I decided to give R-Type a run on my iPhone just for old time’s sake and what a blast it turned out to be. Not only did it brings back memories of the hours I spent playing it on my Atari STE, but surprisingly it has proved to be just as captivating as it was all those years ago. It is still frantic, still frustrating, and gloriously long. Very few games make me want to come back time and time again to get through a level and I am still hankering for just one more go.

That’s all very nice, but the real story for me is how my 10 year old son greeted the game.

“This is too difficult!”

“Is this what you called fun when you were young?”

To say he has been struggling with the game is an understatement, and this for a boy who is way better than me at Doodle Jump, Angry Birds, Loopy Laboratory and countless other games. He is a bright kid, he cleared all of the levels in Loopy Laboratory in 1 day, but he struggles to cope with the challenge R-Type offers him.

And I am so happy that he is struggling because I can ramble on about how things were more difficult when I was young, you don’t know you are born etc. etc. It feels weird to reminisce about computer games, but we have reached that time where they are too old and difficult for some children today.

R-Type is an exception because the retro renaissance happening in the App Store has not always produced titles that are worth playing today. For example, the Commodore 64 emulator is going just too far back and the games are rubbish. However, I come away feeling slightly smug that some of the games from my day are slightly too tricky for my 10 year old son and that’s a good feeling. It feels even better to be playing the game on a phone 23 years after I first played it and to still be enthralled by the experience.

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-

My Writing Nook is such a simple tool that it is easy to discount it as a one trick pony that could never compete with the more sophisticated multi-use services currently available. The simplicity is what makes My Writing Nook such a great tool to use though and this is why I have been using it every day for the past few week without fail.

It is a simplified writing environment that is accessed via www.mywritingnook.com and which is completely free. All you do is tap the icon to create a new document and away you go- you start typing and that’s about all you need to know to get started. The documents will be named from the first few words that you type and they are placed in alphabetical order in the right-hand column. Tapping one icon will remove that list to give you a completely clean writing area and you can email the finished document or save it to your desktop for reviewing later. There is a live word count which is hidden in the bottom right-hand corner and coloured icons next to each file which you can customise- this is the only form of organisation available.

It runs on Google’s Cloud setup and does sound rather dull doesn’t it? But, throw in an iPhone, iPad and Android app and the concept becomes interesting. You write whenever you want to and it syncs between multiple devices with the tap of an icon. The scope for this is immediately apparent because you have access to everything you are working on all of the time no matter what device you use. For example, you could write a couple of paragraphs on your iPhone when you are on a train and continue when you are back at your work computer. When at home you can continue on another computer and so the process continues.

It may sound just like Google Docs and it is in essence, but with the absence of lots of formatting options, complex file naming and tweaking and a clutter free environment that lets the words shine through. In my tests almost all mobile browsers work with the service as well so you don’t need a dedicated app to use it on your smartphone. It is one of a growing band of services that recognise that simplicity is the way forward and it works about as well as I could possibly hope for. Brilliant.

Click the image above to download the iPhone / iPad app.

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.

This is a quick review of Dragon dictation. It will also be the only review I will post that I haven’t written. I am currently recording this on Dragon dictation and I have no intention at all of tidying up the spelling and punctuation I was delighted to follow.

I am speaking at quite a slow pace, but also very naturally and this is in my view the ideal conditions are tracking temptation to succeed. I have to say that I am impressed with the technology and have written a couple of articles using the software so far. Sometimes needed after I have finished recording my voice to tidy up the spelling etc, but on the whole thing really is able to speed up the work I need to.

As you can see some of the spelling and work hours are actually quite amusing and I believe that this is becoming a bit of a party game all ready for some. Despite the issues with regard to not getting to 100% accuracy it’s well worth the download and one that you should try to see if you can get used to. It’s strange feeling when you first start talking to your phone because the words don’t quite come out the same way as they do from a keyboard, but once this becomes habit from me I suspect that I may not be typing half as much in the future.

Some will see it as a gimmick and I can understand that, but on a serious note it really does work 95% of the time and from many people that’s the kind of technology that can really change their lives.

Available for the iPhone and iPad and other products available for BlackBerry etc.

