Hasta La Gadget!

Both KDDI and Sharp had a billion IS03s on display at CEATEC in Japan today (okay, not literally a billion, but quite a few), so naturally, we swung by to see what all the commotion was about. We’ll be honest — the phone didn’t feel particularly high-end, coated top to bottom in cheap-feeling plastic and weighing a little less than you’d expect a phone of these specs to weigh. Furthermore, it was pretty sluggish and Sharp’s UI skin atop Android 2.1 felt very “version 1.0,” so we think we might want to wait for these guys to hone their game a bit before jumping in. That said, the vaunted 960 x 640 ASV display definitely seems up to the task, delivering bright, crisp images in the face of the notoriously harsh trade show lighting — and the always-on LCD strip below the main display is a neat trick for glancing at the date and time without going to the hassle of powering on your phone. You might be worried that stacking it below the already-large primary display would make the handset too long, but we really didn’t feel like that was the case. Follow the break for video!

Continue reading Sharp IS03 Android phone hands-on

Sharp IS03 Android phone hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Oct 2010 23:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With there now being five (oh yes, five!) Archos Android Internet Tablets on the market, it’s understandably hard to keep ’em all straight, but in our minds the 32 is easy to separate from the rest – it, along with the 28, is more of an Android PMP than anything else. With 3.2 inches of resistive touchscreen, the 32 packs the specs of a typical media player: 8GB of storage, media player software with support for loads of audio and video formats, and a VGA camera. But unlike most, it runs Android 2.1 (2.2 will be a firmware update, we’re told), which adds quite a bit more functionality in terms of applications and web browsing. And it’s also got an accelerometer for playing games. At $150, it seems like a pretty good deal, especially when you consider that it’s cheaper than an iPod Touch or even a Zune HD (depending on where you’re shopping), but there are a few issues that may hold you back from forking over the cash. You’ll want to check out our full review after the break to find out just what those are.

Continue reading Archos 32 Internet Tablet review

Archos 32 Internet Tablet review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So here it is, after months of details coming to light an inkdrop at a time, the HP eStation all-in-one printing solution. But we’re not gonna dwell but on half of that: the 7-inch tablet skinned out by Yahoo and powered by Android 2.1. As we expected, though, the Google experience is decidedly less that you’re accustomed to: search is Yahoo only, and our attempt to find an alternate method was met with a barebones settings menu. Additionally, there is no access to Android Market, relegating your customization instead to HP’s print-heavy app store — sorry, no games, as that’s not what the company wants to focus on here, according to the rep. That also means no Gmail, much to our dismay. What Yahoo has provided is a suite of apps and widgets that actually work well in their simplicity, from weather to stocks and search.

We were reminded at numerous points that this is a prototype build, and for good reason — the responsiveness was questionably slow, especially in the browser. That said, the Nook store and e-reading app was as fluid as you’d ever need. WiFi is equipped on both the tablet and the printer for cloud-based connectivity on the go. Battery life is measured at four to six hours, and Android 2.2 is expected by holiday still sans Market, but beyond Flash (and at this point we question its performance on this hardware), there’s probably not a lot of value-add in the update. Expect this AIO to be shipping the in the next few weeks.

Continue reading HP’s Photosmart eStation Android tablet hands-on (update: video!)

Filed under: Tablet PCs

HP’s Photosmart eStation Android tablet hands-on (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Sep 2010 11:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony Ericsson made it clear way back in May that the Xperia X10 family wouldn’t stay at the antiquated Android 1.6 forever — come Q4 2010, they’d get an Eclair with freshly revamped Timescape and Mediascape filling. Now, it looks like the company’s codified that promise in this allegedly leaked German roadmap. Spotted by a tipster at the Xperia X10 Blog at IFA 2010 in Berlin, the document describes a 720p video recording mode (with continuous autofocus) for the Xperia X10 alone, plus Facebook and Twitter contacts integration, an HTML5-compliant browser and five homescreen pages for the entire Xperia series with the release of Android 2.1. There’s also a separate “2.1x” release after that to bring the two ‘scapes up to snuff, and it seems the Xperia X8’s being bundled with the mini and mini pro as far as updates go. There’s sadly no mention of Android 2.2, but we wouldn’t yet count it out — for all we know, the very next page of that leaflet could be oozing delicious frozen yogurt all over these phones.

Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Android upgrade roadmap leaks out, shows 720p recording but no Froyo originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Like everyone else, Velocity Micro’s about to cannonball into the tablet pool with the hope of making a big splash. Its first product, the $199 Cruz Reader is already boxed up and arriving on store shelves this week. The seven-inch tablet / e-reader runs Android 2.0 and comes preloaded with Borders’ e-book application. We got a chance to check out the device this morning, and while we’re impressed with the solid build and rubbery back, it’s fairly heavy at a pound and the glossy screen results in less-than-excellent viewing angles. Still, it shows a lot more promise than the Pandigital Novel and Augen GenTouch 78 — we’ll never like resistive screens on this sort of device, but we were able to turn pages by tapping as well as scroll relatively well by dragging a nail down the screen. There’s no access to the Android Market, but Velocity has its own Cruz Market and preloads some apps like Twidroid.

But the tablet buck doesn’t stop there for Velocity Micro. The Cruz Tablet that we’ve been hearing about since April will hit a “major electronics retailer” in October for $299. The Tablet we saw today wasn’t working, but we nabbed some shots of the hardware below. This one will have a capacitive screen; however, the company isn’t planning on rolling it out with Android 2.0 — it feels the 600MHz processor isn’t quite powerful enough to handle that Froyo and Flash goodness. Not to worry: its future eight- and 10-inch capacitive tablets, which will be announced at CES, are going to be powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 2 CPU and run Android 3.0. Told you it’s aiming for a big splash! Hit the break for a short hands-on video of the Cruz Reader and stay tuned for a full review of that one soon.

Continue reading Velocity Micro Cruz Reader hits stores, Cruz Tablet hitting in October along with more in January

Velocity Micro Cruz Reader hits stores, Cruz Tablet hitting in October along with more in January originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Sep 2010 16:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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