G is an exceptional smartphone in many ways. The size is the overriding factor and something that makes it perfectly formed for almost every section of the market. Consumers will love it and I believe that RIM will aim at the PAYG market to push it in big numbers. Business people who use a Pearl will adore the Pear 3G. And I suspect that many others will be intrigued by this phone as well.

The Pearl 3G feels like an experiment in miniaturisation, but one that worked better than could have been expected. I really do like this phone and when I consider the typical usage of most BlackBerry users, the Pearl 3G could be the best of the entire range.

Available from Clove for £299.63

Highlights-

14-key tradtional phone keyboard.
Blackberry SureType
3.2 Megapixel Camera
WiFi & Bluetooth
3G Connectivity
Music & video playback
MicroSD expandable up to 32GB

The Pearl is a legend in the world of BlackBerry, but not necessarily for good reason. It seems to be the phone that companies give to their employees more than any other and as such is commonplace in meeting rooms, on the train and almost everywhere else. The fact that almost all of the previous Pearls have had poor voice quality, limited memory and a hampered screen has strangely not mattered, but it is not a phone I have looked upon kindly in the past.

For reasons that bypass me RIM has decided to persevere with the formula and create the Pearl 3G 9105. Obviously 3G is the main inclusion, but how useful is that on a phone with a relatively small screen? Does it make sense to make such a small phone that includes Wi-Fi, GPS and 3G and a keyboard that requires time to get used to? It is a conundrum that people outside of the BlackBerry user group do not understand and I can see why. The question remains- has RIM done something remarkable with the 9105 or taken the Pearl family on one journey too far?

First Impressions

The box is typically RIM and so are the contents. There is no attempt to offer an instantly pleasurable experience, no cleverly designed packaging and little care given to presenting all of the accessories other than putting them in plastic bags and throwing them in the bottom of the box. Does it really matter? Not at all- the box is a one-time thing that you open and then put on a shelf in case you want to sell the phone later on.

The accessories are as expected and include a 2GB microSD card, 3.5mm headset, microUSB cable and an AC adaptor with UK and EU plug adaptors. There is no sleeve case this time which is surprising, but you get what you need to get started.

Now, the phone offers up a completely different first impression. It is impossibly small and unlike any phone I have used before. The X10 mini is even smaller, but the 9105 has a fixed front keyboard and screen and is shaped divinely. RIM has obviously put a huge emphasis on size with the 9105, but also ensured that functionality is a core part of the design. The screen does not feel small, even though it is, and the keyboard is a clever mix of swirling textures and well placed punctuation which should ensure speedy data entry once you are used to it.

At no point during my first few hours of testing has the 9105 felt cramped and this is remarkable for a smartphone that is so tiny and light. It pulls off the trick of feeling well built, despite the lightness, and is overall a pleasing to the eye smartphone that looks like a small feature phone. It is easy to look at a device like the 9105 and wonder why it is a better choice than the Curve 8520 or Bold 9700, but it is cheaper than the 9700 and has a better specification than the 8520. It sits in the middle of the BlackBerry range and it all comes back to the debate surrounding the Pearl series of smartphones. After a few hours I am starting to believe that RIM has not taken the Pearl on one journey too far, but tweaked it to the point that it compounds all of the smartphone rules we currently make our purchasing decisions on; large screens and large keyboards are dominant on all platforms, but maybe it doesn’t have to be that way.

Tomorrow I will, as usual, look at each of the main features of the 9105 and conclude where I believe it fits in the current market. First impressions are excellent though and I hope that good feeling continues.

Available from Clove for £245.58

Highlights-

* Android Operating System
* Compact easy-to-use design
* Timescape, gather all your communication in one place
* 3G/HSPA connectivity for fast data access
* Customize your home screen
* Download Applications with the Android Market

In an industry dominated by ever larger screens and an emphasis on specifications the like of which we could only dream about a year ago, the X10 range from Sony Ericsson breaks all of the rules and offers something entirely unique. In offers an experience you likely will not have seen before and should never work in any practical sense. It is a bizarre creation that defies everything we know about mobile phones, and especially smartphones, and at first glance looks like a toy phone that you would give your 3 year-old child so that they can be like you. After 2 days use, however, it is certainly not a toy.

In the box

Sony Ericsson has done well with the box contents and thrown in all of the usual stuff (AC charger, USB cable and headphones) plus a good quality screen protector and a microSD USB adaptor. The accessories are of very good quality and even the headphones are better than most smartphones tend to get bundled with these days. Overall, I was impressed with the thought put into ensuring that the buyer has everything they need to get started.

First Impressions

Well, what can I say about the size and shape of the X10? At a mere 90mm high and weighing in at only 120grams it is just daft when you first pick it up. There is surely no way on earth this can be a smartphone that is capable of anything serious!?!  It is bizarre in almost every way; the 17mm depth is quite large for a modern smartphone, but in a unit this size you almost do not notice it. It fits perfectly in the hand and everything from the weight to the form to the size works perfectly in coordination. This won’t make sense, but it almost feels bigger than it is when you start to use it.

It is amazing how quickly the human mind can adjust to new things and I found myself understanding what to do almost immediately. There are of course some compromises made because of the size, but most of them are perfectly logical and do not get in the way of using the phone for various tasks. This design has opened my eyes to what is possible and the inclusion of a keyboard is the most illogical and yet inspired idea for this particular phone.

Let’s look at the individual parts and see if they come together to make a smartphone worthy of your consideration-

Screen

This is without doubt the feature that should be most compromised by the size of the unit. At a mere 2.55” and with a resolution of only 240×320 pixels it does not compare to most of the other smartphones on the market. However, it works well outdoors and I did not feel overly constrained when using it. Some work has been done to ensure that the Android OS works as it should on such a small screen and small additions like icons in each corner to get to most used features work well. The fact that there is a hardware keyboard here as well means that you will always have the full screen available when texting, emailing and the like. Let’s be honest the screen isn’t great by any means, but it does the job and is usable in all conditions which is probably what the target market will want above all else.

General Performance

So far I have not suffered any major slowdowns which I had expected because of the lowly 600Mhz processor and 128MB of internal memory. It seems that the X10 is capable of sustained use, but when you really start to push it there will be the occasional stutter and stalling. This tends to happen with many Android smartphones, but I do wonder how well it will cope when more sophisticated apps are released.

Currently it is running Android 1.6 which is quite a few versions behind, but the good news is that Sony Ericsson is looking to update it to Android 2.1 in quarter 4 so all is not lost. Android 1.6 does not included Exchange calendar support and some other features which will never be used by most purchasers so the inclusion of 1.6 is probably perfectly sensible given who will buy the phone.

On that subject, I do wonder if Sony needed to make this an Android phone at all. This phone is not designed for people who want smartphones, yet it is definitely a smartphone. It is designed for people who want social networking, texting, a good camera and a fashionable design. It ticks the boxes here, but just maybe Android is an unnecessary step on the X10?

Camera

The camera is rated at 5 Megapixels and comes with a flash that can also be used when recording video. I have to say that the flash is not great, but that it is possible to capture some very good snaps if the lighting is good. The auto-focus seemed to be somewhat hit and miss for me, but using the macro setting helped a lot.

Video recording is not good and I could not produce a decent video with adequate sound and visuals. It does the job, as any camera does, but the 5 Megapixel spec sits in my mind and this is yet another smartphone that forgets to match the video to the stills capability.