When you first start to play with Fruit Salad there is an obvious comparison to Bejeweled that springs to mind. This is a good thing because Bejeweled is brilliant, but a bad thing because it could be seen as a clone and little more. To be fair it is more than a clone of Bejeweled and adds some extra features that are not obvious when you first play it.

It works by sliding fruits to create lines of three and is easily accessible the first time you play it. I was merrily sliding away on my first play and, dare I say it, not overly excited by the experience. This lack of excitement gradually fell away as I started to understand what to do and what was happening within the game. You see, there are features that pop up including when you match 4 fruits such as spins, wilds, nudges, blends and selected others which completely change what you are doing on a particular level. They can change the level to such a point that you feel like you are starting again and at this point the head scratching starts.

I started playing my first game at 11pm one evening and stopped at 1am. The odd thing is that I couldn’t put my finger on why I played for so long. It is not as obvious in its implementation as Bejeweled, but is rather a game that you pick up and start playing without thinking. The therapeutic attributes of this style of game are there and I find myself falling into my own sliding void as I tried, and tried, to beat my previous high score.

The goal is to create as much fruit juice as possible to progress to the next level and then you start again from scratch. The best thing about the game is the balance that has been built in between offering a challenge and helping you to sit down and just enjoy the experience. Graphically it is good, not stunning, but a game like this has to include personality in the presentation and that has without doubt been achieved with the minimalist approach to the individual graphics throughout the game.

I don’t know why I like Fruit Salad so much, but I am surely addicted and have played it countless times over the past week. It is one of those games that does not jump out at you when you view it on iTunes, but will gradually take hold of you over time and become one of your most played titles when you have a few minutes, or hours, spare. A bargain at £0.59 / $0.99.

Disclaimer: The developer of Fruit Salad does advertise on PDA-247, but such relationships never affect reviews on the site. To do so would make all of our content meaningless.

Available from iTunes for £0.59 / $0.99.

Lets Create! Pottery HD has been available for the past week and has received rave reviews from a number of websites. This morning it arrived on the iPhone and I felt the need to write up a quick review detailing my thoughts on this unusual game that grabbed me from the very first second.

It is beautifully presented and even on the relatively small iPhone screen it looks and feels just right to capture the full experience. There are few instructions included which is unusually a good thing because it forces you to look around and start hunting out the features. Making a pot is as natural as it could be the first time you try it, but don’t for one minute think that it is going to be a cakewalk. As you progress through the levels and attempt to make pots that customers have requested, you soon realise that it is not as easy as it looks.

Included in the game is the ability to sell your wares which gives you money to buy colours, brushed and some unusual designs with which to decorate your finished works. I have literally only been playing the game for an hour or so, but it is special and unlike anything I have tried before on a smartphone.

Pottery should be the most boring pastime in the world, unless you are the male lead in Ghost, but I now understand why people enjoy it so much. That may sound like a silly statement, but there is a genuine sense of relaxation as you try to create the perfect pot. The graphics and animations are pure quality and the way the screen reacts to screen movements add one more element of reality. The fact that there is progression built in subtly keeps you coming back for more.

I can’t quite find the words to describe Let’s Create! Pottery. It is a game, but doesn’t feel like one. It offers a challenge, but you never feel pushed into completing it quickly. It is completely original and maybe the start of something on this platform- what I can put into words is that it is far better than I expected and well worth the asking price. If you have an iPad the experience will likely be even more immersive.

Available from iTunes.

If you have a smartphone and want to protect it from scratches, but have no need for a physical case the invisibleSHIELD is without doubt the best (and only?) option available to you. It is not cheap, but when compared to traditional screen protectors it is certainly worth a second look.

I bought one for my iPhone 4 to do this review and also because I expected it to be much easier to apply onto a phone that is flat on every side. I previously tried one on an iPhone 3G and the experience was horrendous, to the point that I swore I would never try one again. However, I decided to be brave and have another go and here is what happened-

In the package you get a rubber smoothie, cleaning cloth, instructions, cleaning spray and a set of plastic protectors which come together to bring back memories of Airfix kits from days long gone. I, for the first time in my life, sat down and composed myself and then started to read the instructions. There are a few steps required to understand the best way to install these protectors and I would advise making the time to read the documentation first.

