Hasta La Gadget!

What do you get when you raid HTC’s parts bin and combine the camera from the One V, the screen resolution from the One S and the design language from the One X? Say hello to HTC’s One VX for AT&T, a stylish mid-range smartphone running Ice Cream Sandwich and Sense 4. It features a 4.5-inch qHD Super LCD 2 display with Gorilla Glass 2, Qualcomm 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor (MSM8930) with GSM/EDGE/UMTS/HSPA+/LTE radio, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 8GB of on-board storage and a five megapixel f/2.0 autofocus BSI camera with flash and 1080p video recording.

The front glass incorporates the earpiece, AT&T logo and VGA shooter up top along with the usual capacitive buttons (back, home and recent apps / menu) below the display. A silver plastic rim traces the sides of the handset — it’s a simple and familiar layout, with the power / lock key, headphone jack and secondary mic on top, micro-USB port and primary mic at the bottom, and the volume rocker on the right edge. Pop the white plastic back cover and you’ll find micro-SIM and microSD card slots, a non-removable 1810mAh battery and the NFC antenna.

Unfortunately, we were given a non-functional dummy unit to play with so we can’t comment on things like screen quality or subjective performance. We can tell you that the phone is light, thin and feels good in the hand — it slots somewhere between the One S and the One X in terms of size, and looks nice despite being made of cheaper materials than its stablemates. AT&T and HTC are still mum on availability but we were told to expect aggressive, budget-friendly pricing. Want to see more? Take a look at our gallery below and our hands-on video after the break.

Update: we expect to see a working One VX at today’s AT&T announcement so stay tuned for more impressions.

Continue reading HTC One VX for AT&T hands-on: mid-range style on a budget (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC, AT&T

HTC One VX for AT&T hands-on: mid-range style on a budget (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Oct 2012 17:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like the Optimus G isn’t the only smartphone from LG that’ll soon hit US carriers, as its similarly sized (yet slower) sibling has just been outed for T-Mobile. True to form, the price and release date of the Optimus L9 are wholly absent from the equation, but outside of any substantial tweaks, shoppers may rightfully expect an Android 4.0.4 smartphone with a 4.7-inch qHD display that’s powered by a dual-core 1GHz CPU. In its global iteration, the device also sports a 5-megapixel camera, 4GB of built-in storage and a 2,150mAh battery, which provides a rough guideline of what’s on the horizon at T-Mobile. Naturally, there are more powerful smartphones to be found, but if the price is right, the Optimus L9 may hit a sweet spot for many.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, LG, T-Mobile

LG Optimus L9 for T-Mobile emerges from the magenta mist originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Oct 2012 22:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Folded in between DoCoMo R&D prototypes and One Piece-themed smartphones unlikely to make it across the Pacific, NEC’s new Android tablet caught our eye. The 7-inch NEC Medias Tab UL is one very svelte slab. Measuring in at just 7.9mm (0.3 inches) thick and weighing a mere 250g (0.55 lbs), the tablet still manages to house a 3,100mAh battery, and a Snapdragon MSM8960 1.5GHz dual-core processor. If you’d compare it to the Nexus 7, Google’s own effort look a little weighty and thick against this white-finish tablet. Performance from the dual-core chip is also suitably impressive, despite the curious DoCoMo-decked Android skin coating the Ice Cream Sandwich OS.

In true Japanese style, there’s a TV aerial embedded within the side and while it won’t broadcast the crisp high-definition delights of NOTTV, there’s plenty of terrestrial viewing available — if you stay in the Land of the Rising Sun. We were pleasantly surprised with its crisp WXGA screen, which looks to be TFT. The 1,280 x 800 resolution display meant videos and websites looked sharp, while there was barely any color degradation at wider angles. On DoCoMO’s network, users can expect to see download speeds up to 75Mbs, and upload speeds hitting up to 25Mbps. The tablet is now on sale across Japan, but there’s still no word yet on it launching elsewhere.

Continue reading NEC Medias Tab UL runs Android 4.0, weighs just over half a pound (hands-on)

Filed under: Tablets

NEC Medias Tab UL runs Android 4.0, weighs just over half a pound (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 07:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

Continue reading Refresh Roundup: week of September 24th, 2012

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Mobile

Refresh Roundup: week of September 24th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Sep 2012 20:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thanko announced today a new Android 4.0 SmartTV Box in Japan that will put a “Computer” in your hand. The ANDBOX44, the name of our little box, comes by default with a very capable Cortex A8-Allwinner A10 CPU at 1.5GHz with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal memory alongside an HDMI port, Ethernet, SD Slot and a Pair of USB port in just 430g with a size of 250x145x75mm. Being a little Android 4.0 computer the ANDBOX44 comes obviously with the support of MPG 1/2/4, WMV 7/8/9(VC1), ASF, …