Hands on: Nokia Lumia 520 review

Let's get something straight first. We really like Windows Phone 8. It's not for everybody, but it's a great mobile phone OS and Nokia and Microsoft have made great strides with it.

It's also very easy to use - and that's why we think the 4-inch Lumia 520 could do rather well, as a low budget handset for those who don't want an over-complicated or over-equipped smartphone.

It isn't a slouch, with a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4, but most of the other specs have been trimmed from the higher end Lumias to reach its price point - it has an estimated starting price of €139. The 5MP camera has no flash, for example, while the display is 800 x 480, the same as the 620's 3.8-inch and the 720's 4.3-inch displays.

Nokia does, however, say the 520 uses the same digital camera lenses found on the flagship (and rather heavy) Nokia Lumia 920. That's hardly a big deal, but the fact Nokia said it shows that this new handset has very little in common with its top-end brethren.

You get 8MB of storage, but you can expand thanks to a microSD slot.

It is slightly thinner than the Lumia 620, matching the Lumia 720's 9.9mm thickness, while at 124g it's a pleasant weight.

There is a small speaker on the bottom rear of the device, a headphone jack on the top and the standard microUSB on the bottom.

In terms of look and feel, the 520 feels as good in the hand as any other Lumia, thanks to the now-familiar monoblock casing. And there's are also familiar controls - the sleep/wake button, camera shutter control and volume controls are on the right side of the device.

In terms of apps, you get all the standard Windows Phone stuff including Office, plus Nokia Music for free music and Nokia's Here location apps as you'd expect.

The handset, which comes in five colours, will launch over the coming months in Hong Kong and Vietnam, before "expanding broadly" (Nokia's words) to Europe, Asia - including China and India - Latin America and Africa.

The handset maker also says the 520 will roll out in the United States with T-Mobile.

Early verdict

We rather like the Lumia 520 - Nokia clearly has a market in mind for the device and has given it a price point to match. It's not a handset for those who really want a Windows Phone, but rather it's one for those who want a budget smartphone. For that type of purchaser, the cheap and cheerful nature of the 520 will surely appeal.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/nokia-lumia-520-1133192/review

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Sony releases experimental Firefox OS ROM for the Xperia E

Sony announced that it’s considering launching a Firefox OS phone next year and today released an experimental ROM to run the new Mozilla-made OS on the Sony Xperia E. This will give app developers a chance to evaluate the platform and give Sony valuable feedback.

In case you’re wondering why the company picked the Xperia E and not a more powerful phone, the answer is pretty simple – Firefox OS will target the very low end of smartphones. The E has almost the exact same specs as the ZTE Open and Alcatel OT Fire, the first two Firefox phones that were announced at the MWC.

Anyway, the ROM is not intended for daily use – there’s no wireless connectivity of any kind as the software has not passed certification and the touchscreen and the microSD card might not work all too well.

The Sony Developer Blog has details on how to flash the ROM, the architecture of Firefox OS and how to develop apps for it.

Source

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_releases_experimental_firefox_rom_for_xperia_e-news-5620.php

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HP: 'Our mission is to lead in smartphones'

Alberto Torres hopes to turn HP into a force in mobile devices

Clearly not stung from previous experience, HP wants to lead in tablets and smartphones.

That's the bullish message from HP's Head of Mobility Alberto Torres, who told TechRadar that it was a key aim for the corporation: "The mission in my area is to make HP a leader in the tablet space and eventually smartphones."

However he warned that it wouldn't be soon: "Certainly it's not a short term aim [to lead in phones]. It's not something we're looking at for this year. Without looking at specific dates, we're actively looking at our options in that market."

Alberto Torres joined HP five months ago from Nokia, where he was responsible for the ultimately unsuccessful MeeGo project - he was behind the design of the N9 that became the foundation for the colourful Nokia Lumia range. He was keen to show us the Android-based HP Slate 7 here at MWC 2013, as well as the business-orientated ElitePad 900, which runs Windows 8 Pro.

Torres believes HP can make strides in tablet share during 2013

We asked Torres if it was possible for HP to have a noticeable share of the tablet market in 2013. "Yes, I would say this year that's realistic, but over time we are looking at a leadership position. We want to be up in the charts. I think it's possible. Also you have a little bit of a phenomenon where about a third of tablets are built by no-name vendors and most of them are very poor products.