It is interesting that Sony Ericsson does not even mention the camera in its features page for the phone and I am started to see why. A half-hearted camera effort.

Keyboard

Brilliant! No seriously. This phone should not have a usable keyboard, but it surely does. There are no standard cursor keys or number row, but somehow that does not matter. I found it very easy to use right from the start and, if anything, the compactness of the keyboard is an advantage in the same way that they are on BlackBerry smartphones.

Too many manufacturers feel that keyboards need to be ‘big’ to be easy to use, but the reality is that if one is designed well and the keys are tactile enough, any size will do. There is something so right about the size of the X10 mini and its keyboard and it produces an excellent data entry experience.

Call quality / Sound

Wow! This is strange, it truly is. I called my voicemail to have a quick check, expecting nothing special, and was amazed at the depth of the call quality. It sounded much better than my landline phone and is quite probably the best phone I have ever used in terms of to the ear call quality. Music quality is also very good through the supplied headphones, but even better when you use proper ones. It’s not iPhone 4 standard, but isn’t too far off and will please most people.

Now, the speakerphone is…. even better! It is simply not possible that a phone this small can produce such a sound. I tested the main speaker in a number of ways playing music, video and calls and it is superb. It is situated on the back which means you may end up putting your finger over it, but besides that this is the ‘best’ speaker I have used on any smartphone, and it is the smallest smartphone I have used. Go figure?

Battery

This is not the best I have seen and at only 970mAh hardly a surprise. When you consider that the X10 Mini has Wi-Fi, HSDPA, aGPS and all sorts of other features it will need more power behind it to survive a busy day. If you push this phone you can expect to be charging it more than once a day. I don’t like charging a phone once a day let alone twice so you can guess my thoughts on this particular feature.

Software

Wisepilot is included for navigation and does an adequate job considering the screen size, but the screen size is not ideal for such a task. I can’t see many X10 users using the phone for navigation anyway so it can be considered as merely a nice extra from Sony Ericsson. Timescape is included which acts as a hub for your communications- Facebook, Twitter, texts and other messages are store here and once you are used to it this is one app that you will want to see on all phones. It is like the webOS solution, but with slightly less smoothness.

Some games are included such as the excellent Peggle and Roller Coaster and there are also some decent business tools including RoadSync, Backup and Restore and NewReader. Creatouch needs to be used to understand (a bit of a novelty) and the rest is made up of standard Android apps that you will expect to find included. It is a comprehensive software setup that appears on most Android phones and one which will help you to accomplish what you need to. However, it does feel a little haphazard and as if lots of titles have been thrown in just to make the numbers up, a continuing problem with Android in my opinion.

Conclusion

The X10 Mini Pro throws the rule book out of the window as far as smartphone design is concerned. It is so tiny yet still works and offers a smartphone experience which is much more usable than could reasonably be expected. The excellent data entry turns it into a capable messenger and the sound quality is almost unrivalled. The battery is a problem though and will require the user to have a charger handy, but my overall impression of the X10 Mini Pro is positive.

It is well priced, imaginatively designed and a highly capable phone which is just too cute to put down.

I currently have my hands on three phones – an HTC Desire, an iPhone 4, and a Palm Pre Plus. For those of you not moving beyond the front page, I’ll put the summary up first, with a comment that for me that the iPhone gets my pick – just, followed by the Palm Pre Plus, then the Desire.  Yes – I’m surprised too, but there’s something about the Pre that really works, and I was disappointed by the screen and operating system of the Desire.  BUT – you know what – which ever you choose, I can’t believe you’ll be disappointed – these are three excellent devices.  I’m really not comparing Ferraris and Rovers, but Ferraris and Lamborghinis – so it really will come down to taste.

Please note – I really couldn’t compare everything – I didn’t have a spare month, and you’d not have read it all anyway.  So I’m trying to focus on two things – Hardware (screen, sound, etc) and the Hardware / software “integration”.

Desire – Surprisingly disappointed – mainly due to screen and OS

• Physicals: Feels nice and solid though plastic back “opening hole” already scratched, just using coins and nails.  Like the ability to change the battery.  Don’t like that the SD card can’t be removed/changed without taking the battery out.

• Hardware: Excellent, fast and solid.  Screen the let down for me surprisingly, virtually unreadable in sunshine, and a strange orange “tint” at times (see detail below for more information).  Transfer speeds as expected for a class 6 card.

• Good stock headphones, with three button remote (Volume buttons and a “play/pause/answer phone”)

• Battery life drains quickly with data use (there’s lots of widgets to choose…).  Very acceptable with video – 75% after a 1hr 41 min video.

• Operating System – wonderfully open, and horribly “unfinished” (hard to explain what I mean).  Also, I just can’t use the virtual keyboard at all.

• My killer app – Evernote (I hear Pimlical may be on the way:))

• My killer game – None yet (Farm Frenzy is nice, but it’s not an Angry Birds or Dungeon Hunter)

iPhone 4 32GB – Pretty much as expected – lovely screen, though limited chance to really try it.   Hoping the “proximity sensor” issue is resolved soon, and how the antenna bug got through QA…?!

• Physicals: I like the design unlike many, though it feels “fragile” (comes from being glass I guess).  Invisible shield has been duly acquired.  Don’t like inability to change battery.

• Hardware: We know about the signal issue – I’ve always used a case so (touch wood) I’ve not been affected.  Generally excellent performance (some slight stutter from Angry Birds in a couple of places – but possibly this was an application issue as I get exactly the same effect on a 3GS).   Excellent transfer speed (my slightly crude test estimates around 16.5mb/s)

• Good stock earphones, three button remote (volume buttons and a “play/pause/answer phone”)

• Excellent battery life when playing video (88% after a 1hr41min video), drains happily with things like push mail.

• My Killer apps – Pocket Informant & Evernote

• My Killer game – Angry Birds:)

Palm Pre – The dark horse, and much better than I expected.  Shame about the build.

• Physicals: I can’t remember who (Shaun?) described the build quality as “Fisher Price”, but it really does describe it.  I get minimal movement in the Pre Plus (presumably resolved from the original issues with the pre), but it does creak a bit when I use the gesture area with the keyboard down, which is annoying.  I do like ability to change battery.  It also feels very nice and natural in the hand.

• Hardware: Actually very good – it’s the slowest on offer (having the same speed as the 3GS), but generally feels solid and fast.  I’m using 1.4.5 which has made a massive difference to the calendar application’s performance.  Very disappointed in the memory write speed – not clear if it’s an OS issue, or that cheaper memory was used.  Transfer speed was around 1.5mb/s – a tenth of the iPhone’s, and meaning it could take 3 hours to fill the 16gb’s of memory!

• Good stock earphones, one button remote (which I actually like, I’m perfectly capable of using the volume on the device).

• My killer apps – calendar (taking the whole integration aspect into account) & Evernote again:)

• My killer games – Dungeon Hunter and settlers.  Also available for iPhone, but the best the App Store has to offer, and very good reproductions of both.

Now, on to the detail – and this review is designed to take a look at a comparison between the three – I’m interested in writing a technical comparison, and to try and keep away from impressions – though I’ll have to describe some items such as sound quality (Note I have dodgy old ears and like classical music)

A note on my test “components” – For those interested, I used an 8gb class 6 MicroSD card in the desire (seemed fair to use the best I could), I used a pair of Sure 540 in-ear noise isolating headphones for my “good headphone test” (They’re something like £200-£300 as I recall), and I used some classical music, a track of Pimsleur’s French, and part one of the Fellowship of the Ring, for my music/spoken/video tests.  Sorry – I’m not into modern music.