So, I washed my hands and wetted my fingertips with the cleaning spray. I cleaned the screen and gingerly removed the front protector. It took me quite a while to get it positioned correctly, but after a few minutes of messing about it looked OK. I then followed the same process for the back protector; spray the protector and lay it on the cleaned surface. You are able to move the protector around quite a lot and the spray helps to remove air bubbles which helps so I would advise taking your time and not being concerned that it will ‘stick’ to the phone. As an example I was not happy with the front so pulled it off a day later, sprayed it again and did a much better job the second time. It would appear that this protector can be removed and re-attached multiple times so you need not worry if things go wrong the first time.

Once I had the front and back covers on I them moved to the other sections- all 9 of them! I am being serious here because you get smaller protectors included to cover the sides, but to leave open the charging port, volume buttons etc. These went on much easier and I ended up with an iPhone 4 that was almost completely covered with invisibleSHIELD. It leaves a strangely sticky feel to the entire unit which is off-putting at first, but I soon grew to like the feel of it because it offers a lot more grip. This particular set does not fully cover the phone because the edges are left open, but it does go some way to resolving the antenna problem.

It would be harsh of me to criticise the invisibleSHIELD for not protecting the phone from drops because it is not designed to do so. It is designed to stop scratches and the wear and tear that is associated with using any smartphone every day. It will likely increase the resell value of your phone and in some cases improve the look. When you own an iPhone 4 there comes with it an unnatural urge to let people know you are using an iPhone 4 and this is one way to do it. I would say that it is better suited to phones that work best with no case such as the BlackBerry’s and some Nokias, but ironically these will be much more difficult to apply the protectors to because of their shape. All in all, this is an excellent product which serves a purpose, but it does require patience to make the most out of it.

Brando iPhone 4 Case and Screen Protector Reviews

Available from this page. Price: Various

I promised myself I would have my HTC HD2 for 2 years. Well I managed 9 months, a record for myself I believe. Anyway, as most of you are aware, I bought an iPhone 4 and Brando Shopping very kindly sent me a small selection of their iPhone 4 cases, ultra clear protector for the front and/or back, and micro sim adapter. Brando Shopping has a number of other accessories for the iPhone 4 as well as other phones.

The Ultra Clear Screen Protector for the Front and Back is brilliant to be honest. All the photos of the phone have the ultra clear protector fitted. Can you tell? It’s perfectly clear. I had initially some Griffin Protectors that were matt but they ruined the retina display and the screen got muffled. Other protectors leave an orange peel effect.

Below is the iPhone 4 Royal Patterned case and Parallelogram Rubber Case with Perforated Bottom.

The above cases are available in several colours and have all the necessary cutouts. I like the fact that these and all of the cases sent to me allow me to connect all my accessories to the sync charge port.  The Royal case has a lovely white button which actually makes pressing the home button easier. This case is made of rubber and provides good protection for the phone. The Rubber case to the right has a slightly different shape and design. The bottom is perforated for effect.

Next up is Brando’s Bumper and standard silicone case.

The Bumper is available is several colours. Not much to say other than its made of a firmer plastic/rubber mixture for rigidity. It includes all the required cutouts. The rubber silicone case is neutral is finish. No special effects but very professional.

Next up are my 2 favourites cases. The Perforated Back Cover and Radial Soft Plastic case.

The Radial Soft Plastic is great. It really makes the iPhone 4 look posh. It has all the cutouts and allows the antenna to be visible through the case. The Perforated Back cover is another slick and smart solution. It looks like metal but is made of plastic. Easy to take on and off too.

Summary

Just to remind you, the Ultra Clear screen protector is fitted in all the photos. Truly a great protector and easy to fit. Also Brando Shopping has a much wider range of cases and loads of colours including a “Smarties Back case” and other iPhone 4 accessories. Also, all these cases prevented the Death Grip or Antennagate

So which case wins as the best all round solution; the Brando Soft Plastic Radial case and only just, althouth I keep shifting between the Radial and Perforated Back cover.

Once again thanks to Brando Shopping.

Review by Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

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.