"Those will continue to exist but I don't think it will be a third of the market. We really are intending to become a leader in this space. It's not going to happen overnight, it's going to be a journey. Over the next three years we're going to make big strides. And this year I think we'll get some significant volume on some of these products."

It's a young market, we suggested. "Exactly. People forget that. It is a really very young market. It's changing dramatically. The opportunities for us to play are really fantastic. [The phone market] is mature but it's a very dynamic market. Everybody says the market is dominated by two players but then you go back two years and it's a different two players. At least one of them is not there!

"You are just beginning to see the effects of mobility and how it will transform computing. We're going to see innovation across all kinds of devices including PCs. I think it's an exciting time"

Torres believes there's plenty of opportunity for Slate 7

Part of HP's strategy is to expand its product range: "We intend to have a bigger portfoilio. With [Slate 7 and ElitePad 900] we're almost bookending the portfolio with an entry level small tablet to a large tablet. You'll see a number of products filling out our range this year and next."

Future possibilities

We asked whether there was any possibility of HP having its own OS again after the offloading of WebOS. Is it all about Android and Windows for now? "Correct. You can never say never, we're obviously open to different alternatives over the years but at this point we're going to play to the ecosystems that have traction. That's what we're doing."

And is it just as simple as saying that it's Android for consumer use and Windows for business as far as HP is concerned? "It's fair to say that Android has a lot of traction and Windows has more traction in the commercial space, but lines will become blurred.

"We're not trying to create distinctions, just what our customers want. There will be opportunities for Windows in the consumer space and over time there will be more opportunity for Android in the commercial space."

HP is looking at Windows RT devices

And what about Windows RT? "It's something we're considering. We did not participate on the first [cycle] and that probably worked out well for us, but with RT there is potential as well and when the timing is right and the opportunity is right we'll participate."

We asked Torres where he was aiming the Slate 7 and the reasons for launching this device first: "It's our first Android device, very much targeted at the consumer entertainment segment, the fastest growing segment at the moment.

"I think it's a good combination of features including the rear camera, which is quite unusual for this type of product. Which is surprising as they move around with people, and people take photos with 10.1-inch tablets. All 10-inch tablets have cameras where the 7-inch tablets sometimes don't."

HP hopes to leverage its PC expertise in tablets

Crucially, Torres believes HP can leverage its existing success in PCs to succeed in the tablet space. "Obviously we are going to look at more premium segments, but here we need to be price competitive. What attracted me to join HP is that when you look to win in tablets, it's not a great leap.

"You need to understand [the technology of tablets] but the other thing is a game of brand and service and channel reach, and those are things that HP is quite strong on. You're going to see developments in differentiation with connectivity, security and leverage of our expertise."

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/hp-our-mission-is-to-lead-in-smartphones-1134177

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Alcatel One Touch Snap and One Touch Snap LTE debut

Alcatel is continuing its march here at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona adding two more devices to the ones that it already announced a few days ago. Meet the One Touch Snap and its 4G-enhanced twin brother, the Snap LTE.

Rocking a yet undisclosed 1.2GHz quad-core processor (chances are it’s the one found in the Idol X) and 1GB of RAM, the Snap stands below the Idol X in the ranks of the Alcatel smartphones unveiled in Barcelona. It’s built around a 4.5” display with qHD resolution, which also boasts Dragontail Glass for protection and oleophobic coating to keep fingerprints away.

The Snap runs the latest version of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and makes use of 1800mAh battery, which Alcatel has rated at 7h of 3G talk time and 340h on stand-by. There’s just 4GB of memory, 2.4GB of which is user accessible. Thankfully, there’s a microSD card slot to save the day.

At the back of the phone, there's an 8MP autofocus snapper with LED flash and 720p recording in its tool belt. The front camera is a 1.3MP one, and is also capable of shooting 720p videos. The Snap measures up to 130.3 x 67 x 8.99mm, but its weight hasn’t been disclosed.