So what I’m going to do is write this comparison as I go through a day, including the setup.  I should add I’m not actually going through a day, but just mimicking it.  I’m thinking I want to listen to some music on the way in to work, maybe watch a video on the way home, play a game during a break, and of course, deal with emails, texts, and calls.  Call me boring, but that’s what I want out of the day.  Weekends are another matter; I have several more appropriate devices then (the home computer, etc.)

Getting Going…

So, what I want to do first is to set my phone(s) up to provide me with the day’s needs.  So I’m going to start by getting some music and a video onto the devices to test the File Transfer.

File Transfer

It was the file transfer that showed the first “difference” between devices.  You’ll note in the intro I used a class 6 card for the desire, and this showed an interesting comparison.  Quite simply, the write speed of the Palm is very slow.  In fact add a few more “verys” for good measure.

I focused on the transfer of one file – a video file, of 494mb.  The cold hard numbers were that the iPhone 4 took about 30 seconds to transfer the file (Possibly it compresses a bit, or does something clever through iTunes, I don’t know.  Or that would make it around 16.5 mb/s?)

The Desire (via the class 6 card), took around 44 seconds – i.e. About 12mb/s write speed.

The Pre (wait for it… I had to) – took 5 minutes and 30 seconds.  i.e. 1.5mb/s or a class 1 card?  (Note: I tested it with and without write caching, for those of you who wondered).  I also tested read speed just on the palm, for curiosity – it reads the file in about 35 seconds, so it’s definitely just the write time for some reason.

Morning Music

Palm Pre Plus – Nice quality through the stock headphones – clear speech and rich sound.  Definitely benefits from a nice set of good headphones – not so noticeable on speech, but with music, things were much clearer.  I should also add that with the stock headphones I had to turn the sound right up to close to maximum to properly enjoy over background noise (there was some reasonable noise I should add).  With the Sure 540’s, the volume could be put nice and low – though conversely had another problem, that in a very quiet place, I found lowest volume was a little high with the Sure’s.

HTC Desire – Was good on the stock headphones, with a better range of minimum and maximum volume than the Pre.  The lowest volume is still too high with the Sure’s though – though this is perhaps an unfortunate part of the headphones, which as noise isolating, are deep in the ears.

iPhone – For some strange reason, the iPhone seems less stressful on my ears.  Either there’s less bass etc. (The Sure headphones have two independent “drivers”), or perhaps it’s that the lowest volume on the iPhone is a little lower than the other two.  The stock headphones were probably the best of the three as well, though just marginally in my opinion (Probably too much time spent using the Sure’s which make such a difference with Classical music – you can hear the individual instruments!).

Emails and texts (keyboards!)

Palm Pre Plus – Having a keyboard is definitely nice (it works well for me I should note – contrary to other reviewers).  Emails and texts were easy to send.  The Palm Email program works well, and formats HTML nicely I found (even putting in embedded items such as video, better than the desire and iPhone in a lot of cases).

HTC Desire – This is part two of what really disappointed me – I just can’t get on with the way the android O/S (or is it the desire itself?) registers my taps – it seems almost “inaccurate” – I can tap on what seems like the same place, and yet get differing results.  I suspect its OS, as the iPhone and Pre are able to “guess” what you’re tapping better it seems.   Hopefully this will mean a fix is forthcoming.

iPhone – I mentioned the Pre had formatted a lot of email better than the iPhone and desire – in most cases – this is because for some reason the Pre can’t read emails from apple at all – no idea why (either the pre doesn’t like some standards, or the apple emails are causing issues?).  I seem to be finding the keyboard better these days – though I sometimes tap slightly outside the touch area on the left of the keyboard, meaning my tap isn’t registered.  I also need to add, I’ve had to turn off “sort my mail into conversations”, as it’s randomly creating blank emails in places (?!).  No doubt an update or two is needed.

Phoning

Palm Pre Plus – It makes calls.  They’re good quality. Simple complaint – why can’t I use the “numeric” keyboard to search contacts? (You know, the “abc business” where the numeric keyboard doubles as a sort of keyboard – and if I can’t, why are they printed there on the screen!?).  It just means I have to open the keyboard every time.  I found this a little irritating.

HTC Desire – It also makes calls.  And they’re similarly good quality.  Extra tick to the desire for being able to enter numbers and have them considered as the “abc business” letters as well.

iPhone – Definite improvement over the 3GS in call quality.  Had some issues with my Bluetooth headset (lovely earpiece quality, but my callers said I sounded awful.  Seems to have sorted itself now – maybe just a reboot of the iphone was needed).  I like the way my jawbone shows an icon on the iphone representing the amount of battery left.

Breaktime game

Due to differing games available between the three products, I’ve picked two games to analyse – the settlers (iPhone and Pre), and Farm Frenzy (iPhone and desire).   Hopefully that way a good picture of graphics and performance will arise.

Palm Pre Plus – Plays games beautifully.  Or at least those games currently available…  But still, both Settlers and Dungeon Hunter are high performing, don’t lag, and look lovely on the screen (though a little small when compared next to an iPhone as the physical screen sizes are different.  No complaints on performance and visuals.  Just needs more games.  Palm have released a “PDK” (also known as a “get your iphone game over to the palm Pretty Damn Kwik), so watch this space.

Here’s a screenshot of settlers in action: (Credit and copyright to the owners accordingly)

Take a glance against the iPhone one below however – you’ll note the colours are ever so slightly richer (pay attention to the brown wood…)

iPhone – needs no introduction (so here’s one – not everyone has an iphone) – it also plays games beautifully.  Had a slight lag with angry birds, but was able to reproduce on a 3gs, suggesting software not hardware.  Both Settlers and Farm Frenzy look good, and play well:

HTC Desire – Interestingly, I found the applications available for the desire to be excellent (unlike the Palm options), but the other way around for games.  I just wasn’t impressed by the android market selection (No I wasn’t just looking for mainstream names).  However, Farm Frenzy provides a good effort (though the graphics are clearly not as enhanced for the hi-res screen as I’d have hoped – look at the grass I’ve put down in the middle, and compare it to the iphone one above):

Evening video

Palm Pre Plus – Video sounded good on the stock headphones – clear speech and rich sound.  The sure’s are nice for the noise cancelling, but less impressive with spoken word / video, than with a nice piece of classical music.  Same problem with the headphone volume levels as for the music tests earlier.

HTC Desire – Video sounded good on the stock headphones, with a better range of minimum and maximum volume over the Pre.  Once again, the Sure’s were indifferent to stock headphones with spoken word.  But I suspect the Sure’s weren’t designed to provide a nice speech – it’s when it’s twin drivers get into action with music that the difference is clear.

iPhone – Similarly good – both through the famous white headphones and the bose’s.  I think the iPhone benefits from the Sure’s particularly though, as the white stock ones tend to be worst at keeping out the noise I found, and I like the peace.