As for the LTE version of the device, it surprisingly differs from its twin brother in a number of key areas. Firstly, the display is larger, at 4.65” but has a lower FWVGA (480 x 854 pixels) resolution. On the plus side, it still packs Dragontail Glass and oleophobic coating.

At the back, there’s an 8MP camera, which unlike the regular variation of the Snap, is capable of shooting full HD videos. The front facing camera is updated, too, and is 2MP. The phone's a bit thicker, measuring 134 x 69.6 x 10.9 mm due to the larger 2200mAh battery inside.

Sadly, the Snap LTE runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which is still acceptable, but not the latest available around. The bad news continues with the addition of a dual-core, instead of a quad-core. The Snap LTE features a 1.4GHz dual-core Snapdragon CPU.

Both devices come with support for Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4 and quadband GSM (850/900/1800/1900).

Naturally, it’s still early to talk pricing, but Alcatel is promising the Snap and Snap LTE to arrive in April and July 2013, respectively.

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/alcatel_one_touch_snap_and_one_touch_snap_lte_debut-news-5618.php

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Hands on: Fujitsu Stylistic S01 review

This phone is almost certainly not for you, but it could be the life-changing device you give your elderly relative for Christmas this year.

It's an Android device designed from the ground up to give older people the opportunity to use a smartphone without being bamboozled by complex operating systems and fiddly features. It's way more than a re-skin of Android though, as we'll see.

First, the basics. This is a 4-inch handset running Ice Cream Sandwich with 800 x 480 display, 8MP camera, 1.4GHz single-core CPU, 4GB expandable storage and it's waterproof and dust proof too. So if you drop it in the toilet, you've got three hours to fish it out before it drowns (do remember to wash it though, yeah?)

The body has been designed to be easy to hold and hard to drop - the edges have a grippy feel to them.

Android has been completely redesigned, with a far more basic user interface existing on one scrollable vertical pane. The idea is to make it impossible to get lost in the menu structure, and to make everything easy to find. Every sub-screen has a green question mark which gives guidance on how to use whichever page you're on.

This addresses the main problem that elderly people encounter when buying a phone – featurephones are totally last decade but even budget Android handsets are tough to get to know if you're not tech-nically inclined. They also tend to be small and fiddly, a nightmare for older people.

This is a great way of making a touchscreen phone easier to use, and you can still install all the same apps that you could on any other ICS smartphone.

To that end, the way the capacitive touchscreen responds to input has been completely changed. Instead of designing the phone to be as responsive as possible, Fujitsu has taken on board the fact that elderly users tend to dawdle and take things a lot slower. So instead of responding to the slightest touch, the capacitive screen behaves more akin to a resistive display in that you need to actually push it to get a response.

This does not apply when scrolling through menus, which is smooth as silk like any other decent smartphone, but when making screen selections and typing phone numbers etc, you have to actually push a bit harder and the screen gives haptic feedback to let you know you've made a selection. If you're just gliding your finger across the screen, you're given a visual cue to show you which button will be activated when you press.

Age concern

When you set the phone up, you tell it how old you are and it customizes certain features to compensate. One of these funky customisations is to change the frequency range of the call so that it's easier to hear what's being said on the other end. The phone can even slow down the speech of the caller if you're talking to someone who speaks particularly quickly.

The phone also has a personal alarm built into it, which when activated can sound an audio alert as well as automatically contact up to three separate people to let them know you're in trouble.

In our brief test at MWC, we were really impressed. It's a great device and we can really see it having an impact on the lives of elderly people who need smartphone features without all the hassle of finding them. What's more, it's a good size - not too fiddly-small - and everything zips about quickly, without any lag.

Early Verdict

This phone is going on sale through Orange in France in the summer and should be launching in the UK soon after. It's unlikely to be a huge seller, but it's definitely a device we can see being used and loved by older people who want a fully featured phone that's made specifically for them. We certainly can't wait to give one to our Grandaddy to see how he gets on with it.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/fujitsu-stylistic-s01-1133950/review

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Hands on: Huawei Ascend G350 review

The Huawei Ascend G350 crept onto the scene at MWC 2013 with its big brother the Ascend P2 stealing all the limelight and getting its own press conference.

Similar in many ways to the budget Ascend G330, the Ascend G350 sees the addition of a rugged chassis and IP68 dust- and waterproofing.

Huawei is aiming the Ascend G350 at the affordable, mid to low-end of the market and expects the handset to arrive in stores during the third quarter of this year, but exact availability is yet to be confirmed.

Although it's being billed as a rugged device the Huawei Ascend G350 doesn't look overly different to the rest of the smartphone world, a change from days gone by as tough phones looked to be pumped up on steroids.

A metallic rim which runs around the edge of the front of the phone gives an air of premium quality when viewing from a distance, which is a pleasing aesthetical touch.

It's a little on the chunky side, but that's probably due to the waterproofing which has been done to protect all the vitals, and at 125.2 x 65.2 x 11.98 mm it still sits well in the hand and the plastic case feels sturdy.

We were assured by a Huawei representative that the Ascend G350 would withstand being dropped on the floor and hit hard on the desk, however they wouldn't let us test this claim at the show - boo!

Around the perimeter of the Ascend G350 the plastic case is textured providing additional grip which means you can easily keep hold of it, even under water.

It's easy to reach all the keys on the handset, with the power/lock button located on top and the volume rocker switch on the right both proving responsive.

We weren't big fans of the bronze finish on the handset which we snapped, but the G350 also comes in black and while it may not be the most exciting of colours we prefer it in this case.

The 4-inch WVGA display isn't going to blow you away and we found it was a little on the dark side even at full brightness, but we expect the Ascend G350 to be very keenly priced so this isn't a huge problem.

There's a 1GHz dual-core processor under the hood which does a decent job of running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, with no lag during our hands on time.

It's certainly not as snappy as the more powerful handsets but you still get a decent Android experience and Huawei has only applied a light overlay meaning you still have access to all the core Jelly Bean features.

Quick settings have been added to the notification panel giving you access to toggles for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS.

Huawei has stuck with the stock Android keyboard on the Ascend G350 and thanks to the decently sized 4-inch display typing is pretty good on the responsive touchscreen, although we still prefer the SwiftKey alternative when writing lengthy emails.

There's only 2GB of available storage inside the Huawei Ascend G350 so you'll need to be careful with the apps you download and content you transfer onto the handset, as that could fill up pretty quickly.

A 1,730mAh battery is tasked with keeping you going all day, and due to the waterproof credentials of the Ascend G350 it's sealed into the handset to avoid water damage meaning you can't take it out and swap it.

Round the back there's a 5MP camera minus a flash, but Hauwei has also included a 0.3MP front facing snapper as well which means video calls are an option on the Ascend G350.

The camera app itself is pretty basic, but you do get a panorama mode and a handful of standard options such as brightness and white balance, all of which is easy to use.

Shutter speed is a little of the slow side and image quality is acceptable, but not great with a lack of clarity and strong colour.

The black version of the handset we mentioned earlier was chilling out in a bowl of water at the Huawei stand, and we were able to call the handset and witness it ring - proving its underwater abilities.

Sadly though you cannot operate the Ascend G350 underwater, so if you're in the bath you'll need to keep it above the water line if you want to play Angry Birds.

Early Verdict

The Huawei Ascend G350 is a decent durable device with a strong feature list for a handset which will likely sport an affordable price tag.

We may not agree with some of the colour options, but we look forward to getting the G350 in for review and putting it through its paces - we may even smash it against a desk to see if it can really withstand such a brutal attack.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/huawei-ascend-g350-1133956/review

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LG Optimus L3 II to go on sale in Brazil this week

LG announced the Optimus L3 II earlier this week at MWC, along with couple of other new L-series devices. However, other than for the L7 II, no information was provided regarding the launch of the other devices.

Now LG has confirmed that the L3 II will go on sale later this week first in Brazil and eventually in other American, European and Asian regions around the world.

To refresh your memory of the specs of the device, the LG Optimus L3 II has a 3.2-inch, 320 x 240 resolution IPS display, 1GHz Qualcomm MSM7225AB chip, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of memory, 3.2 megapixel camera, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and 1,540mAh battery.

Source

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_optimus_l3_ii_to_go_on_sale_in_brazil_this_week-news-5617.php

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