Now onto the screen, where rather than writing them individually, I feel a photo of each gives the impression best.  Watching video was marginally hardest on the Pre simply because the device is smaller physically, though it didn’t bother me that much.  And the high resolution screens are worthless here in my opinion.  Why?  Because if I rip a gorgeous BluRay video into 960 by whatever the iPhone is, and watch it, it looks lovely sure – but only “nicer” than 480×320, not “Oh wow”.  And the killer – a movie jumps from 500mb to 2gb (it is 4 times the resolution after all).  I’m not either going to re-rip all my movies, or store them at 2gb a pop.  Of course, this is a personal view (which I’m trying to steer clear of).

A comment on the screens – make up your own mind from the photos below – and note the strange orange effect from the Desire.  I didn’t notice it until I put them all together.  It’s definitely noticeable in many scenes when you do compare…

Left to right, Palm Pre Plus, HTC Desire, iPhone 4.  These were taken at the same point in a movie, on the same camera, in the exact same location on my desk – so note that the issue I think is simply that the Desire over riches red perhaps?  I really didn’t notice it until this comparison…
Summing up (with a quick mention of other areas)

Speed

But first, a quick comment on the transfer speeds from earlier – I’d be curious to hear the views of other pre owners – I tested this on two windows machines (one windows xp and one Windows 7) plus a macbook pro – they’re all slow with the palm.

Sound

Now I’m not a “soundy” in any sense of the word.  In fact, at university as a member of stage crew, I always did lights.  So take it with a pinch of salt when I say there really isn’t – for me – anything in it between these three in sound quality terms.  Not in my opinion.  The iPhone possibly wins for me simply because it plays a little lower with my set of headphones, and maybe a slight down to the Pre Plus stock headphones for requiring the volume to be turned up to near maximum (the Sure’s behave well – so I’m sure it’s the headphones themselves requiring a little more juice).  However a nice set of headphones for whichever device you choose will do you proud.

Software

Operating System

I used to think that WebOS was the best – but – nope sorry, I still feel it is.  Don’t get me wrong, Android and “iOS” (shudders at the name) are good, but WebOS feels the most polished, and that multitasking is just wonderful.

I’ve not covered the OS’s in more detail here – I didn’t intend to.  Search for “iOS”, “WebOS” and “Android 2.1” if you want to – there’s far better reviews of them than I’ll be able to do.  BUT – I want to say one thing – updates.  WebOS updates release over the air, which is a brilliant concept – and they have it working really well. No real comment on iOS updates – you have to use iTunes unfortunately, but then the updates tend to be big (WebOS ones come often under 10Mb…).  The unfortunate dunce hat has to go to the Desire here.  Android is fine – stock.  And therefore Android updates come as stock.  Which means that the Desire, from HTC, has to wait for HTC to release a modified version.  Very simply, Android 2.2 came out – what – a couple of months a go now for the Nexus One (Which runs it raw)?  And still there’s no confirmation on when the Desire will get it…

Calendar

First prize to the iPhone here – “Informant” is just fantastic.  The Pre comes in close second – with it’s integration, and “in place editing” (where you can edit a calendar entry in the calendar rather than in a separate screen).  It’s also A LOT faster after the last Webos update.  Don’t like the stock android (or HTC alternative) calendars, but there’s lots in the works – bring on CESD and Pimlical.

GPS

GPS was a hard one to look at – and that’s due to the Pre having no GPS application other than Google Maps, that I could get hold of (there’s a Sprint one in the US only I think?)  But in short – using Google Maps (available on all three), they all kept signal and location well – even in my house.

It’s worth adding that Alk’s Copilot is available for both the iPhone and HTC Desire, and works brilliantly on both.

Video & Music

The Palm Pre Plus and the HTC Desire both have two separate applications (It’s a personal preference, but I like one app – less clutter, and sometimes I like to flick through and pick between video and music.)

I do like the music player on the Palm Pre most though – possibly part of the “look and feel” of WebOs, but it feels nice and “up to date”, whereas the iPhone player felt more dated.  A knock down to the Desire – it took me ten minutes to find the Video player – inside the Photo application.  Erm, okay…

As a traveller abroad, I felt a battery video test would be a nice way of seeing how hungry each device is.  So, having transferred that video (1hr41min, as mentioned), I charged each device to full, turned on Airplane mode, set the brightnesses to close as possible, and pressed play on each.

At the end, the numbers were quite different – the iPhone 4 had 88% left afterwards.  The HTC Desire had 75% left.  Finally, the Palm Pre Plus had 67% left.

I realise they all compute differently, and some may go to 0%, some cut out at 10%, etc.  I didn’t test that far – but I will add that I was very impressed with the iPhone 4 – in particular because I forgot to turn off the phone it turned out – so 88% included continuing to play with 3G signal.

And Finally…

As I mentioned at the top, the iPhone gets my pick currently – probably simply because of the number of applications available has meant I’ve found the best working relationship for me.

But only just – The Palm Pre Plus was so close, that I found myself swapping between them a bit initially (almost based on how I felt each day).

Last for me came the Desire.  Yes – I’m surprised too, but there’s something about the Pre that really works, and I was disappointed by the screen and operating system of the Desire.

Don’t get me wrong thinking I’m saying the iPhone is fantastic and the Desire not – they’re all very good – and which ever you choose I can’t believe you’ll be disappointed, as these are three excellent devices.

I’m really not comparing Ferraris and Rovers, but Ferraris and Lamborghinis – so it really will come down to taste.

I’ll sign off by saying I hope this has been some use (if you’ve actually read this far!)  please note I’ve linked reviews below…

Note: A link to Shaun’s in depth review of the HTC Desire is here, also there’s a previous comparison between the desire and the iPhone 3GS here.  I mention it because if you’re reading this as a 3GS owner, it’ll hopefully provide some context.
Note: A link to Shaun’s in depth review of the iPhone 4 is here.
Note: We have no Palm Pre Plus review done by one of us.  Shaun is going to see if he can find one, and if you’re reading this with no link, he didn’t.  Watch this space, I’ll see if I get a chance to write one.

Peter.

Available from Clove for £229.13

The HTC Wildfire is the latest in a long line of HTC Android devices sporting a name that would be more suited to an after shave lotion. We have had ‘Tattoo’, ‘Hero’, ‘Legend’ and the ‘Desire’ and it’s as if HTC has employed someone called Flavio who sweeps into the office, flicks his hair over his pin-striped tank top, and announces the name for the next HTC Android smartphone. “We shall call it the ‘HTC Love Probe’! to which he receives a smattering of applause from sensible people who wonder what on Earth is going on. Curiously HTC has stuck with quite boring names for its Windows Mobile devices; the Touch Pro, HD and Snap are just a few examples. Anyway, whatever it is called does not really matter because it’s the quality of the hardware and software that counts. I won’t go into much detail about the software because it is running Android 2.1 and I covered this heavily in my Samsung Galaxy S review http://www.pda-247.com/wordpress/2010/06/samsung-galaxy-s-review-part-three/. Like Samsung, HTC adds its own flavour to the mix and I will look at these, but you should know what you are getting with Android these days.

The box is typically Apple HTC and comes with the bare minimum of accessories. You get a pair of 3.5mm standard headphones, a USB charge/sync cable and a curiously designed AC adaptor. The USB part has to be twisted on to connect to the three pronged plug which looks great, but can be inconvenient if you happen to have all of your plugs sat under a desk with little room above them, like me. On the plus side it does mean that the plug will fit into a multiple socket without any problems so it will suit most people. Of course it looks daft sticking out of a wall and little children will likely break it on the first day, but you can charge via USB and that is likely to be the most used solution anyway.

Design

The Wildfire is a seriously smart looking phone and is shorter than most others in the market, apart from the stupidly designed Xperia X10, and presents a slab-like form that sinks into the hand perfectly. There are of course compromises with a phone of this size, but at 3.2” the screen is not one, at least not dimensionally. The materials used feel just right as well; they are not super expensive like the iPhone 4 and do not exhibit the cheapness of some other phones. The Wildfire build quality and materials perfectly represent where it sits in the market. Of all the phones I have reviewed recently, it is likely that the Wildfire will appeal to more people than any other.

The optical trackpad below the screen is a stroke of design genius in my view and works as good as it looks. However, I never used a trackpad with an Android phone and still don’t understand why they are included. Volumes keys are nicely positioned on the left above the MicroUSB which should be at the bottom, the headphone jack and on/off keys are in the right places though on the top. Below the screen you get 4 buttons which are part of the screen (i.e. no tactile feedback) and they are the standard home, menu, back and search offerings. Overall I like the Wildfire design very much indeed and can see it attracting many a customer perusing phone shops because it has the look of a mini Desire, but at a much lower price.

Screen

Screens are all important in 2010 and we are now entering a time when they are able to offer pin-sharp resolution that is viewable in all conditions. At 240×320 pixels the Wildfire is one of very few smartphones offering only QVGA and this is disappointing even at this price point. In the real world most customers will not notice the fact that it is packing a QVGA screen, but the presentation in almost every part of the system falls slightly on this point alone. In bright sunlight it is much easier to see that I expected which adds to the confusion- it works well in most conditions so is of good quality, but the resolution is at odds with the rest of the hardware. It is capacitive (LCD) which obviously means that fingers are the tools you should use to drive this phone, but it has not proved to be as accurate as other phones using this technology- I suspect that a small software update will come along to fix that.

Performance

528 MHz, 512Mb of ROM and 384MB of RAM sounds pretty good for a device retailing at just over £200 and it is, but there are times when the performance slows a little. Don’t get me wrong, it is far from a slouch, but intense multi-tasking will bring about an inevitable drop in speed. In a short space of time the entire smartphone industry has moved to a place where perfect screens and super fast performance all of the time are expected, even on budget devices, and I am surprised at how quickly I have fallen into the trap of expecting such perfection. However, there are some problems present that are performance related; data entry is difficult because the keyboard does not react quickly and Flash web browsing is painfully slow all of the time. If I step away for a moment and think about things I realise that the Wildfire is quite a performer within the class of smartphones it has to do battle with, but there are compromises required to get the most out of it.

Voice and Signal

Much, much better than I expected. I have had a constant HSDPA signal in my house which is unheard of. Can someone explain to me why the Desire and Legend cannot do that? The Wildfire should not have such a good radio in it, but so far I have been more than impressed. Throw in great sound quality and a speakerphone which exceeds expectations and this looks like a smartphone which has not forgotten the ‘phone’ bit. Well done HTC, and Flavio.

Camera

HTC has cleverly ignored the camera setups it supplied on the later Android phone such as the Desire and Nexus One and decided to implement a camera which is roughly as good as they were 3 years ago. It is rated at 5 Megapixels, has auto-focus, a flash and Geotagging and it is not great.

Stills come out OK if you take your time and make sure that adequate lighting is available, but smartphone cameras are supposed to be used to capture a moment and this one is not ideally placed to do this. The video recording is a big let down though and I struggled to take anything worth publishing. Add to this the fact that the camera app takes an age to get going and the moments will be long gone before you get the chance to snap anything.

Battery

I expected little here, but managed two full days before I needed to charge it. Even though it is rated at only 1300 mAh it only has to deal with the slower processor so this appears to be a good match. Heavy use will see the power drop much quicker, but you should always be able to get through a day with it which seems to be an acceptable benchmark these days for most people.

Conclusion

I look at the price and feel that there is a lot on offer here which makes it a worthy option, but then I consider how it works and have second thoughts. It is trying to be a grown up smartphone, but doesn’t have the innards to be so. It is stuck next to feature phones which can handle media, photography and some other crucial aspects (to the target market) better and this leaves me confused by the Wildfire. Offering a smartphone running the latest version of Android makes a lot of sense, but if the buyer then struggles to use it this does not make any sense long term.

I like the Wildfire, I really do, in the same way I liked the HTC Tattoo. It looks like a baby Desire and is a great ‘phone’, but those who want the full smartphone experience will need to buy a more expensive smartphone. In the case of the Wildfire you get what you pay for which is a good budget smartphone that will suit those who want to move up from the feature phone world without paying a fortune.

So, against all the odds I now have an iPhone 4. It’s hard to explain why I have one except to say that I was able to buy one for a cheap price (less than I sold my iPhone 3GS for) and simply renew my contract for another 18 months. My theory is to sell the second best phone on a platform quickly to make the financial hit as little as possible and on this occasion it worked. This enables me to judge the phone on merit and not consider if it is worth the full price because ultimately no mobile phone is worth £600. That is not possible.

The fact is that I, for the first time in my life, would not have upgraded from the iPhone 3GS to the iPhone 4 if it involved paying a serious amount of money because I could not see the advantages. The retina display is nice of course, but what’s so bad about the 3GS screen? The extra RAM is of course useful now that iOS 4 seriously affects performance on the 3G and 3GS and the better camera is a bonus, but all of those together could not persuade me to part with £100’s because they look like improvements with a few novelty features thrown in for good measure. That was my viewpoint and an hour after picking it up it was still the same. And then I used it…

Design

If you own an iPhone 3G or 3GS your very first impressions could be disappointing. It looks identical to previous models from the front and of course so does the software so the initial buzz of something new is absent here. Apple has not radically changed the design of the iPhone since the 3G, but the design is what causes most discussion in reviews. The completely flat front and rear married to the metal edging make for a very good looking phone and one which sits right in almost any situation.

I was one of those people who was not impressed with the iPhone 3G design when it was unveiled and who wanted a flat back on it. I am now one of those people who prefers the iPhone 3G/3GS design to the iPhone 4. Don’t get me wrong, it looks great and Apple has done a sterling job, but it creates an overwhelming feeling of wanting to protect it. I think it is the strengthened glass and the sharp edging that brings this out in me, because I never had this feeling with the 3GS. It is ironic that the better quality materials and more angular design cause me to cherish it more and thus sling it in a case, add a screen protector and ruin the beauty of it straight away. I have been scratching my head about the iPhone 4 design and still can’t quite make up my mind where I stand on it. I like great looking phones, but I also like phones that offer a feeling of confidence in daily use. Sadly Apple has form in this area with the dreadful scratch magnets that are the iPod Touches and iPods and the iPhone 3G was also prone to similar issues. I need more time to get my head around the design, but suspect that it will eventually prove a winner to me and that Apple knows what I need better than I do…

Screen

The Retina screen has received lots of attention and you would think that it is the most incredibly invention ever if you read some reviews, but in general use you may not notice a huge difference from previous iPhones. It is without doubt much clearer and the eBook reading experience is vastly improved, videos look stunning (they really do) and so do photos, every other part of the core apps looks better on this screen, but not to the point that I would consider it to be a killer improvement. Maybe it is because I have reviewed the Samsung Wave and Galaxy recently, both of which come with Super AMOLED screens, which have already shown me what a brilliant screen looks like. Don’t get me wrong, the Retina display is wonderful to look at and use and is a leap forward, but is it that much better than the Super AMOLED screens? The pixels per inch and other specs may suggest so, and so will Apple, but I cannot help thinking that this technology is not half as revolutionary in day to day use as some would have you believe. So much marketing material and online time has been devoted to this feature and ultimately it feels like a technical exercise that could never fulfil the hype. By the way, I have perfect eyesight (tested last week) so it can’t be me.

Maybe I am being too harsh in the way that I am when I go to watch an overly hyped movie, it will never fulfil expectations, and maybe I just expect Apple to blow my socks off every time. Either way, Apple is responsible for the hype surrounding this feature, but also responsible for a screen that is very, very good. It’s just not ‘blow your socks off’ good and I don’t think that is technically possible at this time.

Performance

The new processor and extra RAM have been included to deal with iOS 4 and more intense functions and as such are difficult to judge after a few days use. I fully expect software to be released that pushes the new hardware to the limit, but at this time the iPhone 4 feels identical to a pre-iOS4 iPhone 3GS which is not a bad thing. Of course the ability to run multiple heavy apps at once is an advantage and I expect to improve my view on this once I really start digging around and pushing it as far as I can. One point to note is that there are still occasions when switching screens and apps is accomplished with a small stutter. On no other phone would this even reach my consciousness, but it is apparent to those who have been using iPhones for a long time. I suspect that iOS 4 still needs some tweaking to bring back the perfect smoothness of the previous version.

Entertainment

The iPod was built on entertainment and the first iPhone was effectively an iPod with mobile phone features and so the process has continued. Throughout my time with various iPods and iPhone I have always been impressed by the sound quality provided by the included headphones. What I did not expect was the improvement shown in the iPhone 4. In short, the sound quality is the very best I have heard on any mobile phone, smartphone or MP3 player. It is a leap from the 3GS and potentially a leap from everything else, but strangely I see no mention of changes from Apple in this area.

Video playback is also stunning and the films just jump from the screen. This is the area in which I have noticed the screen improvement the most and it is now more of a joy that it was previously, which is no easy task. I have noticed improvements in speed as well when pausing films and choosing media from the iPod app so this is evidence that something faster is going on behind the scenes.

Photos also look a lot crisper than before and ‘different’ to other phones. Like videos, they leap out at you, but arguably in the same way photos do on Super AMOLED.

Gaming is fast becoming a core feature of the iPhone and the gyroscope has been included to take things one step further in this area. It’s early days, but the look of most games is much better once they have been optimised for the new screen and the potential is now huge for what could follow. I need to spend some more time looking at this and testing some more games though because I have noticed some stuttering in supposedly iOS 4 optimised games which is most unexpected.

Let’s get the antenna issue out of the way now. Apple published a letter explaining what the issue is with reception on the iPhone 4 and the following part sums it up best-

“Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.

To fix this, we are adopting AT&T’s recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone’s bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.”

The entire premise of the letter is that the software is causing the bars to display wrong and this would appear to align nicely with reports from the US of less dropped calls and generally better phone performance. I fully understand what Apple is saying here, but I am far from convinced. Last Friday evening I stood in a field near my house with the iPhone 4 in one hand and my iPhone 3GS in another; both had Vodafone SIM cards in them and 3G enabled. The iPhone 4 displayed ‘no service’ and the iPhone 3GS displayed 1 bar. I attempted a call on the iPhone 4 and was unable to, I could with the 3GS. Now, it is my understanding ’software’ will not stop a phone making a call if there are no bars showing. Apple said about the impending update “The real signal strength remains the same…” and “Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.” Well, if the real signal strength remains the same I will still not be able to make a call in the situation already described and if the problem was there on the 3GS why did I not suffer the same problem?

I have worked in mobile telecoms for 15 years, on the handset side and more recently the network side, so I know what I am talking about and I am not convinced that this problem will be solved easily. Many people say they have not had problems with the antenna and others are happy to use a case to fix the problem, but the fact is that the iPhone 4 I am using is not noticeably better in the signal department than the 3GS and appears to be less stable in keeping a signal with a variance of bars popping up and dropping off in quick succession. It’s not the end of the world, but some improvement would have been nice to see, particularly because the iPhone range has not been good in this area so far.

Voice quality and the speakerphone have been markedly improved. I have read rave reviews about the quality and can understand this if they have been using an iPhone 3G or 3GS for the past couple of years, but the fact remains that the iPhone 4 is now comparable to the BlackBerry 9700, Samsung Galaxy and Nokia E72 in these areas. That is a great improvement for those who need good quality voice communication and it puts the iPhone on a level playing field with other high-end smartphones as far as voice goes. I tested the received call quality with two people and both said that my iPhone 4 and Curve 8310 sounded the same to them when calling from my house. However, when I called one of them back to repeat the test in my garden on a windy day the iPhone 4 did much better- seems that the noise reduction works quite well.

Let’s move onto the camera which has been cranked up to 5 Megapixels and had HD video recording thrown in for good measure. There are a few 8 Megapixel smartphones on the market now and many with better flash technology, but this one is seriously good. Image capture is super quick and the tap to focus feature seems to work every single time. Even the zoom works better than I have seen on a phone before and I was able to capture some shots of my daughter from a ‘long’ distance and still make out that it was her (not easy with most cameras). The video recorder is even better than the camera and produces wonderful quality videos with excellent audio. I took a video of my son at football training from about 30 feet away and it still picked up the voice of his football trainer. It is easily the best smartphone camera I have used; a near perfect blend of hidden technology, speed and ease of use.

Photo scaled down to 640 pixels wide-

Photo zoomed in-

When you add iMovie this offers up the ability to capture photos and video, string them together into a pleasing montage and then upload them to YouTube without touching anything but the iPhone, as I have done here (remember that YouTube seriously compresses the output)-

FaceTime is the real innovation on the iPhone 4 and one that is not innovative at all. I have been able to make video calls for years, but never bothered because the costs have been too high and the quality has been dreadful. The innovation here is that it works so well and my first FaceTime call with Gavin was a real eye opener. The fact my daughter kept jumping in front of the screen to speak to him and ask him silly questions only helped me realise the potential because it made the call so much more interactive. There is a serious fault with FaceTime though because myself and Gavin both felt that we looked fat in the video and that can’t possibly be true!

Battery life has also received considerable attention and many websites have salivated over the improvement. It is better than the previous iPhones, but from a personal point of view I would still like to see more. I tested it over a full day and, starting at 100%, managed the following-

30 minute drive using TomTom, HD traffic and music playing via an FM transmitter: down to 81%

3 text messages, 42 photos and 12 minutes of video recording over a 3 hour period: down to 59%

23 more photos plus a further 11 minutes of video recording over a 2 hour period: down to 40%

30 minute drive home with TomTom, HD traffic and transmitted music: down to 19%

This isn’t too bad, but you can see that a really heavy day will drain the battery before night falls and as such a car charger and as many other chargers as you can find would be useful. The day above was an exception, but the next day my son had a football tournament and I took over 50 photos, did 40 minutes of driving all in all with HD traffic and music playing and for good measure managed 15 minutes of video recording. The battery went down to 49% by the end of the day which is comparatively better. Why the difference? I had 3G turned off.

I can cope with the iPhone 4 battery life, but when so much effort has been put into the screen, design and OS it is a shame that once again the battery department is not given the same attention.

Conclusion

Life is a series of moments and the iPhone 4 is a good tool to have around to capture and enhance them. I can grab a shot of my children doing something silly, I can video my son taking the final penalty in a football tournament and know that the moments will be captured with the kind of quality that seemed impossible only a few years ago. I can sit in the garden and listen to music in glorious quality that fills my head with voices, tunes and every other small sound the artist wanted me to hear. I can watch a film or read an eBook while lying in bed and experience both in a manner I never have before. Photos, games, websites and everything else jumps from the iPhone 4 screen and offers something new to everyone, something that just works so well it is impossible not to let it get under your skin in the shortest of times. I started this review (in part one) calling the changes mere improvements and bemoaned the fact that there were no fantastic innovations from the 3GS, but there surely is. The weaknesses have been strengthened and Apple has created an impossibly good smartphone. I took some time to consider iOS4, the iPhone 4 design and came to the conclusion that this phone feels like a conclusion- a conclusion to many years of smartphone unreliability, poor quality features, bad build quality and too much fiddly to really enjoy what a phone can do for me.

It is without doubt the best smartphone I have ever used and will only struggle in trying to attain the hype that Apple has built up around it. Apple has created a wondrous phone that will let you do almost anything you want and in doing so also created a culture where it has to be squeaky clean in every area. The minor niggles get blown up out of all proportion and so do the features that work fantastically. Every aspect of every Apple smartphone will forevermore be scrutinised to the nth degree and this can surely only be a good thing because it forces Apple to innovate and to do so with care to ensure that everything works. Over the next week or so we will see what becomes of the antenna problem and just maybe Apple will solve it quickly, but even if it can’t it has still produced a smartphone that raises the bar once more to a level that for the first time I cannot quite comprehend. I cannot comprehend improvements in many of the features and struggle to see how the iPhone 5 can possibly improve on the 4, and this should always be the goal of any smartphone manufacturer; make the user feel that they own the best phone on the market and make it even better in a year’s time. Apple seems to be doing that quite well and that is a good signal (excuse the pun)…

Nokia is aiming at every segment of the mobile phone market currently and you can buy a Nokia branded phone for less than £5 or more than £500. From budget models to high-end smartphones and everything in between, it has every angle covered, but it doesn’t succeed with every phone. Some of the smartphone are lacklustre at best and some of the budget phones are too simplistic or poorly made for even the lightest of users. If you are prepared to spend a measly £60 on the Nokia 7230 you start to realise that budget does not necessarily mean bad and that’s what I did.

My wife decided that she has had enough of smartphones and wanted something simple that she could throw in a bad and use for voice, texts and navigation. She did not want a touch screen device again and was rather taken with the 7230’s design and so we picked one up to see how it performed.

Specs wise the 7230 does well for the price point; 3G support, 3.2 Megapixel camera, social networking portals built-in, GPS capable, 395 hours standby, FM radio and everything else you would expect from an S40 powered phone. It’s not a smartphone of course, but like every other mobile phone of today, it can do what your PDA did a few years back with ease.

The 7230 looks a lot more expensive than its price, but a quick hold suggests that the materials are not the best available. However, the design makes it pleasing to hold and the cheaper materials help deliver a phone that is very light at only 100 grams.

The use of a sliding mechanism also means that you get a largish screen (2.4” at 240×320 pixels) and a bigger keyboard. It reminds me of some of the Nokia fashion phones from a couple of years ago, but with a sense of more seriousness in the presentation. Needless to say my wife chose not to buy the pink version…

All in all the design of the 7230 is pretty smart and practical and the price means that even the lower quality materials are not a huge concern because you can actually use it without having to worry about damage too much.

The screen is surprisingly viewable in bright conditions and this adds to the practicality. It isn’t Super AMOLED of course, but being non touch means that it is easy to use on the sunniest of days. Throw in great call quality and a speaker phone that is loud and clear enough to use in noisy conditions and we are left with a phone that is practical enough for the vast majority of people.

On the software side there is the usual S40 bundle which includes basic calendar and contacts apps and a selection of social networking apps plus a few trial games to get you started. The Ovi Store is of course included alongside Nokia Maps and there is now quite a varied selection of apps available which will suit those not looking for a top class gaming experience or multiple apps to do multiple things. On a phone like the 7230, the convoluted S40 menu system is strangely a bonus because it hides a lot of the apps behind folders. Most people will use this phone as a phone (how strange?) and thus having the apps hidden makes quick use feel more natural.

Data entry is not too bad considering you are limited to T9 and standard number keys. There is a lot to be said for this older form factor and my wife is proof of that. Give her a standard keyboard and she will fly through text messaging much quicker than she ever could with a touch screen smartphone. I would like the keys to be more pronounced because they are slightly too flush for people with large fingers, but she manages well with long nails so maybe there is method in the madness.

On the navigation side, Nokia lists the phone as GPS capable which is somewhat misleading. You need to use a GPS receiver with it to enable full navigation and this is not something that most 7230 users would even consider. Nokia Maps is pre-installed and ‘appears’ to be free. At first we received a 3 day trial offer and are waiting to see what follows- I have no way to activate the full setup and it is not clear from the Nokia sites as to if it is free or not. You could argue that I should know if I am writing a review of the phone, but I would argue that I have checked multiple sites and that the average user will also be confused by this. I will update this part when I find out.

Fortunately I had a key ring Bluetooth GPS receiver handy and this works very well with the 7230. Nokia Maps is also much better than I remember it and feels like a capable navigator these days. The fact that it is free on many phones can make some of the lower priced Nokia phones value for money for that alone.  Using a separate GPS receiver is not ideal and feels like a backward step, but you can buy these key ring ones for under £20 now and they last forever on one charge. I don’t see this setup as restrictive and the navigation side has been one of the highlights of the 7230 so far.

The small battery in the 7230 was an immediate cause for concern, but it has performed very well so far and I would expect 2-3 days of normal usage (at least) from one charge. This is the final practical benefit that the 7230 offers and so we are left with a phone that doesn’t pretend to deliver the world, but which does deliver in almost every area a feature phone should. The camera is decidedly average, as you may expect, and many of the bundled titles feel out of place compared to the core apps, but I am left liking the 7230 a lot. It does not stand out at all and will sell in limited numbers, but I can think of few phones that offer so much for such a small amount of money. This is Nokia’s area and long may it continue to push the boundaries of what is possible at such a low price point.

Trevor has put his thoughts of the new iPhone 4 on 247 and he seems more than impressed-

I queued for more than eight hours yesterday, but it was worth the wait.

The screen is just beautiful. Text looks extraordinary. It’s hard to explain, but the screen just seems to disappear as if there is absolutely nothing between you and the words you are reading. Photos and videos just pop.

Call clarity is orders of magnitude better than on my iPhone 3GS. Everything is louder and clearer.

No one has been able to fully match the speed, fluidity and consistency of the iPhone user interface, and the iPhone 4 simply kicks it up another notch. It’s breathtakingly fast and smooth.

Low light photos are great and I’ve been impressed with flash photos, too.  I think this camera can replace a point and shoot with ease. Goodbye Flip, too.

Battery life is looking very good. Yesterday I used the phone intensively for more than two hours straight including surfing, video, 15 minutes chatting on the phone, and a couple of FaceTime calls. Battery went from 100% to 80%. In normal use, I reckon there’s more than enough juice to get through the day with room to spare.

I love the look and feel of the new industrial design. My old iPhone 3GS feels bulky in comparison. Build quality is exceptional.

FaceTime is so easy to use and so seamlessly integrated with the phone it’s not even funny. Video calling may not be new, but I think the iPhone is going to take it mainstream.

I agree with Gavin – the iPod has much richer and deeper sound than previously. Surprising.

The overall performance of the device combined with multitasking provides an unprecedented flow to everything that I do. It doesn’t get much better than this.

I will miss my old 3GS which, despite being a year old, was still right at the top of the smartphone heap. But then my new iPhone 4 is in a class of its own.

And then Gavin popped up with more-

I have now had the iPhone 4 for just over 24 hours. And what a difference it has made already despite the fact I haven’t been able to make any calls as my number won’t be ported until 4pm on Monday.

However, I have synced my films, music and iPod Touch apps across and with the wifi connection been online trying everything from email, web, You Tube and more. What is bizarre is I am having to use my HTC HD2 until Monday and therefore it is easy to compare. Obviously 2 different operating systems, and despite the fact the HD2 is a great phone, the iPhone 4 trounces it is so many ways. The iPhone 4 touch screen typing is the best. Unbelievably the HD2 doesn’t even come close. Then there is the fluidity and speed. Everything just works. No tweaks needed. The HD2 is larger, heavier, larger screen but now it doesn’t look or feel right. Apple’s ios4 really shows how backward Windows Mobile 6.5.5 is!  Now I don’t want a war on bashing operating systems. The HD2 does have some useful spec eg 4.3 inch screen, wifi router and highly tweakable. But all those specs in my opinion doesn’t produce a better phone. I was thinking about my time with the HTC Hero and other Android phones. They are good too, but have an uncontrolled infrastructure ie. different hardware but it does so the most promise. Web os will it survive. Could evolve into something amazing. Anyway back to my iPhone 4.

The screen. The more I use it the more I realise how incredible looking and using the screen is. Writing, viewing anything. The camera. Totally way way above my expectations. Goto my Flickr photo stream, the Dartmoor 3 photos with iP4 next to were all taken on the phone. Make sure you go large to see the detail. My Flickr is www.Flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100 . I repeat it’s worth checking out the quality.  The audio. How good is good. Well my headphones suddenly started resonating at levels not heard before. Deeper and tighter bass, mid range clarity and superb treble. Very impressive.

And then there is the apps. Endless. Moving between apps is fast and fluid. It’s worth seeing for yourself in an Apple store. The other sweet spot is using the sd reader and copying photos from the iPhone to the iPad . Gotta say this works a treat.  Does anyone know what app you can use to transfer other types of docs? Facetime. Can we get a list of numbers, names to do this. It’s about time we got to see you!

And then Mark popped up with some differing views-

I have just bought the iPhone4 and am seriously thinking of returning it for the Galaxy S. I ALMOST  bought the Galaxy S anyway, but this new problem with the iPhone4’s phone reception has spoiled the aura for me about the “good design” of the iPhone4. Now it feels like style over content. There are some very good points about the iPhone, a smoother interface than Galaxy S, but that does not equal the plethora of features where Galaxy S surpasses iPhone:

you cannot play divx xvid mpeg4 wmv, and apple does not support adobe flash!
you cannot play flac or ape uncompressed audio files you cannot have home screens filled with active widgets you cannot drag and drop music to and from device you cannot use any old usb cable to charge the phone and have to use itunes and quicktime to sync you cannot have a spare battery you cannot put your HD videos you shoot on a SERIES of external memory sticks (when you go on holiday, for example). Hmmm. Mark.

That’s it for now- no more iPhone 4 reviews and first impressions for a few days. It is looking like it is a winner in most people’s eyes so far.

The Samsung Galaxy S has proved itself to be a bit of a powerhouse to me over the past week and this leaves me pondering on where the smartphone market is going next. There is so much talk about the iPhone 4, iOS 4 and iPad at the moment and that will lead many to believe that there is no alternative, but there surely is.

The recent releases from HTC and Google (HTC) are great smartphones, but they do have problems in sunlight and less than stellar cameras. These factors along with the ever changing Android OS may perplex some potential users and take away the simplicity the ‘I’ products offer. However, it is not as straightforward as that and Samsung appears to be taking the fight directly to the competition with its latest smartphones. The screens (Super AMOLED) are at the forefront of these phones and are a leap up from what we have seen before. Is the iPhone 4 screen better? Possibly, in some areas, but that does not mean that the Super AMOLED screens are not very, very good in almost all conditions. The size of the screen on the Galaxy is an advantage as well and at 4” makes watching videos and playing games a pleasure.

General performance has been excellent and so is the camera. The absence of a flash may look like a big omission, but I can’t remember the last time I took a photo on a smartphone in poor lighting and the included flash helped at all. Nokia aside, almost none of the other smartphones have great optics in poor lighting so it’s not the end of the world, but it is still a curious decision on the part of Samsung.

Android is growing up nicely and has reached the stage where it could almost become too complex for new users to enjoy their first few days with it. I applaud Samsungs decision to include extra apps, but even I got confused at times and did not know which one to use next. There is little doubt though that Android is on a roll and as each new revision is released, phones like the Galaxy are well placed to embrace the improvements and offer a rounded experience that is not far at all from the iPhone.

To conclude I have to say that the Samsung Galaxy S is a better smartphone that the iPhone 3GS for my needs; it has expandable memory, a better camera, a better screen, better battery, better voice and signal quality and works in all of the places a smartphone should. I can’t say at this time how well it competes against the iPhone 4 until I get my hands on one, but this particular smartphone is way up there on my list and for today at least is at the very top.

Available from Clove for £452.38.

First Impressions of iPhone 4

Early this morning I was outside the Vodafone store in Plymouth, well 6.45am and 1st in the queue. In Plymouth there are 2 of o2, Vodafone, Orange, Tmobile, Three, Carphonewarehouse and Phones4u stores. O2 and Orange queues were immense, especially the o2 stores.

I hadn’t reserved, just walked in and paid. The phone was activated in store, although I am waiting for my number to port which apparently takes 48 hours.

The phone is awesome, thin and beautiful. The screen is as lovely as all the reviews. My apps have all been synced across. I am so thrilled with the quality. I was lucky that the Orange store had iPhone 4 cases from Gear4. I got their Ice Edge, which is like an Apple bumper case but with a clear plastic back.

The phone feels nimby, sexy and wonderful. Apps open with ease. I have to work now, so wont get a chance to play until tonight. I am hoping my number ports asap.

Review by Gavin Fabiani-Laymond. Date of Review – 24th June 2010.

Peter has sent in his thoughts as well-

- love the screen – no doubt more supporting applications will make this even more impressive.
- camera seems fine – I have an Olympus pen ep1 so not so bothered by it
- battery life to follow after the first charge and discharge – no complaints yet
- keyboard seems better – not sure why, it just seems to work?  Always had problems before, but rattling this email off it now.  Maybe better, or maybe trained from horrible keyboard on desire.  In portrait btw…
- the “signal drop issue” when holding the metal band is true – tested next to my vodafone sure signal…  Gather apple are claiming it’s a display bug – will test tomorrow with a call.
- blindingly fast so far
- why not 64gig?
- don’t understand the carrier approach to the launch – no clue, a few phones in my local but no micro sims?!

And Statto has posted his first impressions